Muntz's Dogs are a group of dogs featured in the 2009 Disney/Pixar animated feature film Up. They are a pack of dogs led by Charles Muntz who assist their owner in hunting for an elusive exotic bird named Kevin.
Background[]
Personality[]
Muntz's dogs consist of various breeds of dog who work for the explorer Charles Muntz who is on a journey to find Kevin and capture her to help Muntz prove that the bird still exists. Each dog wears a translation collar around its neck which gives it the ability to talk in a normal tone to communicate with Muntz. In case their collar breaks, it causes the voice to sound in a squeaky tone, such as the case of Alpha's collar being broken, resulting it to sound squeaky. They are shown to follow Muntz wherever he goes and are shown to have high intelligence, especially when it comes to seeing Kevin in sight. However, whenever Charles Muntz or one of the dogs sees Kevin, the dogs would go after the bird in a plan to capture her, only for their plans to fail. Later after Muntz fell to his death, the dogs are shown to have been reformed since Carl took over Muntz's position.
Members[]
- Main article: Alpha
One of the many dogs who works for Muntz, Epsilon is an English mastiff who serves as the main chef when Russell and Carl were invited for dinner. He wears a white chef hat on his head to show that he is the chef.
- For the character from "Star Wars: The Bad Batch", see "Omega".
The last dog named after a letter of the Greek alphabet, Omega is one of Muntz's dogs was seen as one of the pilots who follows alongside Beta and Gamma via bi-planes in a plan to take down Carl's house who goes under the name "Gray Three", hinting that he is the third dog to be dispatched to target Carl's House.
Omega was voiced by Josh Cooley.Appearances[]
Up[]
Muntz's dogs are first seen in a newsreel sequence where they are seen assisting Charles Muntz who has returned from his adventure in Paradise Falls bringing in the skeleton of the "Monster of Paradise Falls", only to be accused by the National Explorer's Society for fabricating the so-called monster, stripping Muntz of his membership. As a result, Muntz plans to return to Paradise Falls and capture the elusive creature in order to prove that the creature exists.
Later during Carl and Russell's arrival at the jungles of Paradise Falls, Muntz's dogs chase Kevin across the jungle while avoiding various traps trying capture him, but is surrounded by Alpha, Beta, and Gamma where they attempt to capture Kevin only for the dogs to be distracted by the sound coming from Carl's hearing aid during their adventures across the jungle which Kevin suddenly encounters Russell in the jungle, followed by the two encountering Dug who is searching for Kevin, the bird that Muntz was talking about. Meanwhile, Beta and Gamma continue their search for Kevin while being led by Alpha in a plan to find her, thinking that following her tracks would be the best way to find Kevin and then capture her as Alpha tries to contact Dug to give them the bird only for Alpha to change the camera to a locator map on Gamma's collar screen to show them the location where Kevin would be at.
The next day when Carl and Russell are traveling to see Paradise Falls, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma confront Dug which Alpha becomes furious with Dug, telling him that he let Kevin escape just as Beta and Gamma corner Carl and Russell just the two dogs escort them to a canyon where many other dogs follow alongside Carl and Russell while more dogs see Carl, Russell, and Dug arriving at the canyon. As more dogs continue to surround them, Charles Muntz approaches Carl, Russell, and Dug and as he sees Carl's House as Carl recognizes Charles since his childhood. After Charles tells his dogs that they are not after the bird he is seeking for, he leads Carl, Russell, and Dug into a massive cave where the Spirit of Adventure lies, leading the two inside while Alpha, Beta, and Gamma place a plastic cone on Dug known as the "Cone of Shame". As Muntz gives Carl and Russell a tour around the exhibition hall, one dog is seen dusting the skeleton of an Arsinoitherium while another shows Muntz a menu, only for Alpha to interrupt, telling his master that dinner is ready just as Muntz leads Charles and Russell into a dining room while Carl and Russell are seated into the dining room as Muntz introduces the two to Epsilon, a dog serving as a chef who works for the kitchen. Later, Muntz recaps that he was called a "fraud" in the past, leading him and his dogs to find Kevin and capture her while also recapping that he lost many dogs in a labyrinth, worried that the mountain is a very dangerous place.
Learning of Charles Muntz's plans to capture Kevin, Muntz sees Kevin on Carl's house, leading Muntz to capture her while Carl, Russell, and Dug attempt to escape from the incoming dogs chasing them in the form of a mob while trying to get Carl's house out of the canyon. During the chase, Dug causes a rockslide to block the dogs only for the dogs to find another direction, barreling through Dug which Alpha knocks the plastic cone out of Dug in progress. Later when the dog seen Kevin hopping form peak to peak and then on a nearby ledge, Carl, Russell, Kevin, and Dug attempt to escape. However, Alpha leaps onto Kevin's leg and starts biting her, injuring her in the progress. Kevin repels Alpha while more other dogs unable to catch Kevin fall into a river below. The dogs that fell into the river swim their way to escape while the rest of the dogs on the ledge retreat. Russell then gives Kevin a bandage to heal her from her wounds.
Meanwhile back at the Spirit of Adventure, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and various other dogs approach Muntz that they have failed to capture the dogs, telling their master that it was Dug who let Carl and Russell escape with Kevin, leading Muntz and his dogs to look for Dug via locator to find Kevin and capture her. Later that night, Muntz and his dogs arrive at the spot where Kevin is at where a spotlight shines on her where the airship fires a net at her, trapping her while Muntz and his dogs confront Carl and Russell to get away from Kevin. Muntz, who is holding his lantern, hurls it in front of Carl's house (causing a fire to burn down the house) while Muntz commands his dogs to take Kevin who was caught in a net to the airship, much to Russell worried that the dogs are taking her away while Carl manages to put out the fire to protect his house from being burned.
The next day in a plan to rescue Kevin, Russell takes various balloons from Carl's house while equipping himself with a leaf blower, he passes by a group of dogs on the Spirit of Adventure who notice Russell who is attempting to rescue Kevin which as Kevin enters via window, Beta, Gamma, and a couple of other dogs arrive and tie up Russell on a chair after Alpha noticed Russell returning to rescue Kevin, as Muntz and his dogs plan to eject Russell from the airship only for Carl who successfully made his house float again to rescue Russell from falling off. Just as Carl enters while planning to keep Russell safe, Dug follows alongside Carl planning to get past the dogs via air vent where they arrive at a catwalk of old-fashioned airplanes and later the area where Kevin is caged. Seeing many dogs patrolling around, Carl tosses a tennis ball from his cane and throws it into a narrow hall to distract the dogs. Carl closes the door to trick them while he opens the cage to rescue Kevin. Meanwhile, the other dogs panic in fear that Carl rescued Kevin reporting Muntz that Kevin has escaped, which Muntz tells them "Calm down, one at a time!" Russell, who frees himself from the rope, hangs on a hose, and attempts to burst into the Spirit of Adventure to rescue Kevin only for Muntz to send in Beta, Gamma, and Omega to take down where the three board on biplanes to go after Russell in a plan to take down the house where they attempt to shoot darts at Russell, but they miss as Russell tries to avoid getting hit.
After Dug bites on Muntz who is attempting to kill Carl, Muntz then kicks Dug into a room where he finds himself surrounded by Alpha and more other dogs chasing him through the narrow hall. As Dug finds himself in the helm where the dogs corner him, Dug backs away and accidentally pushes a lever, causing the Spirit of Adventure to tilt while Carl sees his house under attack by Beta, Gamma, and Omega, leading Carl and Kevin to rescue Russell while Alpha threatens to kill Dug. He then places a cone on Alpha, which the other dogs interpret him of wearing the "Cone of Shame" similar to what Dug wore in the first place. Back with Russell again, Beta, Gamma, and Omega continue firing darts onto Carl's house and when Russell tells the dogs that there is a squirrel, Beta, Gamma, and Omega move frantically, causing their planes to crash into each other as they use parachutes to fall down safely.
At the end of the film during the ceremony when Carl, Russell, and Dug reunite Kevin with her babies, Carl and Russell take control of the airship where the dogs are seen sticking their heads out of the window happily. Later at the badge ceremony where Russell was honored for assisting Carl and everyone cheering for the brand new Senior Wilderness Explorers, Muntz's dogs are last seen in the audience barking and howling happily.
Dug's Special Mission[]
Muntz's dogs return in this animated short released on the home video releases of Up as well as the Pixar Short Films Collection, Volume 2 release, albeit with only Alpha, Beta, and Gamma returning in this short. In the short, Dug constantly tricks the three throughout the montage, causing their attempts to capture Kevin to fail.
Trivia[]
- Most of Muntz's named dogs are named after the letters of the Greek alphabet. The only exception would be Dug who is not named after a letter of the Greek alphabet.
- During the scene where Russell attempts to rescue Kevin from Muntz, the scene where the dogs are seen playing poker is a reference to the Dogs Playing Poker painting.
- This painting made a cameo in the 2019 Pixar film, Toy Story 4 where it depicts an illustration of Muntz, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Dug in a poker scene as an homage to the film itself.
