Carl’s Date: Pixar’s new short featuring Carl and Dug of Up to debut ahead of Elemental screenings

While visiting Pixar Studios in Emeryville, California, for a behind-the-scenes look at Elemental, the studio’s upcoming animated epic, we learned that the Pixar short Carl’s Date would play ahead of the new film. Carl’s Date hails from the creators of Dug Days, the television series of shorts produced by Pixar Animation Studios for the Disney+ streaming service. Bob Peterson directs (Up, Finding Nemo, Monsters at Work) Carl’s Date, a standalone short featuring the cantankerous balloon enthusiast and his energetic golden retriever, Dug, from 2009’s Up.

Carl’s Date centers on Carl and Dug living together and Dug advising the older man when Carl gets invited on his first date. The late Ed Asner voices Carl as one of his final performances. Asner died of natural causes a few months after completing Pixar’s Carl’s Date project. The short places a bow on Carl’s storyline and leaves him in a good spot by the end of the animation. Carl no longer wears his restrictive jacket and instead chooses to roll up his sleeves, making him appear a bit looser. Carl walks straighter in the new shorts, no longer hunched and struggling through his steps. He’s a touch sprier after being reinvigorated by his adventure. He’s willing to open up to new experiences and is excited about entering a new chapter in his life.

JoBlo’s Chris Bumbray visited Pixar Studios, where a screening of Carl’s Place played for a small crowd. Chris says Pixar’s new short left audience members weeping, in classic Up fashion, especially given that Asner has passed.

Carl’s Date plays before screenings of Pixar’s Elemental, an all-new, original feature film set in Element City, where fire, water, land, and air residents live together. The story introduces Ember, a tough, quick-witted, and fiery young woman whose friendship with a fun, sappy, go-with-the-flow guy named Wade challenges her beliefs about the world they live in—helmed by Peter Sohn, produced by Denise Ream, and featuring the voices of Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie as Ember and Wade, respectively, Elemental releases on June 16, 2023.

Will you shed a tear during Carl’s Date? I bet you’ll hear a lot of sniffles throughout the crowd by the time the short concludes. I’ll be there, ready to cry my face off. Let’s go!