Examination and Problematization of the Representation of Old Age and Aging in Up

I will examine and problematize the representations of old age and aging based on the way the protagonist of this film, Carl Fredriksen, has been portrayed. I will explore the way in which this film, simultaneously, relies on representations of elderly men to maintain socially acceptable bounds, and poses challenges to these same social boundaries to create a narrative of alternative masculinity in old age. I will focus on discourses of declining in old age, Ageism, self-reinvention, and concepts of alternative masculinity.

While watching this film I have asked: what narratives based on stereotypical depictions of old age are employed in the film; to what extent the narratives presented in the film create and / or provide discourses to the keep older folks within socially acceptable bounds; and / or challenge social boundaries? I also explored how this film makes use of chronological age as a category to justify social inequality and divisions. At the same time, I observed how this film uses processes of agency and transformation of the Self in old age.

This film offers two extreme perspectives to look at old age. On the one hand, the film’s plot relies on stereotypical representations of elderly men, keeping them inside of widely socially acceptable boundaries, while at the same time it also challenges social boundaries by creating alternative forms of masculinity for older male to, essentially, contradict a widely accepted declining narrative on old people.

Almost from the beginning, this animated film presents the audience with a character of an old and lonely widower, Carl Fredriksen. He is depicted as a methodical, set-in-his-ways, bad-tempered and sulky man. He rises up at 6.00 AM with the sound of an alarm clock, strai...

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