Dug's Special Mission (2009)

Excellent adaptation.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

This Pixar short is based on the moment just before Dug encounters the characters from Up.It is Dug's birthday and he wants it to be his happiest day. However the other dogs, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma want Dug out of the way and give him missions to catch the multi coloured bird.The trouble is each time they tell Dug to do something, it backfires on the three dogs.This cartoon short has elements of Wile E Coyote and Roadrunner feel about it. The short is a bit mean on Dug and it does not entirely tie up well with Up.

I saw Dug's Special Mission as I love Pixar and Up is my second favourite of Pixar's films. Plus I wanted to see what this short film was going to be like from Dug's perspective. It was very well done, with a lot of what I loved about Up shown here. As with all of Pixar's work, it is beautifully animated, with character designs that have life and backgrounds and colours that have such a bright and breezy look to them. The music has a uplifting and nostalgic feel to it, the story is cute with a lot of heart to it and while the physical humour is genuinely amusing there is always room for some poignancy as well particularly at the end. The characters do engage, I personally like Dug and I liked what was done with him here, and the other dogs, Carl and Russell are great in support. The voice work is as solid as can be. Overall, very well done, I liked it very much. 9/10 Bethany Cox

In the main film, when we are introduced to Alpha, he has a broken collar that causes his voice to be high-pitched. His companion dogs, Beta and Gamma look surprised upon hearing him speak and start to tease him. Later on, when Alpha contacts Dug on the video collar, Dug also comments on how Alpha's voice sounds funny. Throughout the short, Alpha talks in his squeaky voice and no one seems to think it odd, even though it takes place before the introduction scene in the main film.Either Dug, Beta and Gamma should be used to his voice by the time we hear it in the main film, or Alpha should be talking in his alternate "beefy" voice throughout the short.Other than that, it's a cute story with a sappy happy ending.

Being a Pixar fan, I was looking forward to this short film ever since it was announced. Heck, I was eager for it even BEFORE it was announced, because Pixar always includes a second short film on their DVDs. While I can see by the ratings here on IMDb that some people didn't enjoy it as much as I did (I can see why, if they're comparing it to "Up"), I still think that this short film had a number of elements that made it very enjoyable to watch.All the humor that comes with Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Dug is here, as well as Alpha's "broken collar" joke. However, this film did have a few discrepancies with the feature film it was based on that bothered me slightly. They're mostly anachronisms or continuity errors, but I can forgive them considering that this film is supposedly a representation of how Dug remembers these events, just like the "Married Life" sequence in "Up" was supposed to be how Carl Fredricksen remembered his marriage with Ellie.This film isn't all physical humor, though. Before I go on, please note that you shouldn't watch this until you've seen the feature film it's based on. Anyway, after Alpha gets fed up with Dug, Dug is (to be brief) very sad and alienated. Pixar does their thing with the emotions, and Dug runs away into some fog-filled rocks. The first time I saw that, I felt sorry for Dug. However, as per his birthday wish (it is his birthday, after all), he finds "a new master": Carl and Russell. What a nice alternate location story!