Textual Analysis Of The Movie Up

UP

The movie Up directed by Pete Docter, showed great points throughout the movie to show several different types of developments and interactions between the different characters that relate back to what has been taught in class. The movie portrays the main characters, Carl, and Russell. In the beginning, there is a montage of Carl’s life with his wife, showing them growing old together and all the dreams they share. One dream was to go to a place called Paradise Falls, in South America. As Carl and Ellie grow older, Ellie passes away and Carl is left to live alone. One day, Russell, a boy scout, knocks on Carl’s door to ask if he needs any assistance so that Russell can receive his “assisting the elderly” badge. As the movie progresses,

For example, Russell demonstrates self-efficacy, which is the belief that one can master a situation and produce favorable outcomes. Albert Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy states that it is “a critical factor in whether or not students achieve” (Bandura 2001, 2006, 2012, 2016 as cited in Santrock, 2018, p. 237). Dale Schunk further explains that children with high self-efficacy work hard at learning tasks with a large amount of effort and persist longer at a task than a child that has low self-efficacy (Schunk, 2020 as cited in Santrock, 2018, p. 237). This theory relates to Russell closely throughout the movie because he had high self-efficacy. He goes through many things in the duration of the film, just to achieve his assisting the elderly badge. He is persistent in helping Carl with anything that he needs and explores things to learn more. Russell’s projected age in the movie shows the correct abilities for cognitive development. He repeatedly represents abstract thinking, a growth mindset, and reading skills. Piaget’s theory of concrete operations and reasoning logically if reasoning can be applied to specific or concrete examples. A way that Russell shows this in the movie is when he can understand and use his GPA tracker before he accidentally throws it, he can understand that the GPS can be used for things like finding Paradise Falls in South

Russell continues to figure out who he is. Though he continues to be an outgoing and lively character throughout the movie, he develops beyond just that. He illustrates moral and logical thought processes with different events that occur. Socioemotional development is seen more frequently in the film because there are more specific examples of it. When the bird, Kevin, becomes injured he realizes that and understands that she needs help and is in pain, and when Russell understands that Kevin was held captive and that is wrong, which is also known as showing perspective thinking and moral reasoning. Russell also demonstrates Industry versus Inferiority, the fourth stage in Erik Erikson’s eight stages of development theory. Industry versus inferiority occurs around elementary school-aged children, Erickson elucidates that children in the stage of development direct their energy towards mastering knowledge and intellectual skills, that is the industry side. On the other hand, inferiority has a child developing feelings of incompetence and being unproductive (Erikson, 1950, 1968 as cited in Santrock, 2018, p.18). Russell shows more of the industry side of development for his age. He directs his energy and time towards mastering skills, like getting all his badges for his boy scouts. Russell also experiences the side of inferiority because he tries his hardest to make his father proud, though his father does not