Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
I’ve seen the Disney+ mini-series called ‘Dug Days’, which is a sequel series to the 2009 Disney/Pixar film called ‘Up’. I love ‘Up’! My parents and I even watched the film during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 – please keep safe. So I was very happy to check out this five-episode mini-series set after ‘Up’.
‘Dug Days’ focuses on the dog called Dug, voiced by Bob Peterson (who also created, written and directed the series), and his owner Carl Fredericksen, voiced by the late Edward Asner. ‘Dug Days’ was released on Disney+ a couple of days after Ed Asner’s death in 2021. I was saddened to hear the news and I’m glad this series commemorates his memory.
I’m surprised ‘Dug Days’ was only five episodes long instead of ten like it was with ‘Monsters at Work’. The episodes themselves also happen to be 9-12 minutes long. I doubt a second series of ‘Dug Days’ will be made due to Ed Asner’s passing, but it’s still great to view the series on Disney+. 🙂
The five episodes include ‘Squirrel’, ‘Puppies’, ‘Smell’, ‘Flowers’ and ‘Science’. The series looks into how the slow yet hilarious golden retriever called Dug is currently living with Carl Fredericksen as his owner in their new house in the suburbs. I found the five episodes of ‘Dug Days’ pretty good here. 🙂
I found how funny Dug was in this particular Disney+ series from watching him in ‘Up’. It’s amusing when he experiences new things being Carl’s pet, such as protecting the backyard from a squirrel, playing with puppies, smelling a fire, wanting to eat hog dogs, and reacting to fireworks at night. 😀
When I wrote ‘The Railway of Time’, one of my ‘Doctor Who’ stories, in 2010, my Mum commented on how inspired I was from creating the Zegors based on Dug with the collar he wears when he talks. I suppose there is truth in that and it’s very funny when the collar glows red whenever Dug’s talking.
I liked the interaction between Carl and Dug when they’re being owner and pet. Carl can sometimes find Dug a little frustrating, especially when Dug doesn’t understand certain things about life. In the end, Carl is very happy to have Dug as his pet and even calls him ‘a good dog’ at the end of episodes.
It was lovely to see Russell, the young boy from ‘Up’ in the ‘Science’ episode of ‘Dug Days’ (although as I understand it, unused archival recordings of Jordan Nagai as Russell were used). It was funny when Russell created collars for the Squirrel, the Fly and the Female Bluebird to wear so they could talk. 😀
There was also the Snail that could talk. It was very funny when Dug interacted with the Squirrel and the Female Bluebird when they fought over a sandwich. In the end, Dug let the Squirrel and the Female Bluebird have their halves of the sandwich after hearing how they fight to survive for food. 🙂
It was intriguing how Dug interacted with the puppies in the ‘Puppies’ episode. At first, the puppies are quite rough when they play with Dug and they eat his food before he can eat it. In the end, Dug finds a way to get on with the puppies and make them like him. This was reassuring to watch in the episode.
I quite like the opening theme music to the show called ‘Spirit of Adventure’ by Andrea Datzman and Curtis Green. It reflects well from the film ‘Up’ and it matches to the title sequence of Carl and Dug finding a home and settling into it. I wish that we saw more of Carl and Dug’s home life in the series.
‘Dug Days’ is a pleasant five-episode mini-series to watch on Disney+. I’m glad I’ve been able to see it, especially to commemorate Ed Asner who passed away recently. I don’t think there’ll be another series of ‘Dug Days’, but I’m glad a series was made in order to continue the story of ‘Up’ with Dug. 🙂
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim. 🙂
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