The miscarriage in Up has stayed with me, too, Meghan, because of the emotion packed into a slim 20 seconds, and also because it opens the movie to adults who don’t have kids. In fact, that opening out into different audiences captures one of the movie’s several wonderful themes. Dana pointed out the motley nature of the crew that goes on Up ‘s adventure . It teaches, without ever preaching, a lesson about finding love and chosen family wherever you can. Spoiler alert: In the last scene, square-jawed widower Carl sits next to kid Russell on the boy’s favorite curb, where he and his dad used to go to count red cars and blue cars. The dad is gone, into the clutches of a woman who we’ve been briefly told has admonished Russell about calling too much. And so Carl and Russell count the cars, and argue over whether to count a motorcycle, and we glimpse the rare possibility of a random encounter made into love. And are reminded that it shouldn’t be so rare.
