This year, Disney celebrates its 100th anniversary as a company. And as part of that landmark, the company has partnered with LEGO to release a number of anniversary-branded, celebratory sets. The particular set we're discussing today—a rendering of Carl and Ellie's house from the Disney/Pixar film Up—is a fun diversion, though it lacks some of the detail we've come to expect from a set that's being promoted as commemorative.
The 'Up' House is actually half a house; it has a forward-facing exterior, but it's open in the back, as if someone cross-sectioned it from roof to floor. The house has four partial rooms, including a bedroom with a patchwork blanket and a sitting room with Carl's chair and phonograph.
The set contains two Minifigures—three if you include Dug the dog, which is perfectly designed to resemble his animated counterpart. The first Minifigure is of eight-year-old Junior Wilderness Explorer Russell, who comes with a massive backpack that's laden with accessories and is nearly the size of him. The second Minifigure is of Carl, whose head has a reversible face—one that is fixed into a curmudgeonly scowl, and the other with a slight smile. He comes with a buildable walker.
There are a lot of movie details crammed into a relatively small space. There's a jar of coins labeled "Paradise Falls" that, if you angle it correctly, can be seen from the outside through the window. There's a re-creation of the "Our Adventure Book" that Carl looks through, in one of the movie's most emotional scenes. There's a spool for the garden hose that Carl uses to tow his house behind him, after he crash lands near Paradise Falls. And there's a lot of nostalgic pictures on the walls—of Ellie as a girl and a woman, and of Ellie and Carl on their wedding day.
You start by building the house's foundation, foyer, and porch, which is reinforced by off-white support posts. The designers did a great job of capturing the house's cozy aesthetic. The home is well-kept but stuck in time, likely at the moment that Ellie was no longer there to renovate it. The sticker detail on the front door has multiple locks on it to keep people out.
Then comes the sitting room. You build it as three separate panels, and then you connect them at an angle to two pink walls to form a curve. Then you build the upper floor and roof. You build the chimney separately and fasten it to the house via LEGO Technic pins. And lastly, you build the front yard, with a helium tank, mailbox (sans handprints, unfortunately) and the bushel of balloons extending out of the chimney.
The weaknesses in this set are from what's not there rather than what is. Little things, like a mailbox with handprints on it or Kevin the Tropical Bird, could have made the set more immersive. Most egregiously, Ellie's empty chair is missing from the build—a side-by-side placement with Carl's chair could have anchored the set around her absence. There isn't enough space for both chairs in the set, but that's also the point—this set needed to be a bit bigger to depict the movie properly.
The same goes for the balloons on top of the build—I would have willingly sat and built for 10-15 more minutes, just to create a bigger balloon bushel than the one that's there. Twice the number of balloons would have felt truer to the movie and to its premise, and would have been visually impactful. But a balloon bushel that big might have also interfered with the house's play elements.
Who is this set for? A media company's anniversary is something that an adult would care about more than a child, and the set's classification as an "anniversary adventure" might lead a buyer to believe that this set is adult and 'definitive,' in the same way the the Disney Castle or the Disney Train were adult and definitive.
But this is not an adult set; this is an exceptionally designed playset, pitched squarely at the 9+ age demographic. So long as you manage your expectations and know that going in—that the final build is more a toy than a collectible—there's a lot to enjoy and appreciate.
The LEGO Disney 'Up' House, Set #43217, retails for $59.99. It is composed of 598 pieces and is part of Disney's 100th anniversary celebration. It is available now.
For more, check out our picks for the best LEGO sets for kids of all ages, as well as the best LEGO car sets and best LEGO Marvel sets.
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