You're not going to hear anyone complaining about the quality of "Up" — not on this blog, at least — but Pixar's Oscar-winning animated flick certainly raised some questions regarding authenticity.
We're talking about the premise of flying one's house across continents through a complicated network of rigged balloons, of course. (Not that we haven't flown such mobile homes at various points through our lives.) But what was once considered an impossible feat achieved only through the powers of animation is now crossing over into the realm of reality.
National Geographic studied the case of "Up" for their new "How Hard Can It Be?" television series, attempting to figure out whether or not it's possible to lift a house with balloons. The verdict? Well… that's after the jump!
Surprisingly, it looks like Carl Fredricksen's far-fetched plan to turn his house into an aerial home wasn't so far-fetched after all. The "How Hard Can It Be?" team successfully lifted a lightweight 16 x 16 foot yellow house with 300 colored helium balloons to a height of 10,000 feet, effectively recreating the epic launch sequence from the 2009 Academy Award winner. I don't expect that the house is going to travel to South America and find a cave filled with technologically-enhanced talking dogs or anything like that, but it's still cool to see Carl's dream come alive in reality, isn't it?
You can watch video of the house launch below, courtesy of Slash Film.
Are you surprised that the floating house from "Up" is an actual possibility? Give us your reactions in the comments section and on Twitter!
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