Dug Days Trailer: The Disney+ Series Has Just Met You And It Loves You

Not a single person with a soul walked away from the 2009 Pixar movie "Up" without falling head over heels for Dug, the lovable talking dog with a penchant for squirrel animosity and jokes ("It is funny because the squirrel gets dead!"). I feel like every other day happens to be some national celebration of a fringe topic, but today happens to be International Dog Day, and so Disney has released new holiday-appropriate footage and artwork for "Dug Days." If we all can't just get the entire day off from work for this holiday that I only just found out about, this feels like the next best thing.

"Dug Days" will be a series of shorts that further expand on the adventures from "Up." You can check out the first trailer below.

Look, don't ask me to sit here and critically analyze something as delightful as this. Dug is back, he's still endearingly dumb as rocks, and the footage promises that we'll get to see more of his wholesome dynamic between Russell and Carl Frederickson (and squirrels). Allowing us to hear the thoughts of dogs through their communication collars was a stroke of genius in "Up" and Bob Peterson, the vaunted Pixar veteran, returns to voice Dug as well as write and direct this series of five shorts. He was a writer and co-director on "Up," so this isn't exactly unfamiliar territory for him. It might seem simple enough, but the universally positive reception to "Up" (and especially Dug and the pack of bumbling attack dogs) shows just how well this material tapped into the heart of every dog-lover out there. As Peterson puts it:

"Dug is pure of heart—he's a good soul. I think people enjoy that part of Dug. Plus, people love their dogs. We've gone to great lengths to include truth in dog behavior, so they see their own dogs in Dug."

Simply put: he's a very, very good boy! The series might be very low-stakes and laid-back, but those involved have also been keeping continuity in mind. Having first been discovered by Russell and Carl while on their trek to Paradise Falls, the pair took the lonely dog in with them and this will be his first experience in the wider world. According to Peterson, "Everything is new, and he's excited about all of it. But the smallest things can distract Dug, never mind an actual squirrel." 

All five shorts of "Dug Days" will premiere on Disney+ on September 1, 2021.