Continuity mistake: When Mr Fredrickson opens the door there are 4 locks on the front door looking from the outside in. Next scene and consequent scenes there are only 3. (00:12:35)
Continuity mistake: After being tied up and rescued by Carl, Russell falls backwards off the front porch and is saved by the garden hose. In the first shot, Russell is standing on the nozzle hanging on, but when he is dragged across the windshield of the blimp, he is hanging on with his hands. The next shot in which we see him, he is back in a standing position. (01:19:20 - 01:19:50)
Continuity mistake: When the house first becomes detaches from its foundation and becomes airborne, Russell is nowhere to be seen, although every angle of the house is shown, including underneath, the front porch and the back porch. He knocks on the door and tells Carl he chased a "snipe" under the porch - but he cannot be seen after liftoff and prior to knocking. The same thing happens near the end, when Dug claims to have hidden under the porch.
Continuity mistake: When Russel is complaining, when he says "Zoology" his face is covered in dirt. When Carl tells him that he can do his business in the bushes, he is instantly clean. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOjhfcBNZW8.
Factual error: After trying to get his balloon back, Carl Jr. falls and breaks his arm. The ambulance that picks him up has a modern-day electronic siren, when in the 30's it would be a mechanical siren and would be much smaller.
Continuity mistake: When Carl returns to the house after Ellie dies and walks into the house, the mailbox is shown as being attached to the second fence slat from the post. All other scenes - both before and after this - show it attached to the first slat.
Continuity mistake: When Mr. Carl notices his mail he holds the stick in his left hand and reaches near the mailbox. He places the walking stick to his left, the next shot after he picks up the mail and comes back, the stick is not found, but in the next shot it's found to Mr. Carl's right side when he speaks to the man in black suit.
Continuity mistake: When Carl rids his house of everything and lifts off again to save Russel and Kevin, the camera pans down and one can see that the porch is empty, above and below. Afterward, when Dug knocks on the door, he said that he hid under the porch, which was empty.
Continuity mistake: When Russell lifts off from the roof of the house with Carl's leaf blower, it is obviously gasoline-powered because he pulls the starter rope and we see smoke. Once inside the blimp, Russell uses the blower on the bulldog and he starts it without pulling the rope.
Other mistake: The Spanish version has all the titles and signs changed to Spanish text as we can see when Carl opens the photo album. However, a side angle shows the letters 'O' and 'D' revealing it's the original English text, "Things To do."
Other mistake: After Carl and Russell meet with Cumulonimbus cloud Carl takes a nap and we find that Russell wakes him up, after that we see that Carl goes and peeps out of the window he places his walking stick near to him and facing him, the next to next shot we see that its moved and is facing opposite to him. even though the camera is moved a bit its not possible for the stick to rotate so much and moved.
Other mistake: Shortly after the house takes off for the first time, in a scene where part of the city can be seen that includes various buildings and houses, the shadow of Carl's house and the balloons can be seen on the ground. At first glance it looks OK, but the angle of the shadows of objects on the ground is completely different from the shadow projected by the house. The buildings on the ground are projecting a shadow to the left, indicating that the sun is low to the right. However Carl's house shadow indicates a light source from behind the camera which is about perpendicular to the shadows on the ground. To be technically correct in this shot, all shadows must point away from the camera and the sun should be located behind the camera if the house's shadow is to be seen in the shot.
Continuity mistake: When Ellie first shows Carl her Adventure Book, page 1 is a map of South America, page 2 is the library-book picture of the falls, and page 3 is the page marked Stuff I'm Going to Do. In the next shot, we see five pages precede the Stuff I'm Going to Do page.
Continuity mistake: When the house first lifts off, the bottom step of the front porch becomes detached at one end and sags. In the next shot when the house brushes the top of the transport van, the step is undamaged and isn't sagging.
Continuity mistake: When Carl retrieves his mail (holding it in his right hand), he notices the dust and drops the mail on the ground to pick up the leaf blower. After using the blower and then the bullhorn, the mail suddenly appears back in his left hand.
Continuity mistake: The fence gate on Carl's house has some continuity issues. When we see him arriving home after Ellie's funeral, the gate is open toward the inside. The width of the opening looks to be fairly large, around 46 inches based on the total approximate widths of the planks on the house porch which is shown the same width as the gate opening (10 planks at least 4 inches wide and one plank at least 6 inches wide). The next day when Carl gets the mail, the gate opens toward the street and stops at the post - can't be opened to the inside. When the construction worker finishes his interaction with Carl, we see the complete gate and it is much narrower than the funeral shot. It now has only 4 planks which look about 6 or 8 inches wide, so the width is about a foot less than the night before.
Continuity mistake: After Muntz ties Russell to the chair and opens the ramp, there is a fast sweeping exterior shot of the blimp's underside from front to rear, and the ramp is opening toward the front. In all other scenes of the ramp, it opens toward the rear.
Continuity mistake: The angles of the sun in relation to the house in various scenes show that if looking at the house from the street, you are facing west. However, when the workers and Carl say "Good morning", the sun is coming from an angle which would indicate it's now late afternoon (not morning) because it's behind the house off to the left.
Continuity mistake: When Russell is trying to mount the camping tend for the night, one of the stakes bounces on his face, giving him a bruise on the left eye, but in the next scene the bruise is gone.
Continuity mistake: In the scene were Russell finds the lever to operate the house direction, he moves it first towards right, then to its left and again to its right and finally leaves it in the center and goes towards the window. But in the next shot, it's found positioning to its right.
Answer: We, the movie audience, are never privy to Russel's parents and their reactions to circumstances which transpire. For all we know, an extensive hunt for Russell could have been initiated by his parents off screen.
Michael Albert