This Pixar short is based on the moment just before Dug encounters the characters from Up.It is Dug's birthday and he wants it to be his happiest day. However the other dogs, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma want Dug out of the way and give him missions to catch the multi coloured bird.The trouble is each time they tell Dug to do something, it backfires on the three dogs.This cartoon short has elements of Wile E Coyote and Roadrunner feel about it. The short is a bit mean on Dug and it does not entirely tie up well with Up.

The first 15 minutes from "Up" are among the best what Pixar has ever put on screen. Afterwards, it goes considerably down in quality and this five-minute short film is unfortunately not much better. Basically, it tells us about Dug right before he meets the old man and the boy. Dug keeps getting in the way of the other dogs in their attempts to catch the wonder-bird, so they try to keep him busy with pointless tasks, but keep failing (and occasionally getting hurt) as he always gets in their way. The one thing special about this short film compared to other Pixar short films is that it neither plays before or after the feature film it's linked to, but exactly at the same time, just focuses on a character we did not see at this point of time in the movie. That's why it could easily be included in the film.However, I'd only really recommend it to children, for whom Dug is probably the highlight of the movie, or those who really enjoyed Up and the alpha dog's high-pitched voice, which I personally found more distracting than funny in the long run. It's an okay add-on to a decent film, but you're really not missing much.

I liked this short film! It was funny, cute, and well done just like the full length movie. However, the one thing that annoyed me in this one and annoyed me in the other is I CAN'T STAND THE VOICE OF THE BIG DOG! It's kind of funny for the first few times you hear it but it starts to get annoying! It's like internet sensation Fred, he's funny the first few videos you watch but after a while he starts to get annoying. It was nice to see a different story about Dug because he was my 2nd favorite character, after Russell (Jordan Nagai). It was kind of sad for a 5 minute short film. ***SPOILERS START NOW*** My favorite part is when he sit in the hole and he starts falling through the hole and lands on his "pack". I also like no matter how hard Dug tries to be good and not mess things up he always manages to. SQUIRREL, was used in this short once which I find hilarious!***Spoilers End Now*** Overall another job well done by Pixar!

As we all know, Dug is the dog that meets Carl and Russell on top of a mountain top while he is on a mission hunting for an elusive tropical bird on the orders of his master Charles Muntz. Well, "hunting" is a bit strong since Dug has been sent on a wild goose chase to keep him out of the way of the main, err, "wild bird chase". This short film are the events that led Dug to be on that mountain top as Alpha tries to keep Dug occupied with a series of seemingly harmless "missions".In addition to the short film that accompanies the cinematic release of their feature films, Pixar will mostly use one of the characters from the main film to generate another short film that will go on the DVD release of same. In this case I was very happy to find that this was to be the loyal but rather dopey dog Dug since he was one of my favourite characters from the film with both physical comedy and his funny dialogue (essentially the thoughts of a dog "SQUIRREL!"). This short film is well placed within the context of the main events and sees Alpha essentially ditching Dug with pointless missions such as "this is the bird's favourite hole in the ground, stay in this hole until you see the bird". Needless to say Alpha's plans manage to backfire as Dug manages to somehow get in Alpha's way with a mix of innocent cheerfulness and exuberance.The ways that this happens are funny but they are made funnier by Dug as a character, the dialogue being a match for the film in terms of style and him being funny simply by virtue of being in the scene. Even the jokes that are repeated from the film (SQUIRREL!) are funny here. The ending of the short isn't particularly strong but this is forgivable since it is not really the "end" but rather nicely dovetails into a scene in the main film that we had previously come into from the perspective of Carl and Russell.Overall Dug's Special Mission is a typically enjoyable DVD short film from Pixar that makes funny use of one the funnier characters from Up to produce a funny DVD extra that sits well alongside the main film.