LEGO made a magical part of Disney's Up come true

Disney is all about capturing magic on the big screen, but the LEGO Group has now brought one element of the movie UP into reality.

For those who haven't watched Disney's UP, the plot of the animated film centres on an old man sending his house floating up into the sky using only the power of balloons. While these balloons are included in the brick-built recreation of the set, 43217 'Up' House, they won't make your LEGO house go soaring into the sky. This is probably just as well, as it would definitely add an extra challenge to displaying your LEGO Disney set.

However, the LEGO Group decided to see if such a thing would be possible, putting together a team made up of Making Wonder hosts Mari Copeny and Nicole Laeno, Pixar Chief Creative Officer and Director of UP Pete Docter, LEGO Senior Graphic Designer Crystal Fontan, and NASA Space Engineer, Joan Melendez Misner to actually send 43217 'Up' House into the sky.

Attaching 200 balloons to the brick-built set did indeed see the build rise into the sky, to the amazement of the team. However, they didn't want to stop there.

A small LEGO set is relatively easy to send skywards – but what about a much larger recreation? Mari, Nicola, and Joan had to bring in the big guns (big balloons?) to attempt the same feat with an oversized version of 43217 'Up' House, made up of 68,753 bricks and weighing 90 pounds (just over 40kg).

Instead of regular balloons, they used specially-made weather balloons, used by NASA to launch equipment into space. Using 22 of these weather balloons, the supersized UP House did indeed inch its way into the sky, demonstrating that at least one element of UP could take place (albeit probably with a lot more of these weather balloons to move an actual house).