| “ | Not joking about my towel now, are you, sport? If I was a betting man, and believe me I am, I would have lost money on you. You hung in there way longer than I thought you would've. But in the end, you’re still the loser I thought you were. | „ |
| ~ Carl taunting Rafe after he gets expelled. |
Carl, nicknamed "Bear," is a major antagonist in the 2016 live action film, Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life. He is the lazy and unscrupulous ex-boyfriend and ex-fiancé of Jules Khatchadorian and another one of Rafe Khatchadorian's biggest enemies.
He was portrayed by Rob Riggle who also voiced Aloysius O'Hare in The Lorax, Bela in Hotel Transylvania 2, Travis and Captain Lippencott in Dumb and Dumber To, Theodore Murdsly in The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants, Mr. Dickers in Victorious, Greg in Disney's Big Hero 6: The Series, and Mr. Walters in 21 Jump Street.
Personality[]
Carl is an arrogant, rude, greedy, and lazy man. Although he thinks that he makes Jules' life better than her kids Rafe and Georgia, he is only interested in her money and cares more about himself than anything else. He takes pride in his expensive purchases, including his red BMW, despite a deleted scene revealing that he is unemployed, and wants to marry Jules so he can benefit off of her and avoid work.
While he sets himself up to be an ideal boyfriend, he clearly showed a fondness towards a waitress in an arcade, implying that he may be adulterous or at least lustful towards other women.
Although Carl acts charming towards Jules, talking smoothly and pretending to be friendly, he dislikes Rafe and Georgia, possibly out of jealousy, and bullies them when Jules is not around. He belittles them by calling Rafe a "loser" and Georgia a "little girl," and is strict on them, bossing them around into doing things he is too lazy to do. He hides his rude manners, including farting and eating messily, from Jules despite doing them in front of her kids, and abuses Georgia's pet dog Calvin for his own pleasure, much to Georgia's disgust.
Carl's true nature is revealed to Jules when he shows little empathy over her concern for Rafe, saying that he is "soft" and needs to toughen up. He is shown to be even more aggressive towards her kids and reveals that he cares little for them, attempting to assault them for wrecking his car. Jules is incited to end her relationship with him.
Role in the film[]
Carl was shown to be the boyfriend of Jules Khatchadorian. Despite his relationship with Jules, Carl despises her children Rafe and Georgia and their pet dog Calvin, believing that he is the only one who would and should make Jules happy. He gets really angry when they call him by the nickname they gave him, from which point on he was known by them as Bear. Rafe and Georgia even tried to explain to Jules how much of a jerk that Carl really is, only for her to brush it off, much to their dismay.
During dinner at a restaurant, Carl proposed to Jules and she accepts, much to Rafe and Georgia's dismay. Having no idea how Rafe feels about the engagement, Jules starts worrying about him. Carl then manipulates Jules by stating Rafe is messed up and soft and that he should see someone to help him. Carl then offers to research on some therapists, but when Jules exits the room, Carl starts researching some military schools. After Rafe got expelled from Hills Village Middle School for his pranks against the tyrannical principal Ken Dwight, Carl found a boarding school with some military aspects and persuades Jules to ship Rafe off there to straighten up his behavior, which leaves as the settled decision since there is nothing else left to do.
However, Rafe's classmates soon learned that Rafe's expulsion was nothing but a ruse to cover Dwight and Ida Stricker's crimes of banning the remedial class from taking the B.L.A.A.R. test to receive a bonus from the school district, so they team up with Rafe to expose Dwight and Stricker's crimes to Superintendent Hwang. To that end, Rafe gets Georgia to take Carl's car on a joyride as part of the plan. Upon seeing that her kids and the car are missing, Jules is purely outraged to hear that Carl cares more about his lost car rather than her kids. Realizing now that her kids were right about Carl being a self-centered jerk that he really is, Jules storms off to search for her kids alone, much to Carl's confusion.
Eventually, Carl soon finds out that his car was partially damaged just as Jules learns that Rafe will be re-enrolled back into the school after Hwang fired both Dwight and Stricker for their crimes. Despite this turn of events, Carl angrily swears to punish both Rafe and Georgia for ruining his car, but Jules foils this by returning the expensive proposal ring to Carl to pay for the damages, telling him that their relationship is over as she has had enough of his behavior towards her children. Humiliated and enraged by this, Carl lashes out at Jules for being so soft towards her children and not being able to handle being with him before leaving with his car in a huff.
Quotes[]
| “ | (Georgia: Look it’s a talking bear!) Why do you insist on calling me that? You know my name is Carl. Carl! (Georgia: Well, A. Carl rhymes with snarl, which is something bears do. And B. You’re abnormally hairy.) | „ |
| ~ Carl asking Rafe and Georgia why they call him Bear instead of his real name. |
| “ | All right, listen up, twerps! And listen good: I'm here to stay, and that smile on your mom's face that you're all happy to see, I put that there! So unless you want to be responsible for her unhappiness, I suggest you check your attitude and your bladder at the door, because now... you're guests..... in the bear cave! (Rafe: Well, at least, he's embracing the whole 'bear' thing now.) | „ |
| ~ Carl threatening Rafe and Georgia after Calvin peed on his suit. |
| “ | Jules. With all due respect, Rafe is one messed up little dude. | „ |
| ~ Carl lying to Jules about Rafe after she worries about him. |
| “ | What are you talking about? My car.... it's missing! (Jules: Your car?!) YES! (Jules: That's what you're so worried about?!) YES!! (Jules: You know, I must have been INSANE not to see what a self-centered jerk you really are! Excuse me, I gotta go find my kids.) | „ |
| ~ Carl revealing his selfish behavior to Jules after Rafe and Georgia stole his car. |
| “ | You little SNOTS are gonna pay for this!! (Jules: No, I'll pay.... with this. *returns the proposal ring to Carl* And keep the change. I hear Pier One's having a sale on animal prints.) I know you're saying that just to be hurtful, but let me tell you something: I get Google alerts from Pier One, so I already knew about the sale! Joke's on you! You know, it's just sad.... it's sad that some people.... YOU can't handle all this concentrated awesomeness... ME!! I'm Audi 5G! | „ |
| ~ Carl lashing out at Jules after she breaks up with him by returning the ring to pay for his car's damages. |
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In the recurring cartoon-fantasy scenes, Carl is portrayed as an obese, anthropomorphic bear who tries to mooch off others for his own pleasure.
- In a deleted scene, Carl is revealed to be unemployed.
- In the book he and Jules break up after he knocks her down and breaks her wrist. In the movie they break up when Jules was horrified that Carl cared more about his car than her kids and she did not get accidentally assaulted by Carl.
- Carl also gets arrested for domestic violence in the book as a result of this incident, although Jules doesn't press charges.
- In the book, Carl is one of the main antagonists, along with Miller The Killer, but in the movie he is a supporting antagonist due to Principal Dwight and Vice Principal Stricker having bigger plans than Carl.
- In the book, while Carl's personality was not much different, he never suggested sending Rafe to a military school. He also owned a dog called Ditka, instead of Georgia owning a pug named Calvin. As well as that, like many characters, his physical appearance in the book is very different from in the movie, such as having blond, messy hair and a bushy mustache, although he was usually depicted in the illustrations as an anthropomorphic bear.
- Carl is very similar to Larry Quinn from the Cat in the Hat movie, and his film portrayal may be inspired by him. Both are the main antagonist and potential stepfather to the film's kids, and both unemployed and manipulate their respective girlfriends, and eventually get dumped by the end of the film after their true colors are exposed. Unlike Larry, however, Carl bullies both of his girlfriend's kids from the start, rather than being friendly towards one at first.
- Carl decides to embrace the bear nickname that Rafe and Georgia give him saying that they are in "the bear cave" now despite not liking it before.