Every Pixar movie is connected. I explain how, and possibly why.
Several months ago, I watched a fun-filled video on Cracked.com that introduced the idea (at least to me) that all of the Pixar movies actually exist within the same universe.
Since then,
I’ve obsessed over this concept, working to complete what I call “The
Pixar Theory,” a working narrative that ties all of the Pixar movies
into one cohesive timeline with a main theme.
This theory covers every Pixar production since Toy Story. That includes:
- A Bug’s Life
- Toy Story 2
- Monsters Inc.
- Finding Nemo
- The Incredibles
- Cars
- Ratatouille
- Wall-E
- Up
- Toy Story 3
- Cars 2
- Brave
- Monsters University
Every movie is connected and implies major events that influence every single movie. Here we go.
[SIDE NOTE: All text in
blue indicate updated edits since the original version]
Brave
is the first and last movie in the timeline. Obviously, this movie
about a Scottish kingdom during the Dark Ages is the earliest time
period covered by the Pixar films, but it’s also the only Pixar movie
that actually explains why animals in the Pixar universe behave like
humans sometimes.
In Brave,
Merida discovers that there is “magic” that can solve her problems but
inadvertently turns her mother into a bear. We find out that this magic
comes from an odd witch seemingly connected to the mysterious
will-of-the-wisps. Not only do we see animals behaving like humans, but
we also see brooms (inanimate objects) behaving like people in the
witch’s shop.
We also learn
that this witch inexplicably disappears every time she passes through
doors, leading us to believe that she may not even exist. Don’t get
ahead of me, but we’ll come back to Brave. Let’s just say, for now, the witch is someone we know from a different movie in the timeline.
[Some of pointed out that the animals in Brave
gradually regress back into an animal state, disproving the idea that
this is the source of animals acting like humans. My rebuttal is simple.
They regress because the magic wears off. Over time, their evolving
intelligence grows naturally.]
Centuries later, the animals from Brave
that have been experimented on by the witch have interbred, creating a
large-scale population of animals slowly gaining personification and
intelligence on their own.
There are two
progressions: the progression of the animals and the progression of
artificial intelligence. The events of the following movies set up a
power struggle between humans, animals, and machines. The stage for
all-out war in regards to animals is set by Ratatouille, Finding Nemo, and Up, in that order. Notice I left out A Bug’s Life, but I’ll explain why later.
In Ratatouille,
we see animals experimenting with their growing personification in
small, controlled experiments. Remy wants to cook, something only humans
explicitly do. He crafts a relationship with a small group of humans
and finds success. Meanwhile, the villain of Ratatouille, Chef
Skinner, disappears. What happened to him? What did he do with his
newfound knowledge that animals were capable of transcending their
instincts and performing duties better than humans?
It’s possible
that Charles Muntz, the antagonist of “Up”, learned of this startling
rumor, giving him the idea to begin inventing devices that would harness
the thoughts of animals, namely his dogs, through translator collars.
Those collars indicated to Muntz that animals are smarter and more like
humans than we think. He needed this technology to find the exotic bird
he’s obsessed over, and he even comments on how many dogs he’s lost
since he arrived in South America.
But then Dug
and the rest of his experiments are set free after Muntz’s demise, and
we don’t know the full implications of that, but what we do know is that
animosity between the animals and humans is growing steadily. Now that
humans have discovered the potential of animals, they are beginning to
cross the line. To develop this new technology, the humans begin an
industrial revolution hinted at in Up.
[
Some have pointed out that Muntz was working in South America before the events of Ratatouille. This is true, but it is not explicitly stated how and when he developed the collars. Also, we know Ratatouille takes place before Up for several reasons. In Toy Story 3,
a postcard on Andy's wall has Carl and Ellie's name and address on it
(including their last names to confirm). This confirms that in 2010, the
time of Toy Story 3, Ellie is still alive or hasn't been dead long.
This supports the idea that Up takes place years later.]
In the beginning of Up,
Carl is forced to give up his house to a corporation because they are
expanding the city. Think on that. What corporation is guilty for
polluting the earth and wiping out life in the distant future because of
technology overreach?
Buy-n-Large (BNL), a corporation that runs just about everything by the time we get to Wall-E. In the “History of BNL”
commercial from the movie, we’re told that BNL has even taken over the
world governments. Did you catch that this one corporation achieved
global dominance?
Interestingly, this is the same organization alluded to in Toy Story 3:
Toy Story 3 (Buzz’s batteries)
In Finding Nemo,
we have an entire population of sea creatures uniting to save a fish
that was captured by humans. BNL shows up again in this universe via
another news article that talks about a beautiful underwater world. In
Finding Nemo, lines are being crossed. Humans are beginning to
antagonize the increasingly networked and intelligent animals.
Think about Dory from
Finding Nemo for a second. She stands
apart from most of the other fish. Why? She isn’t as intelligent. Her
short-term memory loss is likely a result of her not being as advanced
as the other sea creatures, which is a reasonable explanation for how
rapidly these creatures are evolving.
It’s likely that the sequel to
Finding Nemo, which is about
Dory, will touch on this and further explain why. We may also get some
more evidence pointing to animosity between humans and animals.
And that is the furthest movie in the “animal” side of things. When it comes to A.I., we start with The Incredibles.
Who is the main villain of this movie? You probably thought of Buddy,
a.ka. Syndrome, who basically commits genocide on super-powered humans.
Or does he?
Buddy didn’t
have any powers. He used technology to enact revenge on Mr. Incredible
for not taking him seriously. Seems a little odd that the man went so
far as to commit genocide.
And how does
he kill all of the supers? He creates the omnidroid, an A.I. “killbot”
that learns the moves of every super-human and adapts. The omnidroid
eventually turns on Syndrome, which leads us to believe that he was
being manipulated by machines the entire time in order to wipe out the
biggest threats to robot dominance, super-powered humans. The movie even
shows clips of the superheroes with capes being done in by inanimate
objects, such as plane turbines…accidentally.
[
Interesting side notes: someone
suggested that Randall being sent back in time is what inspired Edna to
create Violet's invisibility suit. Also, some have questioned whether or
not Syndrome actually was manipulated by his own technology. Keep in
mind that the movie strongly suggests it takes place before modern
times. The beginning is set in what appears to be the late 60s or early
70s, meaning the events of the movie must be in the late 80s or early
90s. This is a proper setup for Toy Story, as we are starting
to see machines questioning their purpose in life. It's possible that
Syndrome created this technology to become better than his idol. That
doesn't explain his thirst for blood revenge. It seems he became
consumed by hatred, and leads me to suggest that the machines wanted him
to use them to suit his needs, since they are his slaves after all.
It's either that, or the machines knew that killing off the supers was
the only thing stopping them from dominating the world via BNL.]
But why would machines want to get rid of humans in the first place?
We know that animals don’t like humans because they are polluting the
Earth and experimenting on them, but why would the machines have an
issue?
Enter
Toy Story. Here we see humans using and discarding “objects” that are clearly sentient. Yes, the toys love it
Uncle Tom style, but over the course of the
Toy Story sequels, we see toys becoming fed up.
The toys rise up against Sid in the first movie. Jesse resents her
owner, Emily, for abandoning her. Lotso Huggin’ Bear straight up hates
humans by the third movie. Toys are obviously not satisfied with the
status quo, providing a reason for why machines would eventually be
quick to wipe out the strongest humans.
With the super-humans all but gone, mankind is vulnerable. Animals, who want to rise up Planet of the Apes style, have the ability to take over, but we don’t see this happen.
Also, A.I.
never takes over humans. Why do you think that is? It’s reasonable to
assume that machines did take over, just not as we expected. The
machines used BNL, a faceless corporation (which are basically faceless
in nature) to dominate the world.
In each of the Toy Story movies,
it’s made painfully clear that sentient objects rely on humans for
everything. For fulfillment and even energy. It’s hinted at that the
Toys lose all life when put away in “storage” unless they are in a
museum that will get them seen by humans.
So machines decide to control humans by using a corporation that
suits their every need, leading to an industrial revolution that
eventually leads to…pollution.
When the
animals rise up against the humans to stop them from polluting the
earth, who will save them? The machines. We know that the machines will
win the war, too, because after this war, there are no animals ever to
be seen again on Earth. Who’s left?
Because the
machines tip everything out of balance, Earth becomes an unfit planet
for humans and animals, so the remaining humans are put on Axiom (or
Noah’s Ark if you want to carry on the Biblical theme where Wall-E is
basically Robot Jesus and his love interest is aptly named Eve) as a
last-ditch effort to save the human race.
On Axiom, the
humans have no purpose aside from having their needs met by the
machines. The machines have made humans dependent on them for everything
because that is how they were treated as “toys.” It’s all they know.
Meanwhile on
Earth, machines are left behind to populate the world and run things,
explaining human landmarks and traditions still being prominent in Cars.
There are no animals or humans in this version of Earth because they’re
all gone, but we do know that the planet still has many human
influences left. In Cars 2, the cars go to Europe and Japan, making it plain that this is all taking place on Earth as we know it.
So what
happened to the cars? We’ve learned by now that humans are the source of
energy for the machines. That’s why they never got rid of them. In Wall-E,
they point out that BNL intended to bring the humans back once the
planet was clean again, but they failed. The machines on Earth
eventually died out, though we don’t know how.
What we do know is that there is an energy crisis in Cars 2,
with oil being the only way society trudges on despite its dangers. We
even learn that the Allinol corporation was using “green energy” as a
catalyst for a fuel war in order to turn cars away from alternative
energy sources. That “clean” fuel could have been used to wipe out many
of the cars, very quickly.
[
Side Note: someone pointed out that "all in all" means the same thing as "by and large" making the connection between Cars and Wall-E even more appealing.]
Which brings us back to Wall-E.
Have you ever
wondered why Wall-E was the only machine left? We know that the movie
begins 800 years after humans have left Earth on Axiom, governed by the
AutoPilot (another A.I. reference).
Could it be
that Wall-E’s fascination with human culture and friendship with a
cockroach is what allowed him to keep finding fulfillment and the
ability to maintain his personality? That’s why he was special and
liberated the humans. He remembered the times when humans and machines
lived in peace, away from all of the pollution caused by both sides.
After Wall-E liberates the humans and they rebuild society back on Earth, what happens then? During the end credits of Wall-E,
we see the shoe that contains the last of plant life. It grows into a
mighty tree. A tree that strikingly resembles the central tree in A Bug’s Life.
That’s right. The reason no humans exist in A Bug’s Life
is because there aren’t a lot left. We know because of the cockroach
that some of the insects survived, meaning they would have rebounded a
bit faster, though the movie had to be far enough in the timeline for
birds to have returned as well.
Wall-E End Credits, as well.
But there’s more. There’s something strikingly different about A Bug’s Life when compared to other Pixar portrayals of animals. Unlike Ratatouille, Up, and Finding Nemo, the bugs have many human activities similar to what the rats in Ratatouille
were just experimenting with. The bugs have cities, bars, know what a
bloody mary is, and even have a travelling circus. This all assumes that
the movie is in a different time period.
The other factor that sets
A Bug’s Life apart from other Pixar movies is the fact that it is the only one, besides
Cars and
Cars 2, that doesn’t revolve (or even include) humans.
[
Okay there is a a lot of contention over the idea that A Bug's Life
takes place post-apocalypse, but hear me out. The reason I am so
inclined to push the idea is because of how different the bug world is
from the "animal" movies. No other Pixar movie has animals wearing
clothing, wild inventions, animals creating machines, or so much human
influence like bars and cities. In Finding Nemo, the most human thing we see is a school, and even that is pretty stripped down. But in A Bug's Life,
we have a world where humans are barely even implied. At one point, one
of the ants tells Flik not to leave the island because there are
"snakes, birds, and bigger bugs out there." He doesn't even bring up
humans. Yes, there are some humans, like the kid who allegedly picked
the wings off of the homeless bug, but that still fits in a post Wall-E world.
Also, the bugs have to be irradiated for them to live such long
lifespans. The average lifespan of an ant is just 3 months, but these
ants all survive an entire summer and allude to being around for quite
some time. One of the ants even says he "feels 90 again." That works if
you accept that the ants are sturdier due to evolution and mutated
genes.]
So what
happens? Humanity, machines, and animals grow in harmony to the point
where a new super species is born. Monsters. The monsters civilization
is actually Earth in the incredibly distant future.
Where did
they come from? It’s possible that the monsters are simply the
personified animals mutated after the diseased earth was radiated for
800 years. [Not during Wall-E. I would guess that it took hundreds of years after Wall-E for the animals to become monsters] The
alternative could be that humans and animals had to interbreed to save
themselves. Gross, I know, but plausible since the lines between animals
and humans are constantly up for debate in Pixar.
Whatever the
reason, these monsters seem to all look like horribly mutated animals,
only larger and civilized. They have cities and even colleges, as we see
in Monsters University.
[
An issue some have found is that this
doesn't properly explain what happened to humans. I haven't settled on a
theory I really like yet, but I'm leaning towards the idea that
monsters and machines eventually forgot that they need humans and got
rid of them again, not realizing their mistake until all humans died
out, leading to the necessity for time travel. Another explanation is
that humans just couldn't survive on Earth anymore.]
In Monsters Inc.,
they have an energy crisis because they are in a future earth without
humans. Humans are the source of energy, but thanks to the machines,
again, the Monsters find a way to use doors to travel to the human
world. Only, it’s not different dimensions.
The monsters
are going back in time. They’re harvesting energy to keep from becoming
extinct by going back to when humans were most prominent. The peak of
civilization, if you will.
Though a lot
of time has passed, animosity towards humans never really went away for
animals/monsters. Monsters must have relied on anti-human instincts to
believe that just touching a human would corrupt their world like it did
in the past. So they scare humans to gather their energy until they
realize that laughter (green energy) is more efficient because it is
positive in nature.
[
An alternative explanation that fits
even better that some of you brought up: The machines and monsters
created the time travel doors but realized that messing with time could
erase their existence and change history. So, they falsely trained
monsters to believe that humans are toxic and from another dimension,
making it suicide for a monster to interact too much with their world.]
We even see a connection between A Bug’s Life and Monsters Inc. via the trailer we see in both movies. As you can see, the trailer looks exactly the same, except the one in A Bug’s Life is noticeably older and more decrepit, while the one in Monsters Inc. where Randall is sent via a door has humans and looks newer.
Look at the picture above. On the left is the trailer from A Bug’s Life and the one on the right is from Monsters Inc.
The one on the left looks older and more rundown. Even the vegetation
is noticeably dryer and there’s less of it. The trailer on the right has
humans and the frame even includes tall grass and a tree hanging
overhead.
[
Some have argued that the trailer in A Bug's Life should be nothing but dust. I disagree based on how barely intact other buildings were in Wall-E.
They also bring up the bug zapper that is powered by electricity. The
zapper could easily be solar powered, just like Wall-E. The bugs
probably used it as a light source to signal other bugs to "Bug City."
Also, the trailer in A Bug's Life never shows lights in the trailer like it does for Monsters Inc.]
That said, Monsters Inc.
is so far the most futuristic Pixar movie. By the end, humans, animals,
and machines have finally found a way to understand each other and live
harmoniously.
And then
there’s Boo. What do you think happened to her? She saw everything take
place in future earth where “kitty” was able to talk. She became
obsessed with finding out what happened to her friend Sully and why
animals in her time weren’t quite as smart as the ones she’d seen in the
future. She remembers that “doors” are the key to how she found Sully
in the first place and becomes…
A WITCH.
Yes, Boo is the witch from Brave.
She figures out how to travel in time to find Sully, and goes back to
the source: The will-of-the-wisps. They are what started everything, and
as a witch, she cultivates this magic in an attempt to find Sully by
creating doors going backwards and forwards in time.
[
Just to clarify: The theory is that Boo
discovered a way to use doors to travel through time on her own,
possibly by developing magic on her own. She probably went back in time
to the Dark Ages to get more magic from the will-o-wisps.]
How do we know? In Brave, you can briefly see a drawing in the workshop. It’s Sully.
We even see
the Pizza Planet truck carved as a wooden toy in her shop, which makes
no sense unless she’s seen one before…(and I’m sure she has since that
truck is in literally every Pixar movie). If you look closely, you can
see the carved truck below.
You remember
Merida opening doors and the witch constantly disappearing? It’s because
those doors are made the same way from Monsters Inc. They transport
across time and that is why Merida couldn’t find the witch.
[
A lot of people have brought up how
easter eggs are scattered throughout all the Pixar movies. I barely
scratch the surface, but a great theory offered by some that I support
is that these easter eggs are planted by Boo either intentionally or
accidentally as she travels through time to find Sully. Some support for
that is the fact that every easter egg in Brave lies in her workshop.]
Does Boo ever find Sully? I like to think so. He surely reunited with her at least once as a child at the end of Monsters Inc. but eventually he had to stop visiting.
But her love
for Sully is, after all, the crux of the entire Pixar universe. The love
of different people of different ages and even different species
finding ways to live on Earth without destroying it because of a lust
for energy.
And that is the Pixar Theory.
More will be added to it, undoubtedly, when Pixar’s next movie The Good Dinosaur comes out in 2014.
[
Side note: The Good Dinosaur
is supposed to be about an alternate universe where dinosaurs never went
extinct because a meteor never wiped them out. They have humans as pets
in this alternate reality. My theory is that this "alternate universe"
explains why so many things in Pixar's universe are different from ours.
It's because evolution was never interrupted by a world-wide
catastrophe. Humans evolved into supers and animals gained sentience
faster, accelerating the apocalypse for resources that could do the same
to our timeline. Oh, and Dinoco from Toy Story is a loose, but fun connection to speculate on.]
Until then, if you have anything to contribute or correct, don’t hesitate to bring it to my attention. Thanks for reading!
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