Every Pixar movie is connected. I explain how, and possibly why.
In 2012, I watched a 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. Another, longer, title is “The Grand Unifying Theory of Pixar Movies.”
This theory covers every feature-length movie made by Pixar Animation Studios since 1995. They include:
- Toy Story
- 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
- Inside Out (in Part 2)
- The Good Dinosaur (in Part 3)
- Finding Dory (in Part 4)
- Cars 3, Coco, Incredibles 2, and Toy Story 4 will be included in the upcoming book
The point of this theory is to have fun and exercise your imagination while simultaneously finding interesting connections between these fantastic movies. The trick is not take any of it too seriously. If you would like to experience a shorter version of this theory, check out the visualized Pixar Theory Timeline.
In fact, I highly suggest you watch this video I made with Screen Junkies/Fandom below. It more thoroughly lays out this theory and its most complex ideas. It’s also a far more “current” version of the theory compared to the rest of this post. Plus, it has more movies included! Enjoy.
The original Pixar Theory:
As of this writing in 2013, 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 that for now, the witch is someone we know from a different movie in the timeline.
[Some of you have 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, which is 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.
Wait a second. What corporation is guilty for polluting the earth and wiping out life in the distant future because of technological 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:
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.
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.
[Some great users have pointed out that Dory is actually more intelligent and shows signs of growth due to her ability to read and communicate with whales. This would actually show signs of how the animals are beginning to change in intelligence gradually.]
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.
[A lot of people have been arguing about where The Incredibles actually takes place because we see technology from modern times and the 1980s even though everything has a 1960s vibe. This is cleared by Brad Bird, the director, who says the movie takes place in an alternate 1960s, which means the movie opens in the 1950s.]
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. When Mr. Incredible is first told about this machine, Mirage mentions that it is an advanced artificial intelligence that has gone rogue.
Mr. Incredible points out that it got smart enough to wonder why it had to take orders. The omnidroid eventually turns on Syndrome, and starts attacking humans in the city. Why would an A.I. want to just attack randomly? Do machines have an inherent hatred of humans?
The movie even shows clips of the superheroes with capes being done in by inanimate objects, such as plane turbines…accidentally.
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. But wait, toys and inanimate objects aren’t necessarily machines, so how do they have some kind of intelligence?
Syndrome points to the answer. He tells Mr. Incredible that his lasers are powered by Zero Point Energy. This is the electromagnetic energy that exists in a vacuum. It’s the unseen energy we find in wavelengths and a reasonable explanation for how toys and objects in the Pixar world draw power.
By the events of the Toy Story movies, we are in the 90s until 2010. It’s been 40-50 years or so since the events of The Incredibles, giving A.I. plenty of time to develop BNL.
Meanwhile, Pixar is hinting at dissatisfaction among pockets of toy civilizations. 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 and objects alike are ready to take over.
So, by the 2000s, the super-humans are all but gone, and 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 by force. 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, starting in the 1960s after the Omnidroid fails to defeat the Incredibles.
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 almost no animals left 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.
[Some have noted that the world of Cars can’t be after humans left because there’s no pollution shown in the movies. If you look carefully at Wall-E, however, the world is never shown during this time, so we don’t really know how badly the Earth was polluted.]
[It’s possible that the machines sent humans away to curb overpopulation and fix the environment without them, but the world was drained of resources as a result of machines populating the Earth. That would explain why the machines abandoned Earth entirely, leaving only Wall-E behind.]
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.
[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 substantial.]
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 show up 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, though they’re noticeably less intelligent than the bugs.
[I’ll admit, the trees looking similar isn’t enough to support the idea that A Bug’s Life takes place after Wall-E, but there’s definitely more reasons for why it’s likely. Also, I’ll bring the tree up again later because it appears in Up as well.]
There’s something strikingly different about A Bug’s Life when compared to other Pixar portrayals of animals, which leads me to believe it takes place in the future. Unlike Ratatouille, Up, and Finding Nemo, the bugs have many human activities similar to what the rats in Ratatouille were merely experimenting with.
The bugs have cities, bars, advertisements, their own machines, know what a bloody mary is and even have a traveling 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 by saying things like “this happens every year.” 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.]
There’s another Pixar movie that was supposed to be released in 2012, but it was cancelled and replaced with Brave. This movie was called Newt, and I believe it might have fit in this part of the timeline post-Wall-E. The movie’s supposed plot: “What happens when the last remaining male and female blue-footed newts on the planet are forced together by science to save the species, and they can’t stand each other?”
A movie about an endangered species rebuilding itself could lend itself nicely to this theory, but since the movie was never released, I’m just speculating.
So what happens next? 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.
[Someone wisely pointed out that in Monsters University, the college is said to be founded in 1313. If we’re really in the future, then that means the monsters could have reset society and begun using their own calendar. That could mean Monsters Inc. takes place up to 1400 (or more) years after A Bug’s Life.]
Where did they come from? It’s possible that the monsters are simply the personified animals mutated after the diseased earth was irradiated 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]
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. 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.]
[Another issue is how the monsters seem to worry about kids “being less scared these days.” It’s likely that going in the past takes a lot of energy, so the monsters can only go back as far as the practice still returns a profit in energy. To them, they’re just moving through the same dimension of time, but the monsters at the top know that eventually, they’ll run out. This is why Waternose is so bent on capturing children and enslaving them.]
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 what she believes is 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 almost 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 later in the movie.
[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.]
But wait. How did Boo travel in time in the first place, and why is she obsessed with wood? Boo must have discovered that wood has been the source of energy all along, not just humans. The machines and monsters in Monsters Inc. use doors because they’re made of wood and found a way to use that energy to travel in time.
[Many have pointed out how the door that banishes monsters is metal. That’s probably because wood is used to harness this magic, and using a metal door would stop a banished monster from going back through it.]
Obsessed with finding Sully, Boo travelled across the Pixar universe using doors.
[It’s even possible that the wood from the tree in A Bug’s Life is the source of Flik’s ingenuity, due to his fascination and respect for seeds growing into trees. The tree also bears a resemblance to the one in Up that Carl and Ellie frequented, which could be the source of Carl’s wild creativity in using balloons to transport his house.]
[This also explains why Flik and Heimlich from A Bug’s Life show up in Toy Story 2, which would be centuries before their time. Boo was trying to go to the future and could have fallen short by landing in the post-Wall-E time. She would need wood to keep time traveling, but there’s not much around yet, so she stumbles upon the tree in A Bug’s Life. She could have accidentally brought back a few bugs with her when traveling backwards in time.]
So Boo went back to the Dark Ages, probably because she could use plenty of wood there for her experiments or to study the will-o-wisps. We know that her first encounter with Mor’du ended with her turning him into a monstrous bear, but he regresses.
She probably wanted to turn him into a bear because Sully resembles a bear, and she is still trying to figure out where Sully comes from.
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.
For Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur, and Finding Dory, the story continues in Parts 2,3, and 4 respectively, so here are some other helpful links for your reading pleasure:
- The Pixar Theory – What about Planes?
- The Pixar Detective – an expanded universe novel that explains the theory as a full narrative.
Thanks for reading this. Be sure to say hey on Twitter: @JonNegroni
All images courtesy of Disney/Pixar
I had a very hard time believing in love magic spells so i felt strange even clicking on any spell site. The term love spells seemed silly to me normally but after seeing Priest Ajigar’s e-mail on a trusted blog, it made a great deal of sense. I literally thought there was no way I could have my lover back. Well, after contacting Priest Ajigar he gave me a lot of confidence and told me he would help me bring back the man I thought I had lost forever in just 48 hours. It was very surprising how my lover started calling me to tell me how much he missed and can’t live without me after Priest Ajigar had helped me cast a very powerful spell. I count myself very lucky to have ever found Priest Ajigar’s email and to have even had the courage of contacting him for help.Priest Ajigar didn’t tell me exactly what I wanted to hear like 99% of other spell casters will do. He was very sincere with me, this was what really shocked me and made me believe he was real. Thank you so much Priest Ajigar for your marvelous work. His e-mail is(priestajigarspells@live.com) just so maybe you need a good and sincere spell caster.
At this time it appears like Expression Engine iis the best blogging platform
available right now. (from what I’ve read)
Is that what you are using on your blog?
I don’t know if anyone else noticed it but beside the trailers in the monsters inc./bugs life pictures is the same pizza truck thing from all the pixar movies
I like this teori, but i think that the bedroom of Boo is very actual, his toys, the door, and decoratior are very actualy. I don’t think that she are the wicht in Brave. Isn’t possible, they are in diferent age.
(Sorry for my level of inglish, but i’m fron Spanish and i not use the traductor) 😉
Please write me, his me emal: alegnah7@hotmail.com
Stumbled across this website today, and wasn’t sure if you noticed any of these things too! http://www.buzzfeed.com/briangalindo/22-pixar-movie-easter-eggs-you-may-have-seriously-never-noti
Actually, a couple of these easter eggs change the Theory. The main one being Mrs. Potato Head reading A Bug’s Life to the Toddle Tots. If we take this into consideration, the whole Theory blows up. DAMN.
one thing that i would disagree on is the time in which toy story was based. In toy story 1 i would of said it was set around 1960’s? because at that time the moon launch had happened and as the prospector mentioned in toy story 2, “once the astronauts went up, everyone wanted to play with space toys” which would make the assumption that it wasn’t that long ago in toy story 1 that the moon launch had happened hence the introduction of buzz because before then, cowboy films was the popular thing which explains why pixar made woody a cowboy
That’s a fair point but Toy Story 3 disproves that since Andy has a cell phone. Additionally, many of the toys and board games (like Operation) seen throughout the movies didn’t come out until the 90s.
True, but the prospector was also a “mint” toy. He could have been as old as the 60’s which would have made it sound like yesterday to him. These toys were probably also mass-produced so the “Woody” that we know could have been from the 70’s or something. Andy’s mom does mention something in Toy Story 2 at the yard sale about Woody being a hand-me-down or something like that. Besides, the “space toys” the prospector mentions aren’t necessarily the Buzz Lightyear toys we see in the films.
well me grwoing up in the 90s, i remember cowboys and indians beeing a cool thing as a younger child (i just remeber i even had a cowboy-indian schoolbag) but having more and computers (pc-games) and stuff and pokemon and anime and starwars episode 1 (space toys), cowboy just didnt seem futuristic= cool enough getting closer and closer to the turn of the millenia… but thats just thats how i remeber things
Just desire to say your article is as surprising.
The clearness for your put up is simply great and that i could assume you are
a professional on this subject. Fine along with your permission
allow me to grab your feed to keep up to date with impending post.
Thanks a million and please continue the gratifying work.
And why do the machines/and animals need humans to have a personality? Whatst their energy they need? I belive to have the answer to that! :
because humans, especially children have something special: IMAGINATION -the power to creat /of creation, CREATIVITY, the feeling that nothing is impossible, lifes true energie and/or will .. the force if you want! (by writing this just now, i realised maybe the new disney starwars can/will be brought into context) … magic ….love
Magic is (making) something happening, befor (it can be) understood .. sounds like imagination to me 😉
Do to strong imagination in children (yeah thinking of starwars now too 😀 ) toys are the first inanimate objects starting to gain personality. While playing every child imagines their toys are real, they create their personality, they imagine it.
Buzz lightyear in the begining was just a light year with no “real” personality, though his “personality” is how he is seen by the average child after seeing a lightyear comercial. or seeing him on tv. So as woody might have been in the begining as known from the tv series (animated tv series). So childrens movies, like the pixar movies (fractals every where fractals) are the kick start for the boost of evolution. Woody and buzz get grasp of reality by andy caring abouthem telling (its not the talking its the feeling the thoughts the imagination) them how he feels whats going on in school his life etc.. well buzz learns to be more real eventhough seperated from andy, not only because of woody caring about him but also because andy constantly still thinks of him, missing him, strengthening the bond between them. ´
Toys also give children comfort beeing helpers to escape a world of can not into a world of everything is possible (machines are comforting humans)
Sid is somtheing to think about, he is very creative creating new toys (in anger = the dark side) also the toys reminding me of monsters inc. interbreed animals or humans what ever … so he is definetly something to think about …
About cars: I as achild have also imagined cars having a personality too depending on how they look just like in the movie cars.
befor the time in which the movie wall-e takes place, the machines dye out on earth beacuse the humans have bugun to loos their imagination and the A.I. in wall-e are really artificial inteligent machines held together by computerchips and programms that are run in a certain algorythm: no personality. they dont look like inanimate objects that have gained personality, they look like real robots and behave like them because technology (rational thinking, leftbrain) has won over “magic” or imagination (emotional thinking, rightbrain).
But wall-e digging through the trash and “befriending” a cockroach (probably just being interested in it at first and not wanting to destroy this amazing “thing”) started to gain imagination of its own. he started to imagine first what earth and then what life must have been and what humans lived like and what emotions must have been… and started to copy this, simplest thing an observing beeing/robot can do. Eventually he started to imagine himself to have a personality. thats why he isnt anything like the posonalised inanimate objects like in cars, he is different – he is the turningpoint! he is rational and emotional, he is left and right, he is male and female thinking combined he is the equalibrium. after that it tips into another direction once again. but for a moment everything was perfect, everybody was full of life joy and imagination -even the grownups!
Animal wise every pet is also imagined to have a personality by their owners in our world. Thats why the pet-dogs’ eyes in brave look like the eyes of the queen, when a bear with personality and not like her eyes when she looses her self to bear instinkts.
And about boo: after she saw everything in the future she got her imagination a superpower boost. She being the age whe you are at your hights with you imaginational streignth, she got a reason to hold on to it. giving her the power to become a “wich” or an artist (which she insists on to be well a carver yes, but thats a kind of artist) she is a godlike beeing creating what ever she imagines (a gray jedi).
Thats what might have happened to the super humans in the incredibles, imagination was peaking beacause humans realised everything is possible, through technologie during the 60s and later. But all losing it to technologie in the turn of the millenia because of rationalthinking that the easiest life must be the one craved for the most (comforting them selves with technoligie, tanking a “day” off /having vacation) and turning them into zombies themselfs and giving way to the impowerment of machines. Losing care in anything really and therefor not needing to imagine anything (so maybe there was no war between animals and humans humans just lost interest in the animals and bilogical life gave up and let the machines do their thing)
…. just some pointers
I know its not written in the best english or anything. and alot just came to me by writing this. Pixar is about spirituality as every good art is. Im a young artist from berlin philosophing about science, art, time, spirituality and this theory is exactly what im into. does it matter if it was intended to turn out this way/thought up this way conciously? if an artist or a collective lets them self be led by creativity, the crative force (or call it the subconcious -its all the same just differentmodels explaining one thing) will always pull towards something bigger its the nature of everything. everything has a driection going somewhere greater in the longrun. nomatter how concious you are of it, life thrives to evolve. and can be interpreted deeper and deeper !FRAKTALS! just like what i wrot just gives more questions even if solved some or actually just one (what is the energy humans have that animals and machines dont?).. it never ends. omg it never ends you think.. well then thats good art ..and basicly life.
art is the imagination of life and the rational part (the understanding/learning of life) at the same time… thats why movies/music/painting etc. is what everybody enjoys more than comfort other than love… ……go creativitiy!!!
from here on is what came to me later on
… mosters inc is the beginning and end like a guitar string it swings between it and everything boo imagines happens, she doesent know this at first… the supers were visitied by mosters and remember them “after boo”, meaning when they are made to laugh.. happiness is something that the children don’t need n try cast away as a bad dream like being scared by monsters. The ones remembering the monsters vaguely are changed in their way of seeing the world they belive in something, and later think nothing is impossible.. boo who is edna at that time (not a super but a super scientist) who should have even more right to be superpowered by her belive because she can be sure of the other world.. well heres the point knowing to much can be a hurdle as is for her she wants to meet sully so bad that she goes into science trying to understand things, sure she is different shes a genious but because she is driven by knowledge of the monters world, the super children are driven by the belive more a feeling of the monsters. Although she all along has the power to imagine everything and make it come true (the story of nemo could be one of her childhood imaginations due to her toy being one of em) she first has to realise this, and is still searching for what she already has… eventually she learns that she is the center of everything the ultimate turning point… maybe she is roz watching sully and mike her a mutaded or just a changed boo as she has become a wich or a god, she can be anything controlling the outcome of everything, making it go “right” or not completerly wrong… maybe its also the special radiation that changes the supers and boo “timeradiation” where as the universe is at a different point of expansion (the rational explanation there is always the rational explanation on the other side opposed to the magical one).
Oh yeah boo realised she doesn’t need to be afraid of anything, she scared all fucking monsters
i have some more ideas about this going further and further we could maybe get in contact to continue and help you with what you have started via skype maybe? (leave acomment here if you re interested and if you contacted me via email so i can check my spam to be , ill be looking into this the next few weeks im guessing because im very interested in how this is going from here)
somehow by copy pastin the fist part somethign got swallowed, i wanted to write in the beginning that i had posted this on the mashable article… thats why befor the las party of my comment i wrote “from here on is what came to me later on” – after posting it on mashable… just to clearyfy this 😉
Congratulations. This is the best comment I have ever read concerning the Pixar Theory.
I enjoyed everything about this theory! Awesome job of tying everything together. I did, however, have a few questions in regards to Boo traveling and being the witch from Brave. Awhile back, I remember reading/seeing something about Boo being in the Toy Story 3 movie (here’s a link to the image: http://djbarchs.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/toy-story-3-boo-monsters-inc1.jpg). So how would that hold up in relation to your theory? Also, I was looking at the timeline (and I hope I understand this correctly) but I know with Monsters Inc, they are all traveling back in time to harness energy from the humans. I got that. But if that is Boo in Toy Story 3, wouldn’t that hinder the idea that Boo became the witch in the first place? Because in Monsters Inc, once Boo and Sully finally go back to her room, there is a Jesse doll on the floor of her room as well. (image: http://fdzeta.net/imgcache/464430dz.jpg) Any take on this?
BOO IS IN NEMO!!! AND IS A MOM,
so through out the pixar timeline we see that boo wears different outfits, in monsters inc she wears a purple dress, and in toy story 3 she wears a yellow shirt. Well the lady sitting in the waiting room at the dentists in finding nemo is boo! she is wearing the same purple dress and yellow shirt, it cant be a coincidence. Since boo’s location is never specified in monsters inc, she could be in Sydney Australia!
BOOM
Thats cool!
Great post. I was checking constantly this blog and I am
impressed! Very useful info particularly the last part 🙂 I care for
such info a lot. I was seeking this particular info
for a long time. Thank you and good luck.
I only have two points of contention with your theory. One Boo is a witch but not the first. She Uses and may have perfected the use of magic but she was not the first. Two the AI in the Incredibles was not the beginning of inanimate objects having the human condition. I have traced the genesis to the Black Woods of England in the dark ages.
Maleficent of Sleeping Beauty was the beginning of it all. Maleficent casts a spell on the black woods to come to life and attach the prince as he tries to save Sleeping Beauty. When that doesn’t stop him she uses the same magic to transform herself into an animal, a dragon. It seems clear that she didn’t know the strength of her spell or its ramifications. From here we can see a clear progression of its lasting effects on the black woods. In Cinderella small wood land creatures are should to have consciousness and some the ability of speech in the mice that make her dress. This continues up the animal chain in Robin Hood as Animals not only can speak but start to imitate human behavior. With their proximity to ground zero we can see the effects are strongest. Moving away from the Black Woods we can see the effect diminish until farther evolution can catch up to the magical effects, more on this later.
The wood is truly where the magic lives. I’ll show another example later in the time line but Pinocchio shows the true strength of the power in the wood. With a touch more magic a wooden doll gains consciousness. With a touch more he becomes a human.
Wood however is not the only natural object to be effected. In The Sword and the Stone we have the first example of magic transfer. A sword in a stone in the middle of the Black Woods gains magical powers and even the beginning of a consciousness. It only allows one person to pull it form the stone. One it deems worthy.
All these powers come together in the last movie set in the dark ages Beauty and the Beast. Here we see the magic transforming a man to a beast and a clock to an automaton. Beast is not like the bears of Brave or the animals from Robin Hood. He is not totally animal or total human. This is because A) the magic is raw and not controlled by a witch be it Boo or Maleficent, B) this is the first transformation from one state to another without an intermediary state. Pinocchio goes from wood to living doll to boy. In the Beast transformation there was an attempt to go from man to animal without a middle step. In Robin Hood they were still in their original form animals but with consciousness and human characteristics.
Here we can clearly see the origin of object having human characteristics. Every object in the house is touched by magic and given life. This gives the objects consciousness and human characteristics. Later in Toy Story we can see how the magic progressed. Explaining why toys in Toy Story can be so human without having internal parts (For example, Potato Head, Barbie, Any Stuffed animals etc). This is also explains Buzzes transformation from his AI personality to a being with more anima. Syndrome gave Ai life magic gave it purpose.
In the Little Mermaid we can see the magic is spreading demonstrated by the mermaids, half fish half human, and the sea creatures themselves with consciousness and human characteristics.
This does beg the question of the New World animals. Does the magic cross the sea by its self or does the wood in the ship bring the magic with them. In Pocahontas we she her woodland friends start to exhibit human characteristics. We see the magic is not just empowering animals it can active change objects as seen in Brother Bear. The similarity of the powers points to the fact that it is the same magic seen in Europe.
This magic will continue to manifest itself through American history right up to the 50’s. You can see he animals in Bambi, the Fox and the Hound, and Dumbo show similar characteristics to the mice in Cinderella. Lady and The Tramp and 100 and 1 Dalmatians we see animals with the ability to communicate but not verbally.
You can also see the extension of magic in inanimate object in The Brave Little Toaster. The Little Toaster is set in the 50’s as well and the object sin it and Toy Story show remarkable similarity in how life manifest it’s self, alive when no human around, inanimate when they are present.
These variations of consciousness within the same time frame can be explained in their proximity to the original point of contact. The closer to the east coast the more anima an object or animal will have.
This proximity theory helps explain why it moved so rapidly to America but took so long to get to Africa. We see in Tarzan and Jungle book Animals on par with those in Cinderella but at much later date. It also seems clear that the magic is strongest or possibly wholly contained in the wood of trees. This would explain why only the lions and birds had anima. The lion were anointed by the magic monkey that lived in the tree with fruit form the tree. Lower animals such as wildebeest had no anima.
All of this brings us up to the 50’s and the Increasables and the beginning of the Pixar time line. Glad I could help fill in the time.
im still not sure about boo not being the first wich… do to time travel first and last gets another meaning what if she actually is the first beeing from which all magic desends (not being a good witch or a bad wich just being magical – similar to a godess) she went to the past to study will of the whips a time when fate was more clear to read… oposed to the overly speed up times of today in which right and wrog seem to weld together.. and then she taught a small circle of enlightened people her findings, well her findings she might have had in future times already wanting to teach it but realising it is to difficult things dont seem as clear to people, so she goes back in time to the more slowed times, beacuse she can do that… and theaches enlightened people, like i said, from that time when fate seemed more aparent and even to the point of visualisation (will of whisps) , wiches and soucourers are born… and disney movies and pixar movie being 2 different handwritings im not sure to connect i think it cloudens everything a bit, where as pixar has more continuity than disney movies.. disney was more about clear morals , pixar is just showing more authentic events/life making the morals turn from black and white into something with a full colour scale.. closer to life
but surely thinking this could be aplied on disney too …about disney and its own conectedness id be interested how hercules and atlantis fit into this, what these episodes explain for future events..
should be a comma between life and making in the end, and a few more in the whole text.. 😀
oh yeah and the emperors new groove would also be an interesting one to pu tin to context…
It kind of feels like the time traveling theory was just an easy explanation for all the plot holes…
There’s a girl in the daycare in Toy Story 3 who looks almost exactly like a slightly older Boo. It’s almost definitely her because when you first see her, she’s playing with a blue cat (representing Sully) and a sunflower (representing herself) and reenacting the scene where Sully accidentally scared her in the simulator. It’s at the 20:41 timeframe in the movie.
This is AMAZING. Thanks for doing this. I’m sure it has taken A LOT of time.
Would you mind if I used some of the ideas from the Pixar Theory in a fanfic, particularly the ones regarding Monsters, Inc.? Pleae get back to me as the plot bunnies are killing me as I type this 🙂
This is brilliant. I actually really enjoy the theory that Sully and Boo are the crux of the Pixar timeline.
Very interesting theory! I just wanted to add my thoughts regarding the ants. You mentioned that the ants survived an entire summer and said, “Things like this happens every year.” Couldn’t they know that from their ant history? Also, the ant who felt 90 again might have meant 90 days; that’s three months. So even if he lived 91 days that would be a joke.