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 really like this theory. There are a few things I would like to add.
To start with I think the whole concept of the toys running on Zero point energy, is unnecessary, and can be removed. Since your theory holds that humans are a source of power, and The Monsters movies establish that screams and laughter are energy sources, then really what the toys run on is laughter or maybe it is joy directly that is the power source, which means fear is also a power source, from which we can assume then all human emotion could be power sources of varying degrees. This also works with Wall-E, where the Axiom was obviously created to bring humans joy. All the humans on the Axiom, seemed to be if not full of joy, at lease happy and content, and if all human emotion is a source of power then with the amount of humans on the Axiom happy and content may generate sufficient power.
Also, you talk about wood being an energy source, but what I think you really mean is that wood is a conduit. Specifically wood is a conduit for the power source that is human emotion, which is then the source of power for magic as well.
Something else I would like to add to this theory, you say Boo spend her life trying to find Sully, but why? Sully comes back to visit her, at the end of Monsters Inc., and there is no reason to think that he would stop visiting her. Unless the CDA found out what he was doing, and confiscated the door. Then after years of Sully visiting and suddenly just stopping with no explanation, your theory about Boo searching for then Monster world makes even more sense. She’s trying to find out what happened to Sully.
Now, before I go any further, there is something I feel needs to be resolved. If Monsters have been trained to believe humans are toxic because they are really going back in time and the monsters in charge don’t want them to interact with humans for fear of polluting the time line, then there is a danger in banishing monsters to the human world (further back in time). Unless there are certain areas that for whatever reason are safe, maybe due to low human population, and since the monsters think the humans are toxic they keep their distance. Possibly another explanation is that there are certain areas of the earth that have a temporal stability, and that they send the banished monsters to these areas as they won’t be able to disrupt the time line.
Now Sully in having this ongoing friendship with a human has committed a pretty major crime in the Monster Society. Normally, they would banish a monster, but seeing as how they have already banished him once and he came back, and he knows humans are not toxic, sending him to the human world/time, doesn’t really make a lot of sense. So they imprison him instead.
Sometime after Sully is imprisoned, Boo makes it to the Monster World/Time. She finds out Sully, has been imprisoned and tries to save him, but is caught. The Monsters now have to decide what to do with her, as Boo’s knowledge of the Monster World/Time could be dangerous. The Monsters don’t want to kill Boo, because the amount of fear and other emotions she would produce as a result would be like setting off a bomb. So instead they decide to banish her to the distant past. The Monsters figure she just followed one of them back through a door, not realising she has figured out how to activate the doors herself from the Human World/Time just as Mike and Sully id in Monsters U. Logically the Monsters would banish Boo to one of the areas they banish their Monsters to, as they feel this will have minimal impact on the time line. From the monsters Mike states have been banished in Monsters Inc. Bigfoot the Yeti and the Lockness Monster, we know 3 of these locations. The forests of mid-western North America, the Himalayas and… Scotland. So Boo gets banished to Ancient Scotland, and even though she has the power to return to the Monster World/Time whenever she wants there is no point if she can’t rescue Sully. Boo needs an army to help her break Sully out of prison, but an army of humans isn’t really going to be very effective again monsters unless she has significantly superior numbers, which would be a challenge. No, what she needs is something big enough, strong and fearsome enough that it can hold its own against most of deferent types of Monsters. Something like… bears.
However, controlling an army of bears would be difficult, unless they possessed human intelligence. This helps explain Boo’s obsession with bears when she is the witch, as well as why she has been experimenting with turning people into bears. By the time Boo meets Merida, she is able to turn people into bears and have them maintain human intelligence for a day or 2, which is likely enough time to rescue Sully. However, she still would need to make a large amount of potion, which will require ingredients, which requires money. Boo finally gets enough money to buy all the ingredients she needs to create enough potions when Meridia buys her collection of wood carvings.
This also explains where Boo/The Witch has gone when Meridia comes back to Boo/The Witch’s house. She has created her army of intelligent bears and has travelled to the Monster World/Time to save Sully. After saving Sully they all travel back to ancient Scotland. Boo transforms the bears back to people, and as payment for helping her she casts a spell of their own choice on them. Some choose to be turned back into Bears or other animals, further enforcing the idea that Boo is responsible for the intelligent animals in other Pixar movies. We could also speculate, that some of the people who helped Boo save Sully, she either just gave special abilities like super strength invulnerability or speed, without transforming them into Bears, either to help her save Sully, or as a reward for saving Sully. Either way, these abilities get passed on to the decedents of the people that help Boo resulting centuries later in a race of humans with special abilities, hence the Supers.
Holy crap! Jordie, that was so awesome it as cool as the theory itself, nice thinking
Thanks!
Wow that’s a really interesting theory! I hope Jon adds some of your comments into the actual Pixar theory.
That sounds so crazy that it might actually be true. Good job! 🙂
Cool
Jordie, your comment here ties it all together perfectly. My mind is sufficiently blown.
Mind=Blown. 😀 AWESOME!!!
Wait a minute. You said that in wall-e the world was never shown. I am confused. Almost half the movie is wall-e on earth collecting trash and meeting eve. Is that really earth or not?
I think what he meant was that the world as a whole wasn’t shown, just the part that Wall-e was cleaning. So it would still support his theory that Cars and Cars 2 existed around the same time that Wall-e did.
You only see NYC in Wall-E. Nothing else on Earth is shown.
Glad I’ve finally found sonithemg I agree with!
that was good thinking but there is a scene in toy story 3 were you see boo but older playing with a toy cat in the butterfly lounge. and you also don’t have any proof that sully was imprisoned so Jon’s theory makes more sense.
this theory is not true. pixar probably just put in heaps of Easter eggs from other movies and now heaps of nerds are spending hours at their computers trying to make a timeline out of it.
holy shit, that was amazing man!!!!
So, that means Boo, Andy’s mom, and the witch in the brave is “EMILY”? because boo gives/hands her toy to sally when she finally got home right?, and one of them is Jesse and the other one I think is a bear.
Just Curious ^_^
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I personally love this theory. I have noticed a connection between Monsters Inc. and Toy Story 3. If you look closely, a girl in the daycare center closely resembles Boo. It’s possible that this is Boo and that she discovers more about inanimate objects acting like people here, which could lead to her causing things like the broom and the knives and other carving implements in her workshop to act like they had a life force. Just an idea.
The creator of toy story specifically said it wasn’t boo
Proof please.
Katherine, I agree with you but unfortunately they are not the same girl.
(I’m also shocked).
You certainly know that when Boo goes back home, she gives Sully a ball and dolls of Nemo and Woody — the same toys Bonnie has — but their age disprove this idea. Bonnie receives the Woody doll only at age 4 but Boo is two years younger than Bonnie when she meets the Monsters World/Time.
That’s a pity because it would connect your comment to the theory.
Ok, So the caterpillar found itself in the past, ( in Toy Story) Someone found it, put it on a hook and then fed a fish who nibbled on it but didn’t get hooked, in turn ingested the yummy, extra intelligence the caterpillar absorbed from cocooning on the all powerful tree. All of which prequeled finding Nemo and spurred the intelligance of the fish and all animals on earth, you know cause of the circle of life stuff. Oh wait the caterpillar doesnt have its wings in the Toy Story easter egg. The caterpillar does talk about there not being a sequel to bugs life which could mean that they will not return to the future from which they were taken by boo witch. How fun!
I know they are not pixar movies but wreak it Ralph and bolt could be part of the thoery cause in wreak it Ralph we see video games come to life so they could be A.I and in bolt we see both him mittens and rhion find there away most of the USA . Just saying don’t hate.
I like the basic idea, but I see a few details that show the presence of a fourth faction, and moves “A Bug’s Life”‘s place in the timeline. Consider the will-o-the-wisps and the fact that the witch can move knives with magic. Taken too far, this could mean either the will-o-the-wisps or the witch could grant life to nonliving
objects, even before the invention of AI. This could mean that the toys are not AI, but move through Substitutiary Locomotion, and are the fourth faction. They fall completely when humans leave the earth. If this is true, then AI machines don’t necessarily need humans, and the robots on the Axiom are probably only keeping the humans because that is what they were programmed to do. Without that, they don’t know
their purpose in “life”. As for “A Bug’s Life”‘s place: Aside from the cameo it “Toy Story 2” and the bug zapper and trailer (we’ll come back to those two later), we can see that the bugs live in a human ruled era because so many of the bug city buildings are made from human trash. Now some might say “It’s old trash”, but I don’t think so. Though plastic and metal containers can last for quite some time, the painted labels
on them would fade within a few decades. And the paper and cardboard containers -like P.T. Flea’s wagon- would fall apart even faster. Paper is tricky to preserve, as shown by the lengths some libraries go to preserve old books. Also, where did P.T. Flea get the matches? There would not be many left, and they would be hard to find after so many centuries. Depending on how they are made and how they are stored, they can degrade too. And might not the cars of “Cars” have scraped the trailer and Pizza Planet truck for parts (or maybe given the truck a funeral) before “Wall-E”? And even if they hadn’t, the truck and trailer should be more rusted and falling apart, even if they are recognizable, by the time of “Wall-E”. Maybe even more so, since if cars are AI, and AI doesn’t need humans, cars may have ruled the world even longer than we thought. Still, it can all fit into one universe and timeline, just not the same timeline originally proposed.
Your theory could, and probably should, include more films, (I mean come on, you’ve only used 14) for this theory to be complete. What about “wreck-it-ralph”, “tangled”, “frozen”, “bolt”, to name but a few.
None of those movies are from “Pixar”. Those are from Disney only.
If Toy Story 2 took place around 1999 and “Wall-E” and “A Bug’s Life” took place more than 800 years later, then how come the Central Tree from “A Bug’s Life”, or at least one that looks totally identical to it, was shown in Toy Story 2 in the “When She Loved Me” scene where Jessie has a flashback about the time Emily left her in a box to be donated to Tri County Charities? This theory states that the central tree was the one shown in the end credits of “Wall-E”, the one with the shoe that contains the last of plant life right? So “Wall-E” and “A Bug’s Life” couldn’t have been years after “Toy Story 2” unless there was a completely identical tree that existed around Emily’s childhood which was even before 1999 when “Toy Story 2” was set. Please clear this up 🙁 Sorry the two trees just look so similar I thought that maybe they were somehow connected 🙁
Great question, Gaby. They’re separate trees. The first tree is shared by Up and Toy Story. It went away, but one of its seeds (I believe) is the one that grew into the tree we see in Wall-E and A Bug’s Life. Hope that answers your question!
Mira la imagen numero 11, huevo de pascua de Ratatouille, es Dug, de Up, significa, que Ratatouille fue despues que Up, asi que Charles Muntzse no se entero gracias al Chef
http://blogs.disney.com/oh-my-disney/2014/08/05/can-you-spot-these-pixar-easter-eggs/?cmp=SMC|blgomd|OMDAugust|FB|SpotEgg-ToyStory|InHouse|81014|||esocialmedia|||
WOOOOOOOOW! SO COOL! LOVE IT!
What time period does Ratatouille take place in? I am confused because Colette had a hard time getting her job as a chef because she is a woman. So that means that it would have to take place in the 40s or earlier. However, there are no signs of WWII so it can’t be the 40s. Also Bomb Voyage is in two different places: on the cover of the paper with the Seline LeClaire critique and on the street as a mime. That is what leads me to think 40s but again no signs of WWII. Finally, there are a lot of cars on the street so that also makes me think right before Incredibles. Does anyone have an answer?
In the book for the Pixar Theory, which is coming soon, I go into detail about this, but I’ll give you the short answer. Ratatouille does in fact take place in modern day Paris (2007). There are dates in the film that flat out prove this.
Wow, very interesting theory building here.
There are a couple of things I might question.
First: What if the Omnidroid didn’t truly fail, but adapted for a long term goal? In its apparent destruction in the 1960’s, the Omnidroid disburses itself into toys of the time (rockem sockem, woody dolls, ect.) in the form of nanobots. These nanobots continually create new versions of themselves, evolving and reprogramming as they go, They then create some catastrophe with a toy of the time period that demands a factory recall. Omnidroid has now taken control of multiple manufacturing facilities within a decade.
Saying that these self replicating nanobots aren’t perfect, and they contain artificial intelligence, some of the nanobot networks are flawed, and now believe they are toys.These nanobots continually replicate as well, who then separate from the main host and take over new host toys. After some catastrophic events where their host toy was destroyed on being discovered as “alive” by humans, they adapt to become inanimate on human sight. Woody would be one of the earliest examples of this, and later generations would have evolved to compensate for Buzz’s advanced design.
Now,what about those nanobots who couldn’t find proper hosts? They would have to look for simple life forms who would make suitable hosts. Smaller lifeforms would prove easier for this task. Now the nanobots create symbiotic cybernetic life with non-mamalian life. They extend the neural pathways, creating smarter life, and act as stimulants to cell creation, which extends the life cycle of their hosts. After receiving word from the main nanobot hosts (the robots and cars of the majority of the world) the nanobots instill wonderlust into their hosts, ensuring the spread of their populace to the remaining organic life in the world. This brings us to the forced evolution of cybernetically enhanced mammals, who as it turn out, enjoy the irony of being declared monsters.
As for the jumping backward in time the Omnidroid nanobots are attempting to take control of humans. They know that prepubescent specimens will be more prone to their changes, and so target them. The nanobots become airborne with the scream of the monster, and the resulting screams of the children cause great inhales of the nanobots. It was much later that they determined that inducing laughter causes greater intake of air, and the feeling of happiness over terror made the hosts more willing and ready to be dominated.
The problem with this timeline relapse occurs when the humans use their new cybernetic infusions to their own advantage. Unknown to Omnidroid, the nanobots in turn created the Supers that introduced the hatred for humans in the beginning.
You’re jumping ahead Jonathan! In the book for the Pixar Theory (which is coming out soon), I address something somewhat similar to what you’ve proposed. I think you’ll find it pretty convincing!
This is an awesome theory, but I do have one thing to add about Boo.
At the end of Monsters Inc, when Sulley returns Boo to her room, she shows him some of her toys, one of which is a Jessie doll from the second and third Toy Story movies. This suggests that she comes from the part of the timeline where toys have already become sentient. I might even go as far as to say that Boo is Emily, Jessie’s old owner.
Honestly, I’m surprised that no one has mentioned this already.
I believe your theory for boo growing up is the most reasonable theory however the movie shows that boo grows up and forgets about Jessie and becomes a young adult and if that is true there also would be no for her to continue her search for sully because she forgot about Jessie also boo’s name is Mary not Emily
Of course you don’t expect there to be just one Jessie doll of course there had to be thousands manufactured. In toy story 2 the only reason Jessie was being our in a museum because they were so old that they stopped being sold.
That can not be true because of how the owner of Jessie is most likely Andy mom because of how Andy has the old toys and the red hat Emily had as a child. ( Andy doesn’t have woody’s hat)if boo was the owner of Jessie and is Emily why does she stick around for andy’s life instead of traveling through time to find sully and mike.
Not trying to start anything, but you’re wrong. Boo has dark hair, and Emely has light hair. Emely is Andy’s mom. And boo’s real name is Mary (shown in Monsters inc.) Not Emely.
What about Pixar shorts? For instance, Lifted? Are there aliens (monsters) who can travel through space? That would make sense considering humand obviously had space-travel capabilities thousands of years prior to Monsters Inc.
The only hole in this theory is where Bug’s Life fits into the timeline!! Characters from Bug’s Life appear in Toy A segment of toy story 2 so these two films must happen at the same time! Check out the proof:
http://www.pixartalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/ts2heimlich.jpg
Also, Lightning McQueen exists at the same time or earlier than toy story 3 because one of the kids at the day car has his logo printed on his shirt!
http://www.distractify.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads//2014/04/pixar32j-620x.jpg
He already said that boo accidentely brought a few bugs back with her. And the logo is easily explained. Lighting McQueen’s sponsor and car body already existed in toy story 3 after machines took over, the car became McQueen. Its a stretch but fits the theory. Barely.
That is such an incredible theory!
I’d just like to clarify that machines did not leave the Earth completely (from the Wall-E timeline) – Wall-E was left on Earth with other co Wall-E bots for Operation Clean-Up so that humans can return when it was clean. The other bots just might not have been intelligent enough as Wall-E to think that they needed to recharge themselves, so their energy drained. I also think that Wall-E developed his intelligence while “cleaning-up”. Remember he finds and collects things, and puts them where he can (like inside his tummy-box; hanging a container on the hook behind him, even maybe accidentally inserting a tape where it should be inserted which projected videos of human activity and such). That (human activity) could also lead to his developed curiosity.
That was just a little addition, but your theory is so overwhelming! 😀
(^ ‘Anonymous’ is me – sorry, can’t delete it!)
That is such an incredible theory!
I’d just like to clarify that machines did not leave the Earth completely (from the Wall-E timeline) – Wall-E was left on Earth with other co Wall-E bots for Operation Clean-Up so that humans can return when it was clean. The other bots just might not have been intelligent enough as Wall-E to think that they needed to recharge themselves, so their energy drained. I also think that Wall-E developed his intelligence while “cleaning-up”. Remember he finds and collects things, and puts them where he can (like inside his tummy-box; hanging a container on the hook behind him, even maybe accidentally inserting a tape where it should be inserted which projected videos of human activity and such). That (human activity) could also lead to his developed curiosity + heightened A.I..
That was just a little addition, but your theory is so overwhelming! 😀
I have one thing to say, i don’t know if is interesting, but in the start of Wall-E videogame (no for PS3, Xbox 360 or Wii, is diffrent of PC or PSP version) but in PC or PSP version you see in the start of game, some clips, after tutorial, you see the warning signal of wall-e advertising for danger, that’s a stormfly, after the clip, you run and go to the final, one more clip appear and you see that just 800 years passed and probably the other wall-e’s robots died because stormfly killed or destroied all of them, but I don’t know who, sorry for my bad english, I’m portuguese, oh, one more thing, I don’t know if that I said is true, because on final of game, wall-e have to save EVE, so the game have deleted movie scenes in the game, I hope i helped you 😉
One thing that you forgot to mention, or just didn’t notice it, is that the monsters Inc logo is on the axiom. You can see this logo in the picture of the axiom that’s on this very theory page. Just look closely and you will see it. I wonder how this has any new relevance to the theory, but allinal, it’s a interesting theory. Allinal, see what I did there?
I sea what you did there.