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 was thinking that maybe how Toy Story had made an appearance in the monsters inc movie in boos room as Jessie was lying on the floor just thought to add that i am guessing many people also stated that fact.
Yeah, that’s been brought up. Though I don’t think it’s the same Jessie doll that belonged to Emily and then Andy.
The theory is amazing, but how would Sully find the village in the Himalayas when him and Mike were banned from Monstropolis?
In the movie, the Abominable Snowman tells Sulley about the village.
Has anyone pointed out that the car next to the caravan in Monsters, Inc. and A Bug’s Life is the Pizza Planet truck??? Connection to Toy Story? But why the Pizza Planet truck? I mean, this is really loose and probably wrong, but what if Boo drove the truck or was involved in it somehow? it just seems like an odd thing for Boo to hold so important… I know in Toy Story it is a subtle but distinctive icon, but i think there is a reason they used it…
Oh yes, the Pizza Planet truck showing up in almost every movie is certainly a piece of the puzzle. Though I don’t know how to fit the idea of Boo driving the truck around. Don’t forget it’s owned by the guy looking for Cutting Boulevard.
About this UPDATE: [Some of you 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.]
I think could be wrong and is very weak explanation. It will be really selfish if we think that Merida was the only humane with problems at the Dark Ages. What I though was let’s say there is several of humans with several problemas that found the same witch and asked for help, since several of them ask for help not 100% could “broke” the “magic” in time and that lead us (or me) to think thats why some of them act like human, because some of them couldn’t figure it out how to regress back to human state.
I have to say the post is very interesting. I am very happy I found it and my english is good enough to understand most of the time.
I mean maybe? It’s not like we can be right or wrong since this is all speculative. Still, it would be kind of weird if Merida happened to run into the ONLY other person the witch experimented on (Mor’du).
Amazing theory. You did a great job and I’ll never see Disney world like before ! I Just have a question, in Toy story 2, we can see flik and hamlich, but A bug life appears on you chronology very later than Toy story. How could it be possible ?
They show up in the bloopers, so I treat that as non-canon. Glad you enjoyed the theory!
Thanks for the answer, it’s good to see you’re taking care about each comment ! I hope you’ll continue to think and right a lot of interesting theories, they all moved me a lot even if I had not comment all of them. Bye ! 🙂
But the will o the wisps are not connected to the witch. But to mordu. They are him.
I don’t really get into this in the theory (sadly), but the will o the wisps are spirits that magically appear to guide Merida. That is why Mor’du turns into when after he [SPOILER] dies.
This may have been covered already, but how does the nemo toy get in boo’s room at the end of Monster’s inc? I think I read somewhere that Boo may be Bonnie ‘ daughter which is how she inherits the Jesse, but I haven’t seen anything on how Nemo turns into a toy and ends up in her room.
The toy looks like Nemo, but it’s not the real Nemo of course. It’s just a clown fish toy.
As for the “Boo being Bonnie’s daughter” theory, I don’t believe that at all for the simple reason that the timelines don’t match up. Plus, there is more than one Jessie doll out there.
Wow dude. You should really have a pet and / or a job. Seriously.
Wow dude. The guy who wrote this works at Apple…
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jonnegroni/
Realy like this theory! Was just wondering, what’s your thoughts on the turtle in “…Nemo” who says he’s a hundred years old? Does’nt this push the events of that movie a bit more into the future?
/ Just a Swedish guy 🙂
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the theory.
Yes, Crush is 150, but that doesn’t affect the timeline in the slightest. He’s just an old turtle. We know that Finding Nemo takes place in 2003, actually, because Peach (the starfish) tells them the year of the new fish tank cleaner.
The cancelled movie Newt was cancelled mostly because of the similarities to Rio. Besides, if Newt was released, I assume it would be somewhere around BnL’s takeover. The newts were in near extinction most likely due to BnL’s overuse of technology and overhunting, eliminating them in the process. Eventually, scientists try to fix this by forcing the last of the species together, while trying to avoid BnL.
I think if the movie was released, it would’ve served as a major part of your theory. Since it wasn’t, then I am assuming it would take place somewhere between Toy Story 3 and Up.
Pixar is pretty vague about why Newt was cancelled, but it’s connection to Rio is certainly a likely reason. It’s a shame too, because the concept art is incredible.
I think that’s acceptable. What do you think of my idea about Newt, the cancelled movie, and BnL
Well I don’t really think too much about how Newt fits into anything because I haven’t seen it and never will. So it seems kind of pointless to wonder, you know? Your idea sounds fine, and it’s probably what would have been true, but there’s clearly no way of knowing.
As for BnL, the book goes into a lot of detail in this regard. Same goes (somewhat) for Pixar Detective.
I don’t understand the type of book you are talking about. Can you tell me which one. I am really excited about the Pixar Detective, especially when BnL makes an important part in it at some point.
PS WallE takes place in 2805
Oh sorry! There is a book coming out for the Pixar Theory (separate from Pixar Detective). It’s basically the theory, comments, and TONS of new stuff I’ve figured out in-between.
Cool, what is the title and when will it be released?
“The Pixar Theory” (super original, right?). We don’t have a release date yet, but hopefully it will be ready by the new year.
Here is an interesting thought. What if the reason the people that the witch used magic on seemed to loose sentience is not because they no longer speak human language but that of animals. This could be because in her old age boo has ultimately given up trying to return to the future in her old age (Brave) and has tried to create sully (without success) with magic. This would explain the obsession with bears and the wall painting of Sulley. that would also explain why in the other movies the animals have intelligence but humans cant speak to them verbally. Ratatouille shows us that the animals of Pixar have sentience but the humans don’t speak their verbal language.
I don’t really follow your first line of reasoning. “What if the reason the people that the witch used magic on seemed to lose sentience is not because they no longer speak human language but that of animals.”
Are you saying sentience is dependent on language? I couldn’t really read that easily. If that is what you’re saying, I’d raise a few important questions. If sentience was so dependent on language, then why would the animals in Ratatouille have any advanced self-awareness at all? By your logic, they should be just as primal as ever.
I don’t think language has much to do with why the bears of Brave regress into actual creatures, and I also don’t understand how the Witch could think she can just “create” Sulley. I think it makes more sense to assume that she’s trying to understand where Sulley comes from, and she seems to think magic is the key. If only she knew that the origin of monsters is all about magic…at least that’s what we find out in Monster’s Inc.
You misunderstand, I think I may have worded that incorrectly. The sentience of the animals came from, as you stated, trying to understand where Sulley came from. In science, we try to recreate the conditions of how things started. As an older person, Boo may have found that time travel now takes a toll on her body. Realizing that there is more “ready to use” magic available in the older setting, she may have stopped here to try and create the conditions that Sulley was created.
She would have started small i.e. with fish and rodents (lab rats). Obviously it worked to some extent for her to move on to larger species i.e bears. Unfortunately, the minds seem to go into the bodies native state like a person that is turned into a bear, can now only speak “animal language” or turns bear mentally, meaning that the personality is still intact. An excellent example of this would have been Mor’du, a warrior now cursed to be an animal. Another would be Elinor, the closer to permanent the curse became, the more she lost “Human Language.” If you notice, she could then seemingly comunicate with Mor’du. Even though there wasn’t much communication to be had it was spoken in body language. This would explain two things in the Pixar theory. Why animals and humans cant speak directly with humans and how they began advanced intelligence. After multiple creature come with this “advanced intelligence” the creatures would naturally adapt to their new
I get what you’re trying to say, and I myself have explored these explanations. But I think you just run into a few problems when you try to assert how much influence the witch really had on the “evolution” of animals. It’s something I’ve sort of backtracked from because there’s a better explanation than the one I first came up with. But I’m totally with you on the idea of language and why animals and humans don’t really understand each other language/wise, which is consistent throughout all of the movies.
There are so many comments on this wonderful theory (and rightfully so) that I don’t have near enough time to read them all at this juncture. So please forgive me if I repeat already posited ideas. I have been obsessing about the Pixar Theory since I first read it last week. I adore it and have done everything I can to promote it because I think it’s just darn brilliant. I have felt, however, that there was one weird, shady area…..how the monsters came about. I think, however I have solved that. I assert:
By the time we reach the 1960’s (and the Incredibles), we already have two distinct evolved strains of human beings: Normals and Supers. They clearly tend to marry within their own races and live separate lives from one another. The government (obviously run by Normals) is threatened by the Supers, however, and tries to force them into the closet. You see where I’m going here. By the end of the movie, we see our first monster: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDRLa4AjbsU
We also know that aliens exist within the pixar universe, and they are extremely interested in human life. So much so, in fact, they are abducting them; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_JKzRy1XKM
But why are they abducting them? And, as clearly seen in “Lifted”, why aren’t they keeping ALL of them? Simple. They are looking for supers. Why? Because they need help overthrowing an incredibly powerful and evil overlord. By the time, the 90’s roll around, just about all the Supers have left the planet earth and have in fact defeated this overlord. They choose not to return to their home planet (why would they?), but tales of their intergalactic heroism have reached the earth and inspired the Normals left behind.
There are no Supers on earth by the time we reach “Toy Story” except one. Buzz Lightyear. Now, he is a toy, not an actual living Super, but he is throwback memory to a time that once was. As are many of the toys…..the cowboy, the dinosaur, and…..the aliens. Take a look at this scene, when the aliens meet Buzz and relieve a moment from the cultural memory of the past: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-Esh4W3dfI
Isn’t it curious that the aliens immediately respond to Buzz with wonder and welcome? And they have no response whatsoever to Woody? Unknowingly, they need help being saved by a cruel overlord…..the Claw. Who better to save them than Buzz? They are, as toys, reliving actual human history…as toys often do.
Fast forward to the future. The way future. All humans have evacuated the planet…..The Normals by Buy N Large and the Supers by the aliens. As a society, the Supers have never really felt at home in space. They have to use space suits for oxygen and they are themselves….aliens there. BUT they haven’t been able to return to earth for centuries because, first, the hostile Normals were there, and we know how those two groups get along. Then, eventually, the Normals had completely trashed the place, making it uninhabitable. However, after years in the great unknown, word reaches the Supers that the earth has been RESTORED! There are a few Normals that have returned, but they are placid, few in number, and physically weak, therefore completely unthreatening. The Supers are free to return. Although, after thousands of years of evolution and frolicking with pretty green space girls, they don’t look QUITE the same….
In the years of their space exile, the Supers learned many things from the aliens: among those lessons were time travel and the ability to create alternate fuels. Now, as we know, the safest and cleanest fuels are taken from organic sources. And what is more organic than….a Normal? And after THOUSANDS of years of exile, being regaled with stories of how cruel the Normals were to Supers, why would you feel bad about scaring them in order to keep your own race safe and functional? But the new Normals are more like sheep than people. And they have become used to seeing the New Supers. In order to get a good scream, the Monsters are going to have to travel to the past.
(Sidebar: New Supers, don’t interact with the Normals any more than necessary. Our ancestors have told us that their society tortured Supers and tried to bring our race to extinction. Don’t even TOUCH them.)
What the Supers have forgotten, however, is that originally….Supers and Normals came from the same origin. And where there is common ground, there can be love. Sully and Boo find love. But Sully cannot live in the past. And, just as there was no real place for Supers in space, there is no real home for Boo in the future.
But she doesn’t accept that. As the Pixar Theory posits, she herself harnesses the knowledge of time travel and sets out in search for Sully, leaving “cookies” for him to find to alert him that she is searching for him. What cookie does she leave most often? A space ship in disguise, but in plain view. Pizza Planet. Because she knows that space was where he once came from.
NOTE: I forgot to explicitly state it, but….perhaps needless to say….the overlord threatening the aliens was named Zorg. The claw is just a metaphor for him!
I think you mean Zerg?
YES!
Initially I was thinking of an extra-terrestrial connection with the claw-game prizes as well and even wondered if the Pizza Planet truck that keeps showing up is somehow indicative of that as well.
But then I remembered that these were toys of aliens, and not really aliens. I really think the Pizza Planet references are really just an homage to the movie that made Pixar a household name and a nostalgic callback for the segments of the audience that remembers details from it, YO =)
In fact, despite some of this timeline explicitly taking place in space there is a dearth of life that did not originate from Earth.
I am interested to hear Jon’s take on exactly why it is that most Supers would be gone by the 2000s and further why neither they nor the events they took part in seem to get referenced in the rest of the movies in the way that the seem to reference each other.
Ah! True, they are toy aliens, but I think it’s fairly safe to say that they do not KNOW they are toys. I don’t think any toys do initially, until they figure it out or are told otherwise. (Remember Buzz when he first arrived in Andy’s room in “Toy Story”?) I think the aliens really believe that they are aliens, and are in fact imbued with the information their human creators know about aliens. And the humans in this universe know a lot, because there have been abductions of Normals who were subsequently rejected….and perhaps even alien autopsies (as hinted at by the game Sid is playing at Pizza Planet.)
Well, the short explanation for Supers being gone is that Syndrome wiped almost all of them out. But their influence is clearly still around by Finding Nemo and Ratatouille, where we see Incredibles merchandise.
I do have a theory that actually answers this question pretty nicely with ample evidence, but it’s pretty long. I’ve saved it for the book that’s coming out.
Interesting thoughts here, and your overall concept is definitely a stretch (which is definitely not a bad thing). An issue I have is that the basis for most of these ideas rely heavily on the short, Lifted. I have a hard time believing a short could have such a huge influence on the story of the Pixar movies. I usually just consider shorts to be somewhat separated, though some of them clearly intertwine with the movies (Geri’s Game, For the Birds).
But I love how you’re using your imagination, though I have a completely different set of theories that explain both Supers and Monsters. My theories are based on the movies, solely, and they’ll be fleshed out in the upcoming book.
A very fun theory!
I’ve often thought it would be neat for some digital video producer to ‘film’ within the same 4-dimensional digital world across different movies or episodes in which any content could be left static, explored at-will, and added-to later without disturbing existing existing content in a guaranteed consistent (physically anyway) manner, and it seems like Pixar could use your theory to combine their movies into exactly that =)
Continuity is certainly becoming seen as a valuable trend thanks to the MCU and widespread attention to fan theories like mine. You can probably expect more of this to happen in the next decade of moviemaking.
Why does Boo go back to the time of Brave? (A much better explanation)
Monsters University is founded in 1313. I think the idea that this date is that from a new calendar system created post-human society is plausible.
The university exists because the technology that allows “scares” to be turned into energy has been discovered/invented as a solution to the energy crisis. Once the technology exists, “power plants” such as that in Monsters Inc. are required to mass harvest this energy and, of course, monsters need to be trained to work in this new industry as “scarers” – so a university is established.
It is thus reasonable to conclude that the power plant in Monsters Inc. was founded around the same time as Monsters University. This means that there would be plaques etc around Monsters Inc. stating its founding date as ~1313. Its reasonable to assume Boo sees these and remembers this.
Once Boo discovers/develops the ability to travel through time – she tries to travel to the year that she recalls from a very young age: 1313. However, as she doesn’t know that the date is from a different calendar system from the future, this causes her to travel to 1313AD – the 14th Century – the approximate time during which Brave takes place.
The reason Boo went back to the time of Brave wasn’t because she was looking for the will of the wisps – how could she have known about them? Instead, she was actually trying to travel to the year that she thought Sully was from.
I feel like this is a much better explanation for why Boo ends up in the time period of Brave.
Brave supposedly takes place in the 10th century, but I guess that may have been most recent time prior to 1313 to which she Boo could find a door…
Alternatively, this could represent a temporal loop in that maybe she DID succeed in creating the first generation of monsters (which would have been Sully’s ancestors) in the 10th century.
For the university to have been founded in 1313 AD, this would have to be a few centuries prior to allow the monsters enough time to create a population large enough and society complex enough to need/operate a university by that point, making the 10th century the opportune time.
Assuming she eventually succeeded, it would be natural to assume that that, as universities began to be founded across Europe and England starting from the end of the 11th century, the monsters would have taken it upon themselves to create their own so as not to be out-learned and thus threatened by humans.
The monsters would of course have to live apart from humans throughout history, and the remoteness, rugged landscape, and general sparse population of Scottish lands has allowed legends of living monsters to persist there (e.g. Nessie, changelings, bauchan, etc.) even to this day, making it the logical place for her to carry out her mission. She even might have remembered these legendary monsters from her youth and assumed that they must have been some of the descendants of the monsters she set out to create.
The Will-o-the-Wisps may even be the universe’s way of ensuring that the temporal loop gets closed preventing a paradox, explaining why they only appear at this one critical juncture in time.
Incidentally, if these monsters would have founded Monsters U in 1313 AD, it would have predated St. Andrews, the oldest human university in Scotland, by exactly a century.
Steven, I have to disagree on one major point: the Witch/Boo had nothing to do with the creation of monsters. I’ve slowly realized this since writing the first theory. I think there’s a better explanation for where they come from that lines up with the actual intent of Pixar’s writers. I’m still sorting this all out, and it will surely be in the Pixar Theory book.
I’ve probably just been too deep in both sci-fi and Gaelic culture lately, and when you have a shiny new hammer… =)
Can’t wait to see what you’ve been coming up with!
You nailed it! This is in the upcoming book, and I’ve been waiting to reveal this part of the theory. It became glaringly obvious after re-watching Monsters University, and the dates match up pretty nicely. Excellent work.