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 don’t know if this adds anything to the theory but the evilest creature, and that one that probably scared boo the most in Monsters, was a newt or Gecko. It also aids the idea that animals evolved or mutated into monsters.
I love everything about this, and I can not wait to see how you expand on it.
This…….this explains everything. I’ve been working on this stuff for the past 4 years. You have finally peiced it together for me. Thanks!!!!!
wait, so is Boo also Andy’s mom because at the end of Monsters inc. you can see her Jesse doll?
Si, yo tambien me preguntaba eso, tambien hay juguetes de diferentes peliculas Pixar en el cuarto de Boo.
Yes, I wondered why Boo’s room there are toys differently Pixar movies?
Boo se llama Mary, se muestra aquí: http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130704183437/disney/images/thumb/8/87/Boo's_Name_Mary.jpg/1024px-Boo's_Name_Mary.jpg
Además, ya se aclaró que Boo coloca los “easter eggs” a medida que viaja por el tiempo.
No boo is susposed to also be the little girl Andy gives his toys too at the end of toy story 3
Jessie is a doll produced serially, and in the same way that we see many boxes with Buzz in Toy Story 2, Boo (Mary) could’ve easily got another Jessie.
Wait… if The Incredibles opens during the 50´s, then how did Bomb Voyage show up in Ratatouille?
Ratatouille could also take place in the 50s since the the tvs look black and white , Or it could be Von voyage son that took over the family business
Ratatouille has to take place sometime between 2003 and 2007. Gusteau’s will clearly has the date “2001” on it, and it stipulates the 2-year deadline for his son to claim the restaurant, which is when the story starts. That means that if Gusteau died right after writing the will (which is not likely, honestly), then the movie would have to take place 2 years later, in 2003. And so on until you get to the year 2007, which is when Ratatouille came out in theaters. Occam’s Razor then tells us that the intent of the writers meant for the movie to take place in 2007.
Also, they talk about microwaved frozen foods.
For the record,this is the kind of ridiculous analysis I’ve done in the upcoming Pixar Theory book.
I was just going through some of the Easter eggs and was just thinking that it could be possible if Boo were a descendant of Bonnie which explains why she has so many of Andy’s/Bonnie’s toys.
MUCH CONFUSION
Ok, first off, I love this theory and I read the timeline too which fit everything together for me. The only reason why I am skeptical is because the REAL timeline of these movies is so far apart I have a hard time believing that the writers and producers fit all these stories together like this since their first Pixar movie, and it fits too well together for me to believe that during the production of every Pixar movie they think of something else that will connect perfectly with all the past Pixar movies. Anyway, I don’t know if this has anything to do with the Pixar Theory or not, but I figured if anyone can answer this question you can. In Monsters Inc. the only way Sully got back from being banished was through a door that was turned on(which just made me think of something else I’ll ask after this question). In Monsters University Mike had read that enough scream power can turn on the door from the human world (or past) to the monster world (or future). In Monsters Inc, it was learned that laughter is 10 times stronger than screams. So how come when children laugh in their rooms that the doors never come on from their side since it is so much stronger? I guess one could say it does but no one ever opens a closet door, but that is unlikely. I guess one could also say that the doors are shut down when they aren’t in use, but that is cracked since Boo’s laughter turned on thousands of doors while they weren’t in use. Is this just a plot hole you think? Too bad too because if that was the case then Boo could just laugh her way to Sully 😀
Ok, on to my other question, and this is about the theory, kind of…I think. An update in your theory says that it is likely that monsters were taught that humans are toxic to keep from wiping out their existence since they are going to the past; so why in the world would they risk banishing them to the human world?
Perhaps Boo always had magic and is probably the original “Super” giving her the ability to activate an inactive door. In Brave, when we see her as an old woman, her control over the doors is so practiced, that she does it without thought. That would suggest she’s been doing it from a very early age.
As for the risk, the Monsters are probably confident the banished monsters aren’t going to risk being contaminated. It’s wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to believe that the humans simply kill off Monsters on sight adding another layer of risk thus preserving the timeline.
Very interesting theory but the closets in monsters inc. would be time machines (pretty much) which would mean that the monsters over time would have learned the sciences of the humans and build a time machine based on all of that knowledge but that would also mean that WALLE found all of this information from the begining and some how with some knowledge knew that it was important and not put it in those trash cube things but how would he (assuming that WALLE is a he) know not to destroy it (the info about the time machine closet doors) how would WALLE know that?
I loves but you forget that is bugs life you when flick goes to the city you get a glimpse Of a car and a shack but the car has the piazza plant logo on it witch is from toy story mean it’s more then likely that it’s the same time so this may disprove your time Siri about bugs life And wall-e
If you look at the Novikov self-consistency principle, why would Monsters have to be afraid of changing their current ‘present’ if they are both a part of ‘history’ and ‘present’ There is no reason to be afraid. this also answers the problem that banishing monsters creates.
This also comes into play when Boo travels throughout the timeline
I’m interested to see how Inside Out will fit into this.
Just a thought, you said you couldn’t find a suitable reason why the mutated animals and machines wouldnt have humans around anymore – as an idea, when they started appearing, humans would have been scared of these strange new creatures roaming the world. Chances are, with very little to eat thanks to unsuitable agricultural land, and seeing that all previously edible animals are now terrifying and intelligent monsters, the humans either a) died out due to starvation or b) left earth again after starting the agricultural rebirth, allowing time for the earth to recover, but then were unable to return due to the evolved monsters that have rebuilt (and are now populating) the major centres of habitation, removing any chance of humanity finding a foothold on their own planet. The intelligent monsters learn of the history of mankind through the original axiom computer core, and decide to try and bring back the energy that humans provide by bringing the humans back. How? By using the doors. Made of wood, the same wood that grew from the bugs life tree, planted by humans, and infused by the fulfillment and love of humans (which is used as energy by machines etc). This wood therefore contains a shade of the energy given by humans, and a shade of the zero point energy after being exposed to both hard vacuum and Wall-E’s relationship with EVE. So, through the door they go, encountering a human in the past. Terrified of the monsters, the human screams, and shows the monsters that humans can provide more than just fulfillment and spiritual energy . . . . .
Quality posts is the key to interest the visitors to pay a visit the site, that’s what this site is providing.
Me encanto esta teoría. Creo que mis dudas ya están aclaradas y me encantaría saber mas sobre esto. Aunque no muchas de estas piezas encajan, esto explica como todas las películas Pixar están conectadas y que todas quieren vivir en armonía.
I loved this theory. I think my doubts are now cleared and I would love to know more about it. Although not many of these pieces fit together, this explains how Pixar movies are all connected and that all want to live in harmony.
will become an NFL franchise after the merger.To accommodate the games of the Cincinnati Bengals, the local government of Cincinnati, with the support of the governor,
Well, I had a thought. Could have boo time-travelled to 2014-5 (4 years of Andy’s College?) and brought Woody to around 2898-3000 after buying him or potentially finding him but then when she time travelled again, she must have forgotten Woody? Im not saying im right, but its just a thought because in the credits of a bugs life Woody is shown to be in the bloopers of a bugs life
Hello!
1. Your theory is Amazing!!! Mindblew a friend of mine, it was great.
2. I had a thought about your monsters inc. placement. I think the reason it doesn’t work as well is because it’s placed incorrectly. My thinking is it is before wall-e and in the same 100 years or so as Cars. Idea: in Wall-e we see the president say that there are issues and we see him put on this gas mask thing. I would say that there was some sort of radiation thing, as prescribed and it affected all of the animals/magical humans that were left and they became monsters. The BnL ship is highly advanced and automatic so they do have the technology already. The technology that the monster’s have. This placement would explain the ‘energy crisis’ for both machines and monsters. The monster’s that are left use the time to go back in time and try to find cures, and ways to stop the energy crisis, etc, but because they are not sure about when (bubonic plague time) they could show up, and also have forgotten a lot about being human (dory), they avoid all contact with humans.
3, An addition, the reasons the cars go on is because of how much time humans spend in the cars and when they leave the cars, the cars take on the personalities of the humans in cities that have been left completely alone. (This would also explain why the monsters and cars don’t mingle. They are in places where the humans have abandoned all hope. The monsters stay in small cities while the cars are mostly in big cities or in cities completely forgotten.)
I just thought I might add my two cents. The timing of monster’s bothered me for awhile. Since the planet is so big there may even be whole areas with monsters (animal/magical humans) and bugs who have mutated in a different way from the animal/magical humans.
My ideas, let me know what you think.^^ Thanks for reading.
Again, brilliance.
PS, have you ever thought of combining the disney theory to this only instead of from the machine and science point of view, the disney theory is from a royal and magical point of of view. Like they are both chronicles from the two different sects? 🙂
I have a feeling that somehow “mars needs mom” is also somehow twisted into the pixar theory; it has a very large guy in a space ship in space whose only friend is a machine this could be far after walle but it is mainly with humans so I’m very confused. Maybe you could find a way to incorporate it into the theory???
I don’t know if this will help but, in cars there are trees. So if there was air then why would they leave. Because in WALLE there problem was there being no plants so there was no oxygen for them to breath
Yes, and I do have a very specific theory about this. I cover it in the upcoming Pixar Theory book which goes more into detail, especially with the Cars-Monsters Inc. movies.
If Jon is reading this, Hi Jon I’m glad you took some time to look at my ravings, also, I wanted to apologize since I imagine many people have told you something along the lines of what I’m here saying, but I also wanted to suggest that you take this idea and any other comments saying the same thing and work to make it more refined. Also I wanted to say that I love your theory and I think you are an amazing theorist, and after reading some of The Pixar Detective I would like to say that you are an amazing author as well, keep up te good work and please read my comment so I know I’m not insane.
I was thinking after reading this and I remembered the living tools/equipment in the witch’s home in brave which reminded me of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice in Fantasia, this led me to wonder if perhaps a larger connection between Disney films (or at least some of them) and the Pixarverse (get it? Pixar and universe combined. I like to think I’m funny.) would be possible. After thinking for more time then I’d like to admit, I came up with a theory for how this connection might work.
So The Witch (Boo) in Brave is seen being able to A. transform people into animals, B. use doors as in Monster’s Inc. and C. bring tools/cleaning supplies to life, I’m going to use these (and some other connections) to show how I think Disney and Pixar movies might be said to be connected.
One of the connections I made was to The Sorcerer’s Apprentice where we see Mickey Bring to life many brooms to do his work for him, While these brooms are much more advanced than The Witch’s broom is, my theory is that the witch discovered how humans can control magic and use it, teaching others how at some point in her life, these others may have continued passing down and improving upon her teachings, until we reach the sorcerer sometime down the line who Mickey is apprenticed to in Fantasia. This far down the line the magic has advanced to the point that the objects brought to life can perform tasks for the person who brought them to life.
A connection I made to her animal transformation powers is how in The Emperor’s New Groove, Yzma transforms Kusco using a potion, the way that The Witch transforms Merrida’s mother, ad presumably Mordu is using food which could possibly be merely a vessel for the potion.
Also in relation to animal transformation it’s possible that The Witch’s teachings were used to turn Prince Adam into the beast in Beauty in the beast, or Prince Naveen being turned into a frog in The Princess and The Frog.
I also think that perhaps The Witch’s teachings may have been what gave Maleficent her power (if we only use information giving by the Sleeping Beauty movie, and don’t use the movie Maleficent which would completely throw this part of my theory into the trashcan.)
There is also the fact that we see advanced intelligence in animals in The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Tarxan, and The Princess and the frog. This lends itself to the theory that animals were evolving (part of the pixar theory) it’s possible that in isolated groups animals evolved more quickly than in the wider world which allows these movies to take place without invalidating the Pixar Theory by having animals that were evolved in some places and not others. Even though these evolved animals would in nature spread to the rest of the species and the world overall it’s possible that these more highly evolved groups stayed seperate to remain “pure” much like noble families are famous for doing. But then in the movie Bolt we see widespread animal intelligence, while not on the level of A Bug’s Life it’s pretty clear that the animals in this movie are thinking and feeling emotions much like humans dude
Also we see some living inanimate objects in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (the gargoyles) which could have been similar to the “objects” mentioned in the Pixar Theory.
While most of these are very shaky connections I wanted to put my idea out there to see if anyone wanted to shoot it down with some plot points in some other Disney movies I’m forgetting, or maybe even to add on to it so that some day we may have a unified Disney AND Pixar theory which we will use to bend the world to our will and take over every government. Otherwise this is Andrewcol signing off, I hope you enjoyed this and seriously please do reply to this and improve upon it so someday it can be an actual concrete theory that we can all pat ourselves on the back for.
Hey Andrew, I appreciate your kind words and love how much fun had with this write up. Discussing movies and theories is definitely as addicting as it is entertaining.
You’ve made a lot of connections here that cool and interesting, but they’re not compelling to be honest. It’s not your fault, it’s just that creating a grand Disney theory doesn’t have the same magic essence to it like a grand Pixar theory.
I think this is because Pixar is a very closed ecosystem of original stories, while Disney is a string of adaptations. So trying to connect them gets you with you a “Once Upon a Time” mashup.
But the Pixar world is very consistent, logical, and provable. That’s why people read the theory and realize that they sort of knew it all along, even if it isn’t actually true.
Wow what a great theory i have something i would like to add.
In Toys story 3 andy moves to college and by my beliefs he met someone special got married and made a kid (which we dont really know her name) and yes it is boo and i do have proof she has jesse, the pixar ball, and the finding nemo doll which i think they bought for boo and never we saw her parents in brave nor monsters inc.
That’s possible, but not very convincing. There’s bound to be plenty of Jesse dolls and Luxo balls. Nothing conclusively ties these things between Boo and Andy, especially since Andy gave those toys to Bonnie in Toy Story 3.
Going further, if Monsters University is working parallel to the human timeline (as in, they only go back in time in a linear fashion), then that would pit Boo’s character from Monsters Inc. way into the future, even though we see human things like CD players from Monsters University (the training ground) that would have existed in the early 90s.
Awesome theory!
Anyone who thinks this is real is an absolute idiot… the coincidences you have seen above is pixar’s way of attracting attention like this to support their new movies. 🙁 UR ALL SOO STOOPID
Dude your just a hater
No seriously, there’s nothing backing this up
Did you see the BNL?? That’s evidence!!!!
Alright guys, calm it down
Shut up pg
Yah, seriously, you’re not cool
Guys, Im just trying to blend in, maybe make some new friends
NO ONE WANTS YOU HERE
If brave is the first movie on the timeline, and boo is already an old woman, how come her room when she was little looks more modern than her own hut in brave, brave was taken place so back in the past that there was no way boo could’ve had a room like that. So that means monsters Inc practically takes place before brave but that isn’t possible. If you see boo in her room, it looks quite modern and new looking right. But how could it be so when she’s an old woman in brave and its taken place in era so old and far back into the pass.
Did you even read it? ‘sigh’