Is there more to the Pixar universe than meets the eye? Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the best, most intriguing and most convincing fan theories for the many movies from Pixar.
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00:00No readout yet if the air is breathable, and there seems to be no sign of intelligent life anywhere.
00:06Hello?
00:07Oh yeah!
00:08Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the best, most intriguing,
00:13and most convincing fan theories for the many movies from Pixar.
00:16They're experts! Experts, Bob!
00:18Exploiting every loophole, dodging every obstacle!
00:21They're penetrating the bureaucracy!
00:24Number 20, The Shared Universe
00:26Alright, we're excited. First day of school, here we go.
00:29We're ready to learn to get some knowledge.
00:31We'll get things started with the grandest and most all-encompassing Pixar theory out there,
00:35that the movies all exist in the same universe.
00:38They may seem like separate stories, only sometimes tied to their sequels,
00:42but fans have long suspected that, actually, every single film is linked.
00:46Ah!
00:47Oh!
00:48Ah!
00:49Ah!
00:50No, no!
00:51Ah!
00:52Oh no!
00:53Ah!
00:54Ah!
00:55Help me!
00:56First time?
00:58Of course it is!
00:59The theory dates back to at least 2012,
01:01when a comedy skip by Cracked inspired the writer John Negroni to really go to town.
01:06Among the many bits of claimed evidence is the Luxo Ball,
01:09which from Toy Story onwards, can be seen in the background of various other films.
01:13There's also the famous A113 easter egg,
01:16inserted into multiple movies as a nod to the number of The Classroom,
01:20where several key animators learned their trade.
01:22Ultimately, The Shared Universe is Pixar's version of a theory of everything,
01:26and it's something that countless other ideas tap into.
01:29That's a nice story.
01:31It's not just a story, Merida.
01:34Legends are lessons they bring with truth.
01:37Number 19, Magic Beginnings.
01:39Long ago, the world was full of wonder.
01:42While there are many variations on the Shared Universe suggestion,
01:45Brave is one of perhaps three movies that continually crops up as a possible starting point.
01:50We'll get to the other two later in the video.
01:52With Brave, though, the key figure is the witch.
01:55Her true identity we'll also cover shortly,
01:57but it's her magic in general that theorists claim is responsible for, well, for everything.
02:02You're a witch!
02:04Woodcarver!
02:05That's why the wisps led me here!
02:07Woodcarver!
02:09Living toys, talking animals, scary monsters, superhero families.
02:13The whole caboodle is caused by her ancient and mystical powers.
02:16Of course, we do see her turning animals and inanimate objects into seemingly sentient beings.
02:21The idea, then, is that this gets passed on and on and on,
02:25until it permeates the entire world.
02:27You're sure?
02:28If I give this to my mom, it will change my fate?
02:33Oh, trust me.
02:36It'll do the trick, dearie.
02:38Number 18, One Cape.
02:40What is it? Who are you? What do you want?
02:44My God, you've gotten fat.
02:45The first of our more specific theories,
02:47and it centers on the leading light of superhero fashion, Edna Mode.
02:50Voiced by The Incredibles director, Brad Bird,
02:53she delivers one of Pixar's best-known lines,
02:55No capes!
02:56But there's clearly a rich and complicated backstory to those two iconic words.
03:00Edna explains how past supers have suffered and died thanks to their capes,
03:04and she seemingly carries guilt because of that.
03:06However, one theory says that Edna,
03:09realizing that Buddy, aka Syndrome, was a supervillain in the making,
03:13rode back on her one rule when she made his suit.
03:16It isn't in the movie,
03:17and it would add an unexpected layer of brutal darkness to Edna's character,
03:20but could she really have been scheming towards Syndrome's demise all along?
03:24You know I'm retired from hero work.
03:26As am I, Robert. Yet here we are.
03:29Number 17, Onward is Andy's imagination.
03:32You know, in the old days, centaurs could run 70 miles an hour.
03:36I own a vehicle. Don't need to run.
03:38Perhaps more than any other movie,
03:40Onward is a tricky fit into the supposedly shared universe.
03:43However, just before its 2020 release,
03:45Super Carlin Brothers led the charge for one theory that has never really gone away,
03:49that the entire film exists inside the head of Andy from Toy Story.
03:53The two main reasons why this does make some sense are that,
03:56one, Andy clearly has a seriously rich imagination.
03:59We know this from the very first scene of Toy Story.
04:01Are you going to come quietly?
04:03You can't touch me, Sheriff.
04:04I brought my attack dog with a built-in force field.
04:07Well, I brought my dinosaur, who eats force field dogs.
04:12But also, two, Andy apparently doesn't have a father figure in his life.
04:16And Onward is all about its main characters,
04:19striving for one last moment with their dad.
04:21Alternative Onward theories include that it could all be happening on another planet,
04:25sometime around the time of WALL-E.
04:27But the inside Andy's mind idea just feels a little more right.
04:30Whatever it takes, I am going to meet my dad.
04:33You hear that, Dad? We're going on a quest.
04:36Number 16, Abby is Boo.
04:39Cute and unassuming as she seems throughout most of Monsters, Inc.,
04:42Boo ranks among the key players in a lot of fan theories.
04:45Here specifically, the claim is that she grows up to become Abby,
04:49one of May's best friends in Turning Red.
04:51Abby, hit me.
04:54The offered evidence includes that both characters apparently like pink and purple,
04:58both have the same fringe and similar features,
05:00and both like flowers, either on their clothes or on their bodies.
05:04There are some issues surrounding the timeline, though.
05:06In most readings of the shared universe,
05:08the time between when Monsters, Inc. and Turning Red takes place
05:11isn't long enough for Boo to have grown into Abby.
05:13However, there are potential solutions out there,
05:15including that Boo and Abby are sisters,
05:17and that the doors in Monsters, Inc.
05:19transport through time just as much as through space.
05:24Hello? Anyone?
05:27Hello?
05:29Hello?
05:31Hello?
05:33Anyone?
05:35There's a door here.
05:40Why is that soldier strapped to an explosive device?
05:42That's why.
05:44Sid.
05:46Sure is a hairy fella.
05:48No, no, that's Scud, you idiot.
05:50That is Sid.
05:53Sid is the original Pixar villain,
05:55but does this one-time toy-mangling horror kid
05:57actually turn into a good guy?
06:00There's possibly grown-up Sid's cameo in Toy Story 3,
06:03as a garbage collector.
06:05Most of us might have updated our wardrobe by his age,
06:07but the skull shirt is clearly visible.
06:09Next, though, there's a popular idea,
06:11notably featured by Cracked,
06:13that Garbage Man Sid's life work
06:15is actually now to save toys,
06:17because he's the only person alive who knows that toys are also alive.
06:20It's said that he works in garbage as an adult,
06:22so that he can retrieve lost toys,
06:24which is also why there's a distinct lack of other toys
06:27when Woody and Co. end up almost dead in the incinerator.
06:30They aren't there because Sid saved them.
06:32Either way, he's a character who himself
06:34seemingly does die at some point,
06:36as shown by this briefest of brief moments in Coco.
06:52Being little's not such a bad thing.
06:54Yes, it is.
06:55No, it's not.
06:56It's not.
06:57It's not.
07:00A seed. I need a seed.
07:02One of the key settings in Pixar's second movie,
07:04A Bug's Life, is the tree.
07:06And perhaps one of the simpler of all the
07:08all-the-films-are-linked theories out there
07:10is that ten years after the release of that film,
07:12in 2008, when WALL-E comes out,
07:14we see that same tree at the beginning of his life.
07:17It's the then-tiny shoot that WALL-E and Eve plant together.
07:21We can go back home!
07:23For the first time!
07:26If true, it means that A Bug's Life happens after WALL-E,
07:30along the fan theory timeline,
07:32and in what appears to be a mostly post-human world.
07:35There are a couple of potential flaws here,
07:37as a tree that's at least similar
07:39also appears in Toy Story 2 and up.
07:41But then again, could it be that those trees
07:43simply gave the seed for the tree in WALL-E and A Bug's Life?
07:46It's hardly the strangest jump we've made today.
07:56All it needs is some time,
07:58a little bit of sunshine and rain and...
08:00Voila!
08:08Sticking with WALL-E, and clearly,
08:10the world at the beginning of this story has seen better days.
08:13Something's happened, so that it's just
08:15rusty landscapes of ruin and trash
08:17as far as the eye can see.
08:19Grown-up Sid, if he ever did exist,
08:21has long since left his job.
08:23But, there's hope thanks to one lovable robot.
08:33Except, there's a theory to turn that characterization on its head.
08:37Seeing as WALL-E is so resourceful,
08:39some have mused that maybe it was he that
08:41caused the end of the world to begin with.
08:43Maybe his keen eye for treasures and his tendency to hoard
08:46is what destabilized the planet toward its dusty downward spiral?
08:49More disturbingly, he doesn't seem to mind
08:51cannibalizing all the shut-down robots
08:53and machines that he's alone with.
08:55Could it be, then, that a younger WALL-E somehow doomed everything,
08:58and we only meet him when he's desperately trying to make amends?
09:10Here we have another key element
09:12to many of the more all-encompassing Pixar theories.
09:14Above all other materials in the movies,
09:16wood is imbued with magical qualities.
09:22I should know, I'm a wee... whittler... of wood.
09:26The most obvious example is with the doors in Monsters, Inc.,
09:29where the only non-wood door appears
09:31when our characters have been banished.
09:33But also, the Witch in Brave lives out her life as a woodcarver.
09:37Welcome to the Gusty Carver,
09:40home of bear-themed carvings and novelties.
09:43I am completely out of stock at this time.
09:46We're getting closer to another key revelation here,
09:49but for now, let's stick with the wood specifically.
09:51Again, we have the significance of the plant in WALL-E
09:54and the tree in A Bug's Life,
09:56but also, there are plenty of scenes and movies
09:58where the absence of wood seems key.
10:00Not least Cars, which we'll cover soon,
10:02and with a crucial film for our next entry, Up.
10:20Number 11, The By and Large Takeover.
10:23The notice-predominantly wooden house in Up
10:26is under massive threat at the beginning of the movie,
10:28as Carl Fredricksen is forced to float away to Paradise Falls
10:31following a demolition and rebuilding job on his neighborhood.
10:34Well, just to let you know,
10:36my boss would be happy to take this old place off your hands
10:39for double his last offer.
10:41What do you say to that?
10:45Take that as a no, then.
10:47Those behind the high-rise expansion
10:49are the By and Large group,
10:51an ever-present conglomerate in the Pixar world.
10:53We see them clearest in WALL-E,
10:55when the planet has been ravaged
10:57and the husks of their product are all that's left.
10:59It's time to go.
11:01Okay, I'm giving override directive A-113.
11:05Go to full autopilot,
11:07take control of everything,
11:09and do not return to Earth.
11:11Repeat, do not return to Earth.
11:13Let's get the heck out of here.
11:15Before then, though, the B&L branding
11:17appears on Buzz's batteries,
11:19on the racetrack and cars,
11:21we know they ran newspapers,
11:23took over governments,
11:25contributed to global obesity.
11:27The list is pretty much endless.
11:29The logo is another vital part to theories everywhere,
11:31as the company itself represents
11:33an apparently anti-commercialistic stance
11:35taken by Pixar with every story they tell.
11:37Because at B&L, space is the final frontier!
11:39Number 10. Alternate Timeline.
11:53Halfway through this countdown,
11:55and evidently, most fan theories
11:57can be tied in with other fan theories,
11:59somewhere along the line.
12:01Under the umbrella of the shared universe model,
12:03it's up to the fan to interpret what they see,
12:05which leads to an ever-expanding field of possibility.
12:09With the good dinosaur, though,
12:11we have a good candidate for the earliest point
12:13from which to work.
12:15The film asks,
12:17what if the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs
12:19had, in fact, missed Earth?
12:21And while it delivers its own introduction
12:23to that idea,
12:25the wider notion is that actually,
12:27all of Pixar could be happening
12:29thanks to this creation of an alternate timeline,
12:31from Brave, through Cars,
12:33and to what's usually considered
12:35the latest-occurring movie in the shared universe so far,
12:37Monsters, Inc.
12:39All of it is made possible
12:41because one piece of space rock missed.
12:57Number 9. 22's Destiny.
13:07In Soul,
13:09we have a tale that's really above and beyond
13:11the timelines of Earth,
13:13dealing as it does with life, death,
13:15and everything in between.
13:17However, the big question comes
13:19at the movie's close, when the once-implacable
13:2122 is inspired to find her spark.
13:23And so, she heads back down to Earth
13:25to, well, to what?
13:27Who could she become?
13:29Possibly more so than with any other Pixar theory
13:31in the 2020s, fans are divided.
13:37One of the leading candidates
13:39is Mae from Turning Red,
13:41someone who matches a lot of what we see from 22.
13:43Plus, Turning Red came out
13:45in 2022, so for some,
13:47that's proof enough.
13:49Another whispered possibility, though,
13:51is Russell from Up,
13:53mostly due to his and 22's shared need for badges.
13:55Failing that,
13:57could Riley be 22?
13:59The pull of sadness does seem to be strong with both.
14:07Unless it becomes an Earth Pass,
14:09I'm stuck with it.
14:11Number 8.
14:13Bing Bong is a monster.
14:25Yes, he's the driving force
14:27behind one of the saddest moments in Pixar history,
14:29but before all of that,
14:31could the imaginary Bing Bong have been a real-life monster?
14:33This theory starts quite simply,
14:35with fans noticing that Bing Bong
14:37looks a lot like he could have been in Monsters, Inc.,
14:39with comparisons especially between him
14:41and George Sanderson.
14:51There are two crucial parts to this, though.
14:53First, if every kid has a monster,
14:55then Riley must have had one too.
14:57Second, if the monsters ultimately learn
14:59that laughter is better than fear,
15:01then Bing Bong really fits the bill.
15:03Riley remembers him as an imaginary friend
15:05because she grows up to assume
15:07that monsters aren't real,
15:09but of course we know they are.
15:11And if anything, the fact that Bing Bong vanishing
15:13could also stand for Riley's link to Monsters, Inc. disappearing
15:15as well, makes that scene even sadder.
15:25Number 7.
15:27Elemental is fundamental.
15:33I'll just take the free one.
15:35Oh, no, see, you need to buy one
15:37to get one free.
15:39But I just want the free one.
15:41Sorry, that's not how this works.
15:43Cast your mind back to just a couple of entries ago,
15:45and the theory was that the good dinosaur
15:47was a starting point for everything.
15:49But naturally, something still has to come
15:51before that potentially pivotal
15:53non-asteroid fork in the road,
15:55and that something could be elemental.
15:57In the film, we follow the Elements,
15:59and mostly Ember, through their trials and tribulations
16:01in Element City.
16:15This is a world that presumably
16:17plays out at a much smaller scale
16:19than in most other Pixar stories,
16:21with the notable exception of Inside Out.
16:23Here, the characters are essentially
16:25the tiniest parts of reality,
16:27the base building blocks for life,
16:29and everything. Even the asteroid that missed
16:31needs the Elements in order to exist.
16:33So while really, Elemental could be happening
16:35at any time, it also could just be
16:37that it all unfolds long, long
16:39before every single other thing.
16:49Number 6, Boo is the Witch.
16:59It's been a short while since we last looked closely
17:01at how the shared universe in general would work,
17:03so let's get back to it with what's possibly
17:05the keystone piece, Boo.
17:07In Monsters, Inc., she's a two-year-old
17:09searching for the monster she adores.
17:11But in Brave, almost every theory
17:13out there argues that she is the witch.
17:15The idea is that Boo's search for Sully
17:17has taken her all across time and space,
17:19forever in search of the magic that's needed
17:21to reunite with her magical friend.
17:23Along the way, she gains unparalleled
17:25wisdom and unmatched powers,
17:27and she sprinkles this throughout the events we see
17:29in all the other films.
17:41But ultimately, Boo becomes the mysterious figure
17:43that Merida meets in medieval Scotland,
17:45completing something of a time loop
17:47to set things in motion all over again.
17:575. Nemo Isn't Real
18:09Okay, so this one really doesn't
18:11fit in with any other unified theory,
18:13but it has routinely set the internet ablaze.
18:15The suggestion that everyone's favorite
18:17clownfish might never have existed at all
18:19is tough to take, but those who
18:21back the theory say that finding Nemo might
18:23really be all about Marlon, Nemo's father,
18:25dealing with the five stages of grief.
18:31The barracuda that kills his family
18:33at the beginning actually doesn't leave behind a single egg.
18:35Nemo is never actually born,
18:37and Marlon's journey across the ocean
18:39is only ever about him coming to terms
18:41with the incredible tragedy. The kicker?
18:43Nemo translates from Latin to mean nobody.
18:45There is some kickback as well, though.
18:47After all, the animals in the dentist's
18:49fish tank weren't talking to nobody,
18:51were they? It's an interesting idea,
18:53nonetheless.
19:054. Cars Killed Humans
19:15Back to the wider theories, and in the
19:17earliest days, both Cracked and John Negroni
19:19paid special attention to cars.
19:21Here, sentient vehicles exist in a world
19:23where humans don't, but we know that
19:25their world is still Earth, thanks to
19:27various, and often literal, signs.
19:29The assumption, then, is that humans disappeared,
19:31with it generally accepted that
19:33the last of them were sent on a journey into
19:35space, as seen in WALL-E.
19:37The slightly lighter interpretation is that
19:39pollution is what did in the humans,
19:41mostly fueled by all the nasty, commercial,
19:43money-grabbing must-haves produced through
19:45by and large. But there is another,
19:47even darker view, with suggestions
19:49that it was the cars themselves that killed
19:51the humans that used to drive them.
20:01As their self-driving sentience increased,
20:03they simply didn't need us anymore, which
20:05paved the way, eventually, for the life and
20:07times of Lightning McQueen.
20:133. Carl Fredricksen Has Died
20:193. Carl Fredricksen Has Died
20:27Has there ever been a sadder death
20:29than Ellie's death in Up? Very
20:31possibly, no, there hasn't.
20:33But one theory says that her tragic
20:35passing was quickly followed by another,
20:37Carl's. The idea goes that
20:39at some point near the beginning of the movie,
20:41perhaps in his sleep, after the courts rule against
20:43him, telling him to move, Carl dies,
20:45and the rest of the film is his journey to the afterlife.
20:493. Carl Fredricksen Has Died
20:55His house with balloons is
20:57his vessel, Russell the Wilderness Explorer
20:59is his guardian angel, Paradise Falls
21:01is his heaven, Doug the Dog
21:03doesn't exactly fit.
21:05But all the elements to this story do ultimately
21:07combine to deliver Carl some peace,
21:09and if Russell really is an angel,
21:11then he certainly earns his wings.
21:13He did earn his badge, so, yeah.
21:19And for performing above
21:21and beyond the call of duty,
21:23I would like to
21:25award you the highest
21:27honor I can bestow.
21:31The Ellie badge.
21:35Wow.
21:372. Pizza Planet Time Machine
21:49If time travel
21:51does exist in Pixar,
21:53then the doors in Monsters, Inc. are one of the best
21:55routes through which it might be achieved.
21:57However, there's another one-off vehicle
21:59that could double up as a time machine too.
22:19Like the Luxo Ball and A113,
22:21the Pizza Planet truck is
22:23everywhere. It's a harder spot in
22:25some movies than in others, but it almost
22:27always can be found. True, this could
22:29simply mean that the cultural impact and general
22:31appetite for pizza is an immovable fact
22:33of life, but there are some claims
22:35toward it actually being an ever-present,
22:37because the truck is the key. It's what
22:39really knits the movies together, which leads to
22:41the question, who's driving it?
22:43Perhaps Boo the Witch also doubles up to deliver
22:45fast food? Or maybe that unseen
22:47guy in Toy Story was the mastermind all along?
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23:111. The Toys' Original Owners
23:17Appropriately enough,
23:19we finish at the start, if only in
23:21terms of the movie's order of release.
23:23First, there's the question of Woody,
23:25Andy's original favorite toy. We know he's
23:27rare, we know he's somewhat old-fashioned,
23:29so it figures for some that he
23:31once belonged to Andy's father, the same
23:33guy who potentially triggered everything
23:35that happens in Onward, based on an earlier
23:37theory. And maybe it's a bit of a stretch,
23:39but could the Wood in Woody be
23:41significant too?
23:44Given the whole
23:46Wood is magic angle, what's far more
23:48entrenched in Pixar legend is the possible
23:50origin for the star of Toy Story 2,
23:52Jesse. For years, it has
23:54been suggested that Jesse's old owner,
23:56Emily, could be Andy's mother.
23:58The writers have themselves denied this one,
24:00but fans just haven't let it go.
24:02Quite how Buzz fits into the picture?
24:04Well, that part still needs filling in.
24:14Which Pixar fan theory is your favorite?
24:16Or do you have another theory of your own?
24:18As always, let us know in the comments.
24:43You