By: Jessily Jones
Although hidden images and messages have occurred in films throughout the decades, Pixar has become one of the most notable film companies to place eggs in all their films. While an easter egg such as the famous “A-113” has wedged its way into every Pixar film, there are plenty of obvious and obscure eggs that either allude to past films or unknowingly foretell to future films. Since fans of Pixar have caught onto these hidden treasures, many articles, websites, and videos have been made to discover the easter eggs and their meanings. As long as Pixar continues to produce great films, loyal fans and simply interested audience will pay heed to the exciting little allusions Pixar creators sneak in their animations.
While the easter eggs are enjoyable for the audience to discover, the clever ideas and intricate placements of the eggs also convey the freedom and pride Pixar creators possess. Established in 1986, Pixar rose to fame in shy of a decade with Toy Story (1995), the first ever computer animated film. The film ranked second at international box office accumulating $364 million with a domestic share of 52%, an astonishing debut for Pixar. Although critics like M. Keith Booker may say Disney and Pixar include easter eggs out of pure profit, Pixar is meticulous with their work, and choose to create stories that are fresh and colorful rather than churning out unoriginal content for the sake of profit. Ed Catmull, Pixar’s first president, explain in the Harvard Business Review how the success of Pixar’s films comes from the system of foster creativity and encouraging ideas openly to create a successful environment to create their films.
Amongst fans, Pixar’s easter eggs are meant to be discovered and brought to publicity for speculation. It creates theories on past, current, and future films that anticipate fans for upcoming films. To Pixar, these eggs symbolize not only a sense of relation with fans, but also a sense of community among the creators at the studio.
The first easter egg to appear in Pixar’s first film Toy Story, was “A-113.” A-113 refers to the classroom at California Institute of the Arts where Pixar executive John Lassester, director Brad Bird and others working for Pixar attended. A-113 has been featured in all Pixar films, and even in various other medias such as non-Pixar/Disney affiliated films, television shows, and video games. Below, is the A-113 easter eggs in Toy Story (1995, left), and in The Incredibles (2004, right). In the first few films of Pixar, this reference most likely would’ve went unnoticed, as it is a subtle joke amongst Pixar creators until fans had begun to wonder.
While A-113 is a consecutive easter egg among Pixar films, Pixar also likes to place easter eggs in films that either foresee a new film, or allude to a past film. To the left, in Monsters Inc. (2001), the little girl Boo shows Sully the monster a clownfish to toy after Sully enters her room for the first time. As we know now, this fish resembles Nemo from Finding Nemo, the film released in 2003 after Monsters Inc. While viewers from 2001 to prior the release of Finding Nemo were unaware of this easter egg, after the release of Finding Nemo, many fans began would begin to speculate what easter eggs could be hidden in Finding Nemo to hint at the next film, and so on.
Contrary to foretelling easter eggs in Pixar’s films, creators also liked to allude to past films in newer works. Here, in this frame from Toy Story 3 (2010), is an almost secret easter egg of a postcard written to Andy from Carl and Ellie Fredricksen, the main characters from Up (2009). Once again, unlike the foretelling easter egg from Monsters Inc. that predicted the future Finding Nemo, Toy Story 3’s easter egg had fans beginning to speculate whether Pixar’s movies were related somehow. Since this easter egg and the film provided no story upon how Andy knew the Fredricksens or what is written on the postcard, fans began to create theories online of how all the Pixar movies could be connected.
Because of the easter eggs, many fans of Pixar believe in the “Pixar Theory,” which is quite simply the theory of all the Pixar movies being connected in the same universe. Essentially, in a nutshell, the overall most two important points in the theory is: 1) The witch from Brave (2012) is Boo from Monsters Inc (2001) who time travels and 2) The use of the witch’s magic from Brave had made animals and machines become anthropomorphic throughout time, eventually conquering human kind. There are endless videos on YouTube.com and articles on websites about the theory, however author Jon Negroni has written a book on the theory attempting to connect the movies. However, due to newer Pixar movies coming out following the release of the book, which could alter the theories, Negroni also has the website www.pixartheory.com to update readers who follow the theory.
Though the easter eggs were initially developed as inside jokes within Pixar creators, the company began to see the benefits the Pixar Theory gave to the company. With Pixar’s easter eggs evolving into the Pixar Theory, due to the large and dedicated fan base, overall publicity has “strengthen the Pixar name,” skyrocketing the value of the company, according to Keith Booker. Booker is the author of “Disney, Pixar, and the Hidden Messages of Children’s Films (2009),” which considers the messages of consumerism and political ideas Disney conveys to children. In his book, Booker believes that Pixar’s easter eggs are straightforwardly for profit motivation, which is blanketed instead rather by “quest for quality and innovation.” However, despite this quite forward front, he also highly credits Pixar for creating films outside of Disney’s conventional stories and for introducing computer animation on a larger scale for audience. Continuing on about the success of Pixar, Booker adds that evidently by Pixar outshining its parent company Disney by winning eight Oscars for Best Animated Feature when Disney hadn’t won one until 2013, regardless, Disney still values Pixar as they lead the children’s film industry. In all honesty, although over time the eggs may have seemed to develop as a means of a successful publicity asset, featuring easter eggs in Pixar’s films is a small yet creative aspect that most likely derived from former Pixar President Ed Catmull’s ideas on how to foster creativity for success.
In September 2008, the Harvard Business Review (HBR) published Ed Catmull’s “How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity,” where Catmull explains the creativity process at Pixar as the reason for their success in their films. Catmull had been the president of Pixar since 1986 after Steve Jobs bought the company from George Lucas. In 2006, Disney bought Pixar, where Catmull also became leader of Disney Animation Studios. After decades of experience of computer animation, management and leadership, Catmull decided to retire in 2019 with Jim Morris (general manager of Pixar) acquiring the position in the summer.
In HBR, Catmull starts off with straight honesty: talent is rare. Catmull claims that Pixar is highly selective when recruiting workers, choosing only the most talented and focused people. When running a company in the risky film industry, Catmull expects workers to not only inspire great ideas for films, but to also be able to handle criticism and bounce back from failure. However, in order to create successful films, they have to be original, which is where the risk comes in. It’s scary to be original, unconventional, and without big mistakes. Yet, Catmull assures, “you have to accept the uncertainty, even when it’s uncomfortable, and have the capability to recover when your organization takes a big risk and fails.” Therefore, when working with talented people and potential projects and ideas, Catmull stresses in the HBR the most important factor for success: communication.
With plenty of bright people with innovative ideas work for the most popular animation company in the world, communication is vital when developing a project. Catmull explains that there are “tens of thousands of ideas,” that go into a movie, whether from basic movements of the character to lighting. With this in consideration, all ideas must be heard, evaluated and critiqued to ensure only the best ideas are developed correctly into a film. When it comes to presenting ideas, Catmull shares what makes his company different from others, is how everyone is free to communicate with each other, regardless of position. He also adds how managers “don’t always have to be the first to know” about what goes on, even if a meeting surprises them. Catmull believes in giving his workers freedom to innovate, while also guiding them with feedback along the way. By creators giving constructive feedback to one another in a helpful manner, this builds trust and community among them. When ideas of line performance, character ideas, or even easter eggs come into consideration at a meeting, Catmull ensures the importance of having the most talented people, and the right communication is what makes their films and company successful.
Somewhere, sometime during the early production of Toy Story, John Lasseter and other creators thought of placing “A-113” as a tribute to their school for teaching them the world of animation. Eventually, as the company grew in people and wealth, so did the appearance of easter eggs in Pixar films. Whether these eggs were hidden cleverly or obvious in frame, we learned from Catmull how much consideration and agreement it can take for ideas to develop, so coyly place small notions that can be big news for fans. In Pixar, despite how little easter eggs can appear in Pixar films, behind every easter egg are great people accompanied with even greater ideas.
Sources
- “Toy Story.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Dec. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_Story.
- “Top 1995 Movies at the Worldwide Box Office.” The Numbers, http://www.the-numbers.com/box-office-records/worldwide/all-movies/cumulative/released-in-1995.
- “A113.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Nov. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A113#Pixar_films.
- “Disney, Pixar, and the Hidden Messages of Children’s Films.” Disney, Pixar, and the Hidden Messages of Children’s Films, by M. Keith. Booker, Praeger, 2009, pp. 76-112.
- Catmull, Ed. How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity. Harvard Business Review, Sept. 2008, dialogos.com/files/4114/4189/3028/How_Pixar_Fosters_Collective_Creativity-HBR.pdf. Pp. 2-8
Jessily's Film Assessment 