Every Pixar Movie Easter Egg That Teased A Future Film

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Summary

Pixar Easter eggs hint at future movies, like Nemo's appearances in Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, and The Good Dinosaur.
Toy Story and A Bug's Life lack Pixar Easter eggs, but from Monsters Inc. on, each movie reveals a link to the next film.
Subtle Easter eggs, like Mr. Incredible in Finding Nemo or Duke Caboom in Incredibles 2, require keen eyes or a rewatch to catch.

Pixar Easter eggs are one of the studio's many movie traditions, and they help tease what is to come, even if it is not apparent at the time. Pixar and Disney have become the power duo in the world of animation, delivering fan favorites like Toy Story, Monsters Inc., and Finding Nemo. Each has a touch of fantasy and lots of hidden details referencing pop culture, past films from the studio, and future entries into the Pixar canon. Since Monsters Inc. in 2013, at least one Pixar Easter egg links each movie to the next film.

As Toy Story was Pixar's first movie and A Bug’s Life arrived three years later, neither film features this Pixar Easter egg tradition, and Toy Story 2 doesn’t reference Monsters Inc. Since then though, the Pixar Easter eggs show up regularly, sometimes as subtle as a background detail referencing a character or object from a future movie, but they often come up so quickly that they're easy to miss or might seem too ordinary to be noteworthy. Most of the time, people need to watch it back later to even catch them at all.

Imagery-from-Incredibles-2-Monsters-University--and-Toy-Story-2

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24 Monsters Inc (2001)

Boo Has A Nemo Stuffed Toy

The debut of Sully and Mike Wazowski in Monsters Inc. included three Pixar Easter eggs geared toward Finding Nemo. The first one is at Harryhausen’s, the restaurant, where the mural behind the chef features a clownfish.

The next one is a Nemo model hanging in the room of the trailer where Randall is banished (this one is easier to miss as it appears pretty fast). Finally, when Sully returns Boo home, she shows him all of her toys. Among those is a clownfish, one that looks like Nemo.

This was a nice start for these Pixar Easter eggs referencing future movies (although there were eyeballs in Toy Story 2 that might have referenced Ted Pauley, the Many-Eyed Monster in Monsters Inc.). Of these, the one in the trailer was the one hardest to catch without pausing the movie. The mural at Harryhausen's was easy to catch and the moment with Boo was the most clear reference to Finding Nemo.

Bing Bong Inside Out Monsters Inc Pixar Theory promo image

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23 Finding Nemo (2003)

A Mr. Incredible Comic Book Shows Up

finding nemo easter egg

Finding Nemo has an Incredibles tease, but not underwater. In the scene where the dentist is about to be attacked by Nigel (led by Marlin, hiding in his mouth), there’s a kid in the waiting room who is shocked by the whole chaos in the room.

The kid is reading a comic book, which happens to be a Mr. Incredible story, from those days when he was still working by himself and wore a blue suit. This is the most obvious reference as it not only shows Mr. Incredible, but teases a comic book-inspired movie.

Finding Nemo's Easter eggs also include a blink-and-you-miss-it Cars reference, where Luigi can be spotted driving past the group as they escape the dentist’s office in their plastic bags at the end of the film. Of course, this Luigi isn’t a living car, but having the same model of car is a nice tease for the movie about living cars.

22 The Incredibles (2004)

Doc Hudson Appeared In A Scene

the incredibles doc hudson

The Incredibles was followed by Cars, so it included an Easter egg in the shape of Doc Hudson casually parked in Metroville. Doc can be spotted during the final battle between the Parr family and Syndrome – and just like Luigi in Finding Nemo, this version is just a regular car.

The moment happens when the family battles Syndrome's robot and the fight rages into the middle of the city. There would be plenty of cars around during this battle, and it was a great spot to tease the Cars movie.

The Easter egg is not hard to miss, but a person would have to know what they were looking for. Yes, it is an old car — a 1951 Hudson Hornet — but the movie did take place in the 1960s, so it makes sense. Cars doesn’t have a known reference that teased the arrival of Ratatouille, so it’s the one exception to the Pixar Easter egg tradition.

Poster image of The Incredibles leaping into action

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21 Ratatouille (2007)

Wall-E's Cockroach Friend Hal Appears

a small Wall-E tease in Pixar's Ratatouille.

After skipping these fun teases in Cars, Ratatouille went back to Pixar's Easter egg tradition with two different WALL-E references – one is very, very subtle, and the other is in the short film Your Friend the Rat, included as a special feature in the home video release.

The first one is WALL-E’s cockroach companion Hal, seen on a wall in Linguini’s house in the actual movie. In the short film Your Friend the Rat, WALL-E himself shows up as the driver of a vehicle on Mars. In addition to that, in an apartment Remy wanders through, he comes across Up’s Dug, whose shadow can be seen on the wall.

As for looking back on past movies, Ratatouille had a very dark and disturbing Easter egg as well. This appeared in Gusteau’s pantry, and luckily it is hard for most people to catch. Remy is eating cheese and behind him are two cans of caviar. Their name is what is disturbing — Nemo Brand Caviar.

20 WALL-E (2008)

Carl Fredericksen's Walker Appears

Wall-E in his home watching a video.

WALL-E spent a big part of his life surrounded by trash, and among all the objects he kept at “home” was one that belonged to Carl Fredricksen, the protagonist of Pixar's next movie, Up. His walking stick with tennis balls attached to its feet can be spotted when Wall-E prepares to watch Hello Dolly! It appears again later when Wall-E falls down from the ceiling of his truck, where he collides with the walker once again.

There were also callbacks to older movies from Pixar as well in Wall-E. As this is a movie about the end of life on Earth, it takes place in the future and there would be remnants from the past. Other than Carl's walker from the two mentioned scenes, there is also a shot of the Pizza Planet Truck, broken down and out of commission. The truck has appeared in almost every Pixar movie since it first appeared in Toy Story. Hamm from Toy Story also showed up on Wall-E's shelves as well.

19 Up (2009)

Lotso Was With His Former Owner In Up

The balloons pulling up the house by Lotso's child in Up.

Perhaps one of the easiest Pixar Easter eggs to find is the Toy Story 3 one in Up. As Mr. Fredricksen’s house begins to float with the massive amount of balloons, it soars past a little girl’s room, in which a Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear can be seen.

Whether it’s the same evil Lotso that made life more difficult for Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the toys in Toy Story 3 or a different one (and probably not evil) is unknown, but you can spot it casually sitting next to the girl’s bed. This could not only be a great Pixar Easter egg, but a hint that Lotso's past was not as bad as he made it out to be.

If this is the same Lotso, he seems to have had a great little girl, but when he reappears in Toy Story 3, he has grown cynical and evil. In the same scene, the little girl also has the familiar blue, yellow, and red Pixar ball (Russell also has a Scout badge with the same logo on it as well). The Pizza Planet Truck is also in the street as Carl's house flies away.

18 Toy Story 3 (2010)

A Lightning McQueen Toy Car

The preschoolers playing in Toy Story 3.

Toy Story 3 has two Easter egg references to Cars 2. One can be spotted in Andy’s room: where he has a Finn McMissile poster, a character that was supposed to debut in the first Cars movie, but was instead introduced in the sequel. Finn was the British spy car in that movie.

This was fairly easy to catch, while the second was harder to see, as it happened at the Sunnyside Daycare. On the floor where the kids were playing was a Lightning McQueen toy car, sitting in the background of the scene.

Three was also a Pixar Easter egg for an movie that the studio had already canceled. This was a movie called Newt that was about the last two male and female newts left on Earth who have a chance to save their species, but can't stand each other. The Easter egg here was a road crossing sign that read, "Next Xing," which would have been a great one if that movie had ever been created.

17 Cars 2 (2011)

A Poster Of The DunBroch Family As Cars

The different cars talking in Cars 2 under a medieval sign.

Cars skipped the Pixar Easter egg tradition, but Cars 2 made up for it. When the Lemons crash into Ye Left Turn Inn while in the London sequence, there’s a tapestry hanging on a wall, showing a car-version of the DunBroch family – or, in other words, the car-ified versions of Merida, her parents, and her triplet brothers.

If other movies could have the regular versions of the characters from Cars, they could definitely have the car-equivalents of human characters. Cars 2 also has references to past movies as well. There is a restaurant in Paris in the movie called Gastow’s, which is clearly a car-ified reference to Gusteau’s from Ratatouille.

The Pizza Planet Truck is also here in the movie as it is a guest on the Tire Talk TV show and is watching the race when Mater flies by propelled by jet fuel. Clearly, in this world, the famous truck is something of a sentient being.

16 Brave (2012)

A Wood Carving Of Sully

A sully engraving in Brave.

Brave has a Pixar Easter egg that kickstarted many fan theories and is a big part of the Pixar movie shared universe theory. In the witch’s hut, there's a wood carving of Sully from Monsters Inc., who returns in the prequel movie Monsters University, which came out the next year.

This has made many fans believe the witch is, in fact, Boo, who managed to travel in time looking for her monster friend Sully. It certainly makes the Pixar shared universe theory more interesting. While Brave takes place in the distant past when there were no vehicles, there is a sign of the Pizza Planet Truck from Toy Story anyway as it appears in the Witch's wood shop along with the Sully carving.

It is clear that she has a large number of items she carved out of wood that show hints that she can see into the future in one way or the other. If there is a Pixar shared universe anywhere other than in fan theories, this really shows where it could originate from.

15 Monsters University (2013)

A Good Dinosaur Toy

The Good Dinosaur among the toys on the floor in Monsters University.

Monsters University was followed by Inside Out and then The Good Dinosaur, but that wasn’t the original plan. The Good Dinosaur was initially scheduled for a 2014 release, meaning it was going to arrive before Inside Out, but it was pushed back to 2015, with Inside Out releasing in June and The Good Dinosaur in November.

That’s why Monsters University doesn’t have an Easter egg teasing Inside Out but rather The Good Dinosaur. The Scare simulators used in the final event of the Scare Games feature toys of Arlo and company, and what looks like concept art for The Good Dinosaur.

This movie also has the Pizza Planet Truck, and it makes sense here more than in any other cameo since it is parked outside of one of the fraternity houses when Mike is ridng the scare-pig. The Luxo Jr. lamp also makes a return, as there is graffiti drawn on a wall behind the Scare Games announcer's table.

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