The Lamp Continues to Bounce: Developing the Pixar Theory
Have you ever noticed that that iconic blue, yellow, and starred Pixar ball pops up in more than just the Toy Story franchise where it really fits in and belongs? Well, that’s because it’s there for a reason. If you’ve ever heard of the Pixar Theory, it’s been confirmed by the mouse himself (and, you know, actual producers and writers). The Pixar Theory is a theory claiming that all of the Pixar films exist within one, huge, very bizarre universe. If you’re thinking, “but the movies released out of sequential order for how time works!” Well, firstly, nicely spotted. Secondly, that was probably definitely to trick people into not figuring out the Pixar Theory, but that’s a theory within a theory.
Pete Docter, Pixar Studios
This article will discuss how newly released Disney-Pixar films may be able to fit into the Pixar theory and, in turn, change the structure of the proven theory; because, if the theory was confirmed by the company producing these films, surely the new films that they are producing fit into the theory that they have confirmed, right? If you are not familiar with the original Pixar theory, you can read up on how the theory works on its official webpage here: http://www.pixartheory.com/. Now that you’re all caught on the real order of how to watch Disney-Pixar movies, let’s get into where more recent films fit in.
The first film we are going to start with is The Good Dinosaur. This film takes place in a world where dinosaurs are roaming the Earth, but what if the asteroid that wiped them out narrowly missed? Well, dinosaurs begin to progress, learning how to do things as humans do. Sound familiar? The dinosaurs in The Good Dinosaur answer many questions of the original Pixar theory of how animals had progressed to be able to learn how to act and do things as humans did them: because animals did them first and humans followed. The Good Dinosaur, therefore, begins the Pixar theory instead of Brave to make chronological sense and develop the theory even more.
Next is Incredibles 2. In Incredibles 2, we see that there are not only superheroes but supervillains; of course, in The Incredibles we are introduced to the character Syndrome who is a pseduo-supervillain of sorts, because he built all of these mechanical devices to be able to be truly “super.” In Incredibles 2, however, supervillains are actually super and go along with the timeline of supers and toys absorbing Zero Point Energy, therefore, Incredibles 2 would be placed in the Pixar Theory in between The Incredibles and Toy Story.
The next film that I would like to squeeze into the Pixar theory is Cars 3. Cars 3 can easily fit into the Pixar theory directly after Cars 2 and before Wall-E, the cars haven’t made huge advancements and not much has changed since the last two movies so the film fits perfectly here.
I’m not going to lie here, the evidence that I have for the next couple of films all kind of just mashes together. Finding Dory, Toy Story 4, Inside Out, and Coco are all set in modern day, so it’s sort of hard to place them based on just their setting alone and not much evidence. However, for Finding Dory there is one scene where you can see Riley, the main character in Inside Out looking into one of the tanks at the aquarium that Dory goes to in order to find her parents; with this information, placing these films just got a WHOLE LOT easier. Considering not too much time has passed in between Finding Nemo and Finding Dory (for the characters, not for us, I know how long we waited), I placed Finding Dory in between Finding Nemo and Ratatouille. I then placed Inside Out in between Ratatouille and Up especially because I think the collar that Doug the dog wears in Up is possibly because of the personified emotions that we see in Inside Out; do you ever look at someone and think, what is going on inside their head? Moving right along, I placed Coco directly before Finding Nemo because the whole premise of the placement of Finding Nemo in the Pixar theory is that animals can talk now but we see multiple animals in Coco that cannot communicate whatsoever, even if they are spirit guides. Last of the modern day set films is Toy Story 4; thankfully this one is simple. Again, not much time has passed since the toys have been dropped off with Bonnie, however we see that because Bonnie begins playing with a spork with a face that she made, Forky, who is also able to talk. Because of this quick advancement in this “toy,” of sorts, I placed Toy Story 4 after Inside Out because it is clear to see that the toys have made a lot more advancements since the previous “Toy Story” films.
There you have it, this is what your crazy, obsessed Disney fan friend has been talking about when they’re talking about the Pixar theory, pretty cool, huh? It’s a lot to take in all at once, but I mean, that’s what Disney is all about. You just have to have faith, trust, and a little bit of pixie dust.
