Despite being aimed at a young audience, Pixar movies haven’t been safe from all types of theories, of which some can completely change these stories. The team-up of Disney and Pixar is the most powerful one in the world of animation, and Pixar has been responsible for not only some of the most successful animated movies ever made, but it has also made history with its impeccable animation. Pixar’s reign began in 1995 with Toy Story, the first entirely animated feature film, which also spawned a franchise.
Since then, Pixar has explored a variety of worlds and themes in its movies, always with a family-friendly tone. Pixar has brought stories about bugs, monsters, fish, and even cars, explored different cultures as it did in Coco and Luca, and addressed more serious subjects in movies like Turning Red and Soul. Despite their light tone, Pixar movies have been the subject of a variety of theories – some fun, some quite obscure –, and if some of them were true, they would completely change these movies.
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10 Up Is A Movie In Inside Out
A movie within a movie.
Pixar movies are packed with Easter eggs and references to other Pixar films, and one found in Inside Out made way for a “movie-within-a-movie” theory. Inside Out takes the audience into the mind of 11-year-old Riley, where memories are stored in spheres called “memory orbs”. One of these shows images from Up, such as Carl and Ellie’s wedding, which prompted the theory about Up being a movie in the world of Inside Out that Riley once saw.
Given how moving Up is, it’s understandable that it would have left a mark on Riley, but this also means that there’s, at least, one small universe in Pixar’s films where Up is a movie that the characters in Inside Out watched.
9 Randall Had Been Experimenting On Boo In Monsters, Inc.
Randall might be a lot more evil than initially thought.
Mike and Sulley found Boo in Monsters, Inc. after Sulley came across a “forgotten” door, and he later learned that it was Randall who was working with it. However, a theory shared on Reddit suggests that it wasn’t just a random door that Randall pulled, and he had been visiting and experimenting on Boo for a while. This is why Boo has such a strong reaction when she sees Randall and makes a drawing of him for Sulley to show who she feared. If true, the theory gives Monsters Inc. a dark twist as Randall was quite savage, and it’s unknown what he had been doing to Boo.
8 Priya Was A Werewolf In Turning Red
Mei wasn’t the only one with a secret.
Turning Red focused on Mei’s journey as she dealt with a family curse that turned her into a giant red panda whenever she experienced any strong emotion. Turning Red also introduced Mei’s friends Miriam, Abby, and Priya, and a theory suggests the latter was also hiding a big secret.
The theory says Priya was a werewolf, which is why she was so chill all the time and wasn’t surprised at all when she saw Mei transform into a red panda. This would add a lot to the world of Turning Red, as it would mean that other families and cultures have similar curses, though the details of each might vary.
7 Edna Mode Saved The World With Syndrome’s Suit In The Incredibles
Edna Mode was the real hero.
The Incredibles’ Edna Mode was a fashion designer for superheroes, among them the entire Parr family. Edna had one unbreakable rule when it came to designing suits for superheroes: no capes, as these could lead to the heroes’ deaths. Now, it’s understood in The Incredibles that Syndrome made his own suit, and it had a cape, which ended up being the reason for his death.
A theory (via CBR) suggests Syndrome went to Edna Mode, presenting himself as a superhero, to ask her to design his suit, but Edna can’t be fooled and she knew he had no good intentions, so she added the cape as a safety precaution. If that’s true, Edna is the real hero in The Incredibles.
6 Monsters Fear Humans Because Of The Plague In Monsters, Inc.
Monsters might have had good reasons to fear humans.
The monsters from the universe of Monsters, Inc. generate energy for their city by scaring children, but they are also quite afraid of humans, to the point where, if they come into direct contact with them, they have to be immediately sanitized and more. One theory gives a possible explanation for this by suggesting that the first time monsters visited the human world was during the Bubonic Plague.
Monsters discovered that the screams of humans created energy for their world, but they returned carrying the disease that triggered an epidemic in the monster world. This led to the belief that human children are toxic and carry deadly diseases, hence why their extreme measures to avoid being “contaminated” by humans.
5 WALL-E Is Responsible For Earth’s Destruction
WALL-E wasn’t so innocent, after all.
WALL-E takes viewers to Earth in 2805, which has become a garbage-strewn wasteland due to ecocide, so humans now live in space. Trash compacting robots were left to clean up the planet, but the plan failed, and only one active robot remained: the title WALL-E. However, a theory suggests that WALL-E was the one responsible not only for him being alone in the world but also for its further destruction.
As the other robots kept taking WALL-E’s stuff, he dismantled them, leading the cleaning plan to fail, Earth remaining uninhabitable, and WALL-E being the only robot on Earth, so he really wasn’t a cute and innocent robot, after all.
4 The Toys Are Joy Vampires In Toy Story
Woody and company definitely weren’t normal toys.
Woody and company’s biggest secret is that they come to life when humans aren’t watching, but they might be hiding a much darker secret, at least according to one theory (via Digital Spy). The theory says that toys feed off the joy they bring to children, so as long as a child is playing with them, they will continue living, essentially turning them into “joy vampires”. This is why toys like Woody have been around for years and why they are all looking to be with children, one way or another.
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3 Mr. Fredricksen Died At The Beginning Of Up
Up takes a completely different meaning.
Up is one of the saddest Pixar movies, and it’s all thanks to its heartbreaking opening sequence, but another sad event might have happened minutes later and no one noticed. According to a Reddit theory, Mr. Fredricksen died in his sleep the night after he was told to move out of his house as he was deemed a public menace after striking a construction worker. The rest of Up is Mr. Fredricksen’s journey to heaven, with Russell being his guardian angel guiding him to eternal life.
2 The Real Reason Marlin Wanted To Find Nemo
Finding Nemo is, suddenly, a horror story.
There’s a dark Finding Nemo theory that says Nemo died at the beginning of the movie along with his mother and siblings, but there’s an even more disturbing one, based on science. The theory (via The Gamer) explains that, in the real world, clownfish are born genderless, and their gender is determined as they grow by the needs of a clownfish group, consisting of one alpha female.
When she dies, one of the male clownfish will stop producing male hormones and become female to help the group continue to reproduce. As Marlin and Nemo were the only fish left in their group, the former was desperately looking for the latter because Marlin needed Nemo to make the change and turn into the female fish.
1 The Pixar Shared Universe Theory
Is everything connected?
The most famous theory regarding Pixar movies is the “Pixar Shared Universe Theory”. As the name says, it claims that all Pixar movies are connected, creating a very confusing timeline that begins with The Good Dinosaur and goes through toys coming to life, monsters being real, humanity being destroyed, sentient cars taking over, and (of course) there’s also lots of magic involved.
The theory has gone as far as to say that Monsters, Inc’s Boo is the witch from Brave, as she found a way to time travel thanks to the events of her debut movie. The Pixar Theory has lost credibility as more recent movies are hard to place in this already chaotic timeline, so it’s most likely that not all Pixar movies are part of the same universe.
Sources: Reddit, CBR, Digital Spy, The Gamer.
