Every Pixar Movie Easter Egg That Teased A Future Film

Pixar has many movie traditions, and one of the most popular is the inclusion of Easter eggs that tease an upcoming film – here’s where to find each one. 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, Pixar has included at least one Easter egg linking each movie to the next film, many of which only make sense after the eventual release of the teased movie. As Toy Story was the very first movie from Pixar and A Bug’s Life didn’t arrive until three years later, neither film falls into the Pixar Easter egg tradition (though A Bug’s Life does feature the legendary Pizza Planet truck and Woody makes a cameo appearance in an alternate outtake during the end credits, which could be taken as a Toy Story 2 tease). However, Toy Story 2 doesn’t make any reference to Monsters Inc.

These Pixar Easter eggs can be as subtle as a background detail referencing a character or object from a future movie, or they can be very obvious. But they often come up so quickly that they’re easy to miss or might seem too ordinary to be noteworthy. That said, here’s every Pixar movie Easter egg that teased a future film, and where the references are hidden.

Click here to watch Every Time Pixar Teased A Future Film on YouTube.

Monsters Inc

The debut of Sulley 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 Sulley returns Boo home, she shows him all of her toys, among those a clownfish, like Nemo.

Finding Nemo

Finding Nemo has a The 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. 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 alive.

The Incredibles

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. 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.

Ratatouille

One of Pixar’s best movies, 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 release. The first one is WALL-E’s cockroach companion Hal, seen on a wall in Linguini’s house. 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 Doug, whose shadow can be seen on the wall.

WALL-E

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

Up

Perhaps one of the easiest Pixar Easter eggs to find is the Toy Story 3 one in Up. When Mr. Fredricksen’s house begins to float, it flies 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 seating next to the girl’s bed.

Toy Story 3

Toy Story 3 has two Easter egg references to Cars 2. One can be spotted in Andy’s room: a Finn McMissile poster, a character that was supposed to debut in the first Cars movie, but was instead introduced in the sequel. The second appears at Sunnyside Daycare: it’s a Lightning McQueen toy, appropriate for little kids.

Cars 2

Cars skipped the Pixar Easter egg tradition, but Cars 2 made up for it. At the Ye Left Turn Inn in London, 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 can have the regular versions of the characters from Cars, they can definitely have the car-equivalents of human characters.

Brave

Brave has an Easter egg that kickstarted many theories and is a big part of the Pixar movie universe theory. At the witch’s hut, there’s a wood carving of Sulley from Monsters Inc, who returns in the prequel movie Monsters University. This has made many fans believe the witch is, in fact, Boo, who managed to travel in time looking for her monster friend Sulley. It certainly makes the Pixar universe theory more interesting.

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.

Inside Out

Riley visited the protagonists of Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur, Arlo and Forrest Woodbush, before the events of Inside Out – sort of. When the emotions are going through her memories, there’s one from a road trip to San Francisco, where the family took photos with giant statues of dinosaurs, which happen to look exactly like Arlo and Woodbush.

The Good Dinosaur

The Good Dinosaur was followed by Finding Dory, and the Easter egg teasing the Finding Nemo sequel was all about a new character. When Arlo is learning to swim, Hank the octopus is seen at the bottom of the water. Hank befriended Dory and helped her escape so she could keep looking for her family, and by the time The Good Dinosaur came out, he was still unknown to the public.

Finding Dory

Speaking of Hank and Dory’s escape from the Marine Life Institute, a Cars 3 Easter egg can be found when Hank lands on a truck. Pay close attention to the driver, who happens to be wearing a Lightning McQueen band-aid – and it’s not a regular version of a Lightning McQueen, as his facial expression can be seen when zooming in. Maybe Cars exists on this side of the Pixar universe.

Cars 3

Cars 3 continued the tradition by adding two Coco Easter eggs. One is the image Cruz Ramírez displays to motivate a homesick trainee, which happens to be Santa Cecilia. Another one is Miguel’s guitar, which can be seen hanging on a wall behind the band playing at the Cotter Pin Bar at Thomasville.

Coco

Coco’s Easter egg referencing Incredibles 2 didn’t show up in the land of the living. When Miguel and Héctor are on their way to the talent show in the Land of the Dead, an Incredibles poster can be spotted on a wall. Of course, because this is the Land of the Dead, the poster is a sugar skull version of the Parr family.

Incredibles 2

Just like The Good Dinosaur did with Finding Dory’s Hank, Incredibles 2 had an Easter egg referencing a new character from Toy Story 4, which wasn’t easily found at first. In Jack-Jack’s playpen, he has a Duke Caboom action figure (you can find it on the lower left part of the screen, casually chilling on the floor).

Toy Story 4

Toy Story 4 included a particularly fiendish Onward Easter egg that had many scratching their heads. At the fair, there’s a bouncy castle that can be seen a couple of times through the movie, especially at the end. The castle has a Pegasus at the top that looks exactly like the mural on the side of Barley’s beloved van, Guinevere. Because Onward is set in a fantasy world with all types of mythical creatures, it has no connection with Toy Story, so it needed to be subtle and tasteful.

Onward

When Onward came out, many Pixar fans were trying to find the Easter egg that teased the studio’s next movie, Soul. The reference was confirmed by director Dan Scanlon. Onward‘s Pixar Soul Easter egg becomes visible when a centaur police officer, Colt Bronco, knocks over Barley’s role-playing game. Some of the Lightfoot family’s albums appear in the shot, among which is a Dorothea Williams record – the very same jazz superstar who appeared in Soul. Dorothea Williams is a jazz performer voiced by Angela Bassett who knows no limits in the Pixar universe as her work also showed up in Onward.

Soul

A cerebral story in the vein of Inside Out, Soul features a brief Easter egg nodding toward its Pixar successor, Luca, via a poster that Joe and 22 pass by while running through the streets of New York City. The travel agency window poster advertises Portorosso, the small town in the Italian Riviera in which Luca takes place. Soul’s Luca setup is especially clear since the name Portorosso is so prominent in Luca.

Luca

By contrast, Luca alludes to Turning Red, Pixar’s subsequent film, in blink-and-you’ll-miss-it fashion. In Giulia’s bedroom, among all the various school books and pictures she shows to Luca, there’s a record label with the words “4 Villaggi” which translates to “4 Villages.” The name and logo are very similar to Meilin’s favorite band in Turning Red, 4 Town – enough that it definitely counts as an Easter egg.

Turning Red

Turning Red has met with plenty of unfair criticism, but it stands as an excellent addition to Pixar’s collection of animated films. And like any good Pixar film, it references the next project, Lightyear, with a sneaky image. As with Luca, Turning Red‘s Lightyear Easter egg is very easy to miss. On the bottom of Miriam’s skateboard, there are two stickers that reference Lightyear: Sox the robot cat, and the Space Ranger logo synonymous with Buzz. When Lightyear premieres in June of 2022, audiences will likely see another classic Pixar reference to the next movie.