The Pixar universe

Pixar Animation Studios logo.

The Pixar universe or Pixar Theory is a theoretical "shared universe" in which every character that is created by Pixar exists, sharing characteristics and an internal logic. Media discussion about a "Pixar Universe" has existed since at least 2003, and has been referred to in disparate sources such as SlashFilm, Washington Times, Reno Gazette-Journal, and MTV News.

Pixar employee Jay Ward (not to be confused with cartoonist Jay Ward) denied that the films take place in the same universe, saying: "It's almost like the 9/11 conspiracy theories... it's like, really? No, the movies were sort of made in a different order by different directors in different times, in different places. It's cool that it all worked out that way, but it probably was not intentional."

In To Infinity and Beyond!: The Story of Pixar Animation Studios, the companion book to documentary The Pixar Story, Karen Paik states that there are many internal references between various films in The Pixar Universe. In 2009, CityNews Toronto made comparisons between nine "Pixar Universe" films.

In his 2013 thesis entitled "The Pixar Theory," Jon Negroni wrote that every character created by Pixar lives within a single fictional universe. He acknowledges that the concepts behind his thesis were derived from an episode of the Cracked.com video series After Hours, written by Daniel O'Brien. In his post, Negroni discusses all of the films and how they relate in a timeline of events.

The films, in chronological order are:

"(%)" indicates a film of this universe which was not produced by Pixar

• The Good Dinosaur (Post-Cretaceous Period)
• Brave (14th/15th Century)
• The Incredibles (1950s/60s)
• Toy Story (1997–98)
• Toy Story 2 (1999)
• Finding Nemo (2003)
• Ratatouille (2007)
• Toy Story 3 (2010)
• Up (2011–16)
• Inside Out (2014–15)
• Cars (2100–2200)
• Cars 2 (2100–2200)
• Planes (%) (2100–2200)
• Planes: Fire and Rescue (%) (2100–2200)
• WALL-E (2800–2900)
• A Bug's Life (2898–3000)
• Monsters University (4500–5000)
• Monsters, Inc. (4500–5000)

The character of Boo from the lattermost film, meanwhile, is said to create a time loop, and consequently is the same character as the Witch in the second aforementioned film. He has plans to incorporate Finding Dory to the theory, and has already fit the Cars spin-off series, Planes, into the theory, even though it is not made by Pixar. On June 11, 2015, Negroni published an article on moviepilot.com explaining how Inside Out fits into his theory. io9 wrote Negroni's work is "a crazy read, one that Negroni has been annotating as readers point to corrections or flaws in his theory. But even as a tinfoil hat theory, it makes some clever connections—and, of course, contains plenty of Pizza Planet trucks."

At the 2015 D23 Expo, during the "Pixar Secrets Revealed" panel, director Mark Andrews reiterated previous denial of the theory, saying: "It's not true—come on!" At the same panel, co-director Ronnie del Carmen said: "Do you know what kinds of meetings we'd have to have to make sure all our movies line up?!"

See also

• Mickey Mouse universe
• Donald Duck universe

External links

• The Pixar Theory.com
• After Hours, September 4, 2012, "Why Pixar Movies Are All Secretly About the Apocalypse"