With The Incredibles 2 about to hit screens, we’re taking a look at some of the best Pixar fan theories from around the Internet. Some that convince, others that require a pinch of salt, and a couple that may well make you cry.
1. Emily From ‘Toy Story 2’ is Andy’s Mother
This is a pretty famous fan theory, and one that makes perfect sense thematically. In Toy Story 2, Jessie is owned by a little girl called Emily, who loves the cowgirl with all her heart. But Emily grows up, moves on, and is soon done with Jessie, dropping the toy in a charity box. But her own human Jessie hat is nowhere to be seen. In the original Toy Story, when Andy is playing with Woody early in proceedings, he’s wearing a hat. But it isn’t a Woody cowboy hat, rather it’s a Jessie cowgirl hat. Could Jessie’s former owner be Andy’s mother Ms. Davis? We never learn Emily’s last name, nor Ms. Davis’s first name. And if she was a kid in the 1960s — as Emily’s flower-power bedroom suggests — she’d be the right age for Toy Story in 1995. Above all, it makes narrative sense, with Andy experiencing the same emotions as his mother when it comes to the Roundup Gang.
2. Carl Dies at the Start of ‘Up’
The first few scenes in Up are lovely, beautiful, and ultimately quite heartbreaking. What they don’t need is a fan theory that makes them even sadder. Unfortunately, this one is a dagger to the heart, positing that Carl dies before he can be taken to Shady Oaks, with the rest of the film documenting his journey into the afterlife and back to his love Ellie. The evidence is that the story of their romance — from childhood into adulthood and old age — is pretty straightforward at the start of the film. But after Carl’s “death” we’re firmly in the realm of fantasy, with flying houses, talking dogs, and the mythical ‘Snipe.’ It’s a fair hypothesis, but one that’s a bit too melancholy to contemplate.
3. ‘Toy Story’ and ‘The Walking Dead’ Are the Same
A Redditor called JimmyLegs50 made this claim via an extensive picture gallery, and it’s actually pretty convincing. Jimmy — real name John Ray — made the discovery when spotting that Toy Story‘s Lots-O-Huggin Bear and The Walking Dead‘s Governor are interchangeable characters, welcoming strangers with open arms, but with unpleasant ulterior motives. There are similarities between the Woody-Buzz-Andy triangle and Rick-Carl-Shane. Stinky Pete is pretty much Hershel. And if that weren’t enough, disfigured toys/humans come to life and attack the living in both stories. Making them pretty much the same. Case closed.
4. Boo is the Witch From ‘Brave’
Boo is the adorable little girl in Monsters, Inc., taught by her monstrous friend Sulley to traverse dimensions using doors. This theory claims she grows up to be the witch in Brave, who, like Boo, uses doors to disappear. Said theory states that Boo/Witch uses those doors to travel back to 10th Century Scotland. There’s evidence to support this, with a wood carving of Sulley appearing in the Witch’s workshop. And a carving of the Pizza Planet truck from Toy Story suggesting that she has travelled back and forth in time. Though why the sweet Boo turned into the rather less sweet crone is anyone’s guess.
5. Nemo Was Never Born
If Carl potentially being dead wasn’t bad enough, this theory claims that the attack on Marlin’s wife and eggs at the start of Finding Nemo killed all of them. Including Nemo. The rest of the film being Marlin navigating the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Which (kinda) sounds (a bit) like the way Finding Nemo plays out (if we’re stretching it). Also ‘Nemo’ is the Latin word for… nobody.
6. The Pixar Shared Universe
This is the big one. A theory that claims all the films are interconnected. It’s mapped out in the above video, but for a potted version, the story kicks off in 65 Million Years BC, when a meteor hits and Pixar’s timeline splits from our own. So we get dinosaurs interacting with humans in prehistoric times. Animals learning to talk and inanimate objects coming to live in 10th Century Scotland. The Buy n Large corporation rising to power, polluting, and very nearly destroying the planet. A.I. fuelling itself with human energy. Man leaving the planet. Cars taking over and endeavouring to recreate the human experience before being wiped out. Insects, animals and monsters rising up, the latter learning to time travel. Which brings us to Boo and the Witch, a character that connects all the stories. It’s complicated, convoluted, and doesn’t really make sense. But the theory is a fun one that’s fully explored here.