One man, blogger and social media writer Jon Negroni, was inspired by a Cracked.com video providing humorous discourse on how Pixar films are about the apocalypse. So he decided to take it one step further - or rather eight or nine steps further -and recently unleashed “The Pixar Theory” on the world. Tackling every Pixar film since 1995’s Toy Story, Negroni’s theory weaves an entire timeline from the “clues” plainly presented to us, and while it was of course written as a brainy humor piece, it certainly goes deeper than one might imagine and almost will immediately start a conversation between fans, for whom this is a must-read. The lengthy comment section alone is worth glancing over as well, though negativity and stupidity rear their heads as expected. In fact, Negroni even edited some sections to envelop some commenters’ clever observations.
And while there’s no way for me to succinctly lay out his detailed bubble graph of info, I’ll try to eke a summation. I’m not sure if blog posts get spoiler alerts, but if they do, this is it, especially if you haven’t seen all the films.
Since Brave featured the earliest timeline, it serves as the crux of the theory. It also helps that the film introduces a magical witch, because it is she who must be responsible for giving sentience to animals and inanimate objects, and while the magic does wear off of the animals, it becomes a natural part of the animals’ evolving intelligence. From this point, intelligent animals and artificial intelligence are set upon the world, which eventually allows for the lead character in Ratatouille to succeed in something that only humans have been able to do until that point. Rumors of this happening lead Charles Muntz to develop collars that translate dog thoughts as seen in Up. This evolution also explains Dory from Finding Nemo and her memory loss.
On the A.I. side of things, Negroni says The Incredibles’ Syndrome was actually manipulated into working for the droid he created, as part of an anti-human uprising. Where else did we see one of those? Toy Story 3. It’s stated that both corporations BNL (Buy-n-Large) and Allinol exacerbated this takeover by dominating both the market and eventually the government, leading to worldwide pollution that put humans at a disadvantage anyway. This goes into explaining the humanity-free Earths of both WALL-E and Cars. And it’s around this point that the highly evolved creatures from A Bug’s Life come into play, as their way of living very much mirrors of that of modern humanity, and there are references to the insects living longer lifespans.
The final jump in the theory claims that the monsters from Monsters Inc. are either post-apocalyptic animal mutations, or are animal/human hybrids (ew), and that their portal doors aren’t traveling to a different dimension to reach human beings – they’re traveling back in time! Negroni has an explanation for Boo’s future that just might blow your mind. Or the sheer ridiculousness of it will piss you off.
No, this theory isn’t meant to be treated as gospel. It’s a fun exploration that admittedly makes Pixar sound like a more together studio than some of its weaker films may have us believe. As a geeky icebreaker, it’s hard to beat. As the multitude of universe-connecting easter eggs sprinkled across all of Pixar’s movies are sought out, the subtle joy of realization itself has become replaced by connecting the implications behind the in-jokes, and how John Lasseter and his crew’s intricate web of references has possibly rewritten history and foretold an impending dystopia.
Well, maybe not entirely.
Check out the Cracked video that inspired it all below, and share your own theories in the comments.
Why Pixar Movies Are All Secretly About the Apocalypse -- powered by Cracked.com
