We hope you’ve had a chance to watch Inside Out, the most recent masterpiece from Pixar Animation. It’s one of the year’s best films so far, and there’s a decent potential that it will be included on many year-end lists as one of the top films of 2015 overall.
Like every Pixar film, it is rife with easter eggs that make references to all of the Pixar films that came before it. Some are challenging to find, while others are rather obvious. And below, we go over as many of them as we can. After the jump, check out every Inside Out Easter egg!
Memories
There are a few easter eggs that are difficult to find because they are hidden among the countless memory orbs that make up Riley’s mind, but the memories from Carl and Ellie’s initial love tale from Up’s first ten minutes are the most numerous.
The Pizza Planet Truck
The Pizza Planet truck can be seen three times in Inside Out, according to director Pete Docter and co-director Del Carmen, though it’s not always easy to detect. The Pizza Planet truck is probably visible in one of Riley’s memory orbs, but there are a lot of cars in San Francisco, so it may also be one of them. Just a shame San Francisco couldn’t be stopped from destroying pizza.
For the Birds
Riley and her family pass the birds from the Pixar short “For the Birds” perched on a telephone wire on their way to their new house in San Francisco.
The Good Dinosaur
One of the statues of dinosaurs Riley and her family stop at for a quick photo opportunity on the side of the road turns out to be from the upcoming Pixar film The Good Dinosaur (watch the teaser trailer right here).
Oui, Chef
You can find a culinary magazine with Colette from Ratatouille on the front on one of the tables at Riley’s family’s San Francisco residence.
A113
Every Pixar film features this number as a nod to the CalArts animation studio where visionaries like Pete Docter and John Lasster got their start. Riley’s classroom in Inside Out is A113, and when rushing away, she also passes by a building with the same number written in spray paint. In addition, car 113 of the train is where Bing Bong, Joy, and Sadness board.
A Familiar Playground
Riley recalls a childhood scene in which she is sliding down a slide at a playground. The rest of the playground, with the exception of the unique slide, is an exact replica of the one at Sunnyside Day Care Center from Toy Story 3.
Around the World
Anger is slamming its head on a globe within Riley’s teacher’s head. In all three Toy Story movies, Andy’s room also features the exact same globe. The globe is also visible in Riley’s class.
La Luna
A poster in Riley’s classroom that portrays the star-fishing boy from La Luna is another easter egg that alludes to another Pixar short movie.
Pete Docter is Angry
In Riley’s father’s opinion, director Pete Docter is the voice of anger. The fact that Docter is a voice inside Riley’s father’s head is also no coincidence, as he too relocated from Minnesota to California for his own job.
Chinese Takeout
The Chinese food containers Riley and her family are consuming come directly from Ratatouille, Monsters Inc., Toy Story 2, and A Bug’s Life.
Hey, Ted
Inside Out features the enormous legs of Ted, the monster from Monsters, Inc. The fact that they appear as a huge prop between scenes on Dream Productions’ studio lot means that they don’t actually belong to a full monster.
Imagination Land Board Games
Although Imagination Land contains a tonne of random items, one board game specifically makes a direct allusion to another Pixar film. A fish that resembles Little Nemo from Finding Nemo is featured right on the box for the game Find Me! There is also a game called Dinosaur World that might be a less obvious allusion to The Good Dinosaur.
Forget it Jake, It’s Chinatown
For cinephiles, the joke should be obvious, but in case you missed it, here it is. Two police officers are questioning the cloud woman near the film’s conclusion because her husband was killed by Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong in Imagination Land. One of the cops becomes upset when they drive through town again, but the other responds, “Nevermind, Jake. This is Cloudtown.” That is a rephrase of the same remark from the classic noir movie Chinatown, which is aptly named, about the dirty Chinatown.
The Haunted Mansion
You can hear a portion of the music from the well-known Disney Parks attraction The Haunted Mansion during the nightmare sequence as Riley’s new residence starts to feel unsettling.
Having a Ball
When Riley and Bing Bong are playing together in a flashback, the recognisable ball with the red star on it can be seen. Riley also has a sticker with the red star on it on his backpack.
John Ratzenberger
John Ratzenberger, one of Pixar’s lucky charms, keeps up his streak by lending his voice as Fritz, one of the workers who assists in reassembling the control panel in Riley’s headquarters at the very end of the film.
Skull and Camouflage Shirts
The opposite of the skull t-shirt that Sid wore in the first Toy Story is being worn by one of the “cool girls” in Riley’s class. Additionally, one of the other ladies is donning a camouflage blouse with a Toy Story character pattern on it.
Vertigo
I’m Falling for a Very Long Time Into a Pit is a dream that has a poster hanging in Dream Productions with a design that is eerily similar to the poster for Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock.
The Tri-County Area
The Tri-County area is referred to as the franchise’s setting throughout the Toy Story movies. As some signs in the hockey arena where Riley had tryouts celebrate the Tri-County youth hockey league’s victories, it looks that Inside Outtakes also place in the same made-up Northern California region.
Cars
All of the cars in San Francisco are modelled like those in Cars 2, and some of them may even sport bumper stickers from the Pixar sequel.
Hockey Rink or Museum?
Riley’s hockey rink is situated exactly where the Walt Disney Family Museum is located in San Francisco as a monument to the institution. To replace an iconic locale with a fake one seems like an odd tribute, but whatever.
Jangles the Clown
Jangles the clown is a memorial to the late Joe Ranft, a writer, animator, and storyboard artist for the Pixar animated films, according to story artists Ronnie del Carmen and Domee Shire. The clown’s outfit was inspired by Ranft’s own Buttocks the clown outfit.
Dead Mouse
Last but not least, this is somewhat of a twisted easter egg. But there’s a dead rat in the centre of the floor when Riley and her family get to their new apartment in San Francisco. Sad to say, but the rat resembles the young chef Remy from Ratatouille quite a little. Even little children must have automatically thought of Remy upon seeing that dead rat. Perhaps there are bugs from A Bug’s Life there as well.
All the Easter eggs we could find were those. We are grateful to Yahoo, ScreenRant, The Disney Blog, Pixar Post, Hypable, and Inquisitr for their additional analysis of Inside Out’s easter eggs. This is a really solid start, but there are probably many more that we’ll discover once we start watching the movie repeatedly. Please let us know in the comments what we missed!
