Toy Story 3 Easter Eggs
Pixar loves to hide Easter eggs in their films, little references to movies and characters from the animation studio's past and future. two years ago we put together a compilation of WALL-E easter eggs, and last year we published a listing of easter eggs in Up, so we decided to do the same thing for Pixar's latest film, Toy Story 3. We've found over 60 easter eggs and bits of fun trivia, our most extensive easter egg feature to date!
If you haven't seen the film, be warned that this article references and scenes from the film which may be considered spoilers. I've tried to keep plot details out of this or vague. All of the screenshots were compiled through trailers, commercials and the batch of clips that Pixar has released to promote the movie (I'm sure there are many more easter eggs hidden in the 80% of the movie not online). Enjoy!
Lets begin with Andy's room...
A few pieces of art hanging on the walls in Andy's room were actually created by "Toy Story 3" art coordinator Erin Magill when she was in high school. There are more than 300 stickers in Andy's room.
Among the stickers on Andy's wall are references to other Pixar movies, like below you can see a sticker referencing Finding Nemo.
On Andy's door is a yellow sticker:
This newt crossing sign is a reference to a Pixar movie initially slated for release in June 2012, which has since fallen into development heck.
Here was the film's announced synopsis:
newt marks the directing debut of multiple Academy Award winning sound designer Gary Rydstrom, who made his Pixar debut with the short film Lifted, which premiered in front of Ratatouille. What happens when the last remaining male and female blue-footed newts on the planet are forced together by science to save the species, and they can't stand each other? Newt and Brooke embark on a perilous, unpredictable adventure and discover that finding a mate never goes as planned, even when you only have one choice. Love, it turns out, is not a science. Will be released in Disney Digital 3-D
The character of Andy is voiced by John Morris, the same actor who voiced Andy in the original films.
In Toy Story 3, Andy is about to leave for college, but in real life Morris is 26 years old. (photo from 2008)
In Toy Story 2, baby Molly was voiced by Lee Unkrich's daughter, Hannah. The director re-purposed those same recordings for Molly in the home video footage shown at the beginning of "Toy Story 3."
Another character who returns for Toy Story 3 is Andy's toy-torturing neighbor Sid. Here is a photo of Sid from the original:
Unfortunately there is no photo of the cameo online yet. Sid appears as a garbage man. You will recognize him because of his black and white skull t-shirt.
The calendar in Andy's room which used to show an image from A Bug's Life now has a picture of a Snot Rod, a character from Cars.
Both calendars, even though set years apart, are turned to the month of August.
Above Andy's closet is a street sign for W. Cutting Blvd....
the street on which Pixar's original headquarters were based. The pins on the map in Andy's room correspond to the hometowns of "Toy Story 3" production staff.
Andy has a banner hanging on one of the walls in his room that reads "P.U."
P.U. stands for Pixar University, a professional-development program for Pixar employees.
A postcard on the board on top of Andy's dresser says...
"Carl and Ellie Fredricksen" on it.
Who of course, are from last year's Pixar film Up.
On the same board is...
A Sports schedule sponsored by Pizza Planet.
Speaking of Pizza Plant, the Pizza Planet Truck has appeared in every Pixar film so far except The Incredibles. Note: Some dispute this fact, but Lee Unkrich has even confirmed on record that the Pizza Planet truck does not make an appearance in The Incredibles. That blurry photo floating around the web is not the Pizza Planet truck.
Disney has actually put real Pizza Planet restaurants at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disneyland Paris. The Pizza Planet Truck appears in Toy Story 3, "providing a bumpy ride to some traveling toys." (no photo available)
A113: What started as an inside joke of CalArts alumni (a reference to the classroom number that was used by Animation students, including John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Brad Bird, Pete Docter) has been present in not only every Pixar film, but Disney movies, Iron Giant, The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, Powerpuffgirls and Tinytoon Adventures.
In Toy Story 3, A113 appears once again as the number on the license plate of Andy's mother's car.
But there is more.
The Tigers Pride license plate cover is a reference to director Lee Unrich's hometown of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and his high school mascot, the Tiger. This is the same place Bill Watterson grew up.
Our high school mascot — Tiger. Which is why Hobbs is a tiger. Bill drew a lot of them in high school.
On to Sunnyside Daycare...
Director Lee Unkrich performs one line in the movie....
....the voice of the Jack in the box toy who says "New Toys!" when Woody, Buzz and the gang first arrive at Sunnyside Daycare.
At Sunnyside, there is a cameo from Mr. Ray the Scientific Stingray from Finding Nemo, voiced by Pixar story artist, Up co-director, and voice of Dug the dog: Bob Peterson. Another shot:
How about this shot? See any references to past Pixar characters?
How about the wooden Lightning McQueen toy from Cars? And notice the number on McQueen? Number 95.. It also appears on...
On of the toddler's shirts at Sunnyside. And..
It also appears on...
... the train, 95, is a tribute to the year the original Toy Story was released.
In this shot there are some Finding Nemo characters hidden in the drawings on the wall.
Pixar's 1986 short film Luxo, Jr, which is where the hopping lamp in the animation studio's logo also comes from, also featured a small yellow ball with a blue ring and red stars. This ball appears in a lot of the Pixar films. One of the appearances in Toy Story 3 is on a tile outside of Sunnyside Daycare:
Here is a close up:
Some characters in each of the Pixar movies are voiced by story artists and directors, who somehow end up in the role after voicing the characters in story meetings/run-throughs.
The Fisher Price Chatter Telephone is voiced by Teddy Newton, a storyboard artist on The Iron Giant, Character Designer for The Incredibles and Presto, who makes his Pixar directorial debut with Day & Night, the short film attached to Toy Story 3.
And in the shot above contains a reference to Pixar's short film Tin Toy.
In the short film, a small tin Toy is being terrorized by a small infant. He runs away from the baby and hides under a couch where he finds a bunch of abandoned/lost/hiding toys shivering. As Rex runs towards the door, some of the toys from Tin Toy are seen hiding/shivering in the right hand corner.
And of course, in every Pixar movie, they try to hide a character or two from one of their upcoming films.
Notice anyone else in that above shot? What if I told you that one of the characters from the recently announced Monsters Inc 2 is hidden in there somewhere? In every Pixar movie, they try to hide an unannounced/unrevealed character or two from their upcoming films.
For example, Boo's fish toy in Monsters Inc ended up being the title character of Finding Nemo. A kid in the doctor's office in Finding Nemo was reading a comic book of The Incredibles. WALL-E appeared in 2D on the Ratatouille DVD short film Your Friend the Rat. And Up's Dug the dog appeared in silhouette in Brad Bird's Ratatouille chasing Remy through the walls of a building.
In Peter Docter's Up:
The cute little pink teddy bear underneath the bed of sequence where Carl's house floats by a child's bedroom window. The character is named Lots-o'-Huggins Bear, and he is voiced by Ned Beatty. Here's Lots-'o's description from his original toy packaging:
Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear is a jumbo, extra-soft teddy bear with a pink and white plush body and a velvety purple nose. This lovable bear stands fuzzy heads and shoulders above other teddy bears because he smells like sweet strawberries! With a smile that will light up your child's face and a belly just asking to be hugged, Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear is sure to become a bedtime necessity. Stain-resistant. Spot clean plush surface with a damp cloth.
He is a major new character.
Actually, a very early version of Lotso appeared in the original Toy Story movie:
But what about Monsters Inc 2? Pixar fanatics have been speculating that one of the young girls at the daycare center looks suspiciously like a more grown up version of Boo:
Is the girl in the photo above, Boo?
You decide.
And speaking of Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear, the character has 3,473,271 individual hairs organized in several layers of different length and thickness. Some people believe he is a real toy from the 1980's. A 1983 commercial, recorded on videotape showed up on YouTube:
Followed by a Japanese commercial for the toy bear:
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But the bear didn't exist until Toy Story 3. Pixar and Disney created these commercials as clever viral marketing for the film, and will over a million plays I'd say it worked. The bear became a real toy for the Toy Story 3 merchandise line:
Disney has however confirmed that "a hint" at a new character in next year's Cars 2 is "hidden in Andy's bedroom." There are a bunch of car-related posters in Andy's room:
But which one?
Finn McMissile — a full design for the character was shown off at last year's D23 Expo. The character will be a James Bond-esque Aston Martin.
Which character below doesn't belong?
The grey fat bunny-like creature on the left is Totoro, from Hayao Miyazaki's acclaimed 1988 film My Neighbor Totoro. John Lasseter, Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios chief creative officer and director of Toy Story/ToyStory 2, is very good friends with Hayao Miyazaki, who is basically considered the Walt Disney and Steven Spielberg of Japan. Here is a quote from Lasseter talking about Totoro's appearance:
"We do little homages in our films," Lasseter told MTV, "and we thought it was a very appropriate homage to let [Miyazaki and his film company] Studio Ghibli know how much they mean to us."
The 237 number in the screenname is a reference to director Lee Unkrich's favorite movie The Shining.
Pixar has a history of Apple/Mac references. Steve Jobs, who co-founded Apple with Steve Wozniak, bought The Graphics Group (later renamed Pixar) from Lucasfilm's computer graphics division in 1986, and served as CEO until Pixar was acquired by Disney in 2006. Apple has been featured in previous Pixar productions like on the hood of one of the race cars in Cars. There are several references to Apple in WALL-E, the most obvious is when WALL-E watches Hello Dolly on an older video iPod, WALL-E making the Mac startup chime and Eve was even designed by Apple's behind-the-scenes design guru Johnny Ive.
The computer the toys are using is an iMac with OSX and Safari. Meanwhile, grown-up Andy has an iTunes window open on his laptop.
The computer keyboard is also the older mac keyboard.
When Buzz shakes hands with the robot...
A toy tractor, like the one seen in Cars, can be seen behind them.
Also, the fire truck toy in this screenshot:
...is the toy version of Red from Cars:
In the gambling scene, they are betting with Re-Volting batteries...
... the sponsor of racer 84 in "Cars." (Apple and Re-Volting were 84's)
Speaking of Batteries, during the sequence where the toys reset Buzz Lightyear, we see that Buzz has 2 AA Buy N Large batteries in his back.
Buy N Large was the mega corporation from WALL-E.
John Ratzenberger
John Ratzenberger has made an appearance in every Pixar movie to date. He's considered the animation studio's good luck charm. He appeared as Hamm in Toy Story and Toy Story 2, PT Flea in A Bug's Life, the Abominable Snowman in Monsters, Inc, the Moonfish school in Finding Nemo, the Underminer in The Incredibles, Mack in Cars, Mustafa in Ratatouille, John the human in Wall-E, and Construction Foreman Tom in Up. In Toy Story 3 he reprises his role as Hamm:
The version of Ken used in "Toy Story 3" is modeled after "Animal Lovin' Ken" from 1988.
Here is a vintage commercial for the toy:
And yes, it even came complete with ascot. Ken wears 21 different outfits in the movie.
The version of Barbie used in "Toy Story 3" is modeled after "Great Shape Barbie" from 1983.
Here is a vintage commercial for the toy:
And Ken's Dream House in the movie is based on the 1983 edition of Barbie's Dream House.
"Toy Story 3" Producer Darla K. Anderson is the namesake for the character Darla in "Finding Nemo."
Here are some other fun facts released by Disney:
Did we miss anything? Did you notice anything else?
Additional sources: Pixar Planet, CinemaBlend, ComingSoon