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Sun 22 June 2025 4:30, UK
When a movie starts with a little white lamp jumping on a letter ‘I’, then you know you’re in for a good time. The films made by Pixar, the infamous animation studio, are some of the most wonderful and life-affirming stories known to humankind.
When watching Pixar efforts for the first time as a child, you find yourself being swept up in a world of infinite possibilities and heart, with characters who mirror even the most complex of people and make us feel seen through stories that cover the most intricate of emotional experiences.
From the exploration of grief in Up to articulating the very thoughts we have in our brains in Inside Out, the studio has created stories that touch on all aspects of our experiences, even if through drawings, monsters and cars. It’s a unique experience that heightens our perspective of the world, immersing us in the highs of everyday experience and making us feel more grateful for the lives we lead.
But in addition to pulling on our heartstrings, the animators behind the studio are masters at hiding Easter eggs and references to other films. The creative team often inserts direct quotes that relate to one other film and one that isn’t their own.
Finding Nemo is a great example of this, with the studio including a reference to a classic horror film that you might not expect to see in a kids’ movie about clownfish. During the scene in which Marlin escapes from the vegetarian sharks (another example of Pixar’s genius), Bruce tries to snatch at him and bashes his head through the wall of an abandoned ship. After piercing through the corroded metal, he grins, flashes his teeth and says, “Here’s Brucey!” It directly references the infamous scene in The Shining in which Jack breaks into the bathroom with an axe and proclaims a similar sentence, instead saying, “Here’s Johnny!”
It’s a reference you might not expect, given that the target audience for Pixar’s films is kids who still aren’t toilet-trained, but one that is certainly appreciated for anyone else who isn’t within this demographic. The studio also snuck in another reference to the film in Toy Story, with the infamous carpet in the Overlook Hotel lining the floors of Sid’s home. The animators were clearly huge fans and couldn’t resist the temptation to throw another one, although slightly more subtle.
In Coco, there seems to be an ever harder to spot reference in the background of one shot, with a red barrel and axe that could be a nod to ‘redrum’ and the axe that Jack carries. It’s a slightly less obvious one that could just blend into the background, but sticks out given that neither objects have bare no relevance to the scene they crop up in. Also in Coco, the main character runs through the underworld and comes across a painting of two girls, representing a Muertos-inspired version of the creepy twins from The Shining.
These easter eggs only add more depth and layers to the films, showing that while they might be created with children in mind, they are always thinking about ways to widen the picture and sneak in things for the grown-ups too, which is what makes their work so universal.
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