55 Pixar Easter Eggs for the Biggest Pixar Fans to Find

"A113" is an animator's inside joke: It refers to a classroom number at the California Institute of the Arts where many of the original Pixar folks got their start. The number has worked its way into nearly every Pixar movie, from the license plate on Andy's SUV in the Toy Story series, to a roman numeral in Brave, to a movie marquee in Incredibles 2 to the "Now Approaching Element City" sign in Elemental. This one has even made its way beyond the Pixar universe: In Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, which shares a director with The Incredibles, Ethan Hunt asks to meet at extraction point "Alpha 113."

The "Luxo Ball" — a yellow ball with a blue stripe and a red star — is another symbol of early Pixar that has made its way into multiple movies. It's a reference to one of Pixar's first computer-animated shorts, called "Luxo, Jr." Now, the ball can be found in the playrooms of the Toy Story movies, in Boo's bedroom in Monsters, Inc., in 22's abode in Soul and in this little girl's room in Up, among others.

In addition to being featured in the Pixar logo, the lamp from "Luxo, Jr." has made some surprise appearances in the movies as well. For example, in a scene in Wall-E, the robot fashions a statue of EVE using parts left hanging around, and one arm is a Luxo lamp. (The other looks like Guido's paint brush from Cars.)

In Toy Story, the characters head to a sci-fi-themed pizza restaurant called the Pizza Planet. The pizza delivery truck — a yellow truck with a rocket on top — has worked its way into almost every Pixar movie since. It even finds its way into movies where it would seem impossible: There's a pizza-planet-truck-shaped asteroid in The Good Dinosaur, a truck tattoo in Toy Story 4 and, in Brave, it shows up as a wooden carving.

You probably didn't give a second look to the logo on the takeout container in Incredibles 2, but it turns out that Pixar has been using that same pagoda design for years. You can spot it in Toy Story 4 inside the antique-shop owner's fridge, Inside Out when Riley's family gets Chinese food, among the mess in Luigi's apartment in Ratatouille, in the Pizza Planet truck in Toy Story 2 (Easter eggs within Easter eggs!), all the way back to A Bug's Life, where it doubled as Manny the Mantis' "Chinese Cabinet of Metamorphosis."

Elio's directors have already admitted that they've slipped the famous Pixar Easter eggs into the film. "We definitely have the classics: the Luxo Ball, A113," Madeline Sharafian told Screen Rant. "And we do have a hint toward our next film. It’s in the universe somewhere. It’s a character, and it’s for the film Hoppers. It’s on screen for a pretty long time and kind of featured, which is rare." While fans will have to search for the Hoppers reference for themselves, they can look to Elio's alien-and-cryptid-themed backpack for one of the oldies: a patch that says "Area 113."

In Elio, the young alien aficionado actually gets to befriend an affable extra-terrestrial named Glordon. Glordon — with his purple color, scaly texture, pointy teeth and flipper-like appendages — looks a little familiar, doesn't he? He looks...

...like Boo's costume in Monsters, Inc! It's not an exact match — Glordon doesn't actually have eyes, after all, and he has less fringe up top — but it's enough to make you wonder if Sully has had any contact with the Communiverse.

This Easter egg is more for alien fans than Pixar stans. Elio, who is obsessed with alien abduction, decorates his room with space-themed ephemera — including something that bears a strong resemblance to Mulder's "I Want to Believe" poster from The X-Files. (Elio's just says "Believe," but it's close.) Now that Disney bought 20th Century Fox, The X-Files is on Disney's Hulu, so perhaps Elio has been catching up on old episodes.

When Riley's emotions get suppressed in Inside Out 2, not only are they trapped in a jar — that jar is locked in a vault. And that vault is numbered with roman numeral ACXIII. Wait a minute — "A" isn't a roman numeral! CXIII translates to 113, so they're in vault A113. (There it is again.)

A113 isn't the only Pixar Easter egg staple in Inside Out 2, either: Look on Coach's desk, where she keeps her all-important notebook. It's illuminated by a Luxo lamp.

Those well versed in Pixar's history know that Apple founder Steve Jobs was an early leader in the company, and they like to pay tribute to him when they can. In the scene when Anxiety appears on a big screen to ask everyone in Imagination Land to brainstorm disastrous scenarios that could come to pass in Riley's future, one of the characters reacts in a way that recalls a famous Apple ad from 1984. It's a deep cut, but the parents in the crowd might get it.

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Looking around the Fireplace shop in Elemental, you're going to want to get your pausing thumb ready. There are so many visual gags and puns, especially when it comes to the brand names of all the different products.

But when you get a look at the magazine section, that's when you really get to see the Easter eggs. One issue of a magazine looks like it has Arlo from The Good Dinosaur — which makes sense, since Elemental shares a director with that movie. There's also a different issue at the bottom that has a robot that bears a resemblance to Wall-E.

Wondering why the magazine, which looks like it's called Future, doesn't have any references to the space-themed Elio? That's because those references are hidden in Wade's flashback (take a look at the posters on the school wall behind him before he gets sucked into the sponge, and you'll see a planet with tentacles on one).

Most of the asides in Lightyear are Toy Story references, not exactly Easter eggs. (Though the Pizza Planet truck is there when — spoiler alert — Buzz and Sox race to "borrow" a ship after the new commander says Buzz's mission is canceled.)

The whole concept of "crystallic fusion," which Buzz is trying to re-invent in Lightyear after his crew gets marooned on an alien planet, comes from something the toy version of Buzz says to Woody when they're first introduced. (Buzz: "Do you people still use fossil fuels, or have you discovered crystallic fusion?" Woody: "We've got double-As.") When Lightyear's Buzz first lands on the alien planet, he says the terrain seems unstable — exactly what the Toy Buzz says about Andy's room.

Even the concept of "stealth mode" is something Toy Buzz says about his suit in the Toy Story movies. But the best Toy Story reference is a little more subtle. When the crew gets caught in "capture cones," it feels like a throwback to the moment in Toy Story 2 when the crew uses traffic cones as a disguise to cross the street and get to Al's Toy Barn.

Here's a hint about Turning Red: Mei's world is covered in stickers, and you can find lots of Easter eggs and in-jokes if you stop and take a look at them. Pixar's tradition of hiding a character from the next movie in the previous one plays out through the stickers on Miriam's skateboard — you can see Buzz's feline robot companion, Sox, a reference to Lightyear.

Turning Red director Domee Shi first turned heads by making the Pixar short "Bao," which debuted in front of The Incredibles 2. Of course she'd sneak a nod to it into a restaurant sign — you can see it when Mei is getting on a streetcar. But "Bao" isn't the only Pixar short to work its way into Turning Red; the bunny from "Burrow," which premiered with Soul, is also emblazoned on a sticker on Mei's notebook.

The town a Portorosso — itself a kind of in-joke, a play on the title Porco Rosso, a film by animation great Hayao Miyazaki that also takes place in Italy — is full of Easter eggs. During the big race, you can spot the Luxo ball on a rooftop, and the Pizza Planet truck is now a three-wheeled vehicle lurking behind the menacing Ercole. But there are more fun references in Giulia's bedroom. She has a stuffed Donald Duck by her bed, and a harder-to-spot wooden Pinocchio up on a her shelf.

Soul's gorgeous Hall of Everything has, as its name might suggest, most of the regular Easter eggs: the pizza planet truck (parked in front of the big airplane), the Luxo lamp (talking to one of the new souls) and the A113 (on a street sign near the Ferris wheel), along with nods to other Pixar movies. (Is that Ferris wheel from Toy Story 4?) But it's more fun to spot the wall of Soul-specific Easter eggs that decorate the wall of 22's room. The area is papered with 22's prior mentors, and there are some big names in there, including musician Johnny Cash, scientist Albert Einstein and comics legend Jack Kirby. But there are also some Disney/Pixar shout-outs, including animator Joe Grant (left circle) and Joe Ranft (center circle), a Pixar animator who co-directed Cars and was the voice of Heimlich in A Bug's Life.

When brothers Barley and Ian Lightfoot embark on their fantastical quest in Onward, their journey starts where most great adventures do — at the Manticore's Tavern. Having been transformed into a bustling family restaurant, with owner Corey running around expediting and fixing orders, the tavern and its setup makes it easy to miss the fact that the cook in the open kitchen looks a heck of a lot like Remy from Ratatouille. Lucky diners!

In addition to the Pizza Planet truck tattoo (it's on the carnival worker's leg) and the takeout container, Toy Story 4 Easter eggs abound in the antiques store: Keep a lookout for the Casey Jr. box again (a nod to A Bug's Life), a vintage ad for Tripledent Gum (from Inside Out) and a cameo from Up's Dug in a painting of dogs playing poker. But our favorite egg is at the carnival: You can spot what looks like Ernesto's guitar from Coco hanging in the back as one of the prizes in Ducky and Bunny's game.