List of Pixar film references

Beginning with Red's Dream and its references to previous Pixar short films, Pixar has included references in its films to other works produced by the studio. These have included cameo appearances, references to characters, objects, and titles of works. Additionally, such easter eggs or in-jokes can refer to Pixar staff, associates, or places or events from the company's past. Lastly, some items, such as A113, Pizza Planet or actor John Ratzenberger have appeared in the majority of Pixar films, establishing a set of traditions that subsequent Pixar films try to include.

The following is a list of all documented self-referential nods contained within Pixar films and shorts that the various filmmakers have incorporated into their movies.

Traditions

A113

A113 is an Easter egg that has been inserted into several animated television shows and feature films as a homage to a classroom at CalArts, the alma mater of Pixar/Disney executive John Lasseter and director Brad Bird, among others. Bird was the first to use the A113 Easter egg, on a car license plate in an animated segment entitled Family Dog in a 1987 episode of the television series Amazing Stories.

Pixar

Pixar Animation Studios, or simply Pixar (/ˈpɪksɑːr/), is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio is best known for its Stop Motion as well as CGI-animated feature films created with RenderMan, its own implementation of the industry-standard RenderMan image-rendering application programming interface used to generate high-quality images. Pixar began in 1979 as the Graphics Group, part of the computer division of Lucasfilm before its spin-out as a corporation in 1986 with funding by Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, who became its majority shareholder.The Walt Disney Company bought Pixar in 2006 at a valuation of $7.4 billion, a transaction that resulted in Jobs becoming Disney's largest single shareholder at the time. Luxo Jr., a character from a 1986 Pixar short film of the same name, is the mascot for the studio.

Pixar has produced 16 feature films, beginning with Toy Story (1995), and its most recent being The Good Dinosaur (2015). Toy Story was the first-ever computer-animated feature film. All 16 films have debuted with CinemaScore ratings of at least "A−," indicating positive receptions with audiences. The studio has also produced several short films. As of December 2015, its feature films have made over $9.5 billion worldwide, with an average worldwide gross of $593 million per film. Three of Pixar's films—Finding Nemo (2003), Toy Story 3 (2010), and Inside Out (2015)—are among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time, with Toy Story 3 being the third all-time highest animated film with a gross of $1.063 billion, behind Walt Disney Animation Studios' Frozen (2013) and Illumination Entertainment's Minions (2015), which grossed $1.276 billion and $1.157 billion in their initial releases as of 2015. Thirteen of Pixar's films are among the 50 highest-grossing animated films.

Pixar Canada

Pixar Canada was a wholly owned subsidiary of Pixar Animation Studios. It was located in Vancouver, British Columbia. The studio was tasked to produce short films based on Pixar's feature film characters.

In October 2013, Pixar Animation Studios permanently closed Pixar Canada and laid off its approximately 100 employees, to refocus Pixar's efforts at its main headquarters in Emeryville, California.

History

Pixar Canada was founded in 2009 and officially opened on April 20, 2010 in Gastown area of Vancouver, British Columbia. The location was chosen for tax incentive reasons, for Vancouver's computer-generated animation talent pool and for time zone compatibility with the Hollywood studio. Studio's initial three-year plan was to produce animated short films based on established Pixar film characters, to be shown in all of Disney-related businesses, including television, DVD compilations, internet, theme park attractions, and theatrical presentations. Post-production and stereoscopic 3D work remained in the hands of the Pixar's main studio in California.