‘Finding Dory’ Easter Eggs: Did You Catch All Of These?
Whenever a new Pixar Animation movie hits theaters, you just know there are going to be a bunch of Easter eggs and references to other movie from the computer animation studio.Finding Doryis no different, and even though the film has only been in theaters for a few days, there’s already a list of Easter eggs out there that you may not have noticed.
Some of theFinding DoryEaster eggs are really easy to spot, such as the traditional A113 nod to theclassroom number at the California Institute of Artswhere many Pixar and Disney animators got their start. Others, like references to the brace-face Darla fromFinding Nemoand a reference toWALL-Eare a little more difficult to spot in your first viewing. Plus, there’s a few Easter eggs that we know are in the movie, but we’re not entirely sure where they are
Get a rundown of theFinding DoryEaster eggs we know of so far after the jump, but beware of spoilers.
As longtime Pixar fans know, the letter and number combination of A113 is something that pops up in every single movie from the animation studio. As explained in the opening, it’s the classroom from the California Institute of Arts where many Disney and Pixar animators got their start. This traditional Easter egg actually appears not once, but twice in the movie.
The first appearance of A113 is a little difficult to spot, because it appears as two separate tags on the sea lions Rudder and Fluke. Fluke’s tag reads “A1” and Rudder’s has “13” on it. But if that one was too quick to spot, you’d have to be blind to miss its second appearance on the front license plate of the aquarium truck that is transporting all the fish to Cleveland in the film’s climax. There’s a shot where the license plate is visible for a few seconds, making it impossible to miss.
Pixar’s Address and Year of Incorporation
A113 isn’t the only number that makes an appearance inFinding Dorywith some more significant meaning. On the Marine Life Institute boat that grabs Dory out of the water, you’ll notice that the numbers 1200 and 86 appear. They’re not just random numbers as Pixar’s address is 1200 Park Avenue, Emeryville, California and the animation studio became its own company in 1986 after being purchased by Steve Jobs.
Disneyland’s Submarine Voyage
Believe it or not, there’s yet another number-related Easter egg that you likely wouldn’t even notice without any further explanation. In one of the scenes that takes place in the behind the scenes areas of the Marine Life Institute, there’s a water pipe that’s labeled “Seawater Supply TL59.” This is actually a direct reference to theFinding NemoSubmarine Voyage ride from Disneyland, which is in itself a reference to Disney history. The ride was formerly known as simply the Submarine Voyage without anyFinding Nemobranding, and it just so happened to open as part of Tomorrowland (TL) in 1959. How about that?
Darla from Finding Nemo
All right, this isn’t a math class, so that’s enough with the numbers. Here’s a little reference to one of the characters fromFinding Nemo. When Dory is in quarantine by herself at the Marine Life Institute, if you look through her fish tank and into the background on the left, you’ll spot a picture of Darla, the little girl with braces who was notorious for killing fish inFinding Nemo. Does another one of Darla’s relatives live in California, far away from her home in Austraila?
Piper Poster
The short film that precedesFinding Nemois calledPiper, following an adorable little sandpiper bird discovering how to get his own food in the face of the big bad ocean. There’s a chance Piper may not be too far from the Marine Life Institute, because a poster of the little bird can be spotted in the background when Hank takes Dory out of her quarantine tank and puts her into a coffee pot.
Lava Magnet
Piperisn’t the only short film that gets a nod inFinding Dory. In the same scene that the Piper poster can be spotted, you’ll see a magnet on a tiny refrigerator that has a familiar volcano from the short filmLavathat played beforeInside Outlast year. The magnet is holding up some papers and features the same image of the volcano from the teaser poster. However, the titleLavahas been replaced with the name Uku, the singing star from the short.
WALL-E Calendar
Yet again we have another Easter egg that you’d have to be eagle-eyed to spot on your first time watchingFinding Dory. Even if you’re squinting for it, you likely wouldn’t catch this one. When Hank is suspended over the Open Ocean exhibit, ready to drop Dory into the huge exhibit to find her parents, if you look in the background on the right you’ll see aWALL-Ecalendar pinned to the wall. This raises the question of whetherFinding Dorytakes place around the time thatWALL-Eunits were starting to be manufactured by Buy N Large — that is, if you believe all the Pixar movies take place in the same universe.
Luxo Jr.’s Star Ball
One of the more reliable Pixar Easter eggs is the appearance of the bouncy ball with the red star on it. The ball was first featured in Pixar’s first shortLuxo Jr.and has appeared in almost all of Pixar’s movies, including the short films. Apparently you may spot the ball somewhere in the Kid Zone where Hank is terrified to go for fear of being poked. However, if you blink you’ll also miss the famous star design in the center of the steering wheel of the aquarium truck from the end of the film. You can spot it when Hank starts driving the truck.
The Wire’s Enemies Become Sea Lion Friends
We already talked about the standard Pixar Easter egg provided by the sea lions Fluke and Rudder, but there’s another funny little Easter egg that you might not have realized if you haven’t seenThe Wire. This isn’t a Pixar Easter egg, but Fluke and Rudder are voiced by Idris Elba and Dominic West. Even though they’re best friends on this ocean rock in California’s bay, they played enemies in the HBO crime seriesThe Wire. It’s just a fun little fact that makes the pairing of the actors that much more amusing.
Finding Nemo Voice Actor All Grown Up
We already covered this in a separate story, but in case you missed it, one of the originalFinding Nemovoice actors had a cameo that you may not have realized. Alexander Gould was the kid responsible for voicing the fish Nemo in the original 2003 movie. But it’s been 13 years in real time since then, and only one year in the timeline of the movie, so Gould was too old to voice the still young Nemo in the sequel. Instead, the grown up actor can be heard voicing one of the two aquarium truck drivers in the climactic sequence.
John Ratzenberger, Pixar’s Good Luck Charm
Cheersstar John Ratzenberger has had a voice role in every single Pixar film, and he’s become the animation studio’s good luck charm. His trademark voice is a little more difficult to spot inFinding Dorythough, because it’s been turned up to a slightly higher pitch. He’s the grass-clipping crab Bill that Dory talks to before she heads back into the pipes after realizing her parents aren’t in her childhood home.
Pizza Planet Truck
It should come as no surprise that the Pizza Planet Truck that first appeared inToy Storymakes an appearance inFinding Dory. But the question is where? I and several others could have sworn that they spotted the truck during the chase sequence on the highway at the end of the movie. However, director Andrew Stanton has indicated that you should be able to spot it much sooner,within the first 20 minutes. Maybe it’s among all the sunken junk, just like the…
Volkswagen Beetle from Cars 3 or The Love Bug?
Honestly, this doesn’t appear to be a real Easter egg. But we wanted to point it out since people think that it’s either a vehicle that will be seen inCars 3or Herbie from the classic Disney filmThe Love Bugand the contemporary sequelHerbie: Fully Loaded. However, in aninterview with our own Peter Sciretta, Andrew Stanton confirmed that it’s just a VW Beetle stuck at the bottom of the ocean.
Nemo’s Fish Tank Friends Return
Even though it’s not a Marvel movie,Finding Doryhad a scene at the end of the credits to add a couple great details to the end of the story. While the scene concludes with the sea lion Gerald finally sneaking back on the rock without Fluke and Rudder noticing, before that we see all the escaped aquarium fish fromFinding Nemostill inside the plastic bags in which they escaped. We’re not sure how they survived for a whole year in those plastic bags, or made it all the way to California from Australia in them, but we’re glad they’re getting a better home in the Marine Life Institute.
In addition, you may notice that Jacques the Shrimp has a totally clean bag, empty of any algae dirtying up the place he’s called home for the past year. Aside from that, the inclusion of this character is a little bittersweet. The character was voiced by Joe Ranft inFinding Nemo. Sadly, he passed away in 2005, but Jacques has been kept in the family as his brother Jerome Ranft, a sculptor at Pixar, provides the voice for this quick scene. He also voices Red in theCarsfranchise now in place of his brother.
The Ultimate Pixar Easter Egg
This isn’t exactly a real Easter egg, but it’s actually a funny little April Fool’s Joke from earlier this year. Hank the septopus can camouflage himself in nearly any environment, and it turns out that he’s actually been hiding in every single Pixar movie. Even though this is just a joke, I actually had to do a double take with that shot fromMonsters University, because I thought Hank might actually be disguised as that monster’s backpack, since it looked like the shape of his head.
Die Hard References
Finally, we have an assignment foryouto find two big Easter eggs. After the unifying Pixar Theory became a popular train of thought that connected all the movies from the animation studio, a parody video was created that explained how Pixar movies alsoexisted in the same universe asDie Hard. Well, a bunch of people at Pixar saw that, including Andrew Stanton, so they decided to make two references that actually made the fake theory true. Stanton toldCollider:
There’s a lot of theories online that all of the universes are connected, so somebody made a spoof of how we put Die Hard in all of our movies, and it was very funny, we thought it was tongue in cheek. So we said, ‘Alright, let’s do it,’ so we made two Die Hard references in this movie.
The only problem is we haven’t determined what those Easter eggs or references may be, and as far as I can tell, no one online has yet either. So if you head out to theaters to seeFinding Doryagain, keep your eyes and ears peeled to see if you’re able to find theDie Hardreferences.
That’s all for theFinding DoryEaster eggs that have surfaced for now. There will undoubtedly be more found once people see the movie more, and especially after it hits home video to be examined close-up, frame-by-frame. Thanks toYahoo,ScreenRantandInquisitrfor some of these Easter eggs.
