All movies have Easter Eggs in them somewhere in this day and age, and Disney loves to do that with their films as they proved with Zootopia . Pixar has been doing that since they’ve been in existence, and they’re not stopping now. Finding Dory just hit theaters on Thursday night, and the hidden and fun things are starting to make their way out. Here are just 10 of the Easter Egg in Pixar’s newest release and one incredibly odd, but believable, theory about Die Hard .
Please note that there are some spoilers ahead for Finding Dory which could ruin the experience for you. If you haven’t yet seen the film, then you may want to stop reading now.
The movie itself is really good and Disney-Pixar has a winner on their hands with this sequel, but the hidden secrets are so much fun to find. You may want to wait until your second viewing to locate them all so you don’t miss the plot and enjoyment, but here is what to keep your eyes open for.
1.) Make sure to look in the background of The Marine Life Institute, especially in the back offices. Among things you’ll see in the office is a picture of the headgear-wearing Darla from the first film who loves “FISHIES!”
2.) There is also a model of Crush the Sea Turtle hanging in the “Open Ocean” exhibit and a poster featuring the volcanosfrom the hit Pixar short Lava, according to Pixar Post.
3.) Hank the septopus (he’s not an octopus since he only has seven tentacles) is quite possibly the best and longest running Easter Egg in Pixar history. No matter how crucial and big a part of Finding Dory he really is, Hank is a huge hidden joke and secret all on his own.
4.) A113 makes an appearance in every single Pixar film and Finding Dory is no exception. The classroom number at Cal Institute of the Arts where many Pixar animators spent a lot of their time shows up on a truck license plate in the final portion of the film.
Trust me, the truck is a key component for the climax and you can’t miss it.
5.) While shown during the trailer, this is one you can see twice during the film. At one point when Dory is looking for her family and in the credits, Herbie the Love Bug does make an awesome appearance.
@DisneyPixar Is it an easter egg for people to find #53 Herbie behind Dory of the recent Finding Dory trailer????? pic.twitter.com/vw81Dshvjz
— Matthew Storm (@DegaMatthew) May 28, 2016
6.) There is a reference to the Toy Story aliens which is pretty awesome and it comes later in the film. A group of blue tangs (Dory-fish) who are in a tank together and they all band together to go, “Oooooooooo!”
7.) One of the boats you’ll see in the film has the number “1200” on the side of it, and that is a nod to the address of Pixar headquarters which is 1200 Park Avenue in Emeryville, California.
8.) Ultimate Orlando noticed a Disneyland Park Easter Egg in Finding Dory , and it is on a water pipe which reads “Seawater Supply TL59.” This is the same name on a water pipe at the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage in Anaheim.
9.) Another A113 reference is dropped in Finding Dory, and it comes with two of the best characters in the film. Fluke and Rudder are a couple of awesome sea lions voiced by Idris Elba and Dominic West respectively, and make sure to check out their tags.
Yes, Rudder’s tag reads “A1” and Fluke’s tag reads “13.”
10.) Now, this is a fan theory that is one of the strangest and weirdest in cinematic history as it actually connects Die Hardto the film. As Pixar theories have gone in the past, fans have been led to believe that Woody, Sully, Wall-E, Dory, Nemo, Flik, and all the characters exist in the same universe but does John McClane also exist in the same space?
According to Collider , Finding Dory director Andrew Stanton and producer Lindsey Collins even joked about that possibility so they wanted to make it a reality.
“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.”
So yes, somewhere in Finding Dory are two Die Hard references which make that universe so much more expansive and awesome.
Finding Dory is already breaking after opening with $9.2 million on its first night and that is the largest Thursday night opening ever for an animated film. It actually shattered the previous record of $4 million by Toy Story 3 years ago. Now, these Easter Eggs and other hidden things could end up bringing in repeat viewers or even those who weren’t planning on going. It could also bring in a Die Hard fan or two who is trying to see how weird that theory really is.
[Image via Disney-Pixar]