"It all starts with Merida discovering 'the will-of-the-wisps,'" Jon Negroni wrote in his widely circulated "Pixar Theory," the end-all, be-all timeline that aims to prove all of Pixar's movies exist in one universe. Fans have spent hours agonizing over Easter eggs and hints about old and upcoming movies in each Pixar project, but the studio has never said if executives intentionally created the timeline.
In a recent interview with Movies.com, "Monsters University" director Dan Scanlon and producer Kori Rae spoke about the theory. Asked if there was any truth to fan speculation, Scanlon said, "It's a funny idea, but we would've had to be insane geniuses to have plotted that out." Rae claimed that she had never spoken about it at Pixar, but added, "I'm sure people do, though."
But they had to admit there are some obvious connections between the movies. "You gotta think -- obviously we build on a world, and it's not for any other reason than a fun thing to do, but you can't deny that certain products are sold in the same world," Scanlon said.
Last year, Jalopnik spoke to Pixar's Jay Ward, who is considered the "guardian of the 'Cars' franchise," about the theory. At the time, Ward said, "No, the movies were sort of made in a different order by different directors in different times, in different places. It's cool that it all worked out that way, but it probably was not intentional." But hey, there are only so many times you can see a Luxo Ball and think coincidence.