The Pixar Secret We Never Heard Of

Will you spot the hidden reference?

In the last few days, an online buzz has caught our attention. According to this Huffington Post article, there's a hidden reference to a certain A113 in nearly every Pixar movie. 

At A113Animation we love that sort of stuff, and, learning about that story, we immediately saw its potential; obviously we had no clue there was this recurring A113 Easter egg in the Pixar films, or what it referenced.

But we thought it would be interesting to share our reaction to this brand new discovery.

At first, A113Animation's founder - William Jardine - didn't know how to name his blog. He went through many iterations, all of them featuring a letter followed by a three-digit number, and then the word Animation. "I had a hard time picking one name," he recalls. "W009, B456 and T711 were fine, but I wanted something that sounded just right. And I finally settled for A113."
Good on him, as it now transpires the name he chose back then is directly linked to Pixar. What a cool thing to happen for a blog dedicated to animated films! There are such things as happy coincidences!
                                                                       

One of many rejected logos

When the A113Animation team found out about this A113 stuff, everyone was astonished. Our live-action writer Nadine called it "bewildering," while our Studio Ghibli specialist Mayra said she was "overwhelmed by the news." Munir used the word "flabbergasted" and Damien was so shocked he refused to comment on the matter.

A re-enactment of William's reaction when he saw the Huffington Post article.

Now, that one Reddit user who deciphered that unknown easter egg for us claims "A113 refers to a classroom number at the California Institute of Arts. It was the classroom for first year graphic design and character animation, where many of the animators at Pixar and Disney, and several other studios, discovered and mastered their craft. The use of A113 in their films is a friendly nod to one another that they once shared a classroom without which they would never be doing what they're doing now."
That seems far-fetched to us, quite frankly. If this was true, there would be some kind of photographic evidence; and maybe a few blogs would have picked up on it and made a list of the A113 references?

We'll probably never find out what this all means - and certainly haven't known about it for years - but now that the animation fans around the world know about this, we can rest and trust that there's no other Easter egg or recurrence in the Pixar productions left to be discovered.

No idea what this picture is doing here