The Core Easter Eggs Featured in ‘Onward’ (Including a Nod to ‘Soul’) Have Been Revealed

Searching for Easter Eggs is one of the signature experiences of going to see a Pixar film in theaters. Heck, it’s even one of the signature elements of watching the film again at home when you can pause the movie and look even closer at the background elements.

While many of the references change from film-to-film, a few of the Easter Eggs are ones you can count on searching for — the Pixar (or Luxo, Jr.) Ball, the Pizza Planet Truck, and the A-113 reference (the famed Cal-Arts college classroom number where many of the original Pixar employees studied animation). One other exciting Easter Egg that Pixar includes a nod to their next feature film — possibly hidden in the shadows to the left (see what we did there?!)

This post will cover the location of the four key Easter Eggs mentioned above — so, look away if you’re avoiding spoilers. At this point, we don’t have official images of the hidden items (updates to come), but the descriptions of where to find them are listed below.

A NOD TO “SOUL”

We didn’t spot the Easter Egg for Pixar’s upcoming film, Soul, ourselves, but in a recent interview with Empire (for their Spoiler Special podcast), Director Dan Scanlon noted that the Easter Egg can be found on a record within the Lightfoot house.

From Empire Online — “There’s a jazz performer in Soul named Dorothea Williams,” Dan explains. “Our movie doesn’t have any human beings in it so we thought, how are we going to get a nod in there?” If you look closely, you’ll see an item connected to the character, set to be voiced by [Angela Bassett]. “Early on in act one, when Barley is racing over to clean up his game that Colt Bronco has knocked over, you can see the Lightfoot family have a bunch of albums. The top album is a Dorothea Williams album,” reveals Scanlon. “I was like, that’s a good place to put it in there.”

THE PIXAR BALL

The Pixar ball can be seen when Ian and Barley enter the Manticore’s Tavern attached to a metal shield in the upper right-hand portion of the screen. The ball is not featured with its standard red, blue and yellow colors, but rather in dark bronze/silver tones to hide itself into the shield a little more. Sneaky, sneaky, Pixar!

Thanks to our friend Sydney for reminding us where the ball was located.

A–113 REFERENCE

This one is quite clever — in prior films your eyes will land on the A-113 reference, but in Onward your ears will have to pick this one up. Officer Colt Bronco, before letting down his hair and running off at the end of the film, receives a call over the radio noting that there is “A-one-thirteen in progress.”

PIZZA PLANET TRUCK

In Onward, you can either pay a with money or tell a riddle to cross the bridges cleverly manned by Trolls. When Ian and Barley first embark on their journey and pay the toll at the bridge, you will spot the Pizza Planet Truck…or, Pizza Realm Truck…at the far right of the screen. The front of the truck is cut off, but you can still see the signature rocket attached to the bright yellow truck.

You can also spot a Pizza Realm sticker attached to a white cooler with a red lid in the very next shot within the interior of Barley’s van, Guinevere.

Of course, there are many other Easter Eggs in Onward — so, which ones have you spotted? Did you notice the Triple Dent gum that Dew Drop the Pixie Duster is holding when he says, “You got a problem, shades?” Let us know what other Easter Eggs you’ve spotted by leaving a comment below or including it in the list currently running on the Onward Easter Eggs Forum thread.

Pixar Post — T.J.