Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, I'm Jan and in
this video I'm explaining how Pixar's new

movie Soul proves the theory that all the
studio's films take place in an interconnected

universe.

I'll also show you how Soul explains the Toy
Story movies, where the Incredibles get their

powers, and the origins of the magical doorways
in Monsters Inc and Brave.

Plus I'll explain how the new film fits in
with Inside Out and Coco.

Of course, there'll be some spoilers, so take
care.

Jon Negroni first introduced the idea of a
single Pixar timeline, and it's in Soul's

The Hall of Everything where we can find especially
compelling evidence to confirm Negroni's theory.

The hall is overflowing with specific objects
and locations which often recur in Pixar's

films, from the iconic Pizza Planet truck
to the blimp from Up, and even the weirdly

shaped rock, called Wille's Butte from the
Cars movies.

And that's a huge pointer that the films exist
in the same universe.

But Soul goes even further than this, because
even though the film appears to be set roughly

in the present day, which I'm basing on the
look and feel of New York City and the cellphone

Joe uses,
the Hall of Everything even has objects from

the future such as the Axiom from Wall-E,
one of a fleet of giant starliners that wasn't

used until 2105 when Buy N Large arranged
for the evacuation of Earth.

This implies that The Hall of Everything may
even contain blueprints or at least the inspiration

for events that are still to come in the future
of the Pixar universe.

Soul also demonstrates one of the most important
concepts at the heart of Negroni's Pixar Theory,

that humans are batteries.

The idea is that human beings are a source
of energy to sentient objects such as the

toys in Toy Story which is why they crave
the love of their owners;

otherwise, it's suggested that if the toys
end up stored away they lose their life.

And in Monsters Inc, we know that technology
exists that can harvest energy from human

emotions such as fear or joy.

And there are several moments in Soul that
strongly support this idea of humans as an

energy source.

When Joe is on the elevator that leads to
the Great Beyond, he notices that as the souls

of the recently deceased float up into the
big bright light, they fizzle and crackle

like an electrical charge.

[electrical crackling sounds]
As if to reinforce this idea that a soul is

a form of energy, there's also an electrical
crackle sound effect whenever we see Terry

counting souls on her abacus.

[electrical crackling sounds]
Joe also discovers in the Great Before that

before new souls can take their place on Earth,
they not only have to acquire a set of personalities,

but they also need what the movie calls a
"spark" to complete that personality.

Without this spark, theoretically a soul isn't
allowed to go to Earth and live a human life.

Twenty-two does end up on Earth by accident,
but the general rule is that a "spark" is

needed to complete the Earth Pass which a
soul needs to live a life.

The word "spark" can, of course, mean a number
of things such as a burst of electricity or

an intense feeling or emotion, which again
points to this idea of human beings as a form

of energy or batteries even.

Another crucial element of Negroni's Pixar
theory is the idea that Boo from Monsters

Inc travels back in time to become the Witch
in Brave.

I'll get to how Soul supports this idea shortly,
but first let's quickly recap what the theory

says about time travel.

Brave is set in 10th-century Scotland whereas,
given the monsters' advanced technology, Monsters

Inc takes place in the future.

The clearest evidence which suggests time
travel is the wood carving of Sulley that

the Witch has in her cottage.

She's also obsessed with bears which could
be her way of expressing the strong friendship

she made with Sulley in Monsters Inc.

On top of that, the Witch has carvings of
the Pizza Planet truck which should be impossible

given motorised vehicles most definitely did
not exist in medieval Scotland

and she has carved parodies of famous art
by artists from the future like Michelangelo.

The door to the Witch's cottage is also magical
and can transport her into an alternate interior

version of her hut, and it can also make her
disappear.

This is because Boo learned how the technology
of the portal doors at the Monsters Inc factory

worked, which is how she travelled through
time and space.

Crucially in Soul, we can see this same technology
in the You Seminar.

After souls are paired up with their mentor,
Jerry conjures up a door and sends them through

it, instantly transporting them to another
location.

And when Jerry gives Joe his second chance
to return to Earth, he passes from The Great

Beyond through a door and emerges on Earth
through another door.

Given The Great Before existed at the beginning
of time, it suggests that the technology for

magical portals in the Pixar Universe was
originally born there.

Soul also makes a sneaky possible reference
to Boo's time-travel shenanigans in what initially

appears to be a throwaway line by one of the
Jerrys.

When Terry turns up to complain that the count
is out by one soul, Jerry replies:

"I seriously doubt that.

The count hasn't been off in centuries."

This is a vital piece of information for Pixar
theorists because it tells us an anomaly similar

to Joe escaping the elevator that was taking
him to the Great Beyond has happened previously,

several hundred years ago in fact.

To understand what may have happened all those
centuries ago, let's look at what happened

when Joe's soul accidentally fell into the
body of Mr Mittens.

"Why am I in a cat?"

"I don't know!"

"Meow."

It seems that Mr Mittens' soul was sent off
to The Great Beyond.

So, what if Boo did a similar thing when she
time-travelled to medieval Scotland?

Could she have landed in the body of a Scottish
woman and displaced her soul sending it up

to the Great Beyond?

That would mean there'd be an extra soul in
the afterlife without a corresponding dead

body on Earth, which could be the reason for
the count being off as Jerry said.

Interestingly, when Joe returns to his old
body in Soul, Mr Mittens appears to regain

his original soul too as we see him reunite
with his owner,

so if my theory about Boo and the Witch's
soul is correct, it makes me wonder whether

Terry did anything about the anomaly that
occurred in the soul count hundreds of years

ago.

By the way, it's worth pointing out that there's
also a Brave easter egg in Soul during the

video at the You Seminar when we see a soul
find its spark after it successfully shoots

an arrow into the centre of one of three targets,
referencing Merida's demonstration of archery

skills when she fired arrows into three targets.

And there are, of course, many more Pixar
easter eggs in Soul including the Chinese

takeout box, A113, and the Luxo Ball, all
of which I reveal in my full easter eggs video.

Now, there are two Pixar movies, Inside Out
and Coco, which on the surface seem to contradict

Soul and maybe pose a problem for how smoothly
it fits into the interconnected universe of

the Pixar Theory.

The first issue is to do with personality.

In The Great Before, we discover that every
soul acquires a set of personalities before

they go to Earth.

"This is where personalities come from?"

"Of course!

Do you think people are just born with them?"

However, in Inside Out, personalities are
formed whenever a new core memory is made.

"Each Core Memory powers a different aspect
of Riley's personality.

The Islands of Personality are what make Riley...

Riley!"

While these ideas about personality may appear
to be at odds with one another, they can be

easily reconciled if we think of a new born
soul as having a baseline personality at birth,

some of which adapts and changes as that person
grows up and has different experiences.

In fact, in Inside Out we see that Riley loses
her personalities when she experiences a traumatic

event, however, these are later restored and
new ones are also added as she grows up;

so an individual's personality is clearly
not something static or unchanging.

Likewise, Soul also shows us how Twenty Two's
personality changes as she experiences life

on earth.

Something else we need to reconcile is how
Coco's Land of the Dead fits with Soul's depiction

of The Great Beyond.

In Soul, the afterlife is a relatively simple
place with an escalator that leads souls to

a giant white light in the sky.

This representation may be alluding to the
idea that many people who report near-death

experiences describe a tunnel with a bright
light at the end that draws them towards it.

Coco's spirit world, on the other hand, is
complex and bursting with colours, with the

Marigold Bridge forming a connection between
the Land of the Living and the elaborate and

complex Land of the Dead.

Fear not though, because we can resolve these
differences by turning to Pixar's official

The Art of Soul book, which describes The
Great Beyond as

"a place beyond all that can be known […]
represented by a brilliant white light in

a vast space […]
What lies beyond the light is all up to interpretation."

As the book suggests, we can interpret what
is beyond the bright light in our own way,

and so we can see the Land of the Dead in
Coco as a culturally-specific vision of what

the afterlife is unique to people of Mexican
heritage.

This would also explain how Coco can have
its own specific rules for its spirit world,

such as allowing the dead to cross over to
the Land of the Living one day each year.

What's common to both Soul and Coco though
is that the dead souls all retain the appearance

and age they had at the time of their death,
whereas in the Great Before, all the souls

look more or less similar, likely because
they haven't yet taken a human form yet.

The sparks that a soul acquires may even explain
where the Supers in The Incredibles got their

powers.

Could it be that the souls that ended up as
superheroes were supercharged with extra powers

by the spark they received in the Great Before?

There is, after all, a statue of what looks
like a caped hero on a plinth in the Hall

of Everything.

Maybe that statue was responsible for sparking
the unfortunate idea of caped superheroes.

"No capes!"

And this is just a fun idea, but could the
soul that's being interviewed here for the

You Seminar training video be the soul of
Buddy Pine, aka Syndrome.

"I'm a manipulative megalomaniac, who's intensely
opportunistic."

"Oh ho!

This one might be a handful, but that's Earth's
problem."

Perhaps Syndrome got his spark from that statue,
because after all it was his cape that proved

to be his ultimate undoing.

And yes, Syndrome wasn't born with powers,
but that statue might have inspired him to

seek glory in whatever way he could.

Or could that soul be Evelyn Deavor, the master
manipulator and evil tech genius from the

second Incredibles movie?

The soul's possibly female-sounding voice
might also suggest this, although we know

from Twenty Two that a soul can change their
voice to sound like any type of person.

"I can sound like this if I wanted to.

Or sound like this instead.

I can even sound like you."

If you like either of these ideas, leave a
thumbs-up or comment below with which other

Pixar character you think this troublemaking
soul could be!

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Now, do you have any more ideas on how Soul
fits into the Pixar Theory?

And if you enjoyed any of my Soul theories,
a thumbs-up is hugely appreciated.

You can also tap left to discover where all
the other Pixar easter eggs are in the movie

or tap right for something else you're sure
to like.

Thanks for watching and see ya next time.

Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!