One of the things that elevate the best Pixar movies is the way they contain references that there’s no chance in hell your average kid will get. We’re talking about the Toy Story character Legs, who’s a fishing rod with Barbie’s legs. She’s literally a hooker (a toy that can hook other toys), but no kids are going to get that.
It’s unsurprising then that when you start to watch the Toy Story movies in a slightly more adult way, you see more and more winks and nods you never saw before. And it’s been noticed that Toy Story 3 contains an awful lot of references to one of the best horror movies ever made, The Shining.
In an interview with IndieWire, Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich admitted to putting a number of these Easter eggs in himself because he’s mildly obsessed with Kubrick’s ghost movie.
“The Easter eggs that I would put in the films having to do with ‘The Shining was just me having fun,” Unkrich said. “There’s a bunch of stuff in Toy Story 3. There’s a Room 237 license plate on the back of the garbage truck. We have a tissue box with the carpet pattern on it by the monitors where the security monkey sits. We also made a reproduction of the radio sitting on that desk too. There’s a security camera in the classroom that has a badge on the side that says the Overlook 2000 or something.”
However, while Unkrich admits that he’s responsible for these Shining references, he’s actually not the one behind the most obvious of them. “There are two things that people think I put in that I didn’t,” he explained. “One is the carpeting in Sid’s hallway in Toy Story,’ and that was actually [production designer] Ralph Eggleston. That decision had been made before I was even on the movie.”
If you love a good easter egg, then check out our article breaking down 12 things you probably missed in John Wick 4. If you’re a fan of animated movies, you should take a look at our guides on the Despicable Me 4 release date and the Kung Fu Panda 4 release date. Finally, we’ve got a list of the best movies ever made for you to enjoy.