Easter Eggs You Missed In Finding Dory

You can't have a good Pixar movie without a bunch of Easter eggs, right? There are more than a few to spot in Finding Dory, the long-awaited 2016 sequel to Finding Nemo.

When Dory gets taken into the Marine Life Center's quarantine room, she's dumped into a tank and swims around in a daze. As she takes in her surroundings, she looks over at a bulletin board with a photo of a very familiar girl with headgear pinned to it. That's right, if you're quick enough, you can spot a picture of Darla, the fish-tormenting girl from the original Finding Nemo. Of course, just why there's a picture of an Australian girl in a Californian Marine Life Center, we just can't answer. Maybe her reputation for torturing our finny friends has spread across the entire Pacific Ocean?

The movie's two sea lion characters, Fluke and Rudder, are voiced by Idris Elba and Dominic West, respectively. These two actors starred in the HBO series The Wire, with Elba playing Russell 'Stringer' Bell and West playing Detective Jimmy McNulty. As Fluke and Rudder, they sit on a rock and help Nemo and Marlin find their way into the Marine Life Center, all while keeping their spot safe from other sea lions like Gerald. Maybe not the same level of drama as The Wire, but you take what you can get in a kid's movie.

Fluke and Rudder also happen to hide another Easter egg. As pointed out by the Pixar Post blog, they have tags on their flippers that read "A1" and "13." That's a reference to the classroom at the California Institute of the Arts where many of Pixar and Disney's animators learned their craft, and it's appeared in every Pixar movie ever released, not to mention more than a few Disney movies, too. The classroom number appears again towards the end of the film: the truck heading for Cleveland, Ohio, has a license plate that reads CALA113."

Yet another Pixar Easter egg mainstay is the Luxo Ball, a small, yellow ball with a blue stripe and a red star in the middle. You probably remember it most vividly from Toy Story, but it's been hidden in just about every Pixar movie there is. In Finding Dory, you can spot the famous ball in the Kid Zone. It's one of those "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" type of things, so keep your eyes peeled.

You can also spot the the famed Pizza Planet Truck from the original Toy Story when Hank and Dory steal the transport truck headed for Cleveland. We're not sure how many different Pizza Planet franchises there are throughout time and space, but this beat-up, yellow truck sure gets around. It's appeared in just about every Pixar flick.

In the scene where Hank the septopus hangs from the pipes above the Open Ocean tank, there's a small desk in the top right corner of the screen. Above that desk is a calendar that reads "Wall-E." You can make it out in this image if you look real, real close. It would have also been cool to see some Buy'n'Large items littered around, giving some credence to the theory that these Pixar movies are all part of the same shared (and ultimately doomed) world. But, sure, a calendar is fine too.

Be on the lookout for a familiar face...kind of. Buried down on the ocean floor is the world's most famous 1963 Volkswagen Beetle, Herbie the Love Bug. Of course, as cute as that deep Disney reference is...that's actually a pretty creepy spot for Herbie's final resting place. Who knows, maybe this is one of those Easter eggs that Pixar sticks into their movies that hints at a future film. Maybe they'll take on a Herbie movie of their own? Or better yet, maybe he'll make his comeback in Cars 3...

According to Ultimate Orlando, one of the pipes in the Marine Life Center reads "Seawater Supply TL59." That's a reference to the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. The explanation doesn't stop there, either: the attraction used to be the Submarine Voyage, but was re-themed after the success of the film. Park visitors would be able to spot the pipe while waiting to get on the ride.

If you managed to sit through the credits, enjoying various snippets of Hank using his camouflaging abilities in different locations, then you'd be treated to a post-credits scene featuring the sea lions Fluke and Rudder hanging out on their rock. And who should happen to come swimming past them? The Tank Gang from Finding Nemo. Brad Garrett, Willem Dafoe and the rest came back to reprise their roles so we could see where the gang winded up. It's great to see them return, but we really have to wonder how they managed to eat and stay alive while being stuck in plastic bags for a year.

Did you know that Hank the septopus actually appeared in every one of Pixar's movies without anyone ever realizing it? It's true! Well, at least according to Finding Dory director Andrew Stanton and Hank's voice actor, Ed O'Neill, who appeared in a video explaining that Hank had been camouflaged into every Pixar movie since the first Toy Story hit theaters way back in 1995. Wait, what?

Oh, the video was published on April 1, 2016. So...uh...never mind.