The Toy Story Easter Egg You Might Have Missed In Turning Red

There are some crucial ingredients that Pixar movies just can't be without. The studio has given the world a monumental 25 feature films since 1995, all of which have been characterized by impressive voice work, eye-watering animation, and stories tailored to make your heart melt. The latest addition to appear on Disney+ thankfully manages to check all those boxes, while still finding time to tackle important subject matter.

Set in Toronto, "Turning Red" tells the coming-of-age story of Meilin "Mei" Lee (Rosalie Chiang), who is hit with a significant problem no 13-year-old girl would anticipate. Should she get overly excited or reach high levels of stress, Mei instantly transforms into a giant red panda. A colorful "Teen Wolf" in an animated world, the Domee Shi-directed film, while being a great watch, still manages to pay its respects to the founding movie of the illustrious studio in effortless fashion. 

You just need to look in the right place. Up, in this instance — the direction, not the film.

In one of Mei's many embarrassing moments, our hero cuts school and runs home in full panda mode through Chinatown. Running over rooftops with her mother, Ming (Sandra Oh), hot on her heels, we see Mei leap to a building, placing the Toronto sky in full view. Now, as has been compulsory for any partially cloudy sky in a Pixar film, this one is reminiscent of another sky pattern from the studio's founding film, where it was printed on a wall in a young boy's room.

That's right: The skyline in "Turning Red" with its beautifully fluffy cloud formations is the same iconic look from the original "Toy Story." The pattern makes an early appearance in the film, but there's no mistaking it's the same one from Andy's bedroom. While a discreet Easter egg, it's a great nod to what came before and is as synonymous with the studio as a Pizza Planet truck. 

Take a look for yourself and check out "Turning Red" which is now available to stream on Disney+.