“Elemental” has already arrived on Disney+ after a spectacular comeback at the box office and fans are discovering the numerous Easter eggs and references to Pixar’s legacy. From the legendary Pizza Planet Truck from Toy Story to the “secret code” that Pixar includes in all of its films: A113.
Directed by Peter Sohn, “Elemental” is Pixar’s 27th film. The story follows Ember and Wade, two characters from water and fire, who begin working together to solve a structural problem in Element City, creating an unlikely relationship.
Contrary to expectations, “Elemental” managed to achieve one of the most successful box office comebacks of the year, placing itself among the highest-grossing films of 2023 and saving Pixar.
In the story of Ember and Wade there are many hidden references to other Disney-Pixar films and references that remain hidden in plain sight. Many of them can be difficult to spot and only appear on the screen for a few seconds, but here we’ll tell you where to find the most important ones.
As usual, the appearance of the code “A113” cannot be missed in any Pixar production; a concept present in all of the San Francisco studio’s films. To see it in the film, you have to pay attention to an argument between Ember and Wade in a city alley starting at minute 25:33. In the official Pixar images, “A113” can be seen on a small sign on the wall, but in reality we noticed that it can be seen much larger on the door. We will use a modified photo to make the number stand out better.
“A113” was the name of one of the rooms at the California College of the Arts, CALArts, where many of Pixar’s biggest names taught, including “Elemental” director Peter Sohn. Pixar has used the room number reference in all of its films since Toy Story.
Other appearances of code are more difficult to detect because they only stay on the screen for a few tenths of a second and are in the “key”. What appears is the sign for “Next Stop: Element City” is “A,H,A1”. If we translate it into the language of the elements of the periodic table, A remains as A since no element uses this abbreviation, H would be hydrogen, which occupies position 1, and Al would be aluminum, which is located at position 13. Hence, “A113”. That was remarkable.
