The Big Picture

The Pizza Planet truck, a recurring Easter Egg in Pixar films, appears in every Pixar movie except for
The Incredibles
.
Director Brad Bird confirmed that he forgot to include the Pizza Planet truck in
The Incredibles
because he was busy making the film.
The Pizza Planet truck does make a brief appearance in
The Incredibles 2
, confirming its existence in the film’s universe.

It’s no secret that Pixar movies are filled with references to themselves. Eagle-eyed viewers will undoubtedly notice The Incredibles on the cover of a comic book in Finding Nemo, Nemo himself introduced as a toy in Monsters Inc., and a postcard from Up’s Paradise Falls hanging on Andy’s wall in Toy Story 3. These are just a few of the Disney-owned animation studio’s dozens of Easter Eggs across its vast filmography. Some of the films also share homages to Pixar itself, like the company’s iconic logo-hopping Lamp and its starred Luxo Ball appearing in the backgrounds. Its most prevalent Easter Egg, however, dates back to the studio’s very first feature film, and it has since appeared in every Pixar movie except one.

The Incredibles A cowboy doll is profoundly threatened and jealous when a new spaceman action figure supplants him as top toy in a boy’s bedroom.Release Date October 27, 2004 Director Brad Bird Runtime 121 Writers Brad Bird Studio Walt Disney Pictures

‘Toy Story’ Is the First Pixar Movie To Feature the Pizza Planet Truck
Back in 1995, Pixar made history by creating the first fully computer-animated feature film: Toy Story. Starring Tom Hanks and Tim Allen as the instantly recognizable Woody and Buzz, Toy Story was an unprecedented success. A filmmaking milestone, a box office hit, and a heartwarming story for the whole family to enjoy, the movie recaptured the best of its Disney-distributor’s legacy while simultaneously launching all cartoons into the digital future.

Nearly a generation later, Toy Story is still a part of the zeitgeist, with three sequels, a fourth on the way, and dozens of spin-offs from Lightyear to the short segments on Disney+ gracing our screens — not to mention the ubiquitous merchandising connected to the toy-centered franchise. With the series becoming such a tent-pole property for Pixar, Toy Story’s influence naturally seeps into the studio’s other films. Nowhere is this more endearingly present than in the recurring appearance of the iconic Pizza Planet truck, which played a key role in the first Toy Story’s plot and has since shown up in the background of 25 of Pixar’s 26 subsequent features.

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The Pizza Planet Truck Appears in Almost Every Pixar Film, From ‘Cars’ to ‘Elemental’

Pixar’s second feature, A Bug’s Life, introduced the first Pizza Planet crossover, with the truck briefly appearing parked beside an old trailer. To more noticeable effect, the vehicle returned in Toy Story 2, where the inanimate characters humorously and chaotically commandeer the Truck to save Woody. It’s since been spotted on the roads in Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, and Coco, in the post-apocalyptic wreckage of WALL-E, and personified among its vehicular peers in Cars. Even in the medieval-set Brave or the prehistoric The Good Dinosaur, Pixar snuck in the Pizza Planet truck as a sculpture and a conspicuously-shaped rock, respectively.

This begs the question of which Pixar movie lacks the Pizza Planet truck. One might assume it’s one of those archaically set ones, or something otherworldly and abstract such as 2023’s Elemental, Inside Out, or Onward. However, Pixar has found a way to creatively slip the vehicle into each of those movies. The sole exception is actually a cherished Pixar staple, ironically one packed with cars, cityscapes, and contemporary settings.

Why Isn’t the Pizza Planet Truck in ‘The Incredibles’?

The Incredibles came out in 2004 as Pixar’s sixth feature film and its last before Disney properly acquired the company in ’06. Directed by Brad Bird, the beloved cartoon superhero movie takes place in a 1960s-esque American world. Shots of urban environments, images of heavy traffic, and action-packed car chase sequences are abundant throughout the film. And yet, the Pizza Planet truck is nowhere to be seen in The Incredibles.

After years of fans combing the film’s frames for a glimpse of the famous truck, The Huffington Post finally asked Bird about its absence in a 2015 article. Bird confirmed that, to his knowledge, the truck is not featured in The Incredibles. His rationale was simple and straightforward: “I was busy making the movie. I didn’t think about the Pizza Planet… I just had other things on my mind.” It’s a genuine explanation, and considering how impeccable of a film The Incredibles ended up being, we can certainly give him a pass for forgetting to include this one small detail.

Where Is the Pizza Planet Truck in ‘The Incredibles 2′?
Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

For Pixar-purists, though — ones who might see the Pizza Planet truck as an essential inclusion in each film — Bird still offers a shred of hope. When the Post first brought up the truck’s nonattendance eleven years after The Incredibles’ debut, the director seemed surprised and uncertain, initially responding, “Is that so? I don’t know.” After giving his authentic reasoning, he went on to say that one of the animators could have potentially drawn the truck into the film without him knowing. “I would not be surprised if it was not in there and I would not be surprised if somebody got it in there when they were building the sets,” he explained. Hence, the truck could be mixed into The Incredibles’ packed imagery, but it’s so well-integrated that the director himself and die-hard Pixar fans who have been dissecting the film for the past 19 years still haven’t spotted it.

Happily, the vehicle did make a more transparent appearance in The Incredibles 2 come 2018. Halfway through the film, after Elastagirl (Holly Hunter) fights a faux-version of the main antagonist, Screenslaver, the two jump from an exploding apartment building and land in a dark alleyway. Parked next to them, shown only in a single shot, is the Pizza Planet truck. Captured under hazy nighttime streetlights and retrofitted to fit the film’s mid-twentieth-century aesthetic, the truck looks a little different than usual, and most audiences probably didn’t catch it the first time around. Nevertheless, it is there, confirming that Pizza Planet does indeed exist in The Incredibles’ universe and thus completing this particular line of interconnectivity across the Pixar filmography.

Alas, we can all enjoy our favorite space-themed slice of pizza no matter what Pixar movie we find ourselves in. In the case of The Incredibles, though, we may want to dine-in, lest it take another 14 years before the arrival of another sequel finally delivers.

The Incredibles is available to stream on Disney+ in the U.S.

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