Pixar: 10 Moments That Went Over Kids’ Heads (But Their Parents Loved)

The writers and animators behind the cinematic masterworks of Pixar have always maintained that their films are just as suited to adult audiences as child audiences. On top of telling deeply human stories that connect emotionally no matter how old you are, the Pixar team also hides innuendos in seemingly family-friendly scenes.

Every Pixar movie has a handful of sexual references or adult-oriented Easter eggs that go totally unnoticed by children who don’t get the joke and only serve to amuse their parents. So, here are 10 moments from Pixar movies that went over kids’ heads, but their parents loved.

10 The Lemon Party In Cars 2

Although it’s widely considered to be Pixar’s worst movie (or at least one of its worst), Cars 2 also has one of the studio’s slyest winks to the grown-ups in the audience. Among the sequel’s characters are a group of lemon cars, who host a “lemon party.”

In the movie, a lemon party is a party filled with piles of lemons. But in the 2000s, “lemon party” was a popular meme that led internet users to a graphic image of elderly men having sex.

9 Sid’s House Has The Carpet From The Shining In Toy Story

The team at Pixar must really love Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, because they seize every opportunity they can to put a nod to it in one of their movies. This can be seen even in their first feature-length effort, Toy Story. The carpeting in Sid’s house has the same distinctive pattern as the carpeting in the hallways of the Overlook Hotel in Kubrick’s horror masterpiece.

Very few kids have seen The Shining (unless they have irresponsible parents who don’t mind their children being traumatized by terrifying imagery), so very few kids picked up on this Easter egg.

8 The Corporate Satire In WALL-E

When WALL-E opens, Earth is a desolate wasteland with no signs of human life. A little trash-compacting robot is pottering around, piling up cubes of garbage, 800 years into the future.

Throughout the movie, it becomes apparent that a megacorporation called Buy-N-Large has assumed political power, sent humankind into space, and botched a clean-up operation. This satire of corporations’ stranglehold on the world and the empty promises made by their CEOs was lost on children.

7 Mike Thinks Sulley Is Peeping In The Men’s Bathroom In Monsters, Inc.

When Boo escapes from Sulley’s sight and disappears from her stall in the men’s bathroom, he goes looking for her. She thinks they’re playing hide-and-seek, and Sulley goes along as he peers under the doors of bathroom stalls.

Mike catches him in the act and suspiciously asks, “What are you doing!?” Kids didn’t realize that Mike thought Sulley was peeping on men in the bathroom.

6 The Bear In Inside Out

What sets off Riley’s spiral into introversion and unhappiness at the beginning of Inside Out is her move to San Francisco. When her mom takes her out for pizza, the culture shocks come thick and fast as everything in the city is unfamiliar to her, like broccoli on pizza.

At one point, while Riley is out and about in San Francisco, Anger says, “I saw a real hairy guy. He looked like a bear.” San Francisco famously has a large gay community, and in the gay community, “bear” refers to a large hairy man, but this went over most kids’ heads.

5 Cluckers In The Good Dinosaur

As one of Pixar’s few financial disappointments, The Good Dinosaur is perhaps the studio’s most underrated film, betrayed by shoddy marketing and a quiet release window.

When Arlo is feeding his family’s chickens, he calls them “cluckers,” and the aggression with which he says it seems to be an allusion to the word “f*ckers.”

4 A Mosquito Drinks A Bloody Mary In A Bug’s Life

Flik leaves behind his ant colony and goes on a dangerous adventure in A Bug’s Life. When that adventure takes him to a bar, a mosquito comes in and orders a “Bloody Mary, O+.”

He’s served a drop of blood and sucks it up off the bar, which immediately makes him bloated and tipsy. He promptly passes out, as if from alcohol poisoning. Kids didn’t get the joke here, but their parents certainly did.

3 The Garbage Boy Who “Got Lucky” In Ratatouille

Kids watching Ratatouille when Colette says that Linguini is a “garbage boy who got lucky” might think she meant he got two candy bars with one dollar from a vending machine. But of course, adults know that she’s referring to Linguini losing his virginity.

2 Barbie’s Compliments Ken’s Ascot In Toy Story 3

When Barbie meets the Ken doll voiced by Michael Keaton at Sunnyside Daycare in Toy Story 3, he compliments her leg-warmers and, in return, she says, “Nice ascot.”

Kids will think that she’s just saying she likes Ken’s ascot, but the fact that she emphasizes the “as” part a lot more than the “cot” part says something else to adults.

1 Lightning McQueen’s Biggest Fans Flash Their Headlights In Cars

In the opening scenes of Cars, which establish Lightning McQueen as a racing superstar in the movie’s curious fictional world, Lightning is approached by two female fans, twin cars named Mia and Tia.

They tell Lightning that they’re his biggest fans before flashing their headlights. Kids don’t understand the real-world parallel here, but their parents do.

About The Author

Ben Sherlock
(3465 Articles Published)

Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

More From Ben Sherlock