One Big Universe

A few weeks ago I followed a link to Jon Negroni's PIXAR Theory, which theorizes that all the PIXAR animated films share the same universe. With some convoluted reasoning, he created a timeline that spans centuries and several different civilizations in order to encompass movies as diverse as "Brave" and "Cars 2." Frankly, you could get any two movies to exist in the same universe this way, and I wasn't surprised to find copycats popping up soon after, trying to link all the animated Disney films in a similar fashion, for instance.

This is only the latest example of single universe theory enthusiasts. These are the guys who love treating certain beloved movies and other media as treasure hunts, using little details to show connections between often wildly disparate pieces of media. TV Tropes calls it Canon Welding. One of the most popular is the Quentin Tarantino universe, where all of his films share common elements like the Red Apple cigarette brand, and characters in one film are often related to characters in others. For instance, Vincent Vega in "Pulp Fiction" and Mr. Blonde from "Reservoir Dogs" are brothers. Tarantino used to talk about making a Vega brothers prequel movie with the two characters that never came to pass. Or there's Donnie "The Bear Jew" Donowitz from "Inglorious Basterds," who is the father of a film producer named Lee Donowitz in "True Romance."

Then there's Dwayne McDuffie's article on the Grand Unification Theory, also known as the Tommy Westphall Universe Hypothesis, that links over two hundred different television shows together through similar logic. At the core of that one is the fact that certain characters like Detective John Munch from "Homicide: Life on the Street" and the "Law & Order" series showed up in other shows like "The X-Files." Two doctors crossed over from hospital show "St. Elsewhere" to "Homicide: Life on the Street" once, linking that show too. "St. Elsewhere" is the important one, because that series ended with the bizarre twist that the whole show had taken place in the mind of an autistic boy named Tommy Westphall. If you count things like shared fake brands and appearances on "The Simpsons" and "South Park," just about everything can be linked. For instance, the most recent episode of "Breaking Bad" revealed Walt rented his van from a company called Lariat Rent-a-Car, where Mulder and Scully would always get their vehicles. Little Tommy Westphall's imagination sure has gotten more violent over the years.

This is all a lot of fun, but ultimately it doesn't amount to much. The point of McDuffie's article was that keeping track of so much continuity beyond a certain point was absurd. It's silly to treat a hard-edged crime drama like "Homicide: Life on the Street" like it exists in the same world as "The X-Files" with its alien conspiracies and supernatural forces. McDuffie was gently poking fun at militant comic book continuity nitpickers, particularly the ones who are up in arms every time a fun crossover decides to toss logic out the window for a few issues so that an unlikely team-up can take place. Putting all the PIXAR movies into a single timeline is pointless, because it doesn't matter whether most of them are connected or not. It's not like Merida from "Brave" and Lightning McQueen from "Cars" are ever going to meet face to face except at one of the Disney theme parks, for the sake of brand synergy.

So why do people keep coming up with these theories? Well, because it's fun. It's a chance to play detective and geek out over your favorite media. It's a way to use all the trivia and minutia collected over the years and put it towards something creative. Creators sometimes encourage this with Easter eggs and hidden messages - spotting the Pizza Planet truck in the latest PIXAR film is something of a tradition now. Also, the concept of single, shared universes hold a lot of appeal. It's nice to think about all your favorite characters from various pieces of media being able to interact in some way. Disney has built two different films around the concept - "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" for Golden Age cartoon shorts, and "Wreck-it-Ralph" for video games.

Keeping in mind that they shouldn't be taken too seriously, I enjoy these theories. They do a lot to illuminate the worldbuilding of various media and can spark lots of interesting meta discussions. Looking at all the connections in the Grand Unification Theory, you notice that crossovers between major network shows used to be a much more common ratings stunt, and nobody could turn down a visit from Steve Urkel. And maybe Tarantino's penchant for little connections between his films says something about him as a filmmaker. The man loves his homages, so self-referential touches shouldn't be a surprise.

Not every piece of beloved media needs to be part of a complicated, sprawling universe like "Star Trek" or "Avengers," but it's fun to pretend that they are.
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