Where Is The Pizza Planet Truck In Disney Pixar's Soul?
In these uncertain times, there are still a few concrete rules that we can count on the universe to follow. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Disliking pineapple on pizza continues to be mistaken for a personality trait on social media. And come Pixar movie season, fans will, invariably, catch a brief glimpse of the Pizza Planet truck.
For the uninitiated, the Pizza Planet delivery truck has been a staple of the Disney Pixar multiverse since purebred CGI feature films first climbed out of the primordial cinematic swamp in 1995 with the premiere of Toy Story. In the years that followed, the vehicle joined "A113," the Luxo ball, and John Ratzenberger as a load bearing, necessary addition to anything the studio pumped out. It was seen at the bottom of the ocean in Finding Dory, it was spotted at a Monsters University house party, and it even gained sentience in the post-apocalyptic nightmare universe of the Cars franchise. The only Pixar movie to date that it hasn't shown up in is The Incredibles, though it popped up in the video game adaptation to make up for it.
And so, with the release of Disney Pixar's Soul comes a new round of everyone's favorite game, "Where's the 1978 Gyoza Mark VII Lite Hauler pickup truck?" Luckily for anyone hoping to game the system, intrepid viewers have already found the answer.
In Soul, there is a Great Before, and there's pizza there
The Pizza Planet delivery truck pops up in Soul during a trip to the aptly named Hall of Everything around the 26-minute mark of the film. There, the souls of the unborn explore all of life's myriad possibilities, searching for the spark that will give their life purpose. There are swaths of musical instruments, culinary implements, sports equipment, and even a hot air balloon. And, as Joe and 22 enter the hall, nestled behind an upright bass on the left side of the screen, there's a familiar looking truck, with an even more familiar looking plastic rocket on the top.
The Pizza Planet truck isn't the only callout to Pixar productions past that the scene has to offer — in the background, viewers can just make out the blimp from Up and the starliner from Wall-E — but it is, undoubtedly, the most confusing. Its existence in the Hall of Everything implies that there are souls, luminous balls of sentience, whose entire existence revolves around carrying pizza from one place to another. Somewhere in the Pixar universe, there is at least one person who feels a distinct and unimpeachable sense of personal satisfaction every time they drop eight slices of pepperoni 'za on a person's porch, content in the fact that they've helped a novelty children's restaurant gross another $17.99. It's not the darkest detail in the Pixar films, but dwell on it for a minute or two, and it'll turn into an existential crisis with extra cheese.