She-Hulk Just Added Another Disney Property To The MCU

Marvel fans are currently enjoying the first episode of the newest segment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline, "She-Hulk," starring Tatiana Maslany as the titular jolly green attorney at law, now streaming on Disney+. If you're at all familiar with the comic book version of the character, you shouldn't be surprised to learn that the series retains her penchant for breaking the fourth wall and communicating directly with the audience. As one of the few comic book characters who are often fully aware that they are in a comic book, She-Hulk has now become one of the few TV characters who knows she's in a TV show, and fittingly enough, the show's first episode introduces a bit of Disney magic from outside the MCU into the reality of the series.

The magic in question takes the form of a clip from a movie, which means that it exists as a film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe just as it does in ours.

Characters in the Marvel Universe often reference the same popular culture that its readers might recognize. The same has been true of characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has included references to everything from "The Wizard of Oz" to "Star Wars" that confirm their existence as movies within the MCU. Now, with the first episode of "She-Hulk," that list is joined by the Pixar film "Inside Out."

In a scene between Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany), better known as She-Hulk, and cousin Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Banner explains how She-Hulk has to find the emotional thresholds that separate Walters from her larger and greener alter-ego. To illustrate the point, Walters reaches for what is evidently the nearest reference point to the subject in her mind: "Ooh, put on a Pixar movie. When Bing Bong jumps out of the wagon in 'Inside Out.'"

Referencing "Inside Out" in "She-Hulk" is a pretty clever allusion, given their shared themes of the power of our emotions, as well as the title itself, as good a way as any of characterizing Jennifer and Bruce's transformations into their Hulking counterparts. But it's also a fun little expansion to the world of the MCU, which we now officially know includes Pixar — it makes you wonder what Reed Richards and his family thought about "The Incredibles."