A113

January 19, 2016 7:10 AM

Tim Burton, John Lassiter, Genndy Tartakovsky, Brenda Chapman, Brad Bird, and many more of the biggest names in animation all went through the animation program at CalArts, taking classes in room A113. As a thank-you gesture, the number A113 is included every Pixar Film. Even The Good Dinosaur. And quite a few other movies and tv shows as well.

John Lassiter explains.

More: Women now comprise 71% of CalArts Animation students
Steven Universe's Ian Jones-Quartey is tired of explaining to fans that he and Rebecca Sugar didn't go to CalArts.
Wikipedia has an even longer A113 list

posted by Mchelly (13 comments total)

I love stuff like this, thanks.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:38 AM on January 19, 2016

Amazing, I had no idea.
posted by LooseFilter at 7:50 AM on January 19, 2016

Sheridan College was one of the only other schools teaching animation back in the 70s and 80s but Sheridan's yearly tuition was less than $900 bucks (until the provincial Harris government cut back on subsidies in the early 90s). Now there's a thousand "schools" that'll take your parent's money.
posted by bonobothegreat at 7:56 AM on January 19, 2016

Women now comprise 71% of CalArts Animation students

They would all be about the right age to have watched Sailor Moon when it aired on Cartoon Network in the 90s.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 8:00 AM on January 19, 2016 [4 favorites]

A113 is scattered throughout my pop entertainment in a big inside joke? I shall let out a Wilhelm Scream in delight!
posted by rmd1023 at 8:02 AM on January 19, 2016

See also the Luxo Ball and Pizza Planet.
posted by jedicus at 8:10 AM on January 19, 2016

Want to really explode your brain? Pixar also hides references to future films in their releases....

Nemo in Monsters, Inc.

Mr. Incredible in Finding Nemo
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:31 AM on January 19, 2016 [5 favorites]

I love this kind of stuff like Hichcock's cameos, John Landis's "See You Next Wednesday" or Lucas' 1138.
posted by octothorpe at 8:54 AM on January 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

Also the "0451" code in Deus Ex games, Bio Shock games, Gone Home and Dishonored. Probably more.
posted by kittensofthenight at 10:44 AM on January 19, 2016

CalArts is expensive as all hell, but they have people from the industry come in and recruit promising future graduates, so it could be worse... But it helps to be mad talented in high school, like Alex Hirsch of Gravity Falls, if you want to be accepted.

Alex Hirsch was accepted. He also got to work with Weird Al on his projects there, before going on to hire him for voicing "The Probabilitor" last season.

Just goes to show that if you have talent, pay a lot of money for your education, and hit the Disney jackpot, you too can find a way to pay off those enormous student loans!
posted by markkraft at 1:06 PM on January 19, 2016

Probably more.

Stanley Kubrick and CRM 114.
Kevin Smith and 37.
posted by radwolf76 at 2:03 PM on January 19, 2016

Sam Raimi and the 1973 Olds Delta 88
posted by octothorpe at 2:15 PM on January 19, 2016

Its like the Wilhelm scream of animation.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 2:40 PM on January 19, 2016