- 7/3/2025
Pixar films are known for their emotional depth, but did you know many were inspired by real-life stories? Join us as we explore the heartbreaking true experiences behind some of your favorite animated movies that will make you laugh, cry, and appreciate the power of personal storytelling.
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00:00At the bottom of this five-story chasm sits a story and a half.
00:05Welcome to Miss Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the Pixar films that were reportedly based on true stories.
00:12Grab your tissues and let's get started.
00:14It took a long time for me to process my own relationship with my mother and just trying to figure out how to be a good daughter.
00:23Number 8. Enrico Casarosa's Childhood, Luca
00:27This animated film about boyhood friendship was in fact based on very real experiences.
00:33Director Enrico Casarosa was inspired by the works of Federico Fellini, of course, as well as other Italian filmmakers.
00:40The reason why I thought we could really own in on the 50s and 60s, first just the golden era of Italian cinema, and the music was just stunning.
00:53The sea creatures were also based on Italian myths and folklore, but it is his experiences growing up in Genoa, Italy that informed a lot of the film.
01:02The experience of really having a lot of fun and being kind of out of my comfort zone with someone who was very different from me, was something I really wanted to talk about.
01:12The friendship between Luca and Alberto was based on Casarosa's lifelong friendship with his friend, also named Alberto.
01:19The real Alberto even got a minor voiceover role in the film.
01:23Casarosa met him in the summer when he was 11, and their experiences made this sweet film even sweeter.
01:29But I love that he's two-year-old, so the movie loved it, and the first thing he asked him was like, but do Alberto and Luca see each other?
01:36And they're like, yeah, what do they do? And they have two wonderful families, and they're, you know, they're far, but they see each other.
01:44Number 7. Andrew Stanton's Observations. Finding Nemo.
01:48It turns out director Andrew Stanton was also inspired by his own personal life in the creation of this classic Pixar film.
01:55As a child, he felt the fish at his dentist's office longed to go home.
01:59How many times have you tried to get out?
02:02I've lost count. Fish aren't meant to be in a box, kid. It does things to you.
02:08When he and his family visited Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in 1992,
02:13Stanton thought the aquamarine exhibits would look splendid in animation.
02:17He later came up with the idea of Marlin from a photograph of a clownfish peeking out of its anemone,
02:23which suggested Marlin's overly protective personality.
02:26Now, what's the one thing we have to remember about the ocean?
02:29It's not safe.
02:30That's my boy.
02:31So, first, we check to see that the coast is clear.
02:34We go out, and back in.
02:36And then we go out, and back in.
02:39And then one more time, out, and back in.
02:42And sometimes, if you want to do it four times,
02:44Dad!
02:44All right, come on, boy.
02:45Marlin and Nemo's fraught relationship was also based on Stanton's own relationship with his son,
02:51with Stanton utilizing his own overprotective qualities.
02:54It's a beautiful tale made all the more grounded by this real-life experience.
02:59Dad, you can let go now.
03:02Sorry.
03:03Now go have an adventure.
03:05Goodbye!
03:06See you later, dudes!
03:08Number 6.
03:09Pete Docter's Daughter, Inside Out.
03:12Puberty can be a font of endless inspiration.
03:15This film was really started watching my daughter grow up.
03:19And she was 11 when we started.
03:20And as a little kid, she was like, you know, the way little kids are.
03:23Goofy, funny, full of energy.
03:24And then she turned 11, and then she was a little bit more like...
03:27When director Pete Docter noticed his daughter becoming quieter in her adolescence,
03:33he wondered at the cause of this personality change.
03:36Inside Out was the result of such inquiries,
03:38following 11-year-old Riley's anthropomorphized emotions
03:42as she struggles with her family's move to San Francisco.
03:45Fear!
03:46Run!
03:46I need a list of all the possible negative outcomes on the first day at a new school.
03:50Way ahead of you there.
03:50Does anyone know how to spell meteor?
03:52Disgust.
03:52Make sure Riley stands out today, but also blends in.
03:55Doctor consulted with psychologists, specialists, and even neuroscientists,
04:00coming up with over 27 emotions before finally whittling it down to five.
04:05The end result beautifully acknowledges the importance of sadness in our lives.
04:09It just goes to show what a parent's love can accomplish.
04:12Told you it was a great idea.
04:14Best idea he's had in a while.
04:17He's a really good guy.
04:19Number 5.
04:20Edith Macefield's House.
04:22Up.
04:22So long, boys!
04:24I'll send you a postcard from Paradise 4.
04:27This fantastical film about a widower literally making his house airborne
04:31seems to be based in part on a true story.
04:34Surprise!
04:35While Pete Docter came up with the idea of a flying house,
04:38Carl's refusal to leave his home to make way for real estate developers
04:42seems to have its roots in real life.
04:45For those of you who don't remember that interview...
04:47Is there any...
04:47Go away!
04:48Okay.
04:49That's probably because it never happened.
04:52Even after I sent her flowers and offered to help with the chores.
04:56Do you want some help, Edith?
04:57No!
04:58Seattle native Edith Macefield made waves when she refused to sell her house to developers.
05:03She even turned down a $1 million dollar offer in 2006.
05:08Sometimes she was in the yard.
05:09I never met her.
05:10I just saw her.
05:11But her blue car was always there for years and years and years.
05:14In the end, she died of pancreatic cancer in the same house she lived in since 1952.
05:20Her house, Whitewood Cottage, became the inspiration for Carl's House and Up.
05:24What a story!
05:26Number 4.
05:27Stephen Clay Hunter's Coming Out.
05:29Out, this short made history as the first Pixar film to center on a gay character.
05:34It follows protagonist Greg as he struggles to come out to his family.
05:38Just look them in the eyes and say,
05:40Mom, Dad, I'm...
05:43This is my boyfriend.
05:45Manuel.
05:47What is wrong with me?
05:50While hiding his relationship with his boyfriend from his parents,
05:53he magically swaps bodies with his pet.
05:56This animated feature was based on the many coming out experiences of queer people,
06:00but also of its director.
06:02Every theme kept coming back as a coming out thing,
06:05and I kind of...
06:06I kind of realized, like, quickly that I just...
06:08It was something I needed to explore, you know, and talk about.
06:11Like Greg, Stephen Clay Hunter did not come out to his parents until he was an adult at 27.
06:17Fortunately, Hunter's parents were supportive,
06:19a happy ending reflected in the short.
06:21Other inspirations included LGBTQ plus activist Harvey Milk and The Twilight Zone.
06:27And, of course, other gay people Hunter had consulted.
06:31One small short, but a giant leap for representation.
06:34You ready?
06:35Are you?
06:36Hi.
06:48Number 3.
06:50Peter Soane's Immigration Story
06:52Elemental
06:53Director Peter Soane first pitched this film as a meeting between fire and water,
06:58whether they can ever connect or not.
07:00But the story ended up based on something much more personal.
07:03I came back to Pixar, and they were like, what movie do you want to do?
07:05And I had these other ideas, and then I left, and they said, wait, what happened in New York?
07:08And I told them the story, and they're like, Peter, that's the...
07:10That's the movie you have to do.
07:11You have to...
07:12And because they all felt this thing, but like, it's been this tribute.
07:15Soane has been open about Elemental being based on his experiences growing up in New York City in the 70s
07:21as the son of Korean immigrants.
07:22It no doubt informs protagonist Ember's fish out of water,
07:26or rather, fire out of hearth life in Element City.
07:29I just have to say that you speak so well and clear.
07:35Yep, it's amazing what talking in the same language you're in dire life can do.
07:39Soane's desire to pursue the arts amid his parents' disapproval
07:43also inspired Ember's own conflict with her father.
07:46Sadly, Soane's parents died before the film was completed,
07:49but at least this labor of love paid off.
07:52I don't know if I pushed stuff away when they passed,
07:54but like, something's wrapped up in the end.
07:57I've got a couple more weeks left,
07:58and I can feel this like weird pressure of something as we're finishing this film
08:02because it's literally about thanking these people now that are gone.
08:07Number 2.
08:09Domishi's Childhood, Turning Red.
08:11Autobiography doesn't get more true to life or poignant as this acclaimed film.
08:1613-year-old May gets the shock of her life
08:18when she transforms into a large red panda bear.
08:21This turns out to be a generational ability.
08:23It's happened already?
08:30What did you say?
08:32Director Domi Shi based the film about magical puberty
08:35on her own experiences with regular puberty.
08:38The relationship between May and her mother Ming
08:40was also based on Shi's relationship with her mother,
08:43which also began to get strange during Shi's adolescence.
08:46I think a lot of mothers put a lot of expectation on their daughters
08:50to be perfect, to kind of build up this armor that can protect them from the world,
08:57but maybe eventually does more harm than good.
09:01And I really wanted to explore that in this story.
09:07Of course, she didn't burst into a red panda bear in moments of great stress,
09:11but the awkwardness of your mother trying to be cool about periods is very much real.
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09:47This film follows teen elf Ian Lightfoot and his brother
09:52as they journey to resurrect their father.
09:54Though a fantastical premise, the true story behind the film is anything but.
09:59Like the boys in the movie, my brother and I lost our dad when we were really, really young.
10:04We don't remember him at all, but we always wondered how we were like him.
10:10And that question began the journey that was onward.
10:14Director Dan Scanlon's father died when he was a year old and his brother was three.
10:19Years later, Scanlon discovered an old cassette tape with his father's voice in it.
10:24It led him to write this movie.
10:25What if he and his brother were given the chance to see his father?
10:29Whatever it takes, I am going to meet my dad.
10:32You hear that, dad?
10:33We're going on a quest!
10:35This tale of brothers is deeply personal, but also deeply universal.
10:40We're not crying.
10:41We just got something in our eye.
10:42He's very proud of the person you grew up to be.
10:48Well, I owe an awful lot of that to you.
10:53Which other animated film do you know came from a deeply personal place?
10:57Let us know in the comments down below.
10:59The characters are cars or monsters or bugs or whatever.
11:03But hopefully there's something about those guys' experience that we see reflective of our own life.
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11:25We're going to be talking about those guys.
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