A 113

A 113
rubber cat · CC BY-SA 2.0 · source
Name	A 113

A 113 is an alphanumeric label that appears recurrently across animation, film, television, and technical documentation. It functions as an Easter egg, production code, or designation embedded by creators and engineers. The marker has been used by alumni of animation schools, film studios, and technical teams as a signature or internal reference.

Etymology and Meaning

The designation traces to an institutional origin associated with California Institute of the Arts, where classroom numbers and course identifiers became part of student culture. Alumni who later worked at Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Lucasfilm, and DreamWorks incorporated the label into productions as a nod to shared training at California Institute of the Arts. The sequence resonates across credits in works connected to figures such as John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Tim Burton, Pete Docter, and Andrew Stanton, and appears alongside other studio identifiers like Industrial Light & Magic, Blue Sky Studios, Studio Ghibli, and Sony Pictures Animation.

Historical Uses and Occurrences

Early manifestations appeared in student films and classroom assignments at California Institute of the Arts in the 1970s and 1980s, then migrated into commercial projects at Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios during the 1990s. The label surfaces in numerous productions associated with creators from the same pedagogical lineage, including films released by Buena Vista Distribution, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Studios, and Universal Pictures. It has been spotted in set dressing, license plates, control panels, and script annotations in works linked to directors such as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Hayao Miyazaki, and Christopher Nolan, often appearing alongside practical props sourced from vendors used by studios like Pinewood Studios and Shepperton Studios.

A113 in Popular Culture

A113 became an Easter egg referenced by critics, journalists, and fans in outlets like The New York Times, The Guardian, and Entertainment Weekly. It is discussed in documentaries about animation and film production such as those produced by BBC, PBS, and HBO. The marker is cataloged in fan-maintained repositories, databases, and wikis hosted by communities around franchises like Star Wars, Toy Story, The Iron Giant, The Simpsons, and Family Guy. Prominent public figures in animation circles including Genndy Tartakovsky, Matt Groening, Seth MacFarlane, Nick Park, and Glen Keane have acknowledged or referenced the tradition in interviews with outlets such as Variety, Rolling Stone, and Wired.

Technical and Scientific References

Beyond entertainment, the alphanumeric format resembles cataloging schemes used by institutions like NASA, European Space Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and technical standards organizations such as IEEE, ISO, and ANSI. The code-like structure is analogous to aircraft registration numbers used by Federal Aviation Administration registries, naval hull classification systems found in United States Navy documentation, and facility identifiers used at research centers like Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It appears in prop design as part numbers from suppliers who service studios and research groups, similar to cataloging at Harvard University, Stanford University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology laboratories.

Notable Examples and Cases

Instances have been cataloged across a wide range of productions and technical artifacts: license plates in Toy Story, control panels in Renaissance-era animated shorts, posters in background art for The Incredibles, and digital metadata fields in visual effects by Industrial Light & Magic. The code appears in live-action films distributed by Columbia Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures, as well as in episodic television from networks including NBC, ABC, Fox Broadcasting Company, and HBO. Retrospectives, museum exhibitions, and oral histories at institutions such as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Smithsonian Institution, and The Museum of Modern Art have documented the motif alongside archival materials from studios like Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios.

Category:Easter eggs in film