In the frantic final weeks of Hoppers production, Pixar's exhausted animators heard a strange chant echoing through the halls: "Lizard! Lizard! Lizard!" Little did they know, their accidental star was about to become a global phenomenon that would redefine viral marketing.

Meet Tom—the 3-inch green reptile who's currently dominating TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter feeds worldwide. That hypnotic end-credits scene from Elio showing him obsessively tapping the lizard emoji didn't just tease Pixar's next film—it created an internet-wide obsession with "crashing out" that's spawned millions of memes, DJ sets, and even protest signs.

"Our Slack channels went absolutely nuclear," director Daniel Chong revealed exclusively. "We watched in real-time as this tiny side character we'd almost cut became the internet's spirit animal. When DJ Sullivan King projected Tom at a rave and 10,000 people started chanting along, we knew we'd accidentally created something special."

The untold story of how a background character became Pixar's biggest viral hit since Inside Out's Bing Bong reveals a perfect storm of timing, design, and pure internet magic.

Early concept art shows Tom's evolution from generic reptile to internet icon. Pixar

Tom wasn't supposed to be the star. Hoppers follows environmental activist Mabel (Piper Curda) who uploads her consciousness into a robotic beaver to save a forest from development. With a cast including Bobby Moynihan's King George and Melissa Villaseñor's Ellen, Tom was initially just comic relief.

"He literally snuck into the movie," Chong admits. "We added him for TheEntBase because he was small, green, and versatile. Then something magical happened—he started stealing every scene. Our writers kept giving him better lines, and before we knew it, he had more personality than half our main cast."

Tom (voiced by Pixar employee Tom Law) alongside Eduardo Franco's Loaf in a scene that test audiences loved. Disney/Pixar

The casting was pure Pixar magic. Tom is voiced by Tom Law, a Pixar employee who previously worked with Chong on We Bare Bears. "We wrote the character specifically for him," Chong explains. "That 'small creature with big energy' vibe? That's Tom Law in real life. People see themselves in that struggle."

Designing the perfect lizard took multiple iterations. Early versions featured pointed noses and elongated limbs, but the team kept returning to simpler, more "huggable" designs. "We overcomplicated him," Chong says. "The breakthrough came when we looked at our earliest storyboard sketches—that goofy, cartoony simplicity is what makes him so meme-able."

The warning signs were there before the internet explosion. In test screenings, despite having minimal screen time, Tom consistently ranked as audiences' favorite character. "The surveys kept coming back with his name circled," Chong recalls. "We should have seen the viral potential coming."

The final design that broke the internet—note the expressive eyes and "huggable" proportions. Disney/Pixar

The viral moment was carefully engineered chaos. For Disney's D23 Expo, the team brainstormed elaborate presentations including Terminator 2 parodies and documentary-style videos. Then story artist Hannah Roman pitched a simple idea: Tom alone in darkness, obsessively tapping the lizard emoji as his eyes drift apart.

"Everyone thought it was too weird," Chong laughs. "Now it's been viewed over 500 million times. The lesson? Sometimes the simplest, most bizarre ideas resonate the deepest. Tom represents that little voice in all of us that just wants to smash the emoji button until the world makes sense."

As Hoppers prepares for its June 2025 release, Tom has already achieved what most movie characters never do: he's transcended the film to become a cultural touchstone. From protest signs featuring his face to college students chanting "Lizard!" during finals week, this tiny green reptile has become 2025's most unexpected—and most relatable—icon.