Violet Parr

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Violet Incredible
Image:Violet.jpg
Publication information
Publisher Dark Horse Comics/Pixar Animation Studios
First appearance The Incredibles
Created by Brad Bird
In story information
Alter ego Violet Parr
Team affiliations Incredible Family
National Supers Agency
Notable aliases Vi (nickname), The Queen of the Unseen, Invisagirl (InvisaVi)
Abilities invisibility,
force field generation

Violet "Vi" Parr is a fictional character from the movie The Incredibles. Violet has black hair. She is 4'6 in height and weighs 90 pounds, her age is around 13 or 14, which is proven when she is first seen in the movie waiting to be picked-up by her mother outside "Western View Junior High." Her superpowers include invisibility and creating a spherical forcefield around herself, powers similar to those used by the Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four. She is voiced by Sarah Vowell.

"Like many teen girls, Violet doesn't like being different from her peers and especially doesn't want to be noticed. But when she learns she's a force to be reckoned with, Violet pulls back her hair and allows her true self to shine." - Official Pixar Website

Contents

[edit] Character history

[edit] Movie

When she is first introduced in The Incredibles, Violet is depicted as gloomy, uncertain, and socially withdrawn, and prefers to hide behind her long hair, which she wears hanging in front of her face. She has a crush on one of her classmates, Tony Rydinger, but is too shy to approach him and turns herself invisible whenever he looks her way to avoid attention.

After Violet and Dash discover the extraordinary properties of the supersuits designed for them by Edna Mode (in Violet's case, her suit can turn invisible along with her, rendering her totally unseen, without disrupting her force fields (the force field part is discussed in A Magic Kingdom Adventure (AMKA)), they stow away on their mother's jet when she leaves to find their father, who has been doing secret hero work behind his family's back. Shortly after they are discovered by Helen, the plane is attacked by Syndrome's missiles, and Helen calls upon Violet to put a force field around them for protection. Violet is reluctant to try to generate such a large force field, however, and is still too nervous and underconfident to successfully carry out the order and Helen is forced to use her powers to turn herself into a ball around her children, shielding them just as the missiles destroy the plane. When Violet later apologizes to her mother for failing her, Helen reassures her by saying that she has more power than she herself realizes, but also warns her that in their situation, doubt is a luxury they can no longer afford.

Her confidence bolstered, Violet practises her power on the fire in the camp, but she and Dash are nearly burnt to a crisp when Syndrome launches a rocket carrying a highly capable battle robot—the Omnidroid 9000—to the City of Metroville; the cave that the two were in is also the exhaust tube for the rocket.

After some time, Syndrome's henchmen discover the children after their curiosty triggers an alarm and pursue them across his island base (their mother left them alone to go in search for her husband), and one of them (after being attacked by a stick-wielding invisible Violet) uses dirt to find Violet while she is hiding in a pond. However, Dash stops that soldier from killing her. Violet saves her brother from another soldier in return, and she and Dash combine their powers to create the IncrediBall (named in the video game): Violet generates a force-field and Dash runs along its inner surface, propelling the sphere at considerable speeds and mowing down everything in their path.

After they are reunited with their parents (both of whom are briefly flattened by the IncrediBall), another wave of henchmen find and attack them. Violet once again displays her increasing confidence, raising a large shield which protects her family from a hail of automatic weapons fire. Though the guards are quickly overpowered, Syndrome himself captures the family. Once imprisoned, however, it is Violet who manages to free everyone by creating a force field that severs her magnetic bonds, then simply rolling over to the console where she deactivates everyone's restraints.

During the battle with the Omnidroid, Violet is knocked unconscious while defending herself and Dash, but she recuperates very quickly. After Helen trip-wires the robot, Violet (in her invisible state) grabs the remote used to control it. As the Omnidroid gets closer to an ideal range for Mr. Incredible to pierce it with its detached claw, Violet refuses Helen's order to hide.

Finally, after stopping Syndrome from abducting Jack-Jack, (where Violet also saves her family by creating a force field to deflect the falling plane wreckage), they apparently destroy Syndrome (by taking advantage of his cape) and have successfully saved the world. Three months later, Violet is courageous enough to talk to Tony (and Tony is now the shy one rather than Violet), and they plan to go to the movies on Friday. Violet tells Tony that she will buy the popcorn. Violet was seen wearing a pink shirt and khaki pants instead of her dark blue clothing, and she did not hide her face behind her hair: it is pulled back in a headband.

[edit] Events after the movie

In the video game, Rise of The Underminer, Helen, Violet, Dash, and Jack-Jack are told to evacuate Metroville after they are surrounded by The Underminer's robots, but the four return just in time to watch as Mr. Incredible and Frozone seemingly slay the Underminer by crashing his machine onto a bigger machine, which creates an explosion.

In the short comic, The Incredibles in Holiday Heroes, Violet is briefly seen sun-basking in her invisible state when Mount Tiki Toki (where the family is vacationing) suddenly reemerges from dormancy. She is told to use a force field to protect Jack-Jack from lava bombs, which she does while Bob, Helen, and Dash collect ocean water to re-hydrate Lucius. This eruption forces the family to vacation somewhere else.

They pick Walt Disney World in A Magic Kingdom Adventure and are made Grand Marshalls for the Main Street Parade (against the wishes of both parents, who wanted the family to maintain a low profile). While they are on a jungle cruise, Violet gets clever with the family by turning invisible, sneaking off the boat, and performing a brief double-drum solo before Baloo the Bear arrives. Later, the family realizes that they are late for the Parade, but when they arrive, Mickey and Minnie Mouse have already been kidnapped by a robot version of Syndrome.

When the family is fighting an army of Syndrome's footsoldiers, they find that the soldiers are too great in number for Violet's force field to hold back, and she pays for this error by using up too much of her energy. The footsoldiers are then diverted by guests who are wearing a red wristband and press an orange button. It is not until well after the termination of the robot Syndrome and the liberation of Mickey and Minnie that the family goes to the Enchanted Tiki Room (Helen wanted the family to see it first, but the others rejected the idea).

[edit] Personality

Violet's character development constitutes a major side-story in the movie, despite the fact that Violet's role only grew during the second half of the film (some speculate that this is due to the extreme complexity involved in animating her long, flowing hair).

At first, Violet is shy and timid, and, stuck at the cross-roads between girl and woman, Violet desperately wants to be like everyone else, to blend in with normal people and not to stand out.

However, after she becomes older and more outgoing, she is proud of who she is. Violet loves her family and even though she constantly butts heads with Dash, she cares for him very much. She would hate to see her relatives hurt or killed and always tries very hard to help them.

In her personal life, Violet enjoys listen to music and reading fashion magazines.

[edit] Appearance

Violet has blueish black hair, large violet eyes, very thin legs, and a tiny waist. At the beginning of the movie, her appearance gives off a moody vibe. She has a dark blue shirt, dark blue pants, and her hair covering an eye. However, after apologizing to her mother on the island, she wears the mask, showing her entire face. From then on, she sports a colorful headband, and she is seen wearing pink at the end.

[edit] Powers

Violet's superpowers allow her to instantly render herself or others she is touching partially or entirely invisible. She can also generate powerful and sturdy force fields that she has used defensively or, with the right help, offensively.

[edit] Weaknesses

While exceedingly sturdy, if very heavy blunt force is applied to Violet's force field, she can be slammed against the side and injured. In the film, the final Omnidroid hits her in the head, knocking her unconscious and dissipating her force field, which leaves her vulnerable to attacks. Both her powers can also sap her physical energy if she tries to maintain them under sustained heavy assault (as seen in A Magic Kingdom Adventure).

[edit] Naming

  • Violet's name is probably derived from the term "shrinking violet". The name also refers to the shortest visible wavelengths of light, adjacent to invisible ultraviolet light in the electromagnetic spectrum and to the violet color of her force fields.

[edit] The hairband

  • Near the end of the movie, Violet pulls her hair back with a head band similar to the one worn by her mother Elastigirl in the introductory scenes. Although this accessory was never shown previously and its source is unexplained, it turns invisible when she does, suggesting that it was supplied by Edna (it may have been in Helen's satchel, in which she also carried the children's masks).

[edit] Production

  • Violet was, by far, the most difficult character to animate in the movie when it came to hair animation. She had some of the longest hair in the movie, and the animators tried several methods, but none of them worked the way that they wanted. Finally, they managed to use a method that they initially thought wouldn't work.

[edit] Actresses

[edit] Bonus content

  • In the alternate opening from the Incredibles film, Syndrome is depicted as trying to abduct Violet while she is still in infancy but is foiled when the baby Violet, in her invisible state, spits up into his face, distracting him long enough for Bob and Helen to retrieve her.
  • The Special Edition DVD for The Incredibles includes a video essay by Sarah Vowell, entitled "Vowellett". She explains that Pixar sent her test footage of Violet using audio from one of Vowell's This American Life broadcasts. The radio program featured Vowell and her father firing a cannon. The test footage shows Violet nervously exploring the hideout of a fellow superhero. She accidentally knocks down the friend's phaser gun. After turning invisible to avoid being spotted and putting it back on its stand, she decides to wield it and shortly after becomes visible again. Saying "This is like a cartoon," she accidentally pulls the trigger on the phaser (the cannon), releasing a green energy beam and a cloud of thick smoke ("It's like the Fourth of July!"). After putting the phaser back on the display, she turns invisible once more and starts nervously singing "America the Beautiful".
  • In a deleted scene also included in "Vowellett", Helen tries to cheer up a gloomy Violet ("Don't be silly! You're beautiful!"), but Violet lashes back, saying "I'm gangly and I'm growing ganglier. I'm ugly, I have no curves, my friends are dorkier than I am, I can't talk, but my brain won't shut up!"

[edit] Merchandise

  • On Incredibles merchandise, Violet is nicknamed the "Queen of the Unseen", and uses invisibility-related sayings such as "See ya!" and "Gotta disappear!" In a poster included with Violet action figures, Violet, after levitating Dash with a force field, says "You're making my good attitude… disappear!"
  • Violet is the only one of the Incredible family members who does not appear as a dispenser for the PEZ merchandise. This is most likely due to her long hair which would interfere with the dispenser's functions.

[edit] Influence

  • The character of Violet Parr is credited with influencing noted fashion designer Marc Jacobs in his Fall 2005 Ready-to-Wear collection.
  • The hairstyle of Violet Parr was greatly influenced by the styles of noted SA J. Sidebottom.

[edit] Comic book influence

Violet has the same look, as well as the same name, as Violet of the Legion of Superheroes. She has the same powers as Susan Richards. However, her personality resembles Ben Grimm from the 2005 film and the Ultimate Universe. Violet resents her powers and whines about her inability of living a normal life, a trademark of the X-Men.

Incredible Family: Mr. Incredible · Elastigirl · Dash · Violet · Jack-Jack
Allies: Frozone · Edna Mode · Rick Dicker
Villains: Syndrome · Mirage · The Underminer · Bomb Voyage

[edit] References

Languages