The Incredibles

The Incredibles
Teaser Poster
Directed by	Brad Bird Bill Wise (Technical)
Produced by	John Walker John Lasseter (Executive)
Written by	Brad Bird
Starring	Craig T. Nelson Holly Hunter Sarah Vowell Spencer Fox Jason Lee Samuel L. Jackson Elizabeth Peña Brad Bird
Music by	Michael Giacchino
Cinematography	Andrew Jimenez Patrick Lin Janet Lucroy
Editing by	Stephen Schaffer
Studio	Pixar Animation Studios
Distributed by	Walt Disney Pictures Buena Vista Distribution
Release date(s)	October 27, 2004 (2004-10-27) (London) November 5, 2004 (2004-11-05)
Running time	115 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$92 million
Gross revenue	$631,442,092[1]

The Incredibles is a 2004 computer-animated superhero film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. It was written and directed by Brad Bird, a former director and executive consultant of The Simpsons.

The story focuses on the Parr family, each of whom has superpowers. The starring voices are Craig T. Nelson as Bob Parr, a superhero named "Mr. Incredible" who is forced to give up saving people's lives; Holly Hunter as his wife; Sarah Vowell as their teenage daughter; Spencer Fox as their young son; Jason Lee as Mr. Incredible's most avid fan; Samuel L. Jackson as Bob's friend; and Elizabeth Peña as the beautiful assistant of a vengeful supervillain. Bob's yearning to help people draws the entire Parr family into a battle with the villain and his killer robot.

The film was originally developed as a traditionally animated film for Warner Bros., but after the studio shut down its division for fully animated theatrical features, Bird took the story with him to Pixar, where he reunited with John Lasseter. The film was presented by Disney and released by Buena Vista Distribution in North America on November 5, 2004, and in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland on November 26 of the same year. It is the sixth full-length Pixar film, the first whose main protagonist is human.

The film won two 2004 Academy Awards, including Best Animated Feature. It also received nominations for two other Academy Awards, won a 2005 Hugo Award, and was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy at the 2004 Golden Globes.

Plot

The story is set in a world where some people, called "Superpeople" or "Supers", have superhuman abilities. Mr. Incredible is exceedingly strong, and Elastigirl can stretch her body into almost any shape. Mr. Incredible has a bright but foolhardy young fan named Buddy, who invents gadgets and wants to be Mr. Incredible's sidekick. Mr. Incredible rejects Buddy and other would-be helpers, telling them "I work alone." The film begins in the city of Municiberg, as Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl marry each other, calling themselves Bob and Helen Parr, after a busy day of crimefighting. Shortly afterward, lawsuits from injured bystanders lead to a political backlash that forces all superheroes to stop saving the world and live normal lives.

Fifteen years later, Bob and Helen live unhappy suburban lives outside the city of Metroville. Their young son Dash is able to run faster than the human eye can see, and their teen daughter Violet can turn invisible and create protective force fields, but they are not allowed to reveal their powers. The baby, Jack-Jack, appears to be an ordinary child. Bob has gained a lot of weight, and he feels frustrated by his office job in an insurance company. He regularly sneaks out to secretly fight crime with his friend Frozone, who can freeze things by spraying them with ice.

One day, Bob is fired from his job for losing his temper and assaulting his boss, who refused to let him rescue an innocent crime victim. However, before he can reveal this to Helen, he finds a video message from a beautiful woman named Mirage, who offers him a large sum of money to stop Omnidroid 9000, an out-of-control robot on a remote island. Bob accepts the offer, and he disables the robot after being flown to the island. Afterward, he takes his torn superhero suit to be repaired by the famous fashion designer Edna Mode. Edna also makes new suits for Bob and his family. Bob requests a cape for his supersuit, but Edna refuses, citing numerous cape-related superhero deaths.

With plenty of money and satisfying work, Bob happily spends his days getting back into shape, still pretending to have his old job. However, his next trip to the island is a trap: Omnidroid and the island are owned by Mr. Incredible's old fan, Buddy, who now calls himself Syndrome and intends to avenge himself against Mr. Incredible and the other Supers for shunning him. He has already killed many Supers by luring them to the island to fight Omnidroid, improving its design as they revealed its weaknesses. His plan is to make people believe he is a Super by staging a fake battle with the robot. Bob is attacked by Omnidroid and barely escapes from Syndrome.

Meanwhile, Helen discovers the repair on Bob's old supersuit. She visits Edna, who gives her the new set of suits and helps her locate Bob with a homing beacon, but Syndrome's security system detects the homing signal and captures him. Helen flies to the island in a jet, with Dash and Violet secretly stowing away and Jack-Jack at home with a babysitter, and Helen, Dash, and Violet make their way onto the island after being shot down by missiles. After hiding the children in the jungle, Helen sneaks into Syndrome's facility to rescue Bob, only to find him embracing Mirage, who freed him after a confrontation in which Syndrome refused to save her life. After some bickering, Bob and Helen regroup with the children, who triggered the Island's security system shortly after Syndrome launched a rocket to fly Omnidroid to Metroville. After a lengthy action sequence, Syndrome captures the family and follows the robot in a jet, but they escape and follow him in a second rocket with help from Mirage.

In Metroville, Syndrome uses a remote-control device to prevent Omnidroid from harming him, but he is knocked unconscious after the robot's artificial intelligence becomes aware of the device and shoots it off of him. When the Parrs arrive, they and Frozone defeat the robot, and when Syndrome wakes up and tries to kidnap Jack-Jack, Jack-Jack uses his recently emerged superpowers to attack him. Bob and Helen save Jack-Jack after Syndrome drops him in midair, and Syndrome is killed when his cape gets caught in one of his jet's engines. Three months later, after Dash races with his school track team and Violet makes a date with a boy she likes, a new villain appears and the Incredibles prepare to fight him.

Cast and characters

• Craig T. Nelson as Bob Parr/Mr. Incredible: Bob possesses tremendous strength, and heightened resistance to harm and is the film's protagonist. He also has enhanced senses. Syndrome's Operations Kronos Database assigned him a threat rating of 9.1, the highest of any Super Hero. His powers are similar the Marvel Comics superhero The Thing or to the DC Comics superhero Superman in his earliest days in comic books, before he gained the ability to fly and total invulnerability.
• Holly Hunter as Helen Parr/Elastigirl/Mrs. Incredible: She has superhuman elasticity and the secondary protagonist of the film. A dedicated wife and mother, she is frequently worried for her family's safety. Her powers are similar to the Marvel Comics superhero Mister Fantastic or the DC characters Elongated Man, Elastic Lad, and Plastic Man. She is also comparable to Stretch Armstrong.
• Sarah Vowell as Violet Parr: She has invisibility and the creation of force fields, but shy and insecure. Her powers are similar to the Marvel Comics superhero Invisible Woman.
• Spencer Fox as Dash Parr: His power is superhuman speed. Dash is a competitive fourth grader and frequently wishes to prove that he's special. His name and powers are like the DC Comics superhero Flash or the Marvel character Quicksilver. He is also blond, mischievous, impetuous and something of a showboat like the Human Torch. Also like the Torch, he is the youngest member of the group (at least until Jack-Jack wears the uniform at the end of the film).
• Eli Fucile and Maeve Andrews as Jack-Jack Parr: Jack-Jack is in all essence a shape-shifter, able to configure his molecules into various forms. In the film, he bursts into flames, turns into metal and into a monster. Later revealed in Jack-Jack Attack (a Pixar short of The Incredibles) to also have the abilities to teleport, levitate, pass through walls, and fire optic blasts. Therefore, his powers are similar to Marvel characters Nightcrawler, Cyclops, Human Torch, Colossus, The Incredible Hulk, Kitty Pryde, among others. The possible implication here is that there is no limit to Jack-Jack's abilities, suggesting a strong similarity to Franklin Richards, the child of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, and a powerful mutant who is able to alter and even create realities.
• Jason Lee as Buddy Pine/Incredi-boy/Syndrome: Initially Mr. Incredible's most enthusiastic fan, he grows up to hate him due to the fact that Mr. Incredible wouldn't let him become his sidekick. He serves as the main antagonist of the film. He is the second Pixar antagonist to die (the first being Hopper in A Bug's Life). Syndrome's facial features in the film were based on Brad Bird's. The character bears some basic, archetypal resemblance to Doctor Doom in that both hold a grudge against their respective protagonists and boast advanced technological prowess and resources.
• Samuel L. Jackson as Lucius Best/Frozone: Best friend of Mr. Incredible and a "cool guy" (literally and figuratively). He can create ice and freeze objects by using the moisture in the air, similarly to the Marvel character Iceman. Frequently relives the "glory days" with Mr. Incredible, though he is reluctant to take more direct action. Samuel L. Jackson was cast as the voice of Frozone because the film's writer/director wanted Frozone to have "the coolest voice".^[2]
• Elizabeth Peña as Mirage: Assistant to Syndrome, love interest and the secondary antagonist of the film. She defects and aids the Incredibles shortly after Syndrome shows he has a complete lack of concern for her life.
• Brad Bird as Edna Mode: Famous fashion designer and original outfitter of the superheroes with super-suits, who is highly impulsive and a little obsessed with her work. She closely resembles the famous Hollywood costume designer Edith Head.
• Bud Luckey as Rick Dicker: An agent and personal government liaison for the Incredibles whose job is to clean up and cover super accidents. Is a bit frustrated by Bob's tendency to get into trouble and overwhelming the company, but remains a good friend of his.
• John Ratzenberger as The Underminer: A supervillain who has the appearance and traits of a sort of human mole. His appearance at the end of The Incredibles created a cliffhanger ending. He has since appeared in The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer video game. The character appears to be inspired by the Fantastic Four comics, specifically by the supervillain Mole Man.

Production

Brad Bird's inspiration

Brad Bird was inspired by his own life while writing and directing the film. His situation during that time was similar to that of Bob Parr after the superhero ban: Bird wanted to follow his love of making films, but each film would fall by the wayside at some point during its development. While this was happening, Bird was also trying to focus on his new family, which demanded more of his time. He felt that he would completely fail at one if he focused too much on the other. He stated, "Consciously, this was just a funny movie about superheroes. But I think that what was going on in my life definitely filtered into the movie."^[3]

Challenges during production

Upon Disney accepting the project, Brad Bird was asked to bring in his own team for the production. He brought up a core group of people he worked with on The Iron Giant. Because of this, many 2D artists had to make the shift to 3D, including Brad Bird himself. Brad Bird wrote the script without knowing the limitations or concerns that went hand in hand with the medium of computer animation. As a result, this was to be the most complex film for Pixar yet. It was planned to be 15 minutes longer than anything else Pixar had created.

Bird's story was filled with elements that were difficult to animate with CGI at the time. Creating an all-human cast required creating new technology to animate detailed human anatomy, clothing and realistic skin and hair. Long hair had never been done by Pixar until this point. Disney was initially reluctant to make the film because of these issues, feeling a live action film would be preferable, though Pixar executive John Lasseter vetoed this. Brad Bird recalls, "Basically, I came into a wonderful studio, frightened a lot of people with how many presents I wanted for Christmas, and then got almost everything I asked for."^[4]

In a 2009 interview, Up producer Jonas Rivera discussed how Bird's approach to filmmaking differed from the process previously used by Pixar:

We almost treat it like a live action movie, we build a set – say, Andy's room in Toy Story – and we get a camera, we actually 'location-scout' it, check out all the angles with the characters on the bed, or whatever, and we take that back and start building a layout based on that, and shots come and go. Whereas Bird is like, 'This is the exact shot I want, then I want this shot, and then this shot, and I don't want to see one pixel over to the right.' … There was a reason for it. The scope of The Incredibles was so big: for example, Monsters Inc had 31 sets, The Incredibles had 89, that's a lot of work. Brad was willing to sacrifice flexibility for scope.^[5]

John Barry was the first choice to do the film's score, with a trailer of the film given a rerecording of Barry's theme to On Her Majesty's Secret Service. However Barry did not wish to duplicate some of earlier soundtracks^[6] with the score given to Michael Giacchino.^[7]

Reception

Critics

Syndrome, the antagonist of the movie was well received. He was #64 in Wizard's top 100 villains.

The Incredibles received near-universal critical acclaim, receiving a 97% "Certified Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes^[8] which made the movie the fifteenth greatest action film of all time and the only one of Top 20 with more than 100 reviews.^[9] Metacritic indicates The Incredibles "universal acclaim" with a 90 out of 100 rating.^[10] Critic Roger Ebert awarded the film 3 ¹⁄₂ stars out of four, writing that the film "alternates breakneck action with satire of suburban sitcom life" and is "another example of Pixar's mastery of popular animation." Rolling Stone gave the movie 3 ¹⁄₂ stars and called the movie "one of the year's best" and said that it "doesn't ring cartoonish, it rings true."^[11] Also giving the film 3 ¹⁄₂ stars, People magazine found that The Incredibles "boasts a strong, entertaining story and a truckload of savvy comic touches."^[12]

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was bored by the film's recurring pastiches of earlier action films, concluding, "the Pixar whizzes do what they do excellently; you just wish they were doing something else."^[13] Similarly, Jessica Winter of the Village Voice criticized the film for playing as a standard summer action film, despite being released in early November. Her review, titled as "Full Metal Racket," noted that "The Incredibles announces the studio's arrival in the vast yet overcrowded Hollywood lot of eardrum-bashing, metal-crunching action sludge."

Makers of the 2005 film Fantastic Four were forced to make significant script changes and add more special effects because of similarities to the storyline of The Incredibles.^[14]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone named The Incredibles #6 on his list of the best films of the decade, writing "Of all the Pixar miracles studded through the decade, The Incredibles still delights me the most. It's not every toon that deals with midlife crisis, marital dysfunction, child neglect, impotence fears, fashion faux pas and existential angst."^[15]

Box office performance

Despite concerns that the film would receive underwhelming results,^[16] the film grossed $70,467,623 in its opening weekend from 7,600 screens at 3,933 theaters, averaging $17,917 per theater or $9,272 per screen, the highest opening weekend gross for a Pixar film (the record was later broken in 2010 by Toy Story 3 with $110,307,189), and the highest opening weekend for a non-franchise-based film for just over five years when Avatar opened. The film was also #1 in its second weekend, grossing another $50,251,359, dropping just 29 percent, and easily outgrossing new animated opener The Polar Express. The film ultimately grossed $261,441,092, the fourth-highest gross for a Pixar film behind Toy Story 3 ($406,040,342), Finding Nemo ($339,714,978) and Up ($293,004,164) and the fifth-highest grossing film of 2004.^[17] Worldwide, the film grossed $631,442,092, also the fourth-highest gross for a Pixar film behind Toy Story 3 ($1,012,440,342), Finding Nemo ($867,893,978) and Up ($731,342,744), and ranked fourth for the year.^[18] The film was also the second-highest grossing animated film that year behind Shrek 2.

It had its network television premiere on Thanksgiving Day 2007 on NBC sponsored by Target and its basic cable premiere on ABC Family as part of The 25 Days of Christmas in December 2007, and its second cable showing on Disney Channel as part of the No Ordinary Friday on February 1, 2008.

This was also the first Pixar film to be given a PG rating.

Awards

The film won the Academy Award in 2004 for Best Animated Feature (the second out of five Pixar Animation Studios feature films to do so) as well as Best Achievement in Sound Editing. It also received nominations for Best Original Screenplay (for writer/director Brad Bird) and Best Achievement in Sound. It was Pixar's first feature film to win multiple Oscars, followed in 2010 by Up.

The film also received the 2005 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form and was nominated for the 2004 Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. These and other awards place it among the most-honored animation films in recent history.^[19]

Top ten lists

The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2004.^[20]

Home video

The Incredibles two-disc Collector's Edition DVD set was released on March 15, 2005. According to the Internet Movie Database, it was the highest-selling DVD of 2005, with 17.18 million copies sold, however there are still no announced plans for The Incredibles to be released in Blu-ray format. ^[21]

DVD extras and Easter eggs

Like many other DVD releases, there are various extra features available on the two discs including:

• Introduction, an introduction for the extras featuring Brad Bird.
• Deleted Scenes, the film's deleted scenes plus an intro for all but one of them. The other one is only accessible as an Easter egg.
• Jack-Jack Attack, a Pixar short film made especially for the release of The Incredibles about what happened while Kari was babysitting Jack-Jack.
• The Making of The Incredibles, a documentary about making The Incredibles featuring about 30 of the crew members.
  • More Making of The Incredibles, another longer documentary also about making The Incredibles.
• Incredi-Blunders. The Incredibles outtakes due to glitches in animation programming, or scenes included for intentional humor.
• Vowellet: An Essay by Sarah Vowell, a documentary about the life of Sarah Vowell, a writer who did the voice of Violet Parr
• Character Interviews, actor and actresses interview the characters
• Theatrical Trailers, The Incredibles film trailers.
• Mr. Incredible and Pals, a Mr. Incredible cartoon spoofing cheesy superhero cartoons from the 1960s, as well as Synchro-Vox cartoons like Clutch Cargo.
  • Mr. Incredible and Pals With Commentary, the cartoon with the characters' commentary.
• NSA Files, info about the supers.
• Boundin', a Pixar short film written, directed, composed, production designed and narrated by Bud Luckey.
  • Boundin With Commentary, Boundin' with commentary by Bud Luckey.
  • Who Is Bud Luckey? a four-minute documentary about the making of Boundin'.

There are also several Easter eggs in the menus^[22]; the one on the main menu shows every door, button and explosion in the movie. Some of the other menus have more than one Easter egg movie; which one plays appears to be a random choice. One of the eggs on the first Index menu is a short sockpuppet version of the movie.

The film was also released on UMD for the Sony PSP and in a limited edition VHS version, and was the last Disney/Pixar film to be issued in the VHS format. All future Disney/Pixar titles beginning with Cars would only be released on DVD and Blu-ray.

Merchandising

Several companies released promotional products related to the movie. Dark Horse Comics released a limited series of comic books based on the movie. Kellogg's released an Incredibles-themed cereal, as well as promotional Pop Tarts and fruit snacks, all proclaiming an "Incrediberry Blast" of flavor. Furthermore, in the weeks before the movie's opening, there were also promotional tie-ins with SBC Communications (using Dash to promote the "blazing-fast speed" of its SBC Yahoo! DSL service) and McDonald's. Toy maker Hasbro produced a series of action figures and toys based on the film, although the line was not as successful as the film itself.

In Europe, Kinder chocolate eggs contained small plastic toy characters from the film.

In Belgium, car manufacturer Opel sold special The Incredibles editions of their cars.

In the United Kingdom, Telewest promoted blueyonder internet services with branding from the film, including television adverts starring characters from the film.

In all merchandising outside of the film itself, Elastigirl is referred to as Mrs. Incredible. This is due to a licensing agreement between Disney/Pixar and DC Comics, who has a character named Elasti-Girl (a member of the Doom Patrol). The DC Comics character is able to grow and shrink at will from microscopic size to thousands of feet tall.

Comics

In July 2008, it was announced that a series of comic books based on The Incredibles would be published by BOOM! Studios in collaboration with Disney Publishing by the end of the year.^[23]

The first two miniseries by BOOM! were The Incredibles: Family Matters by Mark Waid and Marcio Takara, which was published from March to June 2009, and collected into a trade paperback published in July of that year. The next miniseries, The Incredibles: City of Incredibles, by Waid, Landry Walker, and artists Marcio Takara and Ramanda Kamarga, was published later that same year.

Video game

A video game based on the film was released for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance, PC, Apple Macintosh, and mobiles. Though based on the movie, several key scenes are altered from the original script.

A second game, The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer, was released for PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, Mac OS X, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and Windows. Taking place immediately after the movie, the sequel focuses on Mr. Incredible and Frozone as they do battle with the megalomaniacal mole, The Underminer.

A third game, The Incredibles: When Danger Calls, was released for Windows and Mac OS X. It is a collection of 10 games and activities for the playable characters to perform.

Possible sequel

In 2004, when Disney owned sequel rights, Disney announced plans to make sequels for The Incredibles and Finding Nemo without Pixar involvement. Those plans were subsequently scrapped. When Disney acquired Pixar in 2006, the expectation was that Pixar would create more sequels and bankable franchises. (Currently Cars 2 and a sequel to Monsters Inc. are slated for release in 2011 and 2012 respectively.) ^[24] Director Brad Bird stated in 2007 that he's open to the idea of an Incredibles 2 if he comes up with an idea superior to the original film. "I have pieces that I think are good, but I don't have them all together."^[25]

References

External links

• Official website
• The Incredibles at the Internet Movie Database
• The Incredibles at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• The Incredibles at Allmovie
• The Incredibles at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Incredibles at Metacritic
• The Incredibles at Box Office Mojo
• The Official DVD Website