| The Incredibles | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Brad Bird |
| 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 |
| Distributed by | Walt Disney Pictures |
| Release date(s) | October 27, 2004 (London) November 5, 2004 (United States) |
| Running time | 115 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $92 million |
| Box office | $631,442,092[1] |
The Incredibles is a 2004 American computer-animated action-comedy superhero film about a family of superheroes who are forced to hide their powers. It was written and directed by Brad Bird, a former director and executive consultant of The Simpsons, and was produced by Pixar and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The starring voices are Craig T. Nelson as Bob Parr, Holly Hunter as his wife Helen Parr; Sarah Vowell as their teenage daughter Violet; Spencer Fox as their young son Dash; Jason Lee as the supervillain Syndrome; Samuel L. Jackson as Frozone; and Elizabeth Peña as Syndrome's beautiful assistant, Mirage. Bob's yearning to help people draws the entire Parr family into a battle with the villain and his killer robot.
The film won the 2004 Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, along with two 2004 Academy Awards, Best Animated Feature and Best Sound Editing. It also received nominations for two other Academy Awards, won the Saturn Award for Best Animated Film, and became the first entirely animated film to win the prestigious Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. It was also nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy at the 2004 Golden Globes.
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"Supers", humans gifted with superpowers, were once seen as heroes, but collateral damage from their various good deeds led the government to create a Supers Relocation Program, forcing the Supers to fit in among the civilians and not use their superpowers. Bob and Helen Parr, who are supers, have married and raised three children, Violet, Dash, and Jack-Jack, in the suburbs of Metroville; Violet and Dash have innate superpowers, but the toddler Jack-Jack has yet to show any. Bob, stuck in a white-collar job at an insurance agency, reminisces of his former days as Mr. Incredible, and sneaks out on Wednesday nights with his Super friend, Lucius Best aka Frozone, to fight street crime.
One day, Bob loses his temper with his boss, revealing his super strength and losing him his job. While trying to figure out what to tell Helen, he finds a message from a woman named Mirage, who asks for Mr. Incredible's help to stop a rogue robot on a distant island for a lucrative reward. Bob, claiming to Helen that he is going on a business trip, takes up Mirage's offer, and successfully defeats the powerful Omnidroid. On his return to Metroville, Bob spends his days working out and getting back into shape. He takes his super suit, torn in the battle with Omnidroid, to Edna Mode, the fashion designer to the Supers, and asks her to repair it. She does so, and also insists on creating a new, better super suit for him. She refuses his request to add a cape, though, highlighting how the accessory doomed several other Supers before him by getting caught on things.
Mirage soon contacts Bob with another job on the island. On arriving, he finds the Omnidroid, rebuilt and reprogrammed to be stronger than before. While trapped by the robot, he meets its creator, the technology-savvy villain Syndrome. Bob recognizes him as a young fan, Buddy, who wanted to be Mr. Incredible's sidekick but got in the way. Syndrome vows revenge for this shunning, and sets the Omnidroid to kill Bob. Bob manages to fake his death and hide from the robot, discovering the body of a former Super. His curiosity piqued, he breaks into Syndrome's base and finds a computer, outlining Syndrome's past work to identify the civilian identities of former Supers and luring them to fight Omnidroid, and using the results of those fatal battles to improve each iteration of the machine. Bob is relieved to discover that Helen and his children are not yet identified in Syndrome's database.
Meanwhile, Helen has become suspicious of Bob having an affair. After discovering Bob's repaired suit, she talks to Edna and learns she created suits for the entire Parr family, each outfitted with a tracking device. Helen triggers Bob's, identifying the remote island but inadvertently revealing Bob's presence to Syndrome and causing him to be captured. Helen borrows a private jet from an old friend and travels to the island, disappointed to learn that Violet and Dash have stowed away while leaving Jack-Jack at home with a babysitter. As they near the island, Syndrome shoots down the jet, but Helen and the children safely make it ashore. Though Helen rescues Bob and regroups with Violet and Dash as they outrun Syndrome's guards, they are soon captured by Syndrome, identifying all the Parrs as Supers. With the Parrs contained, Syndrome explains that he will launch the perfected Omnidroid to Metroville, sending the city into chaos, upon which he will appear and using a control band, "subdue" the robot and become the city's hero. Syndrome launches the Omnidroid on a rocket and follows in his aircraft. After his departure, Violet helps to free the rest of the family, and with Mirage's help, they board a second rocket bound for the city.
In Metroville, the Omnidroid starts a path of destruction, and Syndrome enacts his plan, stopping the robot resulting in the people's cheers. The Omnidroid observes the control band and fires it off Syndrome's arm, sending the villain scurrying away while the robot continues to wreck the city. The combined abilities of the Parrs and Lucius are able to best and destroy the robot, and the city welcomes them back as heroes. As they are driven back to their home, Helen anxiously calls the babysitter and learns that Syndrome has abducted Jack-Jack. Arriving at home, Syndrome is taking the toddler to his jet, planning to raise the boy to fight against the Supers in the future. As Bob and Helen launch a rescue attempt, Jack-Jack reveals his powers of transformation, forcing Syndrome to drop him into Helen's waiting arms. Syndrome tries to escape but his cape is caught in the suction of his aircraft's engine, killing him. The ruined plane crashes into the Parr's home, but Violet is able to protect the family from harm.
Some time later, the Parrs have re-adjusted to normal life, but when a new villain, the Underminer, appears, the Parrs all don their masks, ready to battle the new foe.
The film was originally developed as a traditionally animated film for Warner Bros..
Brad Bird was not sure where the idea for a superhero family came from, but he stated that it came from drawings he did back in 1993.[2] He was also inspired by his own life while writing 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]
However, due to the financial disaster of Looney Tunes Back in Action in 2003, Warner Bros shut down its division for fully animated theatrical features, and The Incredibles was put on hold. Then Bird spoke to his old college friend John Lasseter about the story. Lasseter liked it and convinced Brad to come to Pixar, where the movie would be done in computer animation. It is the first full-length Pixar film whose main protagonists are human.
Upon Disney's acceptance of 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 Bird himself. 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. Although the technical team had some experience with hair and cloth in Monsters Inc, the amount of hair and cloth required for The Incredibles had never been done by Pixar until this point. Also Violet's long hair was extremely difficult to achieve and for the longest time during production, it was not possible. 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. Bird recalled, "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 the sound of some of his earlier soundtracks;[6] the assignment was instead given to Michael Giacchino.[7]
| The Incredibles | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by Michael Giacchino | ||||
| Released | November 2, 2004 | |||
| Recorded | 2003-2004 | |||
| Genre | rock | |||
| Length | 57:44 | |||
| Label | Walt Disney | |||
| Pixar soundtrack chronology | ||||
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The soundtrack album of The Incredibles is completely orchestral and was composed by Michael Giacchino, with music orchestrated and conducted by Tim Simonec. Gordon Goodwin won a Grammy Award for arranging The Incredits. The entire score was recorded with analogue audio tapes.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Glory Days" | 3:32 |
| 2. | "Mr. Huph Will See You Now" | 1:35 |
| 3. | "Adventure Calling" | 2:23 |
| 4. | "Bob vs. The Omnidroid" | 2:53 |
| 5. | "Lava in the Afternoon" | 1:29 |
| 6. | "Life's Incredible Again" | 1:24 |
| 7. | "Off to Work" | 1:59 |
| 8. | "New and Improved" | 2:15 |
| 9. | "Kronos Unveiled" | 3:16 |
| 10. | "Marital Rescue" | 2:19 |
| 11. | "Missile Lock" | 2:07 |
| 12. | "Lithe or Death" | 3:24 |
| 13. | "100 Mile Dash" | 3:07 |
| 14. | "A Whole Family of Supers" | 3:27 |
| 15. | "Escaping Nomanisan" | 1:45 |
| 16. | "Road Trip!" | 2:27 |
| 17. | "Saving Metroville" | 5:03 |
| 18. | "The New Babysitter" | 3:26 |
| 19. | "The Incredits" | 7:21 |
Music used for the film's trailers but not available on the soundtrack album includes "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", from the Propellerheads album Decksandrumsandrockandroll, as well as excerpts from the David Arnold project Shaken and Stirred. The animated short Jack-Jack Attack, which accompanied the film's DVD release also features the "Alla Turca" movement from Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 11.
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."[11] 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."[12] 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."[13]
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."[14] 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.[15]
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone named The Incredibles No.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."[16]
Despite concerns that the film would receive underwhelming results,[17] 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), the highest opening weekend for a non sequel animated feature (the record was broken in 2007 by The Simpsons Movie with $74 million), and the highest opening weekend for a non-franchise-based film for just over five years when Avatar opened with $77 million. The film was also No.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 ($415,040,342), Finding Nemo ($339,714,978) and Up ($293,004,164) and the fifth-highest grossing film of 2004.[18] Worldwide, the film grossed $631,442,092, also the fourth-highest gross for a Pixar film behind Toy Story 3 ($1,063,440,342), Finding Nemo ($867,893,978) and Up ($731,342,744), and ranked fourth for the year.[19] 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.
The film won the Academy Award in 2004 for Best Animated Feature, beating two DreamWorks films, Shrek 2 and Shark Tale as well as Best Sound Editing. It also received nominations for Best Original Screenplay (for writer/director Brad Bird) and Best Sound Mixing (Randy Thom, Gary Rizzo and Doc Kane).[20] It was Pixar's first feature film to win multiple Oscars, followed in 2010 by Up.
The film also received the 2004 Annie Award for Best Animated Feature and the 2005 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, and it was nominated for the 2004 Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.
The American Film Institute nominated The Incredibles for its Top 10 Animated Films list.[21]
The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2004.[22]
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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. The film was released on Blu-ray in North America on April 12, 2011.[23]
Like many other DVD releases, there are various extra features available on the two discs including:
There are also several Easter eggs in the menus;[24] the one on the main menu shows every door, button and explosion in the movie. Some of the other menus have two Easter eggs from the same menu button, alternating between them. 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.
The film was originally released on November 5, 2004. After the success of the 3D re-releases of Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, Disney and Pixar announced that The Incredibles will have a 3D re-release in 2014.
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.
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.[25]
The first miniseries by BOOM! was 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. An ongoing series written by both Mark Waid and Landry Walker, with art by Marcio Takara and Ramanda Kamarga, began later that same year, running for sixteen issues before being cancelled in October 2010. Marvel has begun a reprint of the series starting in August 2011 and possibly finish the storyline, which was abruptly cancelled despite scripts and art having been produced for a finale.
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.
Another game, Kinect Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure, will be released on March 20, 2012, for Xbox 360. [26]
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 of Disney was that Pixar would create more sequels and bankable franchises. Director Brad Bird stated in 2007 that he was open to the idea of an Incredibles 2 if he could come 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," Bird said.[27]
| Preceded by Finding Nemo |
Pixar Animation Studios 2004 |
Succeeded by Cars |
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