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The Incredibles is a computer-animated feature film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, centering on a family of superheroes. It was written and directed by Brad Bird, a former director and executive consultant of The Simpsons and the screenwriter/director of the critically-acclaimed 1999 animated movie The Iron Giant. The Incredibles 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.
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Quotations
GO SAVE YOURSELF!
picket sign in crowd of anti-super protestors
(In the car with Elastigirl, after she says everyone is special) Which is another way of saying nobody is.
... and those guys tried to KILL us! That was the best vacation EVER! sighs I love our family.
Anti-Super Spokeswoman: It is time for their secret identity to become their only identity. Time for them to join us, or go away.
Dash, remember what Mom said... Dash, run... Run!
Everybody calm down. Now, I'll tell you what we're not gonna do. We're not gonna panic, we're not gonna— LOOK OUT!
Encyclopedia
The Incredibles is a computer-animated feature film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, centering on a family of superheroes. It was written and directed by Brad Bird, a former director and executive consultant of The Simpsons and the screenwriter/director of the critically-acclaimed 1999 animated movie The Iron Giant. The Incredibles 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 two had been close friends since their days at CalArts.
The Incredibles is the sixth feature film from Pixar. It 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 first Pixar film to earn a PG rating from the MPAA, and the first full-length Pixar film to feature an entirely human cast of characters. It was released on a two-disc DVD in the U.S. on March 15, 2005. According to the Internet Movie Database, it was the highest-selling DVD of 2005, with 17.18 million copies sold. It had its network television premiere on Thanksgiving Day 2007 on NBC (usually, Disney movies would air on ABC) 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.
Plot
Superheroes, or "supers" as they were often referred to, were commonplace and much valued until injuries and other incidents suffered by civilians made superheroes unpopular with the public, prompting a government-sponsored moratorium and concealment of them. Years later, Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl have settled into a suburban lifestyle near the city of Metroville (a New York-like city taking its name from Superman's native towns) under the names Bob and Helen Parr. Their older children Dash and Violet inherit superhuman powers — Dash super-speed and Violet the ability to create forcefields or make herself invisible; but their infant Jack-Jack has yet to reveal any such ability. Bob finds his job at an insurance agency boring and often yearns for his former life; therefore he secretly goes at night with his best friend, Lucius Best, another concealed super named Frozone, to find and stop crime.
Bob loses his job and threatens his family's concealment of identity when he injures his boss, who had purposely prevented Bob from stopping a nearby mugging. That night, Bob discovers a message sent by a mysterious woman named Mirage, wherein she offers him the chance to use his abilities to stop a rogue robot, the Omnidroid 9000, on a remote island for a large sum of money. Bob keeps his job's loss and the new offer secret from Helen and completes the task. He later spends the next two months working himself into athletic shape (having lost it during the years of his inactivity) and obtains a new suit from fashion designer Edna Mode. Bob later takes another offer by Mirage to help on the island, but finds himself facing a much more powerful Omnidroid, which overcomes him. Moments later, he learns that these robots have been created by Buddy Pine, who was once Mr. Incredible's #1 fan, but is now attempting revenge for being snubbed as a potential sidekick, using the name "Syndrome". After tricking Syndrome into believing he has been killed by hiding under the bones of another super, Gazerbeam (who'd been reported missing), Bob sneaks into his base and discovers that Syndrome has used the Omnidroid to kill off many of his former superhero colleagues, providing data by which to create more powerful versions of it.
Meanwhile, Helen has become suspicious of Bob's activities and discovers that he has visited Edna. She finds that Edna, in creating Bob's new suit, has created new suits for each member of the Parr family, including a homing device in each suit. Helen uses this to discover Bob's location on the remote island, but it alerts Syndrome and Bob is captured again. Helen procures a jet to find Bob, but finds Dash and Violet have stowed away. When Syndrome sends missiles to shoot the jet down as it nears the island, the three are able to escape using their powers. On land, Helen frees her husband from the base while Dash and Violet avoid capture by Syndrome's forces. The four reunite but are quickly captured by Syndrome, who reveals that he plans to launch the final Omnidroid to Metroville, using a remote control to act as if he was saving the city in order to gain superhero status. After the robot is launched, Mirage (thereby thanking Mr. Incredible for his having spared her life when he was about to crush her) helps the Parrs to escape and follow on a second rocket.
The Parrs arrive in Metroville as the Omnidroid lays waste to the city, having defeated Syndrome. Assisted by Frozone, they seize Syndrome's remote control and take advantage of its design to destroy it. They then return home, but find that Syndrome, having discovered the Parrs' identity, is attempting to kidnap Jack-Jack. As Syndrome flies to his waiting jet, Jack-Jack's innate superhuman power manifests itself as the ability to shapeshift, causing Syndrome to drop him. Bob throws Helen into the air to safely catch Jack-Jack, and then throws a car at Syndrome's jet, causing Syndrome to be pulled by his cape into one of the jet engines. (Edna had earlier established the "no capes" rule since capes have caused the deaths of many supers who were flying and got caught in jet engines, snagged on launching rockets or plummeting elevators, sucked into a vortex, etc.) The Parrs resume their normal life, albeit more contentedly with their status quo than before, but when the city is threatened by a new villain called the Underminer, the family of supers prepare to fight anew.
Characters
- Bob Parr/Mr. Incredible: He has superhuman strength and high resistance to harm, is also very resourceful and has often used his intelligence to outsmart opponents. He serves as the main protagonist of the film. Frequently reminisces about his "Glory Days". Voiced by Craig T. Nelson.
- Helen Parr/Mrs. Incredible/Elastigirl: She has superhuman elasticity and plasticity. Frequently worries for her family's safety. Voiced by Holly Hunter.
- Violet Parr: She has invisibility and the creation of force fields. Frequently wishes she was "normal". Voiced by Sarah Vowell.
- Dash Parr: He has superhuman speed. Is a competitive fourth grader. Frequently wishes to prove that he's special. Voiced by Spencer Fox.
- Jack-Jack Parr: He has various powers, such as the ability to burst into flames, pass through solid objects, teleport, defy gravity, and emit laser beams from his eyes. He can also shapeshift. Voiced by Eli Fucile and Maeve Andrews.
- Lucius Best/Frozone: Best friend of Mr. Incredible. He can create ice and freeze objects by using the moisture in the air. Frequently relives the "Glory Days" with Mr. Incredible, though he is reluctant to take more direct action. Voiced by Samuel L. Jackson.
- Buddy Pine/Syndrome: Mr. Incredible's number one fan, but 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. Voiced by Jason Lee.
- Mirage: Assistant to Syndrome. She defects shortly after Syndrome shows lack of concern for her life when Mr. Incredible threatens to crush her to death, immediately after she had pushed Syndrome out of the way, being grabbed in his place and saving his life. Voiced by Elizabeth Peña.
- Edna Mode: Famous designer of super-suits. A little obsessed with her work. Voiced by writer/director Brad Bird. During her forced retirement from hero work, Edna hosts modeling shows for supermodels. However, deep down, Edna has a great disdain for supermodels, once describing to Bob that they are "Spoiled, stupid little stick figures with poofy lips who think only about themselves." Edna had established a "No capes" rule in her superhero costume designs for safety reasons, which proved true to Syndrome's eventual demise.
Production
Brad Bird's inspiration
Brad Bird, writer and director of the film, was inspired by his own life during the creation of The Incredibles. Brad Bird's situation during the time was very similar to that of Bob's in The Incredibles. Bird wanted to do what he loved, he wanted to make films. Yet each of his films would eventually fall by the wayside at some point during their development. While this was happening, he was also trying to focus on his new family that demanded more of his time. He felt that if he focused too much on one, that he would completely fail at the other. Brad Bird 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."
Problems 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 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 full of the most difficult things to do in animation at the time. Creating an all human cast meant that they needed to focus on creating believable human characters, which was one of their biggest hurdles. They needed to advance and create new technology that allowed them to animate and create a detailed human anatomy with the inclusion of muscles as well as dynamic clothing and realistic skin and hair. Long hair had never been done before in animation up until this point. Because of all of these problems, Disney, at first, didn't even want to make the movie. They felt that it should be a live action movie if anything. However, John Lasseter, who started Pixar, really pushed it, and it ended up being a major success. Quoting Brad Bird, "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."
Reception
Critics
The Incredibles received high critical acclaim, receiving a 97% "Certified Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes which made the movie the twelfth greatest action film of all time and the only one of Top 20 with more than 100 reviews. Metacritic indicates The Incredibles "universal acclaim" with a 90 out of 100 rating. Critic Roger Ebert awarded the film three-and-a-half 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 three-and-a-half stars and called the movie "one of the year's best" and said that it "doesn't ring cartoonish, it rings true." Also giving the film three-and-a-half stars, People magazine found that The Incredibles "boasts a strong, entertaining story and a truckload of savvy comic touches."
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." 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.
Some Critics compared The Incredibles to a knock-off Fantasic Four, especially citing the very similar power. Mr. Incredible and The Thing both possess Super Strength, Elastigirl and Mr. Fantastic both stretch, Violet and Sue Storm both create invisible force fields, and at one point Jack-Jack burst into flames like the Human Torch."
Because of the violence it featured, The Incredibles is so far the only Pixar film to have received a PG rating from the MPAA.
Release
Following concerns that the film would receive underwhelming results, 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 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 second-highest gross for a Pixar film (behind Finding Nemo) and the fifth-highest grossing film of 2004. Worldwide, the film grossed $631,436,092, ranking fourth for the year. The film was also the second-highest grossing animated film that year behind Shrek 2.
Top ten lists
The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2004.
- 1st - Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal
- 2nd - Chris Kaltenbach, Baltimore Sun
- 2nd - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
- 2nd - Ken Tucker, New York Magazine
- 2nd - Desson Thomson, Washington Post
- 3rd - Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
- 3rd - Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
- 3rd - All critics, Film Threat
- 3rd - Jack Mathews, New York Daily News
- 4th - Lou Lumenick, New York Post
- 4th - Glenn Kenny, Premiere
- 5th - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
- 5th - David Edelstein, Slate
- 5th - Mike Clark, USA Today
- 5th - Kimberley Jones, Austin Chronicle
- 5th - Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle
- 7th - Michael Sragow, Baltimore Sun
- 7th - Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com (tied with The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie)
- 8th - Michael WIlmington, Chicago Tribune
- 9th - A.O. Scott, New York Times
- 10th - James Berardinelli, ReelViews (tied with The Polar Express)
- top 10 - Ella Taylor, LA Weekly
- top 10 - Ron Stringer, LA Weekly
- top 10 - Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
- top 10 - Shawn Levy, The Oregonian
- top 10 - William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
DVD extras and Easter eggs
The Incredibles two-disc Collector's Edition DVD set was released on March 15, 2005. 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 (possibly Region 1 only; see talk page)
- Character Interviews, actor and actresses interview the characters (possibly Region 1 only; see talk page)
- 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.
There are also several Easter eggs in the menus; 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.
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.
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.
Awards
The film won the Academy Award in 2004 for Best Animated Feature (the second out of three 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, but did not win.
The film was awarded the 2005 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form.
These and other awards place it among the most-honored animation films in recent history.
See also
External links
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