The Incredibles

The Incredibles is an Academy Award-winning Pixar Animation Studios animated feature film. It was written and developed by Brad Bird, former director of The Simpsons and previously best known for directing the animated movie The Iron Giant. The Incredibles was originally developed as a traditionally-animated movie, but after Warner Bros. shut down its animation division, Brad Bird moved to Pixar and took the story with him.

The Incredibles is Pixar's sixth feature film. It was presented by Walt Disney Pictures 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 movie to be rated PG by the MPAA and the first to feature an entirely human cast of characters. It was released in a two-disc DVD (in both widescreen and full frame versions) 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.

Plot
Fifteen years after a series of lawsuits has forced superheroes, known as "Supers", into a government-sponsored witness protection program in exchange for a promise to stop all superhero work, Mr. Incredible (voiced by Craig T. Nelson) and Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) have gotten married and settled in to relatively normal lives. Now known as Bob and Helen Parr, they have a house in the suburbs and they are raising three kids, Violet (Sarah Vowell), Dashiel (Dash) (Spencer Fox) and baby Jack-Jack. Violet and Dash each have superpowers like their parents, Jack-Jack is apparently normal.

Bob is frustrated with the drudgery of his job as an insurance claims adjuster and the imorality of his boss, Mr. Huph. He dreams of returning back to his glory days of superheroism, going so far as to moonlight as a crimefighter by listening to the police scanner with his friend Lucius - another former super called Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson). When Helen finds out, it causes an argument. Bob hates having to hide their gifts, and wants to return to the heroics of the old days, while Helen is concerned about keeping the family together and not having to start over again by going into hiding in a brand new location.

Bob's frustration at work eventually leads to his getting fired, and Mr. Huph's hospitalization. Luckily, Bob is contacted by Mirage, a mysterious agent who offers Bob some highly-paid and dangerous superhero work: She needs someone to do subdue a robot, (the Omnidroid 9000), which is wreaking havoc on her employer's uncharted island. Bob takes the work, hiding both his lost job and his renewed hero work from Helen.

Bob defeats the Onmidroid, damaging his supersuit slightly. With this resumption of his hero work Bob becomes much happier. He gets himself into back into shape (he let himself go to seed with his desk job), and becomes more involved with his family. His payment from Mirage, which is triple his annual salary, allows him to buy a new car. When he takes his suit to its designer, flamboyant Edna Mode (Brad Bird), to have it repaired, she creates him a brand-new suit. Unbeknownst to him, she also creates suits for his entire family.

Two months later, Mirage calls Bob with a new assignment. Helen overhears the call, and suspects that something might be going on. When Bob returns to the island, he is ambushed and defeated by an improved version of the Omnidroid. He is held captive there by Syndrome (Jason Lee), once a youn fan named "Buddy".

Despite his lack of superpowers, Buddy wanted to be Mr. Incredible's sidekick. He followed Mr. Incredible on a mission in order to convince him, which lead to the villian ultimately getting away. Angered, Mr. Incredible rejected Buddy in fairly harsh terms. Embittered by this, Buddy set out to make himself rich by inventing and selling weapons technology. He then invented the Omnidroid, a robot specifically designed to kill supers. It learns from its mistakes, and Buddy used and killed other supers to test it in an attempt to get it ready for Mr. Incredible.

Back at home, Helen finds Bob's old super suit and notices that it has recently been repaired. She goes to talk about it with Edna and breaks downc, convinced that he has been cheating on her. Edna advises her to take control of the situation. Back on the island, Bob discovers that Syndrome killed many of his superhero friends in the process of developing the Omnidroid, and is now planning on unleashing the robot in a major city where it will cause mass destruction.

After ascertaining Bob’s location using the homing device Edna built into his super suit, Helen departs for the island on a jet plane, unknowingly accompanied by Violet and Dash. Syndrome, meanwhile, tortures Bob for information and launches a missile attack against Helen's airplane. Although Helen, Violet, and Dash survive, everyone on the island believes they are killed. Out of rage, Bob grabs Mirage and threatens to kill her unless Syndrome frees him; Syndrome refuses, but Bob relents. Mirage is disgusted with Syndrome’s willingness to throw away her life and begins to pity Bob. Meanwhile, Helen and the children swim to the island from where the plane blew up.

While Helen infiltrates Syndrome’s base, the Omnidroid is launched on a rocket towards its target, which turns out to be the city of Metroville. The children sleep the night in the jungle but then are discovered and chased by Syndrome’s henchmen. In Syndrome’s base, Mirage secretly frees Bob just before Helen arrives to do the same thing, then the two superheroes rush to find their children, who are successfully fighting off the henchmen. The family is reunited, but just as they battle the armed guards, Syndrome arrives and captures the Incredibles using his zero-point energy fields. After explaining his plan to save Metroville from his own Omnidroid and become a hero, he leaves the Incredibles in an energy prison. Violet’s force fields allow them to escape, however, and with Mirage’s help they depart for the mainland after Syndrome.

In Metroville, Syndrome arrives during the Omnidroid's destructive rampage and attempts to stop it, but the robot knocks him unconscious after figuring out that his remote control is allowing him to stop it from hitting him. Then the Incredibles arrive and, with the help of Frozone, fight the robot. Together, they are able to get the Omnidroid to dismantle itself. The town applauds them for their achievements; the possibility of superheroes coming out of hiding is also mentioned. Syndrome wakes up to find that the Incredibles have stolen his glory.

The Incredibles return home to find that Syndrome is kidnapping Jack-Jack; as he attempts to fly up to his jet using his rocket boots, Jack-Jack suddenly reveals his super powers by transforming into fire, metal and then an alien-like monster. Syndrome drops Jack-Jack, who is caught by Helen, and attempts to flee. However, Bob hurls the family car into the jet; Syndrome is knocked into the turbine and is killed when his cape is caught in the engine and pulls him in. Violet then protects the family from the raining flames and debris as the jet explodes, much to the amazement of their young neighbor.

Three months later, the family is much happier, and even Bob is content with their civilian life. Dash is running in a track meet, which Helen wouldn’t let him do before because she was afraid he would accidentally reveal his super powers. Dash promises to run no faster than the average human pace and finishes in second place at the track meet. Violet, who used to feel out of place to the point of using her hair to hide her face, is also found with her hair pulled back and successfully asking her crush for a date to the movies. As they walk out of the sports complex, The Underminer (John Ratzenberger) rises from the ground and “declares war on peace and happiness.” The family, including Jack-Jack, puts on superhero masks and prepares to fight.

Reaction
Critical response to The Incredibles was overwhelmingly positive, receiving a 97% "Certified Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes. 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." James Berardinelli shared an almost identical opinion; "The Incredibles is among the best of Pixar's digitally animated movies," he commented. He noted that the film "may be the most visually daunting animated film to reach the screen to-date" and that "it is markedly more mature in tone and approach than any previous digitally animated movie."

Some negative critcism was directed towards the film's violence; indeed, the film is much more violent than any previous Pixar film. Eleanor Ringel Gillespie of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote that "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." Such negativity was both isolated and aberrant, however, as the film immediately became a huge smash both with the vast majority of critics and with audiences.

Following concerns that the film would receive underwhelming results, the film grossed $70.4 million in its opening weekend, the highest opening weekend gross for a Pixar film, just barely besting Finding Nemo's opening weekend take of $70.2 million. The film ultimately grossed $261.4 million, the second-highest gross for a Pixar film (Behind Finding Nemo) and the fifth-highest grossing film of 2004. Worldwide, the film grossed $631.4 million, ranking fourth for the year.

DVD extras
The Incredibles two-disc Collector's Edition DVD set was released on March 15, 2005. Two versions of the set are available: one widescreen and the other full screen (this is unlike releases for other Pixar films, which often contained both versions in one set). 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 films deleted scenes plus an intro for all of them
 * 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
 * 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 Trailer, The Incredibles film trailer
 * Mr. Incredible and Pals, a Mr. Incredible cartoon
 * Mr. Incredible and Pals With Commentary, the cartoon with the characters' commentary
 * NSA Files, info about the supers
 * Boundin', a Pixar short film directed 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'

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.

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

In Mexico, there has been a craze about the movie, literally hundreds of items are being sold there, with several of them being exclusive to Mexico. Already many stores around the country have been reporting being completely sold out of certain popular items.

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.

Trivia

 * This is the first Pixar movie to be rated PG in the US (Toy Story received a PG certificate in the UK) and the first Pixar film not to have lyrics to any of its scores (see below).
 * Production of The Incredibles began in March 2000.
 * The score to the film was composed by Michael Giacchino. At Brad Bird's request, it is a stylistic tribute to the action scores of the 1960s, such as John Barry's scores for the James Bond franchise, which combined swinging big band and jazz lounge music with symphonic action scoring. In fact, the first teaser trailer uses the Propellerheads' remix of Barry's opening credits theme from the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The score was recorded in analog. Giacchino elected to forgo the standard practice of recording each soundtrack element separately, recording the orchestra, brass, and percussion simultaneously in the same room.
 * Musical homages to James Bond movie scores by John Barry include:
 * The Incredibles main theme => On Her Majesty's Secret Service main title/theme
 * The incidental music when Mr. Incredible is sneaking into Syndrome's headquarters => the incidental music when James Bond is sneaking into Auric Goldfinger's Swiss industrial plant
 * The building music as Mr. Incredible discovers the Operation Kronos files => the "Space Capsule Capture" theme from You Only Live Twice
 * Veteran Disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas have character and voice cameos at the conclusion of the final battle sequence. Brad Bird had them both appear in cameos previously in The Iron Giant. Unfortunately, Thomas did not live long enough to see the finished film.
 * The scene where Elastigirl warns her children that their opponents are a deadly threat who will not show mercy to anyone, regardless of age, was a deliberate attempt by Bird to subvert the typical atmosphere of minimized jeopardy in Saturday morning cartoons.
 * The name "Omnidroid" is owned by George Lucas as seen at the end of the credits.
 * There are scenes that depict vanity on the parts of Bob and Helen. Bob's vanity plays a significant role in the movie as Bob's confidence goes up while he works with Mirage. The scene that shows vanity on Helen's part (checking out her rear in a reflective surface) was in Brad Bird's original pitch: Bird himself has three sisters and he included the scene to reference the fact that women have a very critical eye on their bodies—and Helen is no exception. According to Bird in the DVD Director's Commentary: "The men are just glad that the women are around."
 * The inspiration for The Incredibles came from Brad Bird's family. Like Bird's wife, Helen is flexible; like his sons, Dash is full of energy; and like Bird's sisters during their teen years, Violet absolutely wants to fit in. Bird's middle son, Jack, was the inspiration for Jack-Jack.
 * The family's last name, Parr, is a homonym for the golf term "par" (or "average"); Bob therefore literally goes from being "Incredible" to "average" when superheroes are banned.
 * In some translations, Syndrome claims to use anti-matter instead of zero-point energy. An example is the Polish version.
 * This film is number 46 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".
 * The character of Bomb Voyage was originally scheduled to be Bomb Perignon as a spoof on Dom Perignon Champagne, but permission was refused.
 * The Parrs' home in Metroville appears to be an Eichler Home. There are 900 of these in Terra Linda, California, near Pixar's former homes in San Rafael and Point Richmond, California. Joseph Eichler build roughly 11,000 of these homes in California between 1950 and 1974. Today, many architectural enthusiasts cherish renovated Eichler homes as the epitome of the 20th Century "California Modern" aesthetic.

Pixar insider references and jokes

 * The opening high-speed police chase takes place on San Pablo Avenue, which passes near the studio's Emeryville headquarters. In fact, Mr. Incredible's GPS map shows the names of several streets near Pixar (including Park Avenue, Stanford Avenue, and Hollis Street), though the map itself is not accurate with many of the streets' names not correlating with the location of their real-life counterparts.
 * When Edna Mode is showing off the suits, Elastigirl tries out the tracking system, which points directly to Pixar's headquarters.
 * A non-anthropomorphized version of Cars' Doc Hudson can be seen parked in the background when Mr. Incredible tries to throw the tenth Omnidroid's claw.
 * An appearance of the CalArts Animation School inside joke A113 appears in the middle of the film, when Mirage tells Mr. Incredible to report to conference room A113. The same in-joke appears later as the number for the containment cell holding Mr. Incredible: Detention Block A1, Cell No. 13.
 * In the scene with the self destructing message, the boxing game from Toy Story is on the shelf, to the left.
 * Helen's pilot call number, India Golf Niner-Niner (IG99) is a reference to Brad Bird's film, The Iron Giant, which came out in 1999.
 * The storefront to the right of Lucious' car in the alley is the "Luxo Deli", a reference to "Luxo Jr.," the first Pixar short film. On the other side is "Andy's," a reference to Andy from Toy Story, Pixar's first full-length animated feature.
 * The fire trucks appear to be non-antropomorphized versions of the character Red from the film Cars.

Similarities/allusions to other works

 * The name "Kronos" is a reference to an obscure 1950's giant robot movie of the same name. The massive energy eating robot in that film is also mirrored in the design of the Omnidroid, although whereas the Omidroid is spherical, the original Kronos was box-like.


 * The Kronos project is based on Nomanisan Island, an allusion to John Donne's famous Meditation XVII.


 * The Incredibles suggest several similarities to the Marvel Comics superhero team The Fantastic Four. Visually, the costumes are quite similar in style and theme, with the only difference being the color change. Powers-wise, Elastigirl's abilities are very similar to Mister Fantastic's, Violet's are nearly identical to those of the Invisible Woman, Mr. Incredible can be likened to The Thing, while Dash is the only one with a clear movement power like the Human Torch. Even the baby, Jack-Jack suggests a similarity to multi-powered Franklin Richards or one time Skrull member Lyja. On the villains side, Syndrome carries ominous similarities to the F4's greatest enemy, Doctor Doom, while The Underminer is an obvious lift of the Mole Man. There is also the fact that both team leader's have the prefix "Mister" in front of their superhero names, and also that "Incredible" and "Fantastic" are synonyms. And, of course, like the Fantastic Four, the Incredibles are a family. Incidentally, the screenwriters of the 2005 Fantastic Four film had to change the ending of their film after seeing that The Incredibles's ending was too close to their intended ending. On the DVD commentary, it was stated that Jack-Jack turning into an inferno was added so all the powers from the Fantastic Four were represented within the family.


 * Aside from the Fantastic Four, there are many similarities to other comic books. Brad Bird stated that his biggest inspiration stylistically was that of Jim Steranko's Nick Fury comics, influencing the spy theme and much of the visual framing. Dash is obviously based on The Flash, arguably with elements of Quicksilver's personality. Mr. Incredible recalls both the Golden Age version of Superman, with some Batman (the high-tech cars and gadgets) and The Incredible Hulk (the strength-through-anger theme) thrown in. Elastigirl may also be based on Plastic Man, since both can transform into any shape imaginable, while Frozone's powers are very similar to Iceman of the X-Men. Gazerbeam's appearance, visor, and the implied nature of his powers similarly recall Cyclops of the X-Men.


 * The omnidroid moves in a way very similar to that of Marvel Comics' Doctor Octopus, including climbing buildings, throwing cars, etc.


 * The scene in which Mr. Incredible is called to his boss' office for helping customers is an homage to a similar scene in the original Superman movie. However, while Superman quietly leaves while his boss at the Daily Planet is talking to go defeat Lex Luthor, when Mr. Incredible attempts to leave to stop a mugger in the alley outside, he is threatened with being fired and ends up throwing his boss through several walls.


 * During Syndrome's introduction scene, he mentions that countries "will pay through the nose" for his weapons. This line was also used by Lex Luthor (played by Gene Hackman) in the film Superman, referring to land, and again by Luthor (this time played by Kevin Spacey) in Superman Returns, again referring to land but also to Kryptonian technology (including weapons).


 * The end shot shows Bob Parr ripping his shirt revealing his Mr. Incredible suit in a homage to Richard Donner's Superman.


 * In the scene where Frozone and Mr. Incredible accidentally break into a jewelry store, a cop then comes in and tells Frozone to freeze. Frozone reaches for a cup of water, all the while telling the cop that "I just need to get a drink." This resembles Jackson's scene in Die Hard: With a Vengeance where he reaches for the subway telephone, all the while telling the cop holding a gun on him that "I just need to answer the phone."


 * There are several references to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (film): the red eye of the Omnidroid evokes the red camera lens eye of the HAL 9000 computer, the Omnidroid has the number 9000, and the elevators in Syndrome's headquarters resemble the Discovery's EVA space pods.


 * The Insuricare corporate logo, a hand reaching down over the globe, evokes the original theatrical release posters for The Day the Earth Stood Still and (to a lesser degree) The War of the Worlds.


 * Among many references to the James Bond movie franchise, the monorail cars around Syndrome's hideout (built around a volcano) resemble the cars in Blofeld's hideout (built in a fake volcano) in You Only Live Twice.


 * In the scene where Bob Parr accidentally breaks the car door and begins to mutter to himself, you can briefly hear him saying "Oh geez." It was a phrase of frustration commonly used by Craig T. Nelson's character on the TV sitcom Coach.


 * The entrance to Syndrome's main computer, which Mr. Incredible uses to access the files on the Operation Kronos, is similar to that of Cerebro, used by Professor X in the X-Men comics.


 * When Jason Lee's character, young Buddy Pine, is introduced onscreen, Bob struggles to remember his name. He initially calls Buddy "Brody," a hat-tip to Lee's role in Mallrats.


 * Some of the supers are named after figures in the gaming industry; in particular, Blazestone resembles Blake Stone, a game developed by Apogee (which happens to be the name of another super).


 * The licence plate number on the police car at the beginning of the film is KR 54, a reference to the television show Car 54, Where are You?


 * The character design of Rick Dicker has been called similarily to that of Tommy Lee Jones. Also, Dicker's agents erase the memories of those who've seen superhero activity, just like Jones's agents erase the memories of those who've seen aliens in Men In Black.


 * The Kid on tri-cycle is an inside joke for John Lasseter who is ( during production ) waiting for something amazing to happen and later remarks the events as "totally wicked"


 * Syndrome's tropical island—ringed with clouds, with a central spiky peak—resembles Never Never Land as envisioned in Walt Disney's animated movie, theme park attractions, and illustrated books based on "Peter Pan."


 * The plot of the movie is significantly similar to that of Alan Moore's controversial graphic novel, Watchmen. Some of the similarities are:
 * Begins with superpowers being outlawed. The ban on the superheroes is also a reference to the fictional populace's love-hate relationship with its heroes.
 * The plan to create alien-like devices in an island.
 * The main character continues to fight crime outside of the law as a vigilante (for example, Mr. Incredible or Rorschach).
 * Portraying former superheroes in their civilian lives.
 * Both Syndrome and Adrian Veidt are portrayed as super-intelligent, have killed or discredited fellow superheroes, and have been responsible for a conspiracy.
 * The conspiracy consists of a device of unstoppable lethality, seemingly extra-terrestrial origin.
 * Both Bob Parr and Nite-Owl were portrayed as fit and athletic earlier, but are both presently overweight.
 * Two of the outlawed heroes (Nite-Owl and the Silk Spectre) rescue civilians from a burning apartment building just like Mr. Incredible and Frozone do.
 * The montage of caped superheroes getting killed and the possible cape-related death of Syndrome all echo the death of former Minuteman, Dollar Bill, who was shot at point blank range while his cape was stuck in a door.
 * Finally, the advanced level of technology in both stories is out of step with the era in which they are set (1980s for Watchmen, presumably 1960s or 70s for Incredibles). In Watchmen, this is implied to be the effect of Dr. Manhattan, and could be explained similarly in Incredibles as being the impact of supers on scientific advances.

Awards
The film won the Academy Award in 2005 for Best Animated Feature (the second Pixar Animation Studios feature film 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 2006 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form.