With The Incredibles 2 debuting in theaters a couple weekends ago and topping the box office charts, I thought it was only right that I take a look back at the original. Many people consider this to be their favorite Pixar movie, which I never understood. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good movie, but I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite Pixar movie. In fact it’s not even in my top five Pixar movies. Still, this is an extremely popular movie, so let's see if we can uncover the reason.
It opens with Mr. Incredible driving down the street when he learns of a police chase. On his way to stop the chase, he’s asked to get a cat out of a tree. He does this by ripping the tree out of the ground (thus killing it, despite the fact that he places it upright later on in the same scene), committing borderline animal abuse by shaking the cat out of the tree, and then throwing the tree in front of the chase. (He probably could’ve saved a lot of time by placing the tree on the ground, the cat would’ve jumped off, then he could stop the chase.) He then stops a robbery on top of a roof and meets up with Elastigirl. They flirt and she runs off into the sunset. Mr. Incredible then sees someone about to commit suicide and saves them, and lands in the middle of another robbery. His “number one fan,” Buddy, shows up to help, but he causes more harm than good by causing a bomb to fall on an elevated train track. Mr. Incredible manages to save the train from falling off the track before he runs off so he’s not late to his wedding to Elastigirl. A few days later, the suicide victim Mr. Incredible saved sues him, and this opens the floodgates of lawsuits against other supers. This forces the government to relocate the super and ban any superhero acts.
Fifteen years later, Bob Parr is miserable with his life. He works in insurance and has an insufferable boss. His son is a troublemaker at school, and his daughter is extremely antisocial. He listens to police radio with Lucius to pass the time. They’re nearly caught when they’re helping to save people in a fire. He’s fired the next day when he gets mad at his boss and throws the guy through several walls. The government is unhappy that they have to spend money on him again to cover the incident up. Bob declines to relocate again and says he’ll make things work somehow.
At home, he receives a message from Mirage. She offers him a chance to relive the glory days and he happily accepts. He has to fight an omnidroid, a powerful machine with an equally powerful AI. He defeats it by making it attack itself and returns home. He uses his days to get back in shape and lose weight. He also goes to Edna Mode to have his suit repaired before his next mission, but she decides that he needs a new suit instead. She is so excited to be designing for supers again that she creates suits for the whole family, which she shows Helen.
On the island, Mr. Incredible is ambushed by another omnidroid and the mastermind reveals himself to be Buddy, now calling himself Syndrome. He hates Mr. Incredible now, because of what happened fifteen years ago, and has vowed to destroy Mr. Incredible. He orders the droid to attack, and Mr. Incredible tricks it into thinking he’s dead. He then sneaks around the island at night and discovers that Syndrome has been killing supers in order to perfect his omnidroid. Unfortunately, he’s discovered and captured when Helen activates the homing beacon in his suit.
Helen rents a plane to go after him, and Violet and Dash sneak aboard. Syndrome orders the plane to be destroyed when Mr. Incredible reveals that he knows the pilot. Helen saves herself and the kids by not getting blown up in the explosion somehow and gets them to the island. She stashes the kids in a cave while she goes to look for Bob. The kids are nearly fried when a rocket is launched from the volcano and the exhaust is funneled into their hiding spot, but Dash gets them out in time. (Though why several governments don’t go on alert when an unofficial rocket launch from an unknown location happens, I don’t know.) They’re discovered the next morning, though, and must use their powers to escape capture. Dash manages to kill the guys chasing him, allowing him to escape, while Violet finally figures out how to control her force fields.
Meanwhile, Mirage, fed up with Syndrome, frees Mr. Incredible just as Elastigirl arrives. Mirage tells them about the kids, and the two head off to save them while bickering about their civilian life. They run into the kids and fight off the guards, but Syndrome appears and captures the family. He releases the omnidroid in the city and heads off to play superhero. The Incredibles escape, and with Mirage’s help, get back to the city, where Syndrome has lost control of his droid. Frozone appears and helps out. Mr. Incredible remembers from his previous battle that only the omnidroid can defeat itself, so they take one of its severed claws and use it to take out the droid’s powercell.
The government official from earlier gives them a ride home and says that they may be able to come out of hiding soon. When they arrive home, they find Syndrome there with Jack-Jack. How Syndrome knew that they had a third kid when he didn’t even know that they were married a few hours earlier is unknown, but he kidnaps the baby. Jack-Jack reveals to Syndrome that he too has powers, and shape shifts into various things, forcing Syndrome to drop him. Mr. Incredible throws a car at Syndrome once Jack-Jack is safe, and Syndrome is dragged cape first into the engine of his plane, killing him.
Three months later, after a track meet where Dash got second place, The Underminer appears and threatens the city. The family gear up and spring into action.
Mr. Incredible/Bob Parr, voiced by Craig T. Nelson, is the super strong head of the Parr family. His power is brute strength, but he’s not invincible. He can get hurt, like when he was cut by the omnidroid, or when he was about to stop the train and he grimaced as he braced for the impact. He longs for the glory days when a walk down the street could lead to five crimes that needed to be stopped. He is one of the most popular supers in the world, and he even has his own fan club. His “biggest fan” is Buddy, who wanted nothing more than to help. But Mr. Incredible isn’t always very good with words, or children, and he ended up making things worse in the long run. After the Superhero Relocation Program was enacted, he became a miserable, overweight insurance claims adjuster. He was so desperate to be a hero again that he would convince his best friend to listen to police scanners so they could jump in and help without thinking about the consequences of their actions. The whole movie was really about him learning that actions have consequences, something he honestly should’ve learned as a kid. He also has to learn not to live in the past.
Elastigirl/Helen Parr, voiced by Holly Hunter, is a super and married to Mr. Incredible. She has the ability to stretch her body and contort it into various shapes, like a parachute or a lifeboat. She quickly adapted to the role of mother and housewife after the Superhero Relocation Program forced her into retirement. She loves her family and would do anything to protect them. For the majority of the movie, she believes that Bob is having an affair. (I think Brad Bird did a good job of writing this element on two different levels.) Even after the plane gets blown up and she realizes that something big is happening on the island, she still punches Mirage in the face and questions Bob’s intentions. She does eventually come around as she will always fight for her family.
Violet Parr, voiced by Sarah Vowell, is the only daughter of Bob and Helen Parr. She’s very shy and awkward fourteen year old, but who isn’t awkward at that age. She likes to hide behind her hair, until the middle of the movie when her mom gives her a pep talk, then she pulls it back with a headband. Speaking of, where did Violet get her headband from? It randomly appears when they’re on the island. I doubt she brought it with her to the island, and I didn’t see a store in that cave they were hiding in, so where did it come from? I get what her hair is supposed to symbolize, but the headband makes no sense! She has two powers, invisibility and force fields, though I’m not convinced that these are two separate powers. (A quick Google search told me that invisibility most likely has to do with bending light and controlling the photons around you, which means force fields somehow.) Her goal in life is to be normal, but by the end she realizes that normal is overrated.
Dashiell “Dash” Parr, voiced by Spencer Fox, is the speedster of the family. He’s your typical ten year old boy. He’s a troublemaker, but he never takes it too far. He once put a tack on his teacher’s chair and was caught on tape, but he was moving too fast for the 1960’s camera to catch him. He really wants to try out for sports, but his mom is worried that he won’t be able to resist temptation and will reveal his true self. In actuality, he just wants to have fun and enjoy life while kicking bad guy butt occasionally. Before it was announced that the sequel was picking up right where this movie left off, everyone thought that Dash was going to be the villain in The Incredibles 2, and everyone had their take on this theory. These two videos do a good job at explaining why this theory was so popular and why it could’ve worked. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OQbuhaJxcM, and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_1p3IlLAos
Jack-Jack Parr, voiced by Eli Fucile and Maeve Andrews, is the youngest child of the Parr family. He’s only a year old, but he has multiple powers, most of which involve him shapeshifting his body into something else, such as a fireball, a steel baby, or a monster. He can also teleport, levitate, and shoot laser beams out of his eyes, among other things. Most of his powers aren’t shown in the movie, but in the short “Jack-Jack Attack,” which takes place when Kari is babysitting him while everyone else is away fighting Syndrome. And we don’t even know if that’s everything. More could be revealed in the sequel. His family doesn’t know that he has powers (I guess they were too far away to see what was happening when Syndrome flew off with him, even after Bob threw Helen up to catch Jack-Jack), and it is unknown why he has so many powers, though many fans speculate that it’s because he’s a baby and still developing. If that’s the case, could he have more powers that we don’t know about at this point? Will some of them disappear as he ages? Will his final power be something else entirely? Will any of these questions be answered in the sequel? Only time will tell.
Syndrome/Buddy Pine, voiced by Jason Lee, was Mr. Incredible’s self-proclaimed biggest fan. After Mr. Incredible’s betrayal, Buddy was determined to destroy the supers. His plan involved selling his inventions so that everyone could be super, thus rendering the real supers obsolete. He displays several signs of Narcissistic Personality Disorder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDI02CZ3c-0. Some people believe that he is a super as well, which is how he was able to manipulate Mirage and his guards for so long, but I don’t believe he is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97wbatreHYg I think he’s just a smart guy who sold his weapons to questionable people/organizations for a lot of money, and used that money to gain power over people. After all, as a kid, he invented rocket boots. What kid besides Sheldon Cooper goes around inventing something like rocket boots? As an adult, he was able to invent his zero-point energy gloves, the omnidroid, and everything else we see on the island. Daddy issues aside, the dude is wicked smart. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT3bnkGI20s
Mirage, voiced by Elizabeth Peña, is Syndrome’s assistant. Her claims that the government says she doesn’t exist have lead many to believe that she is a spy. Maybe she is, maybe she isn’t. The jury is still out on that. She worked for Syndrome maybe even loved him, but about halfway through the movie she decided that the obvious bad guy was evil and maybe she shouldn’t help him anymore. Though why she decided to change sides I don’t fully understand. She was helping Syndrome track down supers and kill them. She knew the goal was to kill supers. It’s never explained why she decided to defect. The best theory I’ve heard was that she wasn’t willing to hurt children, but Syndrome was, and that’s what pushed her over the edge. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=betyVpKc0ug Although her feelings and loyalty shifted after Syndrome was willing to let Mr. Incredible crush her to death. After she helps the Incredibles escape from the island, she disappears. We’re never told what happened to her. According to Google, Elizabeth Peña died four years ago, so I doubt Mirage will appear in the sequel. Maybe they’ll mention Mirage in passing.
Edna “E” Mode, voiced by Brad Bird, is a fashion designer. She designed most of the costumes for the supers before they were banned, then she switched to designing clothes for supermodels, which she hates. She jumps at the chance to design a new costume for Bob. She is against capes because they caused the death of numerous supers in the past. Some people believe that she designed Syndrome’s costume, but I don’t think she did. I think he designed his own costume, since he had a cape on the costume he made when he was a kid. Edna is extremely loud, pushy, and blunt. She’s also short, but her overbearing personality more than makes up for her lack of height. I mentioned in my review of The Fairly OddParents how not that many adults in cartoons are short, and as someone who is barely 5’2 I always appreciate when short characters shows up. Her personal style is very… out there. Her choice in clothing and decorations is unique. I don’t think I would ever wear her designs, but I’m sure someone would.
Frozone/Lucius Best, voiced by Samuel L. Jackson, is Bob’s best friend. He’s married to Honey, who is never seen, but has some of the best lines in the whole movie, in my opinion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2qRDMHbXaM I don’t know what’s quoted more, the “I am your wife, I’m the greatest good you are ever gonna get” line or the “That was totally wicked” line. Master of ice, Frozone is always ready to jump into action, but he also understands that the past is the past, and he shouldn’t look back because it distracts from the now. He lost touch with most of the other supers, but he still sees the Parrs every week. It was his connection to Bob that lead to Mirage finding Mr. Incredible. I’m assuming that after the battle in the city, he went home to save Honey’s evening, because he isn’t seen again, and he must’ve said or done something to get her to tell him where she hid his super suit. I’ve seen him in the trailers for the sequel, so I hope he gets more screen time than he does here.
A lot of people like to compare this movie to the Fantastic Four, which I can sort of get. Mr. Incredible is the thing, Elastigirl is Mr. Fantastic, Violet is the Invisible Girl, and Jack-Jack can sort of be compared to the Human Torch. That just leaves Dash, who is most like DC superhero The Flash. That’s about all the connection that there is. Pretty weak. I mean, I’ve never read a comic book in my life, but I like to think that I’ve seen enough superhero themed movies, TV shows, and YouTube theories to have at least a basic understanding of the world of superheroes. This movie also gets compared to James Bond, though not as much, at least from what I’ve seen. I guess it’s there, but I’m not a fan of James Bond really, and I’ve only seen a handful of those movies. I guess Mirage was supposed to take the role of the hot girl? Like I said, I’m not really a fan of James Bond, even though we played some of the more popular music scores one year in band class. Could the James Bond connection be why I don’t consider this to be the best Pixar movie ever? Who knows.
This movie has a surprisingly high kill count. I don’t even know how many guards were killed onscreen, and however many more killed offscreen. Plus all of the supers that Syndrome killed when he was testing the omnidroid. Some soldiers were probably killed when the omnidroid attacked the city, at the very least the ones in the tank that exploded were killed. Finally, Syndrome himself was killed during the last fight. It all adds up to a lot of deaths.
The quality of animation was good for 2004. There are a lot of details, but nothing is really mind blowing. If this movie came out today, I doubt it would stand up. Some of the tech is cool, though. My favorite thing Syndrome made was the waterfall entrance to his lair. A door behind a waterfall is nothing new, but I’ve never seen the waterfall split open like that before. I love that shot, it’s beautiful to look at. Actually, what impresses me more than the animation are the sound effects. I don’t know why, but I really enjoy listening to all the sound effects, especially when the supers are doing their thing. It’s very realistic. When Elastigirl stretches, you can hear it. When Dash is running on water, you can hear each footstep he takes. It’s all very impressive, and I hope that the sound effects are just as good in the sequel.
Theories abound on the internet surrounding this movie. Everything from how the supers got their powers, to who are Buddy’s parents, and everything in between can be found. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3Hv7fxnCJg The most prevalent theories, at least that I’ve seen, assume that the supers work for the government, which is why they were able to enact the Superhero Relocation Program. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2euhroKGAN0&t=736s I can definitely see this as a possibility, given some of the dialogue in the film. The film totally glosses over the fact that the government can erase minds, so creating superpowered people sounds totally possible in this universe. Of course, the film also glosses over the fact that Syndrome created AI single handedly. But the movie takes place in the ‘60s, so you could assume that in their universe, by the year 2018, with the rate that technology is advancing, flying cars and hoverboards are totally a thing.
This movie does use the cliche mask that only covers the eyes. Seriously, how does no one not know who any of the supers are? The point of a mask is to hide your face. At least Frozone is trying to hide his identity. Yes, Violet and Dash weren’t born until after the Superhero Relocation Act, but after the whole omnidroid attacking downtown incident, you would think that someone would put two and two together and figure it all out. Granted, this movie takes place during the ‘60s, before cell phone cameras and the internet were things, but the kid on the big wheel could figure it out, or at least blab to an adult who could then figure it out. I think Mirage found all the supers because she got the names of the towns they were living in, went there, and looked for civilians who resembled the super she was hunting at the time. It shouldn’t be that hard to figure out. The masks aren’t as bad as Clark Kent/Superman, but they’re up there.
This is one of, if not the most popular Pixar movie to date. Critics and fans alike love this movie, and it has a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I wouldn’t go that far personally. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not my favorite Pixar movie. It’s a lot like your basic superhero movie, where good has to triumph over evil. But it delves more into the personal lives of the heroes. There are parts that (as far as I know, I didn’t read comic books as a kid) aren’t in your typical superhero comic book or movie, like when Helen wonders if Bob is cheating on her. As a kid, this aspect flew right over my head. Brad Bird did a good job at writing this movie on two levels. If you’re into superheroes, family drama, and action, you’ll enjoy this movie. It may not be in my top five Pixar movies, but I think we can all agree that fourteen years is far too long to wait for a sequel.
I’m SJ and these are my real thoughts on The Incredibles.
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