In the early days superheroes were treated with a lot of respect, until things went downhill and they got sued for the accidents they caused. Bob Parr was once Mr. Incredible. Bob has trouble moving on and living life as a civilian with his family. A secret agency asks for Bob’s help in defeating a deadly robot. Bob agrees to it, but what he doesn’t know is that this secret agency works for someone who wants to put an end to Mr. Incredible. His name was Buddy and he wanted to be Mr. Incredible’s sidekick because he loved him so much, but Mr. Incredible shun him out which made him go bad. He now goes by the name Syndrome and his new goal in life is to kill superheroes. Bob is held prisoner. Lucky thing for him the person who made his costume, Edna Mode, put a tracking device in it. Bob’s wife, Helen, who was once Elastigirl, is able to track him down. Helen flies to the island to find him. Her kids, Violet and Dash, sneak onboard the plane she is flying. Syndrome has sent a robot to destroy the city so he can pretend to be the hero. But things don't go as planed. The robot zaps the remote that controls it off of Sydrome’s wrist and attacks him. Helen, Violet and Dash find Bob and they use one of Syndrome’s rockets to get to the city. The Parr family work as a team to stop the robot. Bob’s friend, Lucius/Frozone, joins the fight. Bob finds Syndrome’s remote and now the robot is after it. The Incredibles are passing it back and forth to each other so the robot doesn’t get it. The Parr family hits every button, but nothing works. Bob remembers the first robot he took on was defeated by destroying itself. Bob uses the robot's detached claw to slam through the main power source of the robot. The robot is destroyed and the Parr family and Frozone have saved the city. The Parr family returns home, but Syndrome has Bob and Helen’s youngest, Jack-Jack. Syndrome plans to make Jack-Jack his sidekick, but Jack-Jack stops him by using his powers. Syndrome makes it to his plane, but Bob throws a car at it. Syndrome gets sucked into the plane’s jet engine and gets killed.
Blaine: Brad Bird and John Lasseter attended art school together and John knew that Brad was going to make it big because he was very skilled and smart. After he graduated, Brad Bird worked for “The Simpsons” for several years. Brad then made his first animated feature, “The Iron Giant”. John Lasseter went on to become the co-founder of Pixar animated studios and directed three of it’s movies, “Toy Story” 1 & 2 and “A Bug’s Life”. When John heard that “The Iron Giant” became a huge success he thought that Brad should come in and do a movie for Pixar. Brad had already developed a script about a superhero family. The idea for “The Incredibles” started in 1993. Brad had drawn pictures of superheroes with different abilities. Brad also thought about “The Incredibles” being something like a spy movie. “The Incredibles” was going to be the longest movie Pixar had ever made because Brad wrote a script that was more than 150 pages long. That concerned Brad and made him think about cutting it down a bit, but then the story would only focus on Bob when it was supposed to be about the entire family. The story is about seeing this family bonding with each other as they work together to stop the bad guy. It’s also about getting to know these characters and them figuring out what their purpose in life is or what matters most to them. Like all Bob thinks about is missing the glory days before superheroes became illegal. He gets offered a job that is really suitable for him, but it turns out the people who hired him want to execute him. Then the family comes to rescue him, they get shot at and presumed dead, but they managed to survive and he realizes that family comes first. Meanwhile Helen is use to settling down and everyone pretending to be normal, but then she realizes that being a superhero is in her’s and her family’s blood. And then their kids, Violet and Dash, are learning that superpowers can come in handy if you’re saving the world because before that all they want is to have a normal life. John loved the script so much that he told Brad it doesn’t matter how long the movie is because everything about it is genius and it shouldn’t be cut down.
Working at Pixar was something completely new for Brad Bird because the animation was going to be 3D. Brad had some experience working with computer animation. The Giant in “The Iron Giant” was the only CG character in a 2D film. But “The Incredibles” was going to be all done on computer from beginning to end. Brad brought in his team of animators and artists from “The Iron Giant” to help him create the world of “The Incredibles”. Brad already had the drawings he had done in ’93 with him. “The Incredibles” is set in a present time, but Brad wanted there to be a 60s look to it because there were certain styles from the 60s that Brad liked because they looked modern day. During the first ten minutes of “The Incredibles” when it shows the glory days for the superheroes, it has the look of a 1950s comic book. And the island and Syndrome’s lair represent the spy genre.
Brad Bird would discuss how the scenes should look with the story supervisor, Mark Andrews. Mark would look through Brad’s script and then storyboard all the scenes. Mark was almost like the co-director because he’s a visual guy and he explains a scene with a lot of energy and detail. He draws what he has in his mind.
Brad Bird would watch a scene being animated on the computer and there was so much he learned about computer animation. There was one piece of footage where Mr. Incredible is holding the bad guy, Bomb Voyage, and he didn’t have a face. Bomb Voyage was just floating eyeballs and dentures and that’s because they were still working on him and they still had ways to go. Brad would go into one room and someone would be working on a scene on the computer and if there was anything that needed to be changed of how it should look he would let that person know. If it was fine he would tell them that they were doing a good job. Brad would go into another room where someone else was working on a different scene. Because Brad is the director he’s in charge of how everything should look because it’s his vision and the animators are supposed to help him bring it to life.
The most challenging thing for everyone was to work on humans for an animated feature, even though humans have been in the previous Pixar movies, but more as background characters. The sea creatures, bugs and toy characters that were in these movies never required different kinds of clothing to wear or hair that could move around or blow in the wind. The humans' looks had to look believable and compelling, but still cartoony and appealing.
Janet Lucroy was in charge of the cinematography. Cinematography can be used for 3D animation even though they don’t shoot anything, but still he or she can rotate around what’s on the screen. The cinematographer is also in charge of the lighting and the tint of a scene. Cinematography is also the best way to show how the character is feeling. Monochrome is used for Bob when he is working a job he doesn’t like. But later when Bob is more in a joyful mood because he is getting payed for using his superpowers again and so things are brightening up. And when Bob is being held prisoner it’s a cool sickly color.
Brad Bird is one of the smartest screenwriters in the film business. He put a lot into “The Incredibles” when he wrote it. Superheroes being forced into retirement after being sued, Bob being hired by a secret organization but really is lured in to be killed like the rest of the supers and the family going in to rescue him secret agent style is very clever. There’s a scene where Bob and his friend, Lucius, accidentally bust into a jewelry store after saving people from the building that was on fire next door. They are wearing masks that make them look like robbers. A cop shows up, catches them and keeps telling them to freeze. Lucius slowly gets a drink of water to help him get hydrated again because his power is forming ice and needs water after being surrounded by fire in a burning building. The cop says “Ok, you’ve had your drink. Now I want you to….” and Lucius interrupts him by saying “I know. I know. Freeze”. And he uses his freezing abilities to ice the cop. Brad really put a lot of thought into that scene a long with everything else that is in the movie. It’s exhausting to write a script especially when your doing it alone because your brain is thinking as hard as it can to think of how the story should go and what the characters should be saying. Brad thought of everything for this movie.
My rating on “The Incredibles” is five out of five stars
