The Incredibles
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Brad Bird
Craig T. Nelson
Holly Hunter
Samuel L. Jackson
Jason Lee
Dominque Louis
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Only hours before their wedding, superheroes Mr. Incredible, a man of phenomenal strength, and the flexible Elastigirl, who can stretch into any shape, are hard at work preventing crimes in Metroville. As Mr. Incredible saves a suicidal man and catches villain Bomb Voyage, insistent young fan Buddy Pine interrupts the heroic deeds to demand that he become Mr. Incredible's sidekick. Although Buddy has no super powers, as "Incrediboy" he claims that he will use amazing inventing skills to defeat villains. As Buddy boastfully demonstrates rocket boots by soaring into mid-air, Bomb Voyage attaches a bomb to the boy's cape, which falls and destroys railroad tracks below. After Mr. Incredible dutifully saves the oncoming train, he gruffly tells Buddy that he prefers to "work alone." Days later, both the aggrieved would-be suicide victim and injured train passengers sue Mr. Incredible, setting off a string of lawsuits against superheroes. Soon after, the government rules that superheroes must become regular citizens to prevent further lawsuits, which are bankrupting the government. Using the Superhero Relocation Program, Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl settle into an anonymous suburban life as Bob and Helen Parr. Fifteen years later, the Parrs have three children: infant Jack Jack, who shows no superhuman tendencies; ten-year-old Dashiell, who runs at such great speeds no one can see him; and Violet, a shy junior high school student who can become invisible as well as create impenetrable force fields. Middle-aged and overweight, Bob works as a claims adjuster at Insuricare, an insurance company that routinely rejects its clients' claims to keep profit margins high. Consumed with reliving the "old days," Bob joins his friend Lucius Best, also known as Frozone, the superhero who changes moisture into ice, every Wednesday to make anonymous rescues. Meanwhile, Dash is repeatedly sent to the principal's office for causing mischief and Violet disappears whenever Tony Rydinger, on whom she has a crush, looks at her. Helen patiently reminds the children that they must "fit in," and finds her husband's obliviousness to family concerns difficult to accept. At the office, when Bob's bureaucratic boss, Gilbert Huph, trying to squelch Bob's attempts to secretly assist his clients in getting their claims approved, threatens to fire him and refuses to allow him to stop a mugging in progress, Bob finally throws Huph through several walls in a fit of super heroic frustration. Realizing that he has blown his cover, a sulking Bob returns home worried that the latest incident will lead to one more relocation and traumatize his family. While in his office, Bob soon discovers a video device containing a message from Mirage, a female representative of a company developing the omnidroid, a five-legged monster robot. After Mirage explains that the omnidroid is threatening to destroy the company laboratory on the volcanic island of Nomanisan, Bob accepts the well-paid, top-secret assignment to stop the robot. The next morning, Bob tells Helen he is going away on Insuricare business, then takes the plane to Nomanisan. Out of practice, Bob struggles to keep pace with the omnidroid, but finally triumphs over the robot and continues to battle it over the next three months, thus helping develop the cognitive abilities of the machine, which learns from its mistakes. Upon each return to Metroville, Bob, fueled with new confidence, secretly lifts train cars to trim his waist line, spends more time with the family and rekindles his romance with Helen, who is thrilled but still unaware of his new job. One day, finding his superhero suit ripped, Bob visits high tech superhero suit designer Edna Mode, also known as E, at her ultra modern mansion. Eager for a challenge, as the superhero government restrictions have limited her work to designing for supermodels, E creates an entirely new suit for Bob and reluctantly agrees to mend the old one. On his next job at the island, Bob wears the new suit, unaware that E has implanted a homing device in it. Meanwhile, Helen becomes suspicious when she answers a call to Bob from Mirage and, after recognizing E's handiwork on the old suit, decides to visit the designer, who tells her Bob is "moonlighting hero work." When E presents her with four more new suits, especially designed for each member of the Parr family, Helen is appalled that E believes they should return to their old jobs. Meanwhile on Nomanisan, after the omnidroid finally captures Bob, the machine's mysterious owner appears and introduces himself as Syndrome. However Bob recognizes Syndrome as the now-grown-up still disgruntled Buddy and escapes into a cave, where he finds the remains of superhero Gazer Beam. After dropping a bomb, Syndrome assumes Bob is dead when his scanner finds only Gazer Beam's skeleton, behind which Bob is hiding. Bob then sneaks into the company compound, accesses files using the password "Kronos," the word Gazer Beam carved into the cave wall before dying, and discovers that Syndrome has terminated dozens of his superhero friends. Meanwhile, Helen learns that Bob was fired from Insuricare several months ago and, believing that her husband is cheating on her, bursts into tears. E reminds her, however, that as Elastigirl, she has the power to fight for her man. Borrowing a friend's jet, Helen leaves Jack Jack and Dash in Violet's care and heads for the island, which has been pinpointed by the homing device, but soon finds that Violet and Dash, dressed in their new suits, have stowed away on board. As she eludes heat-seeking missiles shot from the island, Helen radios to cease the assault. Hearing Helen's warning that her children are on board, followed by a subsequent explosion, the imprisoned Bob is crushed, believing he has lost his family. When Syndrome laughs at him, Bob threatens Mirage's life. Syndrome encourages him to kill her, but the bereft, tenderhearted Bob is unable to commit cold-blooded murder. Meanwhile as the jet explodes, Helen uses her body as a parachute to land the children safely into the ocean, then takes the shape of a boat and, with Dash's speedy feet as a motor, heads for Nomanisan. Leaving the children in a cave, Helen discerns Bob's location by spying on the heavily guarded company power grid room. Meanwhile, Mirage, disillusioned by Syndrome's disregard for her, frees Bob, who is then reunited with Helen. When a rocket carrying the omnidroid to Metroville is launched, it spews flames into the cave, forcing the children to run into the jungle where guards on armed velocipods attack them. Dash flees the approaching velocipods with his extraordinary speed, while Violet disappears to evade capture. When Dash returns to her, Violet surrounds them with a protective spherical force field, which Dash powers with his feet until they reach Bob and Helen. Working together, the family easily fends off the approaching guards; however, Syndrome soon captures and imprisons the family. He then brags that he can be the best superhero by appearing to defeat the omnidroid, which has just arrived at Metroville, by disabling it with his remote control. After Syndrome leaves, Bob admits to his family that he was obsessed with being undervalued by society, but now realizes the true value of his family. Suddenly freed by Violet's ingenuity, the family hijacks a rocket to Metroville just as Syndrome is demonstrating his supposed superhuman strength to an awestruck crowd. However, the omnidroid blasts the remote control from Syndrome's wrist, leaving him helpless. Joined by Frozone, the Incredibles use their amazing skills to defeat the omnidroid then return home, where they find Syndrome kidnapping Jack Jack. As Syndrome blasts up to his awaiting aircraft with Jack Jack, the enraged, wailing infant morphs into several forms, finally turning into a vicious beast, which frightens Syndrome into dropping him. Bob throws Helen into the sky, where she forms a parachute to safely lower Jack Jack to the ground. Meanwhile, Syndrome's cape is caught in the aircraft's turbine, killing him and causing a great explosion over the house. Protected by Violet's force field, the Incredibles survive and, weeks later return to an anonymous life. Renewed by the strength of their family and their special abilities, Violet outgrows her shyness and accepts a date with Tony, while Dash learns how to compete against mere mortals without revealing his powers. And when a new villain, the Underminer, suddenly appears and promises to wreak havoc, the Incredibles don their masks and continue their mission to protect Metroville as now-government sanctioned superheroes.
Director
Brad Bird
Cast
Craig T. Nelson
Holly Hunter
Samuel L. Jackson
Jason Lee
Dominque Louis
Teddy Newton
Jean Sincere
Eli Fucile
Maeve Andrews
Wallace Shawn
Spencer Fox
Lou Romano
Wayne Canney
Sarah Vowell
Michael Bird
Elizabeth Peña
Bud Luckey
Brad Bird
Bret Parker
Kimberly Adair Clark
John Ratzenberger
Mark Andrews
Nicholas Bird
Louis Braga Iii
Mary Elizabeth Clark
Pete Docter
Louis Gonzalez
Elizabeth Greenberg
Juliet Greenberg
Billy Guardino
Dennis "dj" Jennings
Ollie Johnston
Brad Lewis
Ted Mathot
Jazzy Mahannah
Randy Nelson
Bob Peterson
Jeff Pidgeon
Juliet Pokorny
Joe Ranft
Lori Richardson
A. J. Riebli
Katherine Ringgold
Stephen Schaffer
Bob Scott
Peter Sohn
Andrew Stanton
Frank Thomas
Pamela Gaye Walker
Patrick Walker
Deirdre Warin
Philip Wong
Crew
A.u.b.i.e.
Jessica Abroms
David Acord
Renee Adams
Mari Aizawa
Mari Aizawa
Jenny Aleman-holman
Neftali "el Magnifico" Alvarez
Tlacaelel Alvarez
Brad Andalman
Ben Andersen
John R. Anderson
Robert Anderson
Tricia Andres
Mark Andrews
Mark Andrews
John Anon
Layla Appleman
Cortney Armitage
John Armstrong
Daniel Arriaga
Jim Atkinson
Carlos Baena
Negin Bairami
Paul Baker
Sanjay Bakshi
Sanjay Bakshi
James Bancroft
David Baraff
Alan Barillaro
David Barksdale
Jim Bartell
Byron Bashforth
Dana Batali
David Batte
Zachariah Baum
Andrew Beall
Bobby Beck
Matthew Jon Beck
Jennifer Becker
Jennifer Becker
Chad K. Belteau
Gabriel Benveniste
Michael Berenstein
Courtney Bergin
Lloyd Bernberg
Randy Berrett
Bert Berry
Nick Berry
Tim Best
Jason Bickerstaff
Brad Bird
Bryan Bird
Jeremy Birn
Jeremy Birn
Samuel Lord Black
Ted Blackman
Malcolm Blanchard
Sequoia Blankenship
Neil Blevins
Geefwee Boedoe
Nelson "rey" Bohol
Courtney Booker
Bolhem Bouchiba
Brian Boyd
Brian Boyd
Max Brace
Sean Brennan
Shawn Brennan
Dylan Brown
Gary Bruins
Bruce D. Buckley
Bruce D. Buckley
Stephan Vladimir Bugaj
Stephan Vladimir Bugaj
Fred Bunting
Ian Buono
James Burgess
Adam Burke
Mike Cachuela
Gordon Cameron
Daniel Campbell
Scott Caple
Jay Carina
Jay Carina
Trish Carney
Vince Caro
Loren C. Carpenter
Michael Chann
Amelia Chenoweth
Jun Han Cho
Brian Christian
Per Christiansen
Anthony Christov
Arree Chung
Claudia Chung
Claudia Chung
Paul Cichocki
Terry Claborn
Scott Clark
Gary Coates
Brett Coderre
Adam Cohen
Christopher Colby
Kim Collins
Marc Cooper
Lori Cottrell-bennett
Phaedra Craig
Tim Crawfurd
Kate Cronin
Johnoel Cuevas
Bena Currin
Ricardo Curtis
Marco Da Silva
Lars R. Damerow
Pamela Darrow
Pamela Darrow
James G. Dashe
Gareth Davis
Ray Davis
Stephen Allen Davis
Andrew Dayton
Andrew Dayton
Ricardo Delgado
Pete Demoreuille
Tony Derose
David Devan
Ross Dickinson
David Difrancesco
Chris Digiovanni
Airton Dittz Jr.
Cosmic Don
Brendan Donohoe
Doug Dooley
Max Drukman
Tom Duff
Karen E. Dunn
Simon Dunsdon
Greg Dykstra
Terry Eckton
Kevin Edwards
Miles Egan
Ralph Eggleston
Arik Ehle
David Eisenmann
Amy Ellenwood
Edward Escueta
Cassandra Falby
Christopher Fehring
Danielle Feinberg
Ike Feldman
Matthew Ferraro
Mike Ferris
Will Files
Susan Fisher
Kurt Fleischer
Ziah Sarah Fogel
Julian Fong
John Foreman
Erik Forman
Dean Foster
Dean Foster
Suzanne Fox
Doug Frankel
Jaime Frye
Tony Fucile
Tony Fucile
Mary Ann Gallagher
J. Sidlovsky Gant
Rita Garcia
Grant Gatzke
Michael Giacchino
Alisa Gilden
Louis Gonzales
Louis Gonzales
Gordon Goodwin
Andrew Gordon
Kevin A. Gordon
Kevin A. Gordon
Robert Grahamjones
F. Sebastian Grassia
John Graziano
Anthony J. Greenberg
Eric Gregory
Stephen Gregory
Susan Boylan Griffin
Nicole Paradis Grindle
Nicole Paradis Grindle
Stefan Gronsky
Stefan Gronsky
Patrick Guenette
Edgar Guiñones
Christina Haaser
Christina Haaser
Tom Hahn
Deniece Hall
Patrick Hannenberger
Bethany Laroy Hanson
Nigel Hardwidge
Mark Harrison
Film Details
Technical Specs
Award Wins
Best Animated Feature Film
Best Animated Feature Film
Best Sound Editing
Award Nominations
Best Original Screenplay
Best Sound
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
An early working title of the film was Mr. Incredible. During the opening credits, young superhero characters "Mr. Incredible," "Elastigirl" and "Frozone" are interviewed about their jobs protecting the planet. In reply, Mr. Incredible claims he is tired of the world not "staying saved," but proud of the work they do. At the end of the closing credits, thanks were given to dozens of Pixar employees and, as with other Pixar films, to babies born during the film's production. A special thanks was given to Matthew Robbins, Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas. Thomas, who died in 2004, and Johnston were among Walt Disney's famous "Nine Old Men," a group of animators, and provided character voices as themselves at the close of the film, remarking "No school like the old school." At many theaters in which the film was shown, a Pixar animated musical short entitled "Boundin'" was shown. "Boundin'" is about a desert lamb humiliated by a sheering, whose confidence is restored by a "rebounding" Jackelope.
Animator Brad Bird, an executive consultant for the popular animated television series The Simpsons, and screenwriter-director of the 1999 animated feature The Iron Giant, proposed Mr. Incredible to Pixar executive producer John Lasseter, with whom he had been classmates at California Institute of the Arts. According to the Variety review, The Incredibles marked the first time Pixar had hired an outside filmmaker for a feature film. Bird completed his first animated film, The Tortoise and the Hare, in his early teens and was accepted as an apprentice to veteran Disney animator Milt Kahl, but had not been involved with the studio again until The Incredibles.
According to the book The Art of The Incredibles and the film's production notes, several technical advances in animation were developed for the film, including a new muscle rig called "goo," which enhanced the characters' form, "subsurface scattering" allowing character's skin to have a realistic glow and the shooting of real world elements, like leaf shadows, which were then incorporated into the animation environment. As noted in a October 28, 2004 The Times (London) article, The Incredibles was the first full-length film for Pixar to feature animated humans, rather than animals, toys or mythical figures throughout. The production notes also state that the production caused initial difficulties because of the extraordinary number of sets that were created, three times as many as Pixar normally produced for a feature. In addition, scenes in which "Dash" ran 200 m.p.h. required twice as much ground as originally planned.
Within The Incredibles several small vignettes add to the main plot, but were not included in the summary above. Among them is the repeated appearance of neighborhood boy, who, having seen "Bob Parr" lift his car with a single hand, shows up on his tricycle daily to see if something even more fantastic is happening. At the close of film, the boy is finally satisfied when he sees Elastigirl using her body as a parachute to carry "Jack Jack" to the ground followed by "Invisible Girl" covering the family in a force field to protect them from the debris of "Syndrome's" exploding ship. Another recurring theme is the questionable nature of a superhero's cape. When Bob requests a cape for his new superhero suit, "E" rattles off numerous superhero deaths caused by the excessive fabric, which are illustrated onscreen. According to several reviews of the film, Brad Bird, who provided the voice for E, claimed that he designed that character as part Japanese and part German and with no real person in mind. However, the reviews note, striking similarities exist between the character and Hollywood costume designer Edith Head and Vogue magazine editor Anna Wintour.
The film was displayed in 2.39:1 Scope, a widescreen ratio that requires more attention to masking than the standard 1.85:1. A October 27, 2004 Hollywood Reporter article noted that Pixar, Buena Vista Distribution and Dolby Production Services sponsored a contest to honor the best presentation of the film, to encourage projectionists' craft. According to an October 11, 2004 Hollywood Reporter article, THQ subsidiary Heavy Iron Studios worked with Pixar to create a video game version of the film in which most of the film's actors reprised their roles. A Hindi version of the film, entitled Hum hain lajawab (We Are Incredible) and starring Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan as the voice of Mr. Incredible, was released at the same time as the original.
According to a October 22, 2004 Hollywood Reporter article, Disney ran the largest promotional campaign for an animated feature for The Incredibles, including television spots for SBC, McDonald's, Procter & Gamble and Kellogg. The television ads often featured original animation created specifically for them by Pixar. As noted in a January 3, 2005 Los Angeles Times news article, according to Exhibitor Relations, the film finished fourth in domestic box-office grosses, taking in $262.5 million as of January 3, 2005, and sixth in international box-office grosses for films released in 2004.
The Incredibles completed a five-film contract between the Emeryville, CA-based animation company Pixar and the Walt Disney Company, a relationship that started in 1995 with the film Toy Story, and was the first Pixar film to receive a "PG" rating instead of a "G" rating. According to a April 22, 2002 Hollywood Reporter news item, a dispute between Pixar and Disney began when Disney refused to include Toy Story 2 as part of the pact, claiming that sequels were not stipulated in the contract. Other films included in the contract were Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo, all films that Lasseter either directed or produced. According to October and November 2004 WSJ articles, the relationship would end in 2005. As of January 2005, the now popular and profitable Pixar, headed by chairman and chief executive officer Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer Company, had yet to sign with a new distribution company.
In addition to being selected as one of the AFI's Top Ten films of 2004, The Incredibles was cited as the Best Animated Feature of the year by the National Board of Review, the New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Using both jazz and 1960s spy film scores as inspiration, composer Michael Giacchino, well-known for his work in television on shows such as Alias and Lost, worked closely with Bird on his first film score. Many reviews lauded Giacchino for his work, and the composer was awarded with Best Music Score by the Los Angeles Film Critics. The picture was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy by the Hollywood Foreign Press and for a Darryl F. Zanuck award as the year's best production by the Producers Guild of America. The Incredibles received the following four Academy Award nominations: Best Animated Feature, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Original Screenplay. The film also won several Annie Awards, which are presented by the International Animated Film Society, including Best Animated Feature.
Miscellaneous Notes
Winner of the 2004 award for Best Animated Feature by the National Board of Review (NBR).
Winner of the 2004 award for Best Animated Film by the New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC).
Winner of the 2004 award for Best Animated Film by the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA).
Winner of the 2004 award for Outstanding Performance by an Animated Character in an Animated Motion Picture by the Visual Effects Society (VES).
Winner of the 2004 Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing in Feature Film - Animated by the Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE).
Winner of the 2004 Satellite Award for Best Motion Picture - Animated or Mixed Media by the International Press Academy (IPA).
Winner of two 2004 awards including Best Music Score and Best Animation by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA).
Released in United States Fall November 5, 2004
Released in United States on Video March 15, 2005
Released in United States September 2009
Shown at Venice International Film Festival (Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement 2009) September 2-12, 2009.
Kodak
Filmed in PixarVision
Released in United States Fall November 5, 2004
Released in United States on Video March 15, 2005
Released in United States September 2009 (Shown at Venice International Film Festival (Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement 2009) September 2-12, 2009.)
Voted one of the 10 best films of 2004 by the American Film Institute (AFI).
