Pixar Era Analysis – The Incredibles
As mentioned in a previous blog post, I’ll be writing analysis content on all 27 of Pixar’s animated feature films and their film making eras.
The first era is the Golden Age, which ran from 1995 to 2004 and started with Pixar’s debut animated feature film, Toy Story. As mentioned in a previous blog post, the Golden Age is known as the Age where Pixar pioneered and highlighted their then-new technological style, and made films that focused on great attention to detail and storytelling, with each film evolving from the previous one, with their debut film, Toy Story, setting the precedent. The films in this Age also focused on themes of hope, happiness, and togetherness.
So how did The Incredibles measure up to the above features of the Golden Age and was it the right film to end the era?
Pioneered and highlighted their then-new technological style:
According to IMDb, when Brad Bird joined Pixar he brought a group of technical staff with him from his previous film, most of them (Bird included) had never worked with CGI animation before and found the process to be hugely liberating.
As this was the first Pixar film to focus fully on humans, animating them and their clothing was difficult. Violet’s hair in particular was difficult to animate due to its length and it sitting over her face for the majority of the film. According to IMDb, the crew only really cracked it towards the end of the film’s production, and it took a month for animators to be able to get Bob’s hand through the hole in his old suit’s sleeve.
The Incredibles is the first Pixar film whose lighting was designed by LPICS, a design technology that was developed in-house. The technology enabled lighting designers to make changes and for the completed image to show in one tenth of a second as opposed to 33 minutes.
Made a film that focused on great attention to detail and storytelling:
The Incredibles (along with its sequel) is the only Pixar film written by one person, the film’s director, Brad Bird.
When Bird arrived at Pixar he was told by Lasseter to make the film he had been dying to make and The Incredibles was the ideal film as Bird had been sitting on the idea of a family of superheroes for over a decade at that point in time. The Parr family and the themes the film focuses on were based on Bird’s own family and experience trying to balance a career with family.
The setting stands out in this film, having been described as a retro-futuristic version of the 1960s. Retro-futurism is defined as a “movement in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced in an earlier era.” This is evident with the 1960s aesthetic of the character’s clothing, cars, appliances, and home design, but the futuristic elements of the Omnidroid robot, Syndrome’s lair and the technology within it. The retro-futuristic setting enables both a classic and modern feel to the film and also provides more creative opportunities.
In terms of attention to detail, Bird drove his team to be as creative as possible, the teams responded by having the film be filled with references and in-jokes, the most noticeable was Syndrome being based on Bird himself.
According to IMDb, each member of the Parr family has a major clothing change in the final scene to reflect their character growth across the film: Bob starts off in business attire, then casual attire when he returns to superhero work and ends in smart-casual attire, showing the balance in his superhero desires and familial responsibilities. Helen wears baggy clothes to hide her figure, which she is self-conscious of but is wearing more form-fitting clothing at the end of the film to reflect her becoming comfortable in her own skin. Violet wears dark clothing and her equally dark hair down over her face at the start of the film and at the end, her hair is pulled back away from her face and she is wearing bright colours to reflect her increased self-confidence. Dash starts off the film in long pants to reflect his athletic desires and ability being suppressed to being on the track team and wearing the uniform at the end of the film. Even Jack-Jack undergoes a clothing change from typical baby clothes to his red jumpsuit at the end of the film, to reflect being part of a superhero family.
Speaking of Jack-Jack’s jumpsuit, Edna tells Helen that she covered the basics when making his supersuit as she didn’t know what powers he had, if any. However what she accounted for foreshadowed the powers he has that were revealed at the end of the film, such as turning into fire and lead.
Setting the precedent for future films:
The Incredibles carried on the tradition of providing audiences with a preview of their next film, in this case, Cars, by having a car that resembles Cars character, Doc Hudson, appear in the climactic battle scene.
This Pixar film would eventually get a sequel, Incredibles 2, which was released in 2018 and would focus on similar themes that were explored in this film.
Themes of hope, happiness, and togetherness:
Hope – I feel like hope is a minor theme in the film, with Bob hoping for supers to be able to come out of hiding, and the overall general hope that superheroes can provide to “ordinary people,” especially once they can come out of hiding.
Happiness – Happiness, or rather lack thereof, is a key theme in this film, specifically after supers have to go into hiding. Bob is shown to be unhappy with how mundane his life has become and tries to relive his super glory days, whereas Helen is content with her life as a suburban housewife and mother. Bob, Helen and the rest of the family find happiness within themselves once they no longer have to hide their superhero selves.
Togetherness – Bob’s character arc over the course of the film is learning to work with others, specifically his family. He rejects Buddy at the start of the film by saying he works alone, and he and Helen have an argument when they arrive back at Metroville to stop Buddy, because he refuses to let her help out of fear of losing her. He eventually lets go of his habit of working alone and shutting others out, shown when he works with his family towards the end of the film, and only unbuttoning his shirt to reveal his supersuit underneath to fight the Underminer, after he sees his family have put their superhero masks on.
My overall thoughts:
Overall, I very much enjoyed The Incredibles for many reasons. I loved the complex exploration of superheroes and superhero culture, I loved the different powers the superheroes have, and the metaphors that the superhero culture and powers provided in the context of families and family dynamics. The animation and aesthetics was absolutely stunning, and the retro-futuristic setting was pulled off seamlessly.
I also feel that The Incredibles was the perfect film to end the Golden Age as it showed how far Pixar had come in such a short time with its animation, artistry and storytelling. The era started by focusing on the simplistic idea of toys coming to life and plastic-like animation, and ended with multiple natural and man-made environments being explored and humans who actually looked human. The evolution of the films in this era was proven as The Incredibles was the first Pixar film to win more than one Academy Award.
The next part of the Pixar Era Analysis series to be released will focus on the Merger Era and the first film within that era, Cars.
Fun Facts and Trivia:
- The other superheroes mentioned (and some who appear) in the film include:
- Gazerbeam
- Dynaguy
- Stratogal
- Thunderhead
- Metaman
- Universal Man
- Psycwave
- Everseer
- Macroburst
- Phylange
- Blazestone
- Downburst
- Hyper Shock
- Apogee
- Blitzerman
- Tradewind
- Vectress
- Stormicide
- Gamma Jack
- Pixar released a short film in 2005, Jack-Jack Attack, which reveals what happened to Jack-Jack and the babysitter, Kari, while the family were away.
- Pixar’s first film to be rated PG.
- In order to give Dash a realistic out-of-breath voice, Brad Bird made Spencer Fox run laps around the studio.
References:
Loveday Writing 