# The obligatory "Incredibles" thread! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 4, 2004, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-obligatory-incredibles-thread/273061 "2004-11-04T22:10:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-obligatory-incredibles-thread/273061/161 "2004-11-26T04:36:05Z")
This entire thread and no one picked up on one of the big subtexts in the movie? With the family members there are several characters who directly correspond to the FF, some name homages to them, and one that turns into an FF homage for a few moments. And then there’s a kid who runs fast. Super speeders aren’t rare in the comics but that pick but after the Seduction of the Innocent effectively forced the comic book superheroes into retirement in the 1950’s who was the first one back? The Flash. Dash is DC’s first superhero revival and then there’s the Marvel side of things more represented since it was also a dramatic change to the storytelling dynamic. Other people in the thread have commented on the fact that the film is clearly set in the late 50’s/early 60’s; right at the revival of the superhero genre of comics in the real world. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2004, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-obligatory-incredibles-thread/273061/162 "2004-11-27T01:26:04Z")
> [@](#): > > i had the same complaint about LOTR, but here, it felt more like an encore and was welcomed. A legitimate complaint, but there I didn’t mind it because I’m a huge fan of the books, and there were a lot of things that they just had to include to please us book fans. In fact, they cut out several of the significant ending bits in the movie. **Just Some Guy** , I’m not sure what you’re saying there. Nobody picked up on the fact that the characters are similar to classic comic book characters? That’s kind of the whole point of the movie. if you’re hanging your argument on the fact that there was a speedster, and the DC speedster was the first character to get revamped, well, that seems kind of thin. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2004, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-obligatory-incredibles-thread/273061/163 "2004-11-27T14:47:03Z")
My point was they picked the characters who were the break between the golden age and the silver age and that change over occurred here in the real world due to legal actions (not lawsuits but the parallels are too strong). ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2004, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-obligatory-incredibles-thread/273061/164 "2004-11-27T20:50:32Z")
Brad Bird has always insisted that the characters got their super-powers based on their roles in the family: [ul] [li]Mr. Incredible - as the head of the household, he has to be a strong figure.[/li][li]Elastigirl - as a mother, she gets pulled in a hundred directions at once.[/li]li Violet - like most teen girls, she’s always trying to hide (both behind her hair and her invisibility), and repel things which annoy her.[/li][li]Dash - ten-year-old boys are uncontrollable bundles of energy.[/li][li]Jack-Jack - babies have unlimited potential. Who knows what they can do? :D[/li][/ul] I think reading anything more into that is seeing stuff that just isn’t there. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2004, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-obligatory-incredibles-thread/273061/165 "2004-11-27T21:18:55Z")
Ok, you have to go WAAAAAAY back for this one, but did anyone catch the “sucking in the gut” bit Mr. Incredible does in front of the mirror mimics Craig T. Nelson’s “Before/After” mirror moment in “Poltergeist?” (This is EASILY his best work. It almost makes up for the wretchedness of “Coach.”) Love, love, love this movie. Saw it for the second time last night with my husband. I think everything about it is perfect, other than the FroZone character seems almost tacked on. More FroZone! Also, Syndrome was mega-annoying, but I guess that adds to his evil-ness. I loved the evil lair and the sweet monorail/pod system. I LOVED the Incredible’s “Mid-Century” house complete with Danish Modern furnishings. Sweet! My husband almost died laughing when they were arguing over the freeway exits. That’s us to a “T”! I thought “Boundin’” sucked (Too preachy!) and “Cars” looks boring as hell. (What’s interesting about cars? NOTHING!) I suppose the 5-year-old boy demographic is large enough to make it worth their time though. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2004, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-obligatory-incredibles-thread/273061/166 "2004-11-27T21:42:52Z")
> [@voguevixen](#): > > “Cars” looks boring as hell. (What’s interesting about cars? NOTHING!) I don’t think that has a lot to do with whether or not the movie will be any good. _A Bugs Life_, _Toy Story_, and _Finding Nemo_ weren’t successful because of the intrinsic “interesting-ness” of bugs, toys, or fish – they worked because of the way the characters were anthropomorphized. There’s no reason you can’t work the same trick on motor vehicles. It looks like a riff on the road movie genre, and a kind of a town mouse/country mouse fable – and I think that has plenty of potential. This isn’t going to be a “race” movie – it’s going to be about the race-car character slowing down and learning some new values from a bunch of amiable beaters. It could be fun. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-obligatory-incredibles-thread/273061/167 "2004-11-28T01:53:44Z")
Just got back from seeing this film. Quite possibly the best film I’ve ever seen. Some comments: As already mentioned, yes, “Showtime!” is Mr. Incredible’s catchphrase. Some superheroes have catchphrases (“It’s clobberin’ time!” “Avengers assemble!”), some don’t. He does. Now, to the unanswered: > [@](#): > > Originally posted by **ITR champion** > _Just out of curiosity, did they make the short about the lamb particularly for this movie? All the previous opening short films have had a notice that they were made many years ago, but not this time._ I think _Boundin’_ was made at the same time _The Incredibles_ was being produced. It screened for the Academy for an Oscar nomination (it lost), but it appears to the general public for the first time here. All Pixar films except _Toy Story_ have opened with a short, and only in two cases were they older shorts: _A Bug’s Life_: _Geri’s Game_ (new) _Toy Story 2_: _Luxo, Jr._ (produced in 1986) _Monsters, Inc._: _For the Birds_ (new) _Finding Nemo_: _Knick Knack_ (produced in 1989, this version bears a dual copyright date, as the breast size of some trinkets has been reduced) _The Incredibles_: _Boundin’_ (new) Pixar shorts that never appeared with a feature: _The Adventures of Andre and Wally B._ (1984, while still a division of Lucasfilm), _Red’s Dream_ (1987), _Tin Toy_ (1988). These three, along with _Luxo_ and the original _Knick Knack_ appear on a Walt Disney Home Video VHS called _Tiny Toy Stories_ which I am unsure of which is still in print. > [@](#): > > Originally Posted by **ITR champion** > > _At the end the villain’s final evil plan is to give his stuff away for free. I don’t like this because I suspect it’s somehow supposed to be related to a message about movie priacy._ > [@](#): > > Originally Posted by **CheapBastid** > > _Not how I read it. It was a reference to the earlier conversation between the Mom and son on the way back from school. She tells him everyone’s ‘special’ and he says that means nobody’s special. Also it was the villan’s way to take away the ‘specialness’ of the superheros he once worshiped and now resents…_ I agree. Syndrome is heard to comment something to the effect of “By the time everybody’s super, nobody will be.” ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-obligatory-incredibles-thread/273061/168 "2004-11-28T02:26:51Z")
> [@mobo85](#): > > Pixar shorts that never appeared with a feature: _The Adventures of Andre and Wally B._ (1984, while still a division of Lucasfilm), _Red’s Dream_ (1987), _Tin Toy_ (1988). These three, along with _Luxo_ and the original _Knick Knack_ appear on a Walt Disney Home Video VHS called _Tiny Toy Stories_ which I am unsure of which is still in print. But to earn your Super Duper Pixar Geek Credits™, you must also get a copy of **Pencil Test,** an all-Macintosh-animated short featuring a MacDraw pencil icon(!) that escapes from its computer screen … and subsequently tries to get back into the computer. While it’s not officially by Pixar, John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton had major lead roles in it, and the anthropromorphization of the pencil icon is very similar to Pixar’s early work (especially **Luxo Jr.** ). (And yes, I have my copy. 😃 ) ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-obligatory-incredibles-thread/273061/169 "2004-11-28T07:55:58Z")
> [@mobo85](#): > > _A Bug’s Life_: _Geri’s Game_ (new) I don’t know if makes it “older,” but I saw _Geri’s Game_ at _Spike & Mike’s_ a year before _A Bug’s Life_ was released. If I remember correctly, there was a fella from Pixar there to introduce it and go on at length about the textile-modelling plugin that they developed for it. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-obligatory-incredibles-thread/273061/170 "2004-11-29T00:17:34Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > I don’t know if makes it “older,” but I saw _Geri’s Game_ at _Spike & Mike’s_ a year before _A Bug’s Life_ was released. > > If I remember correctly, there was a fella from Pixar there to introduce it and go on at length about the textile-modelling plugin that they developed for it. I don’t know much about Pixar, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a number of Pixar shorts were seen by some folks before they appeared in front of Pixar films. I’m just a casual fan who was pointing out some stuff to other folks. I don’t want any Super Duper Pixar Geek Credits ™. You guys can have 'em. Three more useless bits. I don’t know if I would have noticed the first two if I hadn’t have read 'em first, but they’re still interesting: 1. The indication to change reels (usually a black dot that appears for less than a second) is a black dot with green lines around it. The shape of the green lines forms the Incredibles’ “i” emblem. 2. A subtle dialogue gag that reminds me of a gag in _Finding Nemo_ regarding the Tank Gang’s intiation on the sacred Mount Wanahakalugi. (May not be actual spelling, but say it out loud.) When Mr. Incredible first comes to the island, the autopilot informs us it is called Nomanisan. (I’ll let you figure that one out yourselves). 3. John Ratzenburger, Pixar’s good luck charm, appears as a minor villian in the film’s last scene. (Ratzy’s appeared in all of Pixar’s feature-lengths so far, and a Super Duper Pixar Geek™-which I’m not, only a semi-geek-would also know he appears in the English version of _Spirited Away_, produced by John Lasseter.) ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-obligatory-incredibles-thread/273061/171 "2004-11-29T00:49:28Z")
Personally, I _love_ the joke with Elastigirl’s radio call sign, when she’s flying the jet… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-obligatory-incredibles-thread/273061/172 "2004-11-29T00:57:19Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > Personally, I _love_ the joke with Elastigirl’s radio call sign, when she’s flying the jet… 😃 I probably wouldn’t have figured out the importance of India-Golf-Niner-Niner if I hadn’t read _that_, either… As a little reference to a real product from the past, I did like the fact that Frozone is seen splashing Hai Karate on his face during the “Where is my supersuit?” scene. Particularly because I’m a _Schoolhouse Rock_ fan and read an interesting story George Newall told about Hai Karate’s history. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-obligatory-incredibles-thread/273061/173 "2004-11-29T01:01:59Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > Personally, I _love_ the joke with Elastigirl’s radio call sign, when she’s flying the jet… 😃 Que? > [@](#): > > I probably wouldn’t have figured out the importance of India-Golf-Niner-Niner if I hadn’t read that, either… Still, que? 😕😕😕 ---
**Author:** ![LeeshaJoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@LeeshaJoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LeeshaJoy)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-obligatory-incredibles-thread/273061/174 "2004-11-29T01:40:48Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > Que? > > Still, que? > > 😕😕😕 India-Golf-Niner-Niner = IG99, which apparently was a production code name for Brad Bird’s previous film _The Iron Giant._ ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-obligatory-incredibles-thread/273061/175 "2004-11-29T01:40:56Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > Que? > 😕😕😕 When Mrs. Incredible is piloting a plane (which, also unbeknownst to her, contains Dash and Violet) to Nomanisan Island to save her husband, she makes a number of calls to the island asking for permission to land using the handle India-Golf-Niner-Niner, or IG99. Brad Bird (_The Incredibles_’s writer-director)'s first feature was 1999’s _The Iron Giant_. ---
**Author:** ![Phantom\_Dennis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/51bf81/32.png) [@Phantom\_Dennis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phantom_Dennis)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-obligatory-incredibles-thread/273061/176 "2004-11-29T11:53:28Z")
Truly good films cast a spell on me that can last several days, so I can’t be trusted to make qualitative statements about such films until I’ve cooled off for awhile. Had you caught me walking out of the theater after seeing _the Incredibles_ for the first time, I would have said something like: "That movie totally ROCKED! It’s the best film EVER!!! At the moment I would say it’s definitely among the finest animated films I’ve seen, and perhaps in my top ten list of all-time favorite movies. There isn’t much else I can say without repeating what’s already been said, but I will tell you what I think is one of the movie’s few flaws: The film has some problems setting up the tone near the beginning – as many have said, it’s not a “cartoony” movie in the least, despite the stylized character design. It could have played very well as a big-budget, live-action superhero feature (although that version would have been a lesser film, simply because the computer-animation was such tremendous eye candy [my god! Their HAIR! You can see every strand!]). Dash’s teacher and Mr. Incredible’s boss were a bit to “caricaturey” for the film. They didn’t fit in with the rest of the characters, most of which were very well-developed and believable. Also regarding the boss, I don’t like the scene where Mr. Incredible loses his temper and throws him through a couple of walls. Yeah, the boss had it coming, and yeah, I get the point that Mr. Incredible isn’t perfect and is fed up with his crappy job, but I think this was one scene where the laws of physics are stretched a bit too far for the boundaries set by the film. These boundaries are important, because in order to become emotionally involved with a character in peril, we must really believe that, unlike Wile E. Coyote, they won’t survive that thousand-foot fall (or being hurled 1000 MPH though several walls of an office building). In all rights, the boss should have splattered like a bug, and that would have made Mr. Incredible a murderer. At least the boss was shown in traction after the incident – that definitely made the scene more believable for me. But why wasn’t Mr. Incredible charged with assault and battery? I would have liked to have seen the same point made in a less cartoonishly violent way. Perhaps Mr. Incredible could have heaved his boss’s desk through the wall, instead of the boss himself. I’m proud to say that I was among a few hundred people at the San-Diego Comic-con last summer who got treated to a special sneak peak at the film before anybody else (outside of Disney and Pixar) got to see it. I also got a chance to hear Brad Bird talk about the movie, which was a treat for a film buff and animation lover such as myself. I had a feeling the film would be a classic then, not because I was impressed with the preview (which was basically the first battle sequence between Mr. Incredible and the omnidroid on the tropical island), but because Bird struck me as a very smart and creative guy with a clear vision and some really strong opinions about the artform of animation. One of the subjects he discussed was the Uncanny Valley, although he didn’t mention it by name. He was well aware of the creepiness of CGI people when animators try to make them too realistic (ala _Polar Express_), so he intentionally designed the characters to be as stylistic as possible (while still being recognizably human) to avoid the creepiness trap. He thought it foolish to even attempt to make CGI characters photorealistic, because not only is it nearly impossible to pull off, but it can be done much more realistically (and for a fraction of the cost) with… real humans. The beauty of animation is that it doesn’t _mimic_ reality, rather it _distills_ it. I’m anxiously awaiting Brad Bird’s next project, especially if he decides to team up with Pixar again. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-obligatory-incredibles-thread/273061/177 "2004-11-29T15:50:25Z")
I didn’t realize that Edna Mode was based on a real person. To me she was a stereotype fashion designer. I guess Edith Head set the archetype in the same way that every Drill Instructer is now a tribute to R. Lee Ermey. I really liked the James Bond feel to the scenery and music. It gave the film a depth. Also, I was amazed by the lush jungle rendering as Mr. Incredible fell towards the island. To me, the chase scene with Dash was like the pod race from Episode I rather than the Endor chase. Like others have mentioned, I liked the similarities between Mr. Incredible sucking in the gut and “Poltergeist” scene as well as Mr. I choking Mirage like Chewbacca and Lando. The omnidroid was cool. I liked that it wasn’t a source of humor but a real danger. ---
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-obligatory-incredibles-thread/273061/178 "2004-11-29T15:57:53Z")
> [@June](#): > > In all rights, the boss should have splattered like a bug, and that would have made Mr. Incredible a murderer. At least the boss was shown in traction after the incident – that definitely made the scene more believable for me. But why wasn’t Mr. Incredible charged with assault and battery? It’s clear that the government agency that was responsible for the super heros still exists in some for, albeit diminished, and was able to protect him from being charged. It’s also clear this isn’t the first time. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-obligatory-incredibles-thread/273061/179 "2004-11-29T20:36:01Z")
> [@June](#): > > Also regarding the boss, I don’t like the scene where Mr. Incredible loses his temper and throws him through a couple of walls. Yeah, the boss had it coming, and yeah, I get the point that Mr. Incredible isn’t perfect and is fed up with his crappy job, but I think this was one scene where the laws of physics are stretched a bit too far for the boundaries set by the film. Sure, but the entire movie does play a bit “loose” with the laws of physics anyway. You might as well complain that there’s no way the Incredibles could walk and breathe and whatever with the proportions that they have. Sometimes a gag is just a gag. > [@June](#): > > I’m anxiously awaiting Brad Bird’s next project, especially if he decides to team up with Pixar again. Considering he’s now a full-time Pixar employee (and, from everything I’ve read, lovin’ it there), that’s a safe assumption to make. 🙂 I’d expect the next Brad-Bird-produced-Pixar-movie sometime in 2009. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-obligatory-incredibles-thread/273061/180 "2004-12-22T22:14:51Z")
It’s closing at the local theatre tomorrow, so I’m gonna try to squeeze in one last viewing, before the big DVD purchase. I love this film. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-obligatory-incredibles-thread/273061.md?page=8)