“No capes!”–Edna Mode.
Nowadays, if Pixar announced that they were making a superhero movie, no one would bat an eye, because of course they’re making one, superhero movies are all the rage.
However, The Incredibles came out all the way back in 2004, which was long before the MCU was even a thought in the minds of Kevin Feige and Marvel. It was an ambitious project for Pixar but if anyone could pull it off it was them, thanks to a winning streak of successful movies, both financially and critically.
Sure enough, The Incredibles went on to become not only one the best Pixar movies to date but one of the best superhero movies of all-time! Everyone fell in love with the Fantastic Four—sorry, the Parr family, and why wouldn’t they? The depth of the characters and how their powers were reflections of them—more on that later—was brilliant. And not even over a decade gap between the first one and the sequel could affect fans perceptions as The Incredibles 2 went on to perform even better at the box office, proving that fans were eagerly anticipating more adventures with the Parr family, and to find out what Jack-Jack's powers would be!
The Incredibles films are classic Pixar—family fun for all ages with enough humor to keep everyone satisfied and emotion to make even the toughest people shed a tear. So, before going to see The Incredibles 2 for the umpteenth time why not check out these great facts on both films in the franchise!
The Incredibles Movies Facts
40. Don’t Rush Me!
No one can ever accuse Brad Bird of rushing the Incredibles movies as he had the idea for the first one all the way back in 1993 but waited until 2000—seven years later—before pitching it to Pixar. He then claimed he wouldn’t do a sequel unless the idea was just as good or better than the first one, and 14 years later The Incredibles 2 was released.
39. So Crazy It Just Might Work
Bird was initially discouraged from making The Incredibles as the studio told him the project was too difficult to make, estimating that it would take ten years to complete and cost a “gazillion dollars.” Seriously, they estimated an imaginary number! Obviously, it didn’t take that long or cost that much, as the final budget ended up being $92 million.
38. From One Project to the Next
Bird cast Syndrome and Violet based on the performances that both actors who would go on to play the characters had in other projects. Jason Lee, who plays the villain Syndrome, got the part after Bird saw his performance in the movie Dogma and found that he came off as “animated and evil.” Sarah Vowell, who plays Violet, got the part after Bird heard her voice on the NPR podcast This American Life.
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37. Easy Money
The Incredibles was the first animated movie for both Jason Lee and Holly Hunter, who played Elastigirl. Apparently, when it came to recording Lee’s parts for the movie, it only took four voiceover sessions over the span of eight months, with each session only lasting four to five hours. Animation voiceover work is definitely the business to get into!
36. Early Stages
Voice actors may not always see the finished product when they are recording their sessions and that was the case for Vowell as Violet’s long hair took longer to animate than expected. So, anytime Vowell saw the character she was bald.
35. An Expensive Name
Bomb Voyage, the French mime villain at the beginning of The Incredibles, was originally called Bomb Perignon. Unfortunately, they were forced to change the name after the company that makes the champagne Dom Perignon refused to give the filmmakers the rights to use the name. Who knew people that make champagne could be such killjoys?
34. Human Interaction
The Incredibles is the first Pixar movie to feature CG humans in the lead roles, as before that, humans were generally minor characters if featured at all. This ended up posing some difficulty for the animators who didn’t exactly know how to animate the humans and their movements. To make things easier, the animators were recorded walking and moving around and that footage was used to help animate the characters in the movie.
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33. Live Long Enough to See Yourself Become the Villain
For anyone who couldn’t shake the feeling that the villain Syndrome looked familiar they weren’t wrong, as he actually resembles the writer/director Bird. However, Bird made it clear that this was completely unintentional and had no idea that Syndrome looked like him until it was too late or else he would have had the animators change the villain's appearance.
32. Racking Up the Air Miles
Like most superhero movies, the Parr family travels around quite a bit throughout their time on screen, so much so that The Incredibles had four times as many locations as any other Pixar movie. All of those location changes probably attributed to 781 visual effects shots that were used, too.
31. An Incredible Amount of Money Part Two
However, when it comes to The Incredibles 2 box office performance, it crushed the first movie and nearly every other Pixar movie to date. It had the biggest opening with $182 million and became the highest grossing domestically with $538 million, which in turn made it the ninth highest grossing domestic movie of all-time. It’s currently in third for highest grossing Pixar movie worldwide. The only place the first movie performed better than the sequel was on Rotten Tomatoes, as this one scored a 94% from critics.
30. Keep an Eye Out
The Easter egg A113 can be seen twice during The Incredibles, which is in reference to a classroom number at the California Institute of the Arts, a school that Bird attended to learn graphic design and character animation. It pops up when Mr. Incredible has a meeting in Conference Room A113 and again when he is captured on the island, resulting in him being held on Level A1 in Cell Block 13. It pops up again in The Incredibles 2 near the end of the movie, written on the front of the movie theater.
29. A Super (Fake) Show!
Does anyone remember The Adventures of Mr. Incredible television show? Probably not, considering it’s not a real show in our world, but it is in The Incredibles world. On the DVD extras of the first movie, fans can watch the fake cartoon pilot that is also accompanied by commentary from Mr. Incredible and Frozone.
28. Not the Mark Wahlberg Movie
Before landing on The Incredibles, The Invincibles was being considered as the title of the movie, which would’ve been a fine replacement. However, one name that would’ve been a disaster was the code name given to it during production—Tights. That’s just the worst.
27. Powerful Personalities
The characters powers coincide with their personalities and lifestyles, as Mr. Incredible sees himself as the man of the house and protector so he is super strong. Elastigirl has to take care of the kids as well as perform multiple chores around the house so she is flexible. Violet is shy so she can become invisible and Dash has a lot of energy so he is super fast. As for Jack-Jack, well, he is a baby and hasn’t figured out his personality yet so his powers are constantly changing.
26. Best of Both Worlds
The fictional city of Metroville that the Parr family resides in is a combination of the sci-fi movie Metropolis and the fictional town of Smallville that Clark Kent AKA Superman is from.
25. Everyone and Their Mother Saw It
When the highly anticipated teaser trailer for The Incredibles 2 made its way online, it quickly racked up views and in no time became the most viewed animated movie trailer of all-time and the seventh overall for movie trailers in general. Interestingly, when news sources started covering the story, the number of views was at 113 million, which is the same number as the Easter egg that always appears in Pixar movies—A113.
24. They’re Just Sleeping
The Incredibles was the first Pixar movie to be rated PG, due to the violence, which people seem to forget is pretty frequent, not to mention the death toll that the Parr family is completely responsible for. Sure, they didn’t straight up murder any of Syndrome’s henchmen, but they played a part.
23. As Close As It Gets
Bird based The Incredibles off of his own family—minus the superpowers, of course—as the characters, drama and family dynamic is heavily influenced by his real-life experiences.
22. Do It Yourself
Multiple actresses auditioned for the part of superhero costume designer Edna Mode, with the front-runner being Lily Tomlin. However, after Bird recorded a few lines of dialogue to give Tomlin an idea of how he wanted the character to sound, she reportedly told Bird that he should just voice the character himself, and he did.
21. Puberty Waits for No Man
Fox was only 10-years-old when he voiced Dash back in 2004, so when it came time to do a sequel nearly 14 years later he had already hit puberty so his voice was too low for the character. Therefore, Fox had to be replaced and that honor went to Huck Milner, who also ended up making his film debut.
20. Worth the Wait
The 14-year gap between The Incredibles and The Incredibles 2 is the longest gap between the first and second movies in Pixar film history.
19. Late to the Party
There is a reason why fans call The Incredibles the best Fantastic Four movie ever made, as there are many similarities between the two superhero families, so much so that Fox studios reportedly had to change several aspects of their yet to be released Fantastic Four movie at the time. Those changes included a rewrite of the script as well as an extra $20 million dollars thrown into the budget to add more visual effects to the movie.
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18. Missing an Egg
The Incredibles was the first Pixar movie not to feature the Pizza Planet Truck Easter egg from Toy Story but they did make sure to include it in the sequel.
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17. Batting 500
The Incredibles was nominated for four Academy Awards in 2005 and ended up winning two. The losses were for Best Original Screenplay and Best Achievement in Sound Mixing and the wins were for Best Achievement in Sound Editing and Best Animated Feature Film.
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16. Changing Things Up
The Incredibles 2 was the fourth Pixar sequel to have the main protagonist and the side character switch roles, with Elastigirl driving the narrative and Mr. Incredible on the sidelines. It is also the fourth Pixar film to feature a female protagonist.
15. Missing a Piece of the Puzzle
On top of the typical Easter eggs that appear in nearly every Pixar movie, The Incredibles 2 upped the ante by including one for Toy Story 4! The catch, though, is that no one will be able to figure out what it is until after Toy Story 4 comes out. What kind of sick games are they playing over at Pixar?
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14. Who Said That?
Frozone’s wife—Honey—is never seen in the first movie but there were plans to finally show her in the sequel. However, Bird decided to keep her out because he believes she is “funnier as a voice.” The animators even went so far as to design her before she was left out but they didn’t let the work go to waste as that character design was used for another superhero.
13. The Same but Different
The suits that our heroes wear change in the second movie but in such subtle ways that most fans may not have even noticed them. Thanks to advancement in technology over the last 14 years the animators were able to make the suits have a thicker weave, as well as “more folding, creasing, and texture when the characters move.”
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12. Issues With the Foundation
The Parr family had fallen on hard times in the first movie and that was even represented in the way their house was structured as it was facing downward to signify that the family was under duress. However, things were going much better for them in the sequel, which again can be seen in the house as it is facing upward.
11. Who Are You Wearing?
Both Bob and Helen’s wardrobes are modeled and inspired by actors and actresses from around the time period that the movie takes place. Bob’s clothes and style are based on Paul Newman and Helen’s is based on Mary Tyler Moore, Marilyn Monroe, and Audrey Hepburn.
10. Parenting Style
In The Incredibles 2, Bob may be relegated to stay at home dad while Helen gets to be the superhero but that doesn’t mean Bob is automatically the more responsible parent. This can be seen anytime one of them is watching Jack-Jack. When that duty falls on Bob, Jack-Jack is only in a diaper whereas when Helen is with him he is wearing clothes.
9. No One Will Notice
The sequel picks up right where the first film left off, with the Incredibles being confronted by the Underminer. However, people who pay close attention to detail may notice that the Underminer’s giant drill looks slightly different. In the first movie, the drill had five sides but it was changed to six sides for the sequel mainly due to design issues.
8. Striving for Authenticity
Jack-Jack got his voice and sound from the child of supervising animator Tony Fucile, who followed his son around the house for an hour with a microphone and recorded all the noises he made.
7. Too Many Cooks
Bob introduces the world to his Incredible Waffles in the sequel, and fans can actually make them at home! All it takes is a quick Google search and the recipe is there for fans to try out.
6. Save Money on Gas
Elastigirl gets her very own Batmobile type vehicle for the sequel, called the Elasticycle, but at one point the animators floated around the idea of having Elastigirl stretch out and become the cycle herself, similar to how she stretched into a raft in the first film.
5. An Incredible Amount of Money Part One
The Incredibles did quite well at the box office when it was released and when all was said and down ended up earning $261 million domestically and $633 million worldwide making it the eighth highest grossing Pixar movie domestically and ninth worldwide. It also performed well with critics, earning a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.
4. One Too Many
Baby Jack-Jack transforms four times at the end of the movie, but Bird pushed hard for five transformations, with the last one seeing Jack-Jack turning into goo. However, it would have taken two months to create just that one effect and after a long argument with the producer John Walker, Bird gave up and agreed that four transformations were enough. The goo power did, however, make its way into the sequel.
3. No One Say Anything
Believe it or not but DC Comics created an Elasti-Girl long before the one we know and love today graced our screens, all the way back in 1963. They’re surprisingly similar too, as the only difference in the name is the hyphen, they have the same powers and the DC version goes by Rita Farr whereas The Incredibles version goes by Helen Parr. Either DC has completely forgotten about their Elasti-Girl or they don’t care enough to bring it up with Pixar.
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2. Changing Places
Speaking of long-awaited sequels, Toy Story 4 was originally supposed to be released on the day that The Incredibles 2 came out, however, production on The Incredibles sequel went faster than expected whereas production for the fourth Toy Story lagged behind, resulting in the movies switching release dates.
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1. Take My Breathe Away
Apparently, the voice acting of ten-year-old Spencer Fox—who plays Dash—wasn’t good enough for Bird, specifically when it came to Fox acting out of breath. To fix the issue, Bird had Fox run laps around the studio and then recorded his lines so that he was legitimately out of breath.
Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
