When writer/director Brad Bird was wrapping up his critically acclaimed but ultimately audience-deprived animated opus The Iron Giant, he had come to the decision that he wanted his next film to be a unique take on superheroes.
Christened The Incredibles, it would be about a family of super-empowered beings who are forced to give up their very public identities and go into the Witness Protection Program to avoid hero malpractice lawsuits filed against them by people injured while being rescued. But what he didn’t know at the time was that he would ultimately bring
the project to Pixar Entertainment, trading in the traditionally animated
approach for CG.
“I originally envisioned this as a 2D animated film,” Bird explains. “The original designs that were done with the idea that it was going to be a hand-drawn film. I knew we would probably end up using a lot of CG elements just like in Iron Giant, but it was first intended to be that. When I was looking at making it, though, the critical consideration became where am I going to have the best experience making this film? Where am I going to run into the least amount of trouble and be in a place that will give me the freedom and support that I need? It became very quickly clear that Pixar is the place, because they protect their artists and they nurture stories.”
The concept of the film actually grew out of some personal demons Bird had been wrestling with some years back while a consultant on The Simpsons as he desperately attempted to balance career and his home life. “I was kind of frustrated and at the same time I had a new family and was worried about either not being able to do the work that I wanted, or being a lousy parent,” he admits. “In other words, maybe I would have to redouble my efforts to make it, but in doing so I would be an absentee father, which I didn’t want to be. Or I would be a great father, and never be able to commit the time or energy I needed to have the work that I wanted. The film idea came out of the anxiety that came out of that choice, because I
wanted meaningful work and a great family life. I didn’t want to sacrifice either.”
So far, so good, with Bird managing to strike that balance as he maps out future plans – which won’t necessarily involve superheroes, though he does remain fond of the genre. “Truthfully, I like superheroes and am entertained by them,” he says. “I think they’re our current mythology in a lot of ways. It’s a way to kind of play Greek legends in modern settings. I think that’s kind of what we’re doing;
we’re giving people the power of gods and then seeing what that does to you – good and bad. I think we’re just kind of replaying aspects of it.”
THE CHARACTERS
Brad
Bird(Writer/Director):
“The important thing for me is not the superpowers. It’s creating characters that you care about, that have believable reactions to problems. I was trying to base the family’s problems around their roles in the family and the archetypes of people. So the 10-year-old boy has a ton of energy and moves really fast. The teenaged girl is insecure, so her power is invisibility. The baby is somebody who has no powers but, you never know, he may some day, just like you never know if a baby is going to be President or a bad person. The mom is pulled a million different ways and has to accommodate a bunch of competing people and things and make everyone happy, so she’s elastic. The dad is always supposed to be strong, so he’s very strong. So it’s all about the archetypes of family people. I think all teenagers feel insecure. I think all 10-year-olds have excessive energy. I think mothers feel pulled in multiple directions, and dads feel the burden of having to be the strong one.”
One non-family member who plays an important role is Frozone, Mr. Incredible’s best friend, who happens to be voiced by Samuel L. Jackson. That character’s origin?
“Well, Sam Jackson is cool,” he smiles. “If you go really extreme in the direction of cool, you get ice.”
Teddy Newton (Character Designer):
“One of the things that I noticed in the design of the characters is that a lot of their personality comes through their hair. I remember when I was designing the hairstyles, I put in a little of what kind of reflected their powers. For instance, Helen – Elasti-girl – her hair kind of has a twist to it, whereas
Dash’s hair always looks like he’s being blown, backwards, from the speed of his running. For Jack-Jack [the baby], it’s almost sort of a pin, like the youthfulness of a resilient baby and it’s pointed straight up. Violet’s hair comes right in front of her face, kind of to hide herself and to sort of reflect her invisibility powers. And Bob, his balding head gives him that sort of Greek God sort of look that reflects his personality. So each one of them, just in their hairstyles alone, has a bit of their personality coming through.”
“Mr. Incredible: The archetype from the very beginning was Craig T. Nelson. There’s no other way around it, he just seemed like that kind of guy who looked athletic but he was much older. Big guy. A type, almost looking back to his role on Coach, though I’m not sure if that was what was the inspiration. For a character looking back at his glory years, he seemed like the guy for it. We couldn’t even think of anybody else, visually. Years ago, even the earliest drawings looked like Craig T. Nelson.”
“Elasti-Girl:
With a character like that, what I would try to do is think of a lot of gags to use for someone who can stretch. I was trying to think of how many ways she can use her powers in sort of a mundane way around the house, whether it’s lifting the sofa or reaching high spots to dust as a sort of mom around the house. I did a lot of drawings like that, many of which made it into the movie and some that didn’t. That was a good way to at least see how her powers could be used.”
“Frozone: There was a whole scene where Frozone and Bob were blowing off steam by breaking up an abandoned building, which was just showing different ways they could use their powers and which brought the building down on top of them. But that scene looked exactly like 9/11, and it was specifically removed from the movie because of the similarities. It was all happening at exactly the same time. So it was trying to come up with ways to explore Frozone’s powers and you have to think about it relating to them. If he’s sort of blowing on a beer to cool it off, that’s more in character to him.”
CRAIG T. NELSON ON “MR. INCREDIBLE”
For actor Craig T. Nelson, providing the voice for Mr. Incredible in The Incredibles was a no-brainer, given the credentials of the filmmakers involved with it.
“It was an opportunity to work with the guys that did The Iron Giant,” explains Nelson, whose credits include The Osterman Weekend, Poltergeist, Coach and The District, “which happens to be one of my all-time favorite movies. I came to that one a little late, but loved it. They had actually done an audition animation piece with my voice from a scene in Devil’s Advocate that I
had done, and they put that to an animated version of the character and they liked my voice, I guess, which is how I got the part.”
In describing Mr. Incredible, the actor offers, “He’s a guy that has a tremendous amount of integrity and a tremendous amount of altruism. He just wants to do good. It’s really what his organic self says; he just can’t stop himself. As a result, he’s one of those people that you have a tendency to admire. He really did enjoy what he did and was allowed to do and what he was given a gift to do. But when he’s restricted from doing that, his true self comes out and he goes about hunting situations or people that can fulfill that need he has. Which, as an end result, is good for society, though it doesn’t seem that way at first.”
While examining the character’s arc through the events of the film, Nelson believes that Mr. Incredible ends up able to relate more to his family in terms of what they mean to him. “It wasn’t something he was oblivious to,” he says, “but perhaps not as centered on as he should have been. He’s been tied up in his work and obsessing over it.”
In a strange sort of way, The Incredibles offers a commentary on a hero’s role in today’s world. “I just think that maybe what do is really concentrate on all of the negative aspects of where society is heading,” Nelson muses, “and that includes a lot of areas. But I think there is a spark of this character running through al of us, and it is that spark that I was touched by. As passe and as probably corny as it may seem, and maybe a story that seems, on the outside, trite, it’s a part of our makeup. I think it’s more of an expression of what society has told us is acceptable rather than what is inherent in all of us. That’s what I really appreciated about doing this film.”