It is without a doubt that over the years Disney and Pixar’s animated films have captured the hearts of many, and Brad Bird’s The Incredibles (2004) clearly makes the cut. The Incredibles is set in a universe where there exists certain people who possess superpowers. However, due to changes in the law, superheroes are made illegal, forcing supers to live and work jobs without using their powers, disguising themselves as ordinary people. The story is told from the perspective of Bob Parr, a former superhero who works at an insurance company. After eventually getting fired from his job, he grabs the opportunity to do hero work under a top secret organisation that not even his family is aware about. Soon, his wife, Helen Parr, starts to get suspicious of Bob and attempts to track him down, only to discover that he has fallen into a superhero-hunting trap organised by Syndrome, a former fan rejected by Bob. Being an animated film produced by Disney and Pixar, already audiences expect family-friendly content from the film. However, The Incredibles manages to tell a significantly more unique story than their previous works, as well as even surprise audiences by being the first Pixar feature film to receive a PG rating (Filmsite n.d).
The viewers are first introduced to a short interview scene featuring our main heroes, Bob known as Mr Incredible and Helen known as Elastigirl, as well as Lucious known as Frozone. From this single scene, the audience is immediately introduced to one of the film’s main genres, the ‘superhero’ genre. The superhero genre is the heart of the film, especially with the plot and the narrative heavily revolving around individuals with superpowers. The audience is also informed of the time period of when the film is first set, being the late 1940s. This is also hinted at by the city environment. Examples include particularly the style of cars and fashion of the civilians, as well as the news sequence introducing the hero ban with its picture quality, voiceover and newspaper formats that signify the time period. The aesthetics of especially the beginning section of the film seem to be reminiscent of the city settings featured in superhero comics of the Golden Age and Silver Age, as well as superhero television cartoons that aired in Brad Bird’s youth (Cavna 2020). Additionally, as well as to reflect the tone of this section of the narrative, the colours and lighting of these scenes are nostalgic and vibrant, especially with the callback to old superhero cartoons. However, a rather subversive element to the ‘superhero genre’ in this beginning segment is the absence of a binary-opposite to Bob, being a supervillain. The narrative only shows him fighting crime, saving lives and balancing hero work with his ordinary life, with the closest element to a binary-opposite being the government after the hero ban law. It is also very early in the film that the genre of jazz, particularly big band, makes itself stand as the thematic music genre of the film score. Every scene is accompanied by a jazz soundtrack to fulfill every mood. This decision must have likely been influenced by films in the ‘spy’ genre where big band jazz dominated the soundtracks of many (Bushard 2014).
In The Incredibles, supers are framed as the characters that the audience sympathise with. Being from the supers’ points of view, the audience gets a more personal insight of how the supers feel about the changes in the law about banning the use of something they were born with. This is efficiently told from Bob’s point of view, where he is working at Insuracare. In this section of the narrative, before he gets fired and sent out to do secret hero-work, the environments and character designs are crafted to appear dull, dry and tasteless. For instance, in these segments of the film, they all use a selection of muted colours, the lighting is colourless and natural, and there is little to no music accompanying the picture. This choice of aesthetics is particularly prevalent inside Bob’s cubicle at the Insuracare offices, as well as the shot of him in his car during the traffic jam, where he and his environment uses desaturated and plain palettes to colour the scenes. There is a strong use of shape language with prominent rectangular shapes in the scene compositions, which is often associated in this type of context with staticness, immobility and inflexibility (The Walt Disney Family Museum n.d). This is also helped by Bob’s large build, making the world feel small and tight around him, giving the almost claustrophobic feeling of being boxed in and caged. Eventually he gets fired from his job, afraid he’ll have nowhere to go. This is especially helped by the contrast with Helen’s point of view on the situation, where all the shots featuring her are bright, yet still naturally lit. Compared to Bob, Helen is willing to coexist calmly with the new law against supers. This is also supported by the fact that she is happy with being a stay-at-home mother and looking after her children. Meanwhile, Bob will do anything he can to return to his days of crime-fighting.
Immediately, Bob comes across an opportunity that returns him to doing his old superhero work under a top secret organisation, even behind his family’s back. From analysing the scenario from a general perspective, it is not a good thing that Bob is being dishonest to his family to engage in activity based on his desire to return to the ‘glory days’. However, from the narrative structure and overall framing of the scenes, Bob’s return to hero work is framed as a positive scenario as his decisions line up completely with his main motivation. To accompany Bob’s perspective on this change in the narrative, the film abruptly transitions from the dull and natural aesthetics from the city and suburbs, to a slickly futuristic airship soaring through a bright blue sky. In the Nomanisan Island jungle, the setting is vibrantly lit and Bob is made significantly small in the shots, with the exception of the moments that build tension before his first encounter with the fighting robot. Now compare Nomanisan Island’s introduction with the previous scenes of the film: all where the environments are a lot more naturally lit, boxed in and dull, where Bob feels trapped and unhappy in his state at the time. Now doing hero work, Bob feels freer and happy that he is doing something that he has been passionate about his whole life. It is also in this segment of the film that a presumed major antagonist and likely ‘villain’ is implied, as expected from the ‘superhero’ and ‘action-adventure’ genres, that being whoever is behind the fighting robots in the jungle. When Bob pays Nomanisan Island another visit, right after the completion of his redesigned suit, more of the secret base is shown, most notably the journey to his luxury suite. Here, the secret base is framed to appear more reminiscent of the secret bases from old spy films, such as those from the James Bond franchise, which Brad Bird had stated was part of his inspirations for the general tone of The Incredibles. (Cavna 2020).
In the following act of the film, Bob has his first encounter with Syndrome, the established main antagonist of the film, as well as the one who was revealed to be behind the fighting robots. After discovering the corpse of a superhero he once knew in a cave on Nomanisan, Bob becomes suspicious of the organisation on the island and infiltrates the main building to investigate. Here, the Nomanisan Island’s base starts to appear less vague of its identity and makes itself clear that it has more resemblance to a military base than any other location. This is shown by having the location in which Bob enters, as well as the first location that the audience sees during the infiltration, being one of the base’s hangars. The men in uniforms are now framed as armed guards as shown by their body language, gestures and patrolling back and forth designated areas in a soldier-like manner, which heavily contrasts their introduction as machine and aircraft operators. Additionally, this suspicion of the organisation on Nomanisan, shared by both Bob and the viewers, is eventually fulfilled during the ‘Kronos unveiled’ scene, where the suspense is at its peak. It is here where the major plot-twist that Bob has fallen into a superhero-hunting trap is revealed and Helen, at the same time, learns that he had been doing secret hero work behind her back. With Bob having fallen victim to Syndrome, the narrative now focuses more on Helen’s perspective of the story as it is now her job to rescue him, with the help of her children. Helen is now given a protagonist role as Bob is now the ‘damsel in distress’ in this act. Soon, Helen rescues Bob and they reunite with their children, but get captured by Syndrome. Everyone is now trapped on the island and learns that Syndrome has landed a fighter robot in his home city to show to the world that he can be a superhero, as he always dreamed of.
Once the family escapes Nomanisan and returns back to the city, the narrative is now viewed from the perspectives of both Bob and Helen. From a generalised perspective, Syndrome does have a reason personal to him that explains his deliberate attack on the city. Although it is true that our protagonists have already gotten a glimpse of Syndrome’s motives, both Bob and Helen see through that and understand that saving lives is more important than helping Syndrome achieve his dream. For a majority of the beginning of the climactic fight scene with the giant robot, the city environment is very naturally lit. It is not until the end of the scene where the sun appears to have lowered, likely to create a sense of time in the diegesis and even emphasise the feelings of exhaustion that the heroes are feeling by the end. Accompanying the entire scene is also a soundtrack that plays synonymously with the action on screen. However, the defeat of the fighting robot does not define the end of the narrative. There is one final scene with Syndrome’s attempt at abducting Jack-Jack, which eventually leads to his demise. The lighting from the sunset is intense and red, further emphasising the exhaustion that the protagonists feel from their long day of hero work. In the final moments of The Incredibles, all the tension is shown to finally be cleared off. The lighting in all the finishing scenes are natural, yet bright enough to portray a more optimistic scenario. At last, the end credits begin. Particularly in the animation during this sequence, the art follows a style that is characterised by high-contrast colours and strong use of flat geometric shapes, almost similarly to the style that was commonly found in poster art in the 1940s. The main colour palette is limited to three to four bold and saturated colours in one shot, keeping that sense of boldness and energy that reflects the tone of the music, as well as the overall film.
The Incredibles, like many animated films produced by Disney and Pixar, demonstrates its narrative and aesthetic properties working together to craft a film that appeals to audiences of many. Throughout the story, the audience gets the opportunity to explore multiple perspectives of different characters and their experiences in a world where superheroes exist. Not only does the film tell a great story, but also includes aesthetic decisions that do more than just accompany the storytelling and help to create a sense of appeal that feels personal to both the director, Brad Bird, and the audience.
Bibliography
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Cavna, M 2020, ‘“The Incredibles” director Brad Bird picks what to watch in isolation’, The Washington Post.
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The Incredibles 2004, film, Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Feature Animation - 500 S. Buena Vista Street, Burbank, California, USA. Directed by Brad Bird.
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