Comic-Con Flashback: Why The Incredibles Rules

There are few reasons not to be excited for a new Pixar movie. They defy storytelling expectations, infuse classic filmmaking techniques into their work, and strive to produce films that amuse any person, young or old. The crowd at the 2004 San Diego Comic-Con wasn't lining up and geeking out over Brad Bird's The Incredibles simply because it was one of the few animated films to tackle the superhero genre, but it also had the Pixar touch -- a stroke even more valuable than Midas'.

The flavor of The Incredibles is served up from the first minutes, a sequence of "documentary" interviews that serve as introductions to the adult characters. Bird's uniquely realistic, comic approach to the film made for perfect trailer fodder, and an even better opening to the film. You won't find talking heads opening a Dreamworks movie anytime soon.

Like any animation studio, the movies Pixar was pumping out prior to 2004, while still fantastic, were geared for children. Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Monster's INC., Finding Nemo -- touching films, but with the sugary dose of Disney present.

Then comes The Incredibles, equal parts '60s-era action movie and familial relationship drama. Not exactly what you'd expect. Early on in the film Elastigirl and Mr. Incredible have a flirtatious spat while putting the kibosh on a burglar. The scene's romantic, witty, human characters were more alive then anything most people had ever seen animated before. Light shading and water ripples are cool and all, but that was the technological breakthrough of the film (and they didn't even need to use motion capture!).

With old school heroes come old school villains, and what's cornier than a good ol' fashioned pun bad guy name?

The first evil mastermind Mr. Incredible encounters (while being followed by the irksome, wannabe-sidekick Buddy) is Bomb Voyage, who explodes out of a bank safe ready to blow the muscled man to smithereens. You know so, because it's in his name!

Dare I say that Incredibles is a more digestible, more fun, and ultimately, more satisfying version of Watchmen? Hey, it's at least better than Zack Snyder's cinematic adaptation.

After saving a man who jumped from the roof of a skyscraper, Mr. Incredible finds himself in a legal battle over his unwarranted heroism. The whole thing snowballs and, quickly, the caped crusaders are an extinct breed, forced to go undercover and live normal lives. Heavy stuff.

Maybe Incredibles is just a primer for all the f*cked up sh*t kids will be reading in comic books when they grow older...

If the superhero world of Mr. Incredible is riveting in its colorful, anomalous designs and characters, then the "real life" of Bob Parr is equally perfect in its mundane, drab representation. Now that superheroes are outlawed, Bob sells insurance, a task that requires zero of his abilities (although he does have a super-powered heart capable of granting elderly citizens fair loans, so that's something).

Bird paints the working world as a prison cell for Incredible's alter ego and it's entirely fitting, albeit an uncomfortable, I'm-larger-than-a-normal-man-and-can't-fit-at-this-stupid-little-desk kind of fitting.

Brad Bird has managed to do what few other animation directors have (surprisingly) ever mastered: the art of dialogue-free, visual gags. Most animated features take the rapidfire comedy approach: an assault of gags they hope will make you chuckle enough to gloss over what doesn't work or be too confused to care. In the sequence where Mr. Incredible hits his boiling point with his shabby automobile, Bird takes his time and relies mostly on sound effects and visual cues to sell the scene.

Jacques Tati would be very proud.

Just because you have super powers doesn't make raising kids any easier -- especially when they have super powers.

A dinner with the Parrs is as rowdy and dysfunctional as any other family's, but with the added twist of a kid who runs at accelerated speeds and another who can manifest forcefields. Thankfully, Mom's arms can stretch to pretty much anywhere.

Mid-life crisises take their toll in various forms: new sports cars, sudden interests in odd hobbies, or, in the case of Mr. Incredible, spending evenings listening to the police blotter.

Perfectly reasonable and totally relatable, Incredible and Frozone wait patiently one night every week (while their wives think they're at bowling night), waiting for crime to rear its ugly head. On one particular evening, the two disparaged heroes find themselves saving pedestrians from a burning building, only to find safety in a nearby bank...which the police believe they're robbing.

Supers can't get a break in this town! Hello, emotional throughline.

Brad Bird gives complete satisfaction to anyone who's ever suffered through a job when Bob loses his cool at the office. Head honcho Gilbert Huph (voiced by the great Wallace Shawn) asks Bob to deny more customers insurance or feel his wrath, a request that compromises Bob's integrity and sets the super-strength employee into a fit of rage.

Why Huph looks like Stephen King, we may never know, but there are few things more enjoyable then seeing a disgruntled worker ring his boss' neck.

One of the first teasers for The Incredibles featured Mr. Incredible having a difficult time suiting up. After many years off the job, his utility belt doesn't fit around his newly softened waist. Ah, aging.

Bird replicated the funny sight gag for the movie, when Incredible locks in to be launched into battle from Mirage's aircraft. Unfortunately for him, his superpowers do not include larger-than-normal deep breaths.

Mr. Incredible's first mission for his new, unknown employer is taking on a highly advanced robot...that learns. Whatever Incredible throws at the Omnidroid 9000, the metallic quadruped ingrains in its knowledge. It's the Deep Blue of destruction.

The robot harkens back to Bird's first feature, the modern classic Iron Giant, that was similarly steeped in retro design. The Omnidroid 9000 looks nothing like the lumbering Giant, but both could easily have been featured in the same pulp comic book from decades ago.

In the world of superheroics, there's only one designer capable of mustering up the creativity and innovation that goes in to creating a super suit: Edna Mode.

An amalgamation of every Hollywood costume designer of the last 50 years (but most evidently, the world-renowned Edith Head), Mode is a tiny, ferocious lady who takes her work seriously and finds herself revitalized by Mr. Incredible's request for a new suit (or patch up on the old one, whateva dahling). Bird ended up voicing Edna Mode himself, giving the character another bizarre (and memorable) twist.

Why did Superman and Batman wear capes? They were never really "in" from a fashion point-of-view and, as Edna Mode clearly describes in this glorious moment from Incredibles, they're really a danger to the superhero's well-being.

When he's not utilizing superhero tropes to tell his story, Brad Bird is turning the mirror on them for laughs.

In the middle of revealing himself to Mr. Incredible as his former, non-sidekick Buddy, Syndrome realizes he's fallen into one of the obvious supervillain tendencies: monologuing. The hardest part of pulling off an elaborate scheme is not giving yourself the dramatic pat on the pack. Syndrome wakes up only after Mr. Incredible throws a tree trunk his way.

Every Bond movie has its meeting with Q, a display of the inventor's latest, over-the-top inventions and the punch they pack.

The Incredibles has its own version: Edna Mode's Disneyland tour of her greatest creations yet: the Incredible family super suits. Elastigirl's suit is capable of stretching any distance and is resistant to fire. Dash's can withstand the hyperactive speed of his legs. Violet's is crafted with fabric that disappears when she does. Jealous yet?

Watch It Here

Mr. Incredible may be the iconic face of The Incredibles, but it's the Mrs. who does most of the hard work in the film.

Following news that her hubby is taking to his old habits on a tropical island in the middle of nowhere, Elastigirl (er, woman?) charters a jet, outmaneuvers all but one of a pack of incoming missiles and lands her stowaway kids safely in the water using her stretchy powers.

Rarely do we see women in badass roles and especially not as superheroes, but Elastigirl is evidence enough that the world needs more!

Another Elastigirl gem.

There is an inordinate amount of buttons and doors in The Incredibles (so much so, Pixar created a compilation montage as a DVD Easter Egg, which you can see below) and no scene better captures this than Elastigirl's infiltration of Syndrome's lair. With each passing guard and accompanying sliding card key, the heroine finds herself continually stretched from one pair of sliding door to the next. Luckily, she perseveres and stretches herself further than ever before, beating the crap out of the thugs and unlocking herself to safety.

If you saw Brad Bird's name in connection with Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and wonder if he can pull off live action stunts, I suggest shaming yourself for having doubts and then immediately watching the clip below.

Every Pixar movie may advance in technology and realism, but The Incredibles still stands as a movie that feels like a live-action film trapped in an animated body. The film has scope and adrenaline-infused action , Dash's escape from a squad of razor-sharp saucers being a prime example. Bird found all the right angles to capture the action in, but what makes the scene truly thrilling is the commitment to Dash's character through thick and thin. He's still a kid, he's still a cornball and the end result is fun.

How much action is really fun these days?

The Incredibles takes 3/4 of the movie to finally bring together its family of superheroes, but when it does -- well, that was the moment that everyone watching it in theaters started dreaming of a sequel. I'm sure the Fantastic Four movie was none too pleased when The Incredibles stole their thunder, as the comparison between the two was unavoidable, and the animated movie was the victorious picture.

That is an actual line uttered in this film.

Quietly delivered from of an off-screen henchman, "Every time they run, we take a shot" could possibly be the funniest throw away, for-adults-only joke in an animated feature film. Binge drinking to celebrate the deaths of superhero adversaries is hilarious, and it was only a matter of time before Pixar embraced that fact.

I imagine while directing Sam Jackson on his vocal performance for the Iceman-esque superhero Frozone, the only note Bird had for the actor was, "read this."

Frozone isn't played by Jackson, he is Jackson, and that makes his presence that much more vibrant and animated. Forget "motherf*cking snakes on the motherf*cking plane," or any Royale with Cheese nonsense -- the best lines ever to be delivered by Jackson involve finding his super suit.

Mr. and Mrs. Incredible may have made up, marriage still intact, but even with fancy matching costumes and a fight to fight together, they're still a dysfunctional family.

Amidst of an attack by the upgraded Omnidroid, the Incredibles find themselves a few miles away from the action, and rely on Dad's old sense of direction to take the fastest route. No man wants to ask for directions, and it leads to familiar bickering between Bob and Helen. If you've ever taken a road trip with the family, you've heard this argument.

Action.

Action, action, action, action. People are quick to separate "big action movies" and "movies that require your brain," but Incredibles does both. Really well.

Remember Van Helsing? Yeah, that came out in 2004 too.

Poor Jack Jack, the only member of The Incredibles without powers. Or, so they think.

Syndrome, in a final moment of evil, kidnaps baby Jack Jack in hopes of raising him as his own evil offspring. Turns out, Jack Jack doesn't take to Syndrome and reveals his true nature: the ultimate superpowered being. There are few things little Jack Jack is not capable of doing.

While his family may never know, audiences had another taste of Jack Jack's true nature in a short film that accompanied the DVD, Jack Jack Attack.