BSP 2014 Advent Calendar: Day 16

Welcome to Day 16 of Bam Smack Pow’s 2014 Advent Calendar! Only nine more days left until Christmas, and that means nine more superhero films will be mined for trivia. For Day 16, we give you …

The Incredibles (2004)

Is there anything Pixar can’t do? The Incredibles was Pixar’s first venture into superhero-dom, and they pulled it off in spades. Using “retired superheroes going back into action” as a general plot, the film’s deeper themes dealt with acceptance and sacrifice. The Incredibles, like all of Pixar’s films, became an instant hit both critically and financially. In its opening weekend, it earned a domestic gross of over $70 million, becoming the highest November weekend opening for any Disney film to-date at the time (the record was later broken in 2010 by Toy Story 3). The film ended up having a worldwide box office total of over $631 million.

The Incredibles was directed and written by Brad Bird, and starred the voices of Craig T. Nelson as Bob Parr / Mr. Incredible, Holly Hunter as Helen Parr / Elastigirl, Spencer Fox as Dashiell Robert “Dash” Parr / The Dash, Sarah Vowell as Violet Parr, Jason Lee as Buddy Pine / Syndrome, Eli Fucile and Maeve Andrews as Jack-Jack Parr, Samuel L. Jackson as Lucius Best / Frozone, Elizabeth Peña as Mirage, Brad Bird as Edna Mode, Bud Luckey as Rick Dicker, Wallace Shawn as Gilbert Huph, John Ratzenberger as The Underminer, and Dominique Louis as Bomb Voyage.

Trivia

The original title of the film was supposed to be “The Invincibles.”
The fictional company name of “Insuricare” is directly translated into Chinese as “Black-Hearted Insurance Company” in the Singaporean version.
When a robber goes through a woman’s purse, a Mr. Incredible Pez dispenser is one of the items that fell to the ground.
In the film, Mirage’s phone number is 866-787-7476. Based on the letters on a phone pad, 787-7476 spell out “suprhro.” As of the DVD’s release, if you call that number, you will get Mirage’s voice and instructions on how to get a secret deleted scene.
Many animators working at Pixar graduated from Cal Arts, therefore, there’s a hidden joke about one of the room numbers found at the school’s animation program — A113. When Elastigirl is trying to find Mr. Incredible, we learn that he’s located on Level A1, Cell Block 13. Mr. Incredible’s meeting is in Conference Room A113.
The Incredibles is the first and only Pixar film to not feature the Pizza Planet truck.
The location of Pixar’s headquarters in Emeryville, California is referenced multiple times:
- During the initial car chase scene, the voice on the radio talks about the suspects going down San Pablo Avenue. San Pablo Avenue is a major street in Emeryville.
- The map appearing on the GPS seen in one of the cars has streets and roads specific to Emeryville.
- When Edna Mode gives Elastigirl a homing device, the GPS zooms in on the San Francisco Bay Area. There, you can see Emeryville and Pixar’s former location of Point Richmond.
When the character of Helen Parr / Elastigirl is flying a plane, she uses accurate pilot lingo. Holly Hunter, who provided the voice for the character, wanted to learn the lingo to provide an accurate portrayal.
The character of Edna Mode was based on Edith Head, who was a studio costume designer for over fifty years.
Brad Bird was first introduced to Sarah Vowell’s voice over the radio. He thought she would make the perfect Violet Parr. To convince her, Bird then had Pixar animators animate one of Vowell’s broadcasts and sent it to her.
CEO of Pixar John Lasseter had been trying to convince Brad Bird to join his studio for years. When Warner Brothers failed to properly promote The Iron Giant (1999), Bird left the company and finally joined Pixar. Lasseter only had one request of Bird — to make the film he’s been wanting to make. Bird had wanted to make a film about a family of superheroes for years.
This is the second Pixar film to feature a family composed of a father, mother, and children. And the first to feature a family that stays intact until the end of the film. The first Pixar film to feature a father, mother, and child was Finding Nemo (2003).
This is the first Pixar film to receive a PG-rating.
The cel-style animated sequences played during the end credits is a representation of Brad Bird’s initial idea of having The Incredibles be cel-animated.
Because Elastigirl infringed on DC Comics’ established Elasti-Girl, a deal was struck where Pixar’s character would be known as Mrs. Incredible outside of the film.
Frozone’s speed-skating moves are modeled after Olympic gold medalist Shani Davis.
Syndrome’s walking style was inspired by a Pixar employee. The employee was noticed by someone else to have a strange walk. To try and cover it up, the employee would walk very unnaturally, which became the basis of Synrdome’s movements.
The distinct architecture seen in the film is based on a 1950s style of futurism called Googie. It can be found in coffee shops and bowling alleys that were built in that era. The architecture style found on the island is known as Tiki.
In designing and animating the complex fabrics and textures found on the characters’ clothing, an actual tailor was brought in to educate the animators on different materials and their properties.
Syndrome’s zero-point energy beam is based on real physics. The zero-point field is essential to Stephen Hawking’s theory that black holes eventually evaporate.
This is the first Pixar film to not receive an Academy Award nomination for its music.
Like all Pixar films before it, the trailer for The Incredibles is composed of scenes that never appear in the actual film itself.
As a testament in how common superhero names can be, the scene with Edna Mode describing the fates of superheroes with failed costumes, most of the names were already trademarked and copyrighted in real life.
The Incredibles family are very similiar to the Fantastic Four. Throughout the film the family pays multiple homages to the Marvel Comics team via their costumes, powers, emblems, and villains.
Upping the realism of the film, Buddy uses blue marker to fill in the area around his eyes not covered by his mask. This was done in real life for the actors playing Bruce Wayne / Batman in the Batman and Dark Knight movies.
Jason Lee recorded his Buddy / Syndrome lines in four days, but it took two years for Craig T. Nelson to recorded his Bob Parr / Mr. Incredible lines.
Jason Lee was chosen as Syndrome because of his strong performance as Azrael in Dogma (1999).
Brad Bird wanted Lucius Best / Frozone to have the coolest voice, so he cast the voice of Samuel L. Jackson.
Brad Bird originally wanted Lily Tomlin to be the voice of Edna Mode. When Bird did an ad-hoc performance to give her an example of the character, Lily Tomlin said, “What do you need me for? You got it already.” She was so impressed with the performance that she had to turn the role down.
The little boy on the tricycle is voiced by Brad Bird’s son, Nicholas Bird.
Syndrome’s facial features are based on Brad Bird’s.
To give the character of Dash a true-to-life out of breath sound, Brad Bird had voice actor Spencer Fox run laps around the studio before reading his lines.

Make sure to come back each day because we still have nine more days worth of superhero film trivia for you!

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A special thanks to Eric Dufresne for his amazing geometric superhero art that’s being used as the background for the advent calendar.

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