The Incredibles, directed by Brad Bird and produced by Pixar Studios (2004), exemplifies what films can be when they receive the attention and thought of a keen mind. Bird’s film tells an engaging story while inspiring many laughs and teaching the observant audience a number of lessons.
Many, even most, will fail to realize the potential of The Incredibles primarily because few will expect to find thought provoking themes in a children’s movie. Brad Bird proves himself a true craftsman here, recognizing the potential of his art and carefully measuring each step to create a work of surprising depth.
The movie follows the adventures of Mr. and Mrs. Parr, Bob and Helen, who were once superheroes and who now spend their energies raising their three kids Violet, Dash, and Jack-Jack. When the villain learns that Bob Parr is the retired superhero Mr. Incredible, he seeks to destroy Mr. Parr and his family so that he can gain power without any to stop him.
The Incredibles is so refreshing as a film largely because of Bird’s willingness to openly promote family values. One must watch his work numerous times to fully appreciate it though, for like the author of a good book, he is not content to advance only a single theme. Multiple viewings expose a number of thoughtful ideas. Syndrome, the evil genius, lives on an island named Nomanisan Island –No Man Is An Island – suggesting that Mr. Incredible can’t succeed on his own, and possibly even the idea that secluding oneself from the stabilizing influence of family, such as Syndrome has done, can be destructive. Self-sacrifice too is often lauded, with the parents frequently shielding their children from danger, and in one scene, the daughter throws herself in front of her brother to save him from the enemy’s bullets. On the issue of gender roles, Bird paints a picture of how a husband and wife can work together in a way that affirms and embraces the value of each without being demeaning to either. This, it seems, is especially interesting because Bird’s idea on this avoids both the chauvinistic domineering male error and the empowered feminist trap; it shows the wife as supportive and affirming of her husband as the bread winner and leader in the family, while also being able to assert herself and step in where her husband is wrong. More still is tucked away: statements on the nature of evil, a frankness about the consequences of ones actions rarely seen in children’s movies – people actually die, and even a jab at mediocrity in education.
Brad Bird encourages unity in marriage and makes a case for the value of family. Perhaps one of the strongest cases for this never even made it into the movie, though. In a deleted scene from the DVD, one can watch an alternative opening to the movie where Helen and Bob are having a neighborhood barbecue to introduce themselves. Helen overhears one of the neighborhood women ridiculing stay-at-home mothers for throwing their lives away. While concealing details of her past, Helen angrily defends motherhood, saying that she left a job saving peoples lives to raise a family; and, she says, “nobody’s going to tell me it’s any less important.” Bird wrote this scene because he loved the idea of a superhero defending being a mom; something his own wife struggled with when she left a lucrative career in film editing to become a homemaker. This scene reveals much about the movies author: not only is he actively promoting the family in this film, but he himself places a strong emphasis on family in his own life.
When he is forced to retire from his work as a superhero, Mr. Incredible does not handle his transformation into Bob Parr well. He grows restless in his cubicle job and only manages to keep his sanity by listening to police scanners at night so he can play the vigilante hero. This grasping for purpose sets up the importance of family in Bird’s film. Helen Parr, formerly Elastigirl, makes the transition without difficulty because where she once found purpose in saving people’s lives, she now finds purpose in the home. While exchanging vows at the altar, she tells Bob “I love you, but if we’re going to make this work, you’ve got to be more than Mr. Incredible, you know that, don’t you?” The Incredibles follows Bob Parr’s journey to discovering this truth: that his family is a priceless treasure.
Syndrome sells weapons of his own design to tyrannical governments and tests them on superheroes he lures to his island. He draws Bob to his island under the pretence that he will be generously rewarded for helping a secret government agency recapture a killer robot that has gone missing. Bird plays heavily on the theme of purpose here. Bob has a gift and he cannot forget it, even to the point of forcing his family to relocate each time that he reveals his super strength. This makes him distracted while at home and apathetic towards his family as he searches for opportunities to play the hero. When he returns home from a late night adventure early in the film, Helen is waiting for him and scolds him for threatening to blow their cover again so he can relive his past. Helen pleads with Bob to make family a priority, saying of their superhero days that “Yes, they happened. But this, our family, is what’s happening now Bob, and you’re missing this.” In contrast to his distracted searching, when Bob comes home after successfully defeating Syndrome’s robot, he again feels satisfied after fulfilling his purpose and spends time playing with and helping his children, while being attentive to his wife and even reviving a playful flirtatiousness in their marriage.
Bob has still not learned his lesson, though. His family continues playing second fiddle to his thirst for purpose. He has been lying to his wife about his mission to Syndrome’s island, and instead of going to work each day, he heads off for a secret workout routine to get back into shape. This lie places his family in danger as they track Bob back to Nomanisan Island for his second mission. Only when he thinks they have been killed does he realize his error: ignoring his family so he can pretend to live in the past. This prompts Bob to confess to his family, on discovering their survival that he was “so obsessed with being undervalued that” he undervalued all of them, “you,” he continues, “are my greatest adventure and I almost missed it.” He has seen the value of his family, but he must also learn to trust his family and to rely upon them for help. He realizes this when he and his family face Syndrome’s ultimate weapon, the omnidroid. Upon confronting the machine, Bob asks Helen to stay behind while he attacks the robot. When she disputes this, wanting to help, Bob say’s that he’s not strong enough to lose his family again, and that he has to fight alone. Helen, moved by this honesty, tells him that if they fight together, he won’t have to lose them. No man is an island. Bob, though strong, must be more than super and allow his family to support him.
Within this theme of family, Bird takes several opportunities to focus in on the centrality of marriage. In a scene on the island where the children are hiding, Violet explains to Dash the gravity of their situation, saying “Do you think we’re on vacation or something? Mom’s and Dad’s lives could be in jeopardy, or worse, their marriage.” Though a little contrived sounding for a fourteen-year old, Bird prefers being over handed in this instance in order to reaffirm values that have long been losing ground. Later, in the scene where Bob wishes to fight the omnidroid alone, Helen tells Bob that he is her husband and she is sticking to him no matter what, reminding him of their vow “’til death do us part.” She will not leave her husband; they must face adversity together. This brief moment in the midst of the action is easily missed, but its seeming triviality even further emphasizes the point that vigilant attention is required in even the smallest moment to preserve a strong marriage.
Hmmm.
