Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Pixar was an unstoppable force in Hollywood. Films like Toy Story, Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo were blockbuster hits, leaving audiences clamoring for more.
In 2004, Pixar followed up their earlier successes with The Incredibles, a film about a family of superheroes trying to live a quiet suburban life. The film earned over $633 million worldwide, becoming another one of Pixar’s box office hits.
Although Pixar hit a home run with this film, it was not by any means a guaranteed success. Prior to 2004, no-one thought the script could ever lead to this level of success because of the many obstacles it had to overcome.
When writer and director Brad Bird first pitched his idea for the film in 2000, he only had a handful of TV credits to his name. On top of this, one of his films, The Iron Giant, had been a financial failure. Although Pixar executives liked his idea, they estimated that a film like this would take at least ten years and over $500 million to make. Bird, however, had a clear vision for the film and didn’t want to compromise.
Once production began, the multifaceted difficulties began to sink in. In terms of animation, this film was one of many “firsts” for Pixar, making it quite special. Prior to The Incredibles, no other Pixar film had human protagonists, and with good reason: humans are ridiculously difficult to animate. Miraculously, the animators at Pixar pulled it off.
Aside from wanting to make human movement feel as real as possible, another challenge was rendering human features like hair. Bird also requested an insane amount of special effect shots. In the end, there were a total of 781 special effects created, including moving clouds, lava, smoke, and dust. This was a lot more than what was required, even for the underwater worlds of Finding Nemo.
The film also called for a large number of locations that Pixar hadn’t dealt with in the past. There were more than 200 locations in total, which turned out to be a logistical nightmare for the team. This required a great deal of planning and a bit of organizational restructuring to get things done.
Another difficulty Pixar had to face was selling the story to audiences. The Incredibles was essentially a superhero story, and superhero movies in 2004 weren’t as big as they are now. The film also dealt with a variety of themes like high school, marriage, mid-life crises, and fashion, which sounds like a confusing mess on paper.
To tie it all together, Bird’s approach was to ensure that the story centrally focused on one thing: family. Even the final fight scene was a great display of family dynamics, showing how everyone worked together to defeat the enemy. The fact that audiences have followed the family’s story throughout the film and have become emotionally invested in them made the enemy’s defeat even more satisfying.
Everyone’s hard work certainly paid off in the end. The Incredibles received critical acclaim and was Pixar’s highest opening weekend gross at the time. It was also nominated for four Oscars and won two – one for Best Animated Feature and one for Best Sound Editing.
The sequel that followed fourteen years later was another success, giving Pixar another Oscar nomination and another record-breaking opening weekend.
Although technological advancements in recent years have made the animation for the 2018 sequel better than ever, it’s evident that the 2004 film still holds its own.
All this was made possible thanks to the risk that Pixar took, and all the hard work that everyone put in to bring Brad Bird’s vision to life. Against all odds, everyone powered through and worked together to make the film a huge success.