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Tropes #-L
- Accidental Aesop:
- While it's great to have heroes who inspire you, never lose sight of the reality that your hero is just a real person doing a job and does not owe you any admiration in return. It is never right to interfere in their personal lives or threaten them and their families.
- Know your limitations, and when to not get involved in a situation. If you interfere in a crisis where someone else has the situation under control, you may make things worse.
- Gilbert Huph's painful fate seems to be a warning against bosses and other higher-ups needlessly antagonizing their employees.
- Adorkable:
- Violet. Her crush shyness earns her this status. She even uses finger guns in an awkward situation, she gets even more adorkable in the 2nd film.
- Tony Rydinger. He seems pretty cool-headed in his introductory scene, but when it comes to asking Violet out for a date, he near-immediately starts fumbling over his words.
- Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Since the movie is canonically set in The '60s, and yet Frozone seems to have no trouble being a black superhero, does this world lack the racism of the real 60s US? Or is it just that a combination of living in the Civil Rights Era and a New York-esque city make it easier for him than it would be for a Black person in another time and place? He does seem to be the only black superhero (at least according to the NSA records), so perhaps in this universe, he's some kind of barrier-breaking icon of '60s progressiveness. It's confirmed in the Mr. Incredible and Pals commentary that the concept of racism does exist in this universe, but to what extent it does is unknown.
- Mirage: a genuine case of Even Evil Has Standards who turns good due to horror at her boss' actions... or a smug Hypocrite who happily assisted Syndrome's murders before getting squeamish when she saw the results up close and then started to worry about her own neck rather than anything else?
- Syndrome: Was his ultimate goal of a world where "everyone's super" because of the chaos people would cause with superpowers, or just another way to spit on the real heroes' graves, like his former hero Mr. Incredible? Syndrome's "when everyone's super... no one will be" suggests the latter, unless the implication is that no one will be.
- One popular one for Edna is that her "NO CAPES!" speech may be out of guilt: after all, who designed those outfits with capes?
- During the famous "WHERE IS MY SUPER SUIT?!" scene, Frozone's wife refusing to disclose where it is may or may not be Skewed Priorities. It depends on whether she knew of the robot and still didn't want him to ruin her dinner plans, or if she assumed he was going to be intervening in something relatively minor (like a bank robbery).
- In the scene where Mr. Incredible threatens to kill Mirage, did he actually expect Syndrome to release him? Or, "having nothing left to lose" as Syndrome put it, was he just under the mistaken impression that Syndrome actually cared about her, and wanted to cause him as much pain as he'd caused Bob, letting her go not out of mercy but because he realized Syndrome wouldn't actually care?
- Aluminum Christmas Trees: The way the interviews and news were done in the '60s were how interviews and news were done in Real Life as well.
- Angst? What Angst?: Despite their mother harshly admonishing them that Syndrome's henchmen will not hesitate to kill them given the chance, Dash and Violet barely seem to be frightened or upset by this possibility. Nor do they seem to be all that upset by the henchmen who they accidentally kill during the fight scenes (it was in self-defense, and most of the guys only died from flying into walls or each other, but you'd think children would have a more intense reaction to the deaths of dozens of adults, even antagonistic ones, in violent fashion right in front of them). Dash, for his part, seems to be running on constant adrenaline, while Violet is more focused on making sure her powers don't fail in a case of emergency.
- Animation Age Ghetto: One of Pixar's most defiant efforts against it. Like the best animated films, children enjoy it for the superheroes and action, while adults enjoy it for the sophisticated story and high-stakes drama. Brad Bird did get in a little trouble with some parents who claimed the film was too scary for children of five or younger. He responded by asking why they were taking their five-year-olds to see it in the first place.
- Awesome Ego: Syndrome. As Buddy, his fanboy ego grew to almost going toe-to-toe with a real super-villain. As Syndrome, that ego swelled to gaining his own island, henchman, and ways of disposal.
- Awesome Music: Michael Giacchino's score in this film is, well... incredible. Many tracks use saxophones and trumpets to emulate scores from classic James Bond-style spy films, making them jazzy and energetic. Some special mentions go to the main theme, "100 Mile Dash", which plays during Violet and Dash's escape from Syndrome's goonies; and "Kronos Unveiled", a haunting theme that gets louder and louder as Bob realizes what Syndrome has done to many of his former friends.
- Base-Breaking Character: Mirage. Some people like her for her Heel–Face Turn and are glad she had standards and saw the error of her ways. However, many hate her because she gets off scot-free for being an accomplice to the murders of dozens of supers, which is never addressed.
- Best Known for the Fanservice: Helen Parr's curvaceous figure along with her skin-tight super suit has made her one of the film's most memorable highlights. Special mention goes to the scene where she checks herself out in the mirror.
- Broken Aesop: Spoofed in one of the bonus features on the DVD which had a superhero who was a Friend to All Children and worked regularly to keep them safe and educated give a speech about how important it is to stay in school, since the superhero in question dropped out. However, he quickly realizes he is mangling the Aesop with him saying things like "stay in school, or you'll end up like me", since he is famous and well-beloved and has superpowers. He does not quite know how to proceed once he figures out that this is not sending the correct message.
- Catharsis Factor:
- While it does cause him to lose his job, it is nonetheless immensely satisfying to see Bob throw Mr. Huph through several walls for his complete lack of compassion towards the mugging victim and being a bullying Mean Boss towards him in general. Even more so for viewers who also have to deal with a rude employer like Huph, or those who have had to spend hours on the phone battling with an insurance company that's suddenly throwing all sorts of loopholes and roadblocks in their path while you're in the midst of rebuilding from the emergency you thought you were insured against.
- Syndrome attempts to kidnap Jack-Jack while his zero-point energy gauntlets paralyze the Incredibles so they can't stop him from leaving their house with the child. Even before this, he was responsible for the senseless murder of dozens of superheroes and attempted to kill the family without any remorse. So, it is very satisfying to see Mr. Incredible interrupt Syndrome's Villain: Exit, Stage Left by throwing a car at his plane, causing him to be sucked into the jet engine, permanently ending his threat to kidnap Jack-Jack and avenging the other supers.
- Complete Monster: Syndrome was once Buddy Pine, an aspiring hero seeking fame and fortune, who became outraged at all Supers when his "idol", Mr. Incredible, ceased his attempts at being a hero for his own safety. Over a decade later, Syndrome enacts his revenge, as he creates the "Omnidroid", a Super-killing machine that he uses to massacre Supers he lures in to duel it under the illusion it is simply a rogue robot. Upon capturing and torturing Mr. Incredible—notably forcing him to listen as his wife and children are seemingly killed by Syndrome's forces—Syndrome unveils his master plan to launch the Omnidroid into a highly-populated city, have it target innocents at random, then swoop in and "save the day" to become the greatest hero in the world. When the Incredibles foil this plan, Syndrome makes one last attempt to spitefully ruin the family by kidnapping their infant child, Jack-Jack, and raising him to be a supervillain.
- Crosses the Line Twice: The montage of all the Supers who died thanks to their capes, and later Syndrome because of his cape.
- Cry for the Devil: Syndrome is a confirmed murderer who Would Hurt a Child and endangered a city so he could play the hero, yet it's hard not to feel a little bit of pity for him when he's coldly rejected by his hero, Mr. Incredible, who he just wanted to help. Even Mr. Incredible briefly feels sorry for him after learning this. However, any sympathy for him goes flying out the window by the end of the movie as he shows how much of a monster he really is when it's revealed he killed dozens of superheroes and attempted to kill the family and kidnap their baby to spite Mr. Incredible.
- Draco in Leather Pants: There are many fans that downplay Syndrome as a Psychopathic Manchild by justifying his behavior with "being let down by his superhero idol" or his "technology vs. superpower struggle". These all ignore the cold disregard for life he repeatedly shows in murdering supers, launching missiles at Helen's plane with two children aboard, his Engineered Heroics scheme that put innocent civilians in harm's way, or stealing Jack-Jack from his family. They also ignore the fact that, as a young Buddy Pine, he almost got killed by Bomb Voyage when he disrupted the fight between him and Mr. Incredible, forcing the latter to let Bomb Voyage escape in order to save Buddy. Mr. Incredible didn't reject Buddy because of some super-to-normal racism, but because he was just a child who was putting himself in danger. Syndrome himself was too self-absorbed to realize this (as his Self-Serving Memory proves).
- Esoteric Happy Ending: Although Syndrome has been defeated, and the Parr family has become closer, their home was destroyed in the battle, loads of Supers have died by Syndrome's hand, and being a superhero is still illegal. Thankfully, the sequel would come and remedy these issues, except for the dead supers.
- Evil Is Cool: Syndrome's hamminess just makes him so enjoyable to watch. Even when he's taken seriously (or whenever he's not given the Draco in Leather Pants treatment), his charisma and tech both help him fit this trope to a T.
- Fanfic Fuel: What were the fights like between the retired heroes and Syndrome's prototype droids? How did Gazerbeam figure out Syndrome's password? What was the world like during the golden age of superheroes? What happened to all of the supervillains? How did Mr. Incredible, Frozone, and Elastigirl become superheroes? How did Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl meet?
- Foe Yay Shipping: Violet, a teenage superheroine, is shipped with Syndrome, the supervillain her family fights against, or with Mirage, his second-in-command (though the latter eventually pulls a Heel–Face Turn). Keep in mind, Violet is 14.
- Genius Bonus: Early in the movie Edna compares supers to gods. What is the name given to Syndrome's plan to hunt down and kill supers until nearly none are left? Kronos.
- He Really Can Act:
- Most of Jason Lee's acting credits before The Incredibles had been in comedic films, but here, he gives a chilling, multifaceted performance that really sells how evil Syndrome is.
- Similarly in the Latin American Dub, Omar Chaparro's performance as Syndrome was also well-received despite him being divisive in his own projects regarding his acting and not being a professional dub voice actor; as he's able to give a convincingly silly and occasionally menacing tone for Syndrome and manages to express the character's emotions rather well.
- He's Just Hiding:
- Many a fan is convinced that Syndrome somehow survived being sucked into a jet turbine, largely so they can bring him back for shipping purposes.
- Some fans think/hope that perhaps some of the supers defeated by the earlier omnidroids survived (after all, Gazerbeam is the only one whose disappearance is specifically commented on) and kept what happened a secret due to how they could have been arrested for hero activity. It helps that in the "Kronos Unveiled" sequence Bob himself was mistakenly marked as "terminated" on Syndrome's computer, despite being alive and well.
- Of the Heroes killed by Cape malfunctions, there's Splashdown, given how he's only listed as presumed dead in his NASA file and had a potentially survivable death of being just sucked into a vortex. There are also some scattered theories that Stratogale faked her death to retire without publicly bowing to anti-Super pressure.
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- The device that conveys Mirage's video message to Bob has an uncanny resemblance to an iPad which wasn't publicly released until six years later and even predates the iPhone by three years.
- The series has often been compared to Team Fortress 2, and especially comparing the Demoman to Frozone. 13 years later, Frozone's super suit headpiece has been added into the game as a Demoman cosmetic item.
- Frozone was voiced and modeled after Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson would go on to portray Nick Fury, a man who would organize a team of superheroes. Becomes even more hilarious a decade later when he becomes a playable toy figure who can even team up with toy versions of the Parr family.
- Helen Parr herself would eventually go on from being punished by the law of being a illegal superhero, to eventually trying to punish Superman for breaking the very same laws.
- The Underminer's over-the-top declaration of war on peace and happiness becomes even funnier when the sequel reveals that his Evil Plan was nothing more than a standard bank robbery.
- It Was His Sled: Jack-Jack has superpowers. This is such a not-spoiler that it factors majorly into practically all of the advertisements and trailers for the sequel.
- Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Syndrome is a Laughably Evil Psychopathic Manchild whose hamminess makes him pretty memorable and entertaining to watch, even if he commits a bunch of heinous acts such as murdering dozens of superheroes or stealing a toddler from his family. Gilbert Huph, meanwhile, is shown to be a despicable Corrupt Corporate Executive who encourages his employees to avoid helping clients with their insurance claims to ensure low payouts and high profits for the stockholders. He shows a total Lack of Empathy towards a mugging occurring right outside his window and even threatens to fire Bob if he tries to intervene.
- Launcher of a Thousand Ships:
- Syndrome. More than half of the shipping fanart/fanfics you'll find will involve Syndrome.
- Violet and Elastigirl are also subject to this, having been shipped with everyone. Everyone, including themselves. And again, Violet is 14.
- Love to Hate:
- Despite being a mass-murdering sociopath, many people tend to be fascinated by Syndrome's style, characterization, and overt hamminess.
- Though Gilbert Huph was clearly intended to be despised by the audience, his hammy tantrums make him so amusing to watch, it helps he was voiced by Wallace Shawn (aka Rex from Toy Story).
- In the bonus features, Gamma Jack comes across as a borderline Hate Sink in the NASA Files, but his name, powers, success in defeating a past Omnidroid, and a bit of humor in his Audio File make him memorable and notable to fans.
Tropes M-Z
- Magnificent Bastard:
- Mirage is the mysterious and charming Dragon to Syndrome. Mirage lures former "Supers" on Syndrome's behalf by shadowing them and contacting them via video, then arranging each one to fight the Omnidroid, killing all except for Mr. Incredible. Each time a Super succeeds though, the Omnidroid is modified to become stronger and stronger, with Syndrome intending to send it after a city so he can "save" it. After Mirage saves Syndrome at one point only for him to callously be willing to let her get killed when she's in danger, she completely turns against him by helping Mr. Incredible escape, telling him his family is alive, and then helping the Parr family commandeer a rocket to go after the Omnidroid.
- Bomb Voyage is a French supervillain who sets out to rob the Municiberg Bank. Using bombs to escape from the vault, he runs into Mr. Incredible, where after preparing to face off against him, Buddy Pines steps onto the scene to get Mr. Incredible to hire him as his sidekick. Failing to escape from a distracted Mr. Incredible, Voyage still manages to humorously make fun of Buddy's outfit. When Buddy attempts to leave to get the police, Voyage plants a bomb on his cape causing Mr. Incredible to chase after him. Voyage uses this to escape and end his heist on a successful note.
- Memetic Mutation: Has its own page.
- Memetic Psychopath: Some people like to joke about Dash being a potential supervillain in the making due to the ridiculously high body count he racks up among Syndrome's velocipod troops during their pursuit of him. Granted, almost all of them got themselves killed due to their own stupidity, but Dash barely, if at all, seems to find the deaths of all these people distressing. (Though, to be fair, he was running for his life, so he likely didn't have time to feel that.)
- Once Original, Now Common:
- In terms of animation technology; this movie marked nothing less than a breakthrough in animating believably stylized humans with CGI, and it was doubly impressive for having those characters interact with other difficult-to-simulate natural elements such as water and heavy wind. But when paired with its sequel (which took advantage of 14 years of advancements in character rigging and texture, motion, and environment rendering), it looks considerably dated.
- The behind-the-scenes DVD features prominently advertise that the film was storyboarded digitally, one of Pixar's first and a tremendous advancement at the time for locking down camera movements and pacing before scenes would go into layout and editing. Nowadays, storyboarding software is relatively affordable and high-quality animatics from amateur animators are near ubiquitous on video sharing sites like YouTube.
- One-Scene Wonder:
- One badass henchman on the island fights Violet while managing to avert all the bad tropes generally associated with Mooks, particularly the way he responds intelligently to Violet's invisibility.
- Frozone's wife, who has exactly one scene in the film that she's completely off-camera for, but it's a common contender for being among the funniest in Pixar history.
- Portmanteau Couple Name: Synlet for Syndrome/Violet, Viony for Violet/Tony.
- Realism-Induced Horror: Syndrome aka Buddy Pine is a former fan of Mr. Incredible that grew up feeling slighted by his hero after he supposedly turned him away, and has since declared war against all superheroes, wanting to destroy everything and everyone that Mr. Incredible holds dear, out of sheer pettiness. He's frequently seen as a horrifying example of toxic fans, an issue that's gotten more alarming thanks to social media making it easier for these fans to directly harass actors and other creators.
- Ships That Pass in the Night:
- One of the popular couplings is Mirage/Violet. They never appear on-screen together in close proximity, outside of the games. Suddenly Super, a darker What If? take on the first film that has Violet working with Syndrome fixes this tremendously with Mirage bonding with Violet.
- Among the minor Supers, there's Stratogale/Macroburst (for those who don't see the androgynous Macroburst as a homosexual man), due to their similar ages and flight powers.
- Signature Scene:
- Despite being of very little importance to the plot, Elastigirl getting herself stuck through a series of doors while infiltrating Syndrome's base is one of the most well-known moments in this film. The scene is hailed for displaying her powers (and some Fanservice) in a creative way while also being outrageously funny.
- The scene where Mr. Incredible looks up supers on Syndrome's computer and discovers that they're all dead is also a very well-known scene, if only for just how dark it is for a Pixar film.
- Spiritual Successor:
- Team Fortress 2 is often compared to this film, as they share a similar art style, a saxophone-dominant score, and are both set in the late 60s-early 70s.
- Because the film features a family of superheroes facing off against an evil genius with a grudge, it is often considered a vastly superior movie adaption of the Fantastic Four to any of the officially licensed movies. Cracked even referred to it
as "more faithful to the comics than the actual Fantastic Four movie." It helps that most of the Four's powers are replicated. - The film has the best James Bond score in years.
- By virtue of being a deconstruction of the superhero genre, set in a Cold War-style period where superpowered individuals are forced to go into hiding by the government, this shares some of the feel and themes of Watchmen and came out before its movie adaptation.
- Most Wonderful Sound: Dash's little laugh when he realizes he can run on water.
- No Problem with Licensed Games: The game based on the film is pretty fun.
- Suspiciously Similar Song: Michael Giacchino's soundtrack for this movie is a homage to John Barry's James Bond scores. Brad Bird initially wanted Barry to score this movie, used Barry's theme from On Her Majesty's Secret Service in the teaser trailer, and used the Propellerheads remix in the actual trailer. When Giacchino was hired after Barry turned out to be unavailable, the opening fanfare for the theme he wrote closely resembles the OHMSS theme.
- Take That, Scrappy!:
- Mr. Huph is on the receiving end of this by Bob, who in a fit of rage throws and sends him flying through several walls, thus seriously injuring him, in retaliation for preventing Bob from stopping a mugging outside and having the gall to show ZERO sympathy for the victim. Although Huph still fires Bob, fans were satisfied to see he got what he deserved.
- Mirage, who is punched by Helen. Although this was because she mistakenly assumed them to be having an affair, those who disliked Mirage thought she had it coming for willingly helping Syndrome, a sociopathic former fanboy-turned-supervillain murders dozens of superheroes. The fact that she is Easily Forgiven (helping the Parrs escape to make up for her actions) and falls into Karma Houdini territory in the end doesn't help matters.
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Mirage. While she's shown to have standards like not wanting children to be killed when Helen's plane is targeted by a missile, she still had no problems with being an accomplice to and assisting in many murders (via leading superheroes to the island to be killed). Hell, one of the superheroes she lead to be killed on the island was Gazerbeam, who Bob knew personally. Not only that but she also lied to Bob about everything. All of these actions make her a rather smug hypocrite because when she finally decides to work against Syndrome, it's only after her own life was at risk. Unfortunately, unlike Syndrome and his men (who were all killed), she never suffered any consequences for her actions nor does the film address them and she's Easily Forgiven in the end.
- Viewer Name Confusion: Aside from people assuming the family's last name is "Incredible", some people believe the mother's superhero name is "Mrs. Incredible" because her husband's name is Mr. Incredible. It's actually Elastigirl. The only time she's referred to as such is when Mirage starts to say "You must be Mrs. Incredible" before being cut off by Helen punching her, but Mirage likely didn't realize she was Elastigirl due to her costume being different. It doesn't help that a lot of merchandise for the first film referred to her as "Mrs. Incredible" due to copyright issues stemming from the fact that DC has a different character named Elasti-Girl.note
- What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Onscreen attempted suicide, family-unfriendly violence and death up the wazoo, a pointed aversion of the villains being unwilling to harm children, Helen's obvious suspicions Bob is having an affair and numerous innuendos besides, all topped off with a complex plot markedly more intense than anything Pixar had ever released at that point? Brad Bird even got in trouble with parents concerned that the subject material was too intense for their young kids — to which Brad Bird asked why they were even taking kids that young to see this movie in the first place.
- Woolseyism:
- In the Brazilian dub, the names of almost every character are changed to their Portuguese language equivalent. The exceptions are Mirage, whose original name is kept in order to make her more exotic; and Dash, who is called Flecha (meaning "arrow", but pronounced "Flash-ah").
- In the Polish dub, the translators had to get creative in order to translate the title into something that starts with an 'I' and still at least vaguely means the same thing as the original. What they ultimately went with was Iniemamocni as a play on the phrase i nie ma mocnych, which roughly translates to "And There's Nobody Strong Enough" (strong enough to stand against the Incredibles, that is).
- In the Croatian dub, Edna's last name was changed from 'Mode' to 'Wagner'. In this regard, she was named after her voice actor, Ivana Vlkov Wagner.
- The Hungarian dub also changed some names for the sake of puns: Mr. Incredible to Mr. Irdatlan ("Mr. Humongous"); Elasti-Girl to Nyúlányka, a combination of nyúl ("to stretch"), nyúlánk ("slim" or "good-looking") and lányka ("little girl"); Frozone to Fridzsiman ("Frigid Man"); Dash to Will (after villám, meaning "lightning"); Violet to Illana (for illan, meaning "vanish"); Syndrome to Szilánk ("Splinter", as he explains Mr. Incredible's rejection tore his soul to splinters); Mr. Huph to Mr. Hapták (an oldish word for military attention); and The Underminer to Aknakukac, a pun combining akna kukac ("sewer worm") and aktakukac ("pencil-pusher"). When Bob and Lucius head out to save people in a burning building, Bob yells, "Ízirájder, öcsém!" ("Easy Rider, dude!"), a very specific nod to his voice actor's earlier role from the raunchy Hungarian adult comedy Glass Tiger, itself a reference to Easy Rider. Finally, just before his ultimate defeat, Syndrome makes a Double Entendre by shouting "Elveszem a fiad!", which can mean both "I will get your son!" and "I will marry your son!"
