What Could Have Been / The Incredibles

The Incredibles

Concept Art for a scrapped villain named Xerek.

• While Brad Bird was working for Warner Bros., he pitched the film as a traditional 2D animated film ^note  originally pitched as The Invincibles. But the lackluster performance of The Iron Giant (due mainly to Warner's horrible promotion for that film) put the kibosh on that idea. While the project was Saved from Development Hell thanks to Pixar, animation fans can't help speculating on what a 2D version might have been like.
• John Barry himself was originally approached to do the film's score, but wasn't interested in duplicating his earlier work and so turned it down. Michael Giacchino was brought on as composer instead, but still used Barry's James Bond scores as a strong influence.
• The DVD release of the film includes a fully voiced animatic for a significantly different opening. The original opening scene featured the Parrs, including infant Violet, at a neighborhood barbecue when Bob accidentally dents a meat cleaver on his fingers, forcing him to cover his hand with ketchup and scream. Afterwards, Syndrome (then a One-Scene Wonder member of Mr. Incredible's Rogues Gallery) tries to ambush the Parrs (then referred to as the Smiths) at their house as revenge only to be killed. The reason for the family adopting a secret identity as their only identity was also closer to that of Witness Protection than as the result of a law created as a means of preventing damages to property from Superhero duty as a result of complaints by the public.
• The subtext about Helen worrying that Bob might be unfaithful was originally explicit- there was a scene where she confronted him about Mirage's hair, and she had a Dream Sequence where Bob was being tended to by lovely ladies while she was in the background picking up laundry (and then being sucked into the washing machine).
• In general, in the early drafts Bob was a decent bit more of a jerk; he was a lot snippier with Helen when directly confronted with the idea of having an affair and was a bit more abrasive in the draft opening. This didn't read nearly as well, though (it made him far harder to sympathize with, especially the affair confrontation scene) and in the final script of the movie he's a much more reasonable guy who is simply desperate to get his glory days back and has a bit of a temper, and his love for his family is a lot more pronounced.
• Syndrome's original character design depicted him as being taller and more muscular while still having a certain Joker-like quality to his face; furthermore, he was part of an established "rogues gallery" for Bob in his original backstory. This design was used in test sketches for the abandoned opening but ultimately Syndrome was redesigned as being shorter and more paunchy, to match with the revised concept of him being a grown-up, embittered former fanboy.
• According to the director's commentary, Buddy Pine was originally going to appear in the interview segment at the very beginning of the film, but was cut because "it felt like it was giving something away".
• Snug was going to be a Disposable Pilot who would fly the Incredibles to Nomanisan Island, chat with Helen, and then die to prove that Syndrome meant business (the reason for that long shot of Helen watching the plane sink is because his hat was going to float up). In the end, they wrote him out almost entirely for the sake of time and story flow (giving him two sentences over the phone and a framed picture of him and Helen by a plane), and had Helen fly the plane herself. Brad Bird went on to state that it was proving too challenging to model another independent character for the movie who would only be in a few scenes, and he eventually agreed with everyone else that it would be more awesome to see Helen flying the plane herself. It was also felt that the drama of his death would distract from what was the real point of the scene, to establish that Syndrome was more than willing to murder children for the sake of his plans, as well as making Helen more directly responsible for trying to protect her children.
• Another villain called Xerek would be the original film's Big Bad. Xerek would have turned out to be good at the end, but he was cut because this twist was too confusing and Syndrome made for a more enjoyable villain. Xerek does appear as the main villain of the comics, but as a short, bald, decrepit old man rather than the tall, suave, middle-aged man with full hair and a beard shown in depicted in his clay model seen in the DVD extras.
• In the first draft of the script, the Incredible family all had flying powers… except Bob ^note this was likely scrapped due to making the film's climatic battle with the last Omnidroid too anti-climatic as they would have made avoiding the massive droid far too easy.
• Rumor has it that Harrison Ford ^note who wouldn't star in an animated film until The Secret Life of Pets 2 nearly 15 years later and George Clooney were considered for the role of Bob Parr/Mr. Incredible but it was felt their voices didn't have anything the animators could really work with and ultimately Craig T. Nelson of Coach and Poltergeist fame, who is said to have always been Brad Bird's ideal model for Mr. Incredible/Bob Parr, took the role.
  • Likewise if Sarah Vowell had turned down the role of Violet Parr ^note which was why Bird went and approached her personally for the role, Disney/Pixar would have held a casting call for many young teenage girls for the role.^note They did in fact held some voice tests with several unknown teenage girls prior to Vowell being cast and none of them fit the vocal tone of the shy, introverted Violet that Bird was looking for.
• Edna, or E, was also going to have super-powers, but writers couldn't decide what to go for so they decided to just have her be a standard genius.
• Brad Bird wanted Edna to have an actual female voice actress. He ended up doing the role himself because none of his selected actresses could do the accent he wanted her to have properly. Lily Tomlin, his choice, told him his example was best.
• Violet was going to plant a kiss on Tony at the end, but then Brad Bird figured it would be way too forward when they'd just started talking to each other. It sure would have made the events of the second movie even more awkward...
• Mirage's original design was going to be much more buxom in appearance ^note in a typical Ms. Fanservice fashion in contrast to Helen's Hartman Hips design in order to play up on the Femme Fatale role of the atypical Bond girl, and her hair was going to be as long as Violet's was. But due to how Violet's long hairstyle was already a major problem to animate for the animation team (due to technical limitations at the time which pushed the original Renderman system to it's limits), Mirage's design was tweaked to be less busty (while retaining her Femme Fatale looks) and her hairstyle being trimmed in the back to be thinner in appearance to contrast Violet's.
  • Had the technical limitations been far too great to overcome, the animation team considered having Violet's iconic hairstyle be cut shorter to save up on development time but the team was able to get the film finished with the long hairstyle intact. ^note This also explains why Violet had less screentime (to the point of barely being Out of Focus) in the first film's story as Brad Bird was so determined to ensure that Violet's iconic hairstyle wouldn't be tweaked nor cut as it was integral and important to Violet's character which pushed the original Renderman system to it's absolute limits.
• The climatic fight between Jack-Jack and Syndrome was planned to be far longer and would have taken place around the same time after the Omnidroid battle had concluded and at one point during the fight, Jack-Jack would have used his Goo power to evade Syndrome. The scene was ultimately shorten, took place later in the day after defeating the Omnidroid and the Goo power dropped ^note as due to technological limitations at the time would have made the scene very nightmarish for younger viewers as shown in test screenings by the animation team. The Goo power would be eventually Saved for the Sequel.
  • Likewise Jack-Jack's iconic battle with Rocky the Raccoon was originally pitched to take place in this film and would have been far darker and more violent as a result (due to this film being Darker and Edgier), Jack-Jack would have fought an entire army of said critters (instead of just Rocky who would've been the leader of the racoon army in this scene) and the baby would have ultimately killed a few of them in the fight with his powers, including literally roasting one to death with his fire powers. ^note Like with the Goo power above, this was ultimately Saved for the Sequel due to how much Bird loved the scene and was determined to include it in the 2nd film, though it was made to be far lighter and comedic in contrast to the planned darker scene in this film.
• Ironically enough, the "Superheroes being illegal" subplot ^note which was the main driving force behind the events of this movie happening was originally meant to be resolved in this film by having additional runtime adding into the film ^note it's only hint was due to a piece of dialogue from Rick Dicker after the Omnidroid battle was that the world's governments were considering lifting the ban on Supers. Bird decided to leave it unresolved due to running out of time to implement it, it would become the main plot point for the sequel.

Incredibles 2

• Similar to how the first film's villain Xerek was cut. The original villain for Incredibles 2 was going to be a rogue AI system who would have corrupted all forms of technology and at one point would have attacked Edna's mansion (it's only remains is the Deleted Scene Security Breakdown). The villain was dropped due to being too similar to the Omnidroid plot from the first film and being harder to connect as a character.
• Nomanisan Island (and by extension Mirage) were intended to return as a location and as a character respectively with the former getting as far as concept art before being dropped ^note  likely as a result of the death of Elizabeth Peña 5 months later after the sequel was announced.
• Winston Deavor was originally going to have a brother named Harold Deavor who would have evolved into the Big Bad over the course of the story. Also He-Letric was originally planned to be a female Super named She-lactrix ^note both Harold and She-lactrix's respective designs would eventually evolve into He-Letric and Evelyn Deavor in the final film. In addition She-lactrix was planned to be a villain from the get go which would have made her the first Super-Villain with actual powers! Also in one draft, Bird considered making Winston himself the Big Bad ^note who would have copied Comic Xerek's ability series to win every scenario due to his name before downgrading him to being more untrustworthy and the idea was scrapped completely at the behest of Bob Odenkirk (who didn't want to play an animated version of his iconic Saul character).
• One of the planned new Supers was a Wanna-Be named Cosmosis ^note who as judging by his name would have had the ability to manipulate spacial distortions on a grand scale, he was cut (as Bird described) for being far too powerful for the Parrs to actually beat that not even Mr. resident Story-Breaker Power himself Jack-Jack would have been enough to defeat him.
• Had the story involving Elastigirl as the lead not worked out, Brad Bird toyed with the idea of actually aging up the Parr family ^note either similar in real time to how Toy Story 3 aged Andy and Molly up or a far smaller time-skip as seen in Finding Dory and switching the leads over to Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack. Disney/Pixar and Brad Bird quickly scrapped this idea as not only making up brand new models for adult versions of Violet and Dash would have been difficult ^note seeing as the Family's models from the first film were already being updated with the revamped tech that was introduced in Dory and would have been seen as a huge waste had the aging up scenario actually happened as it would have required even more work for the animators, but that Bird had felt it would have destroyed the Family Dynamic that was established in the first film had the Parrs been aged up.^note It also doesn't help that Brad Bird himself is highly against aging up established characters in general, no doubt stemming from his time as a producer for The Simpsons of which had a similar scenario of a family Not Allowed to Grow Up.
• Honey Best was going to show up in person and got as far as having concept art (and even was set to appear in the beginning moments of the Underminer's Attack where she would have not only hidden Frozone's supersuit, but actively try to prevent him from going out supering in the Deleted Scene Frozone's Wife Honey Appears), but it was decided that she was better as an offscreen voice ^note which Bird was massively disappointed by having to cut her scene out, especially since her planned scene would have made her highly unlikable in comparison to her iconic role in the first film. Her planned design would ultimately be given to one of the random International Supers in the final film's climax.
• Winston was going to have a scene confronting criminals (which likely would have been either the Deleted Scene Slow Day or the deleted Restaurant Robbery scene), which made it far enough for Bob Odenkirk to have recorded the lines, before being dropped.
• Alexander Galbaki, name-dropped as a rival designer by Edna Mode, was originally going to appear as a character, specifically a Foil to Edna. Galbaki would essentially be an anti-Mode: His costumes would showcase his designs rather than being designed for the needs of the hero wearing them ^note and they would have been less durable than Edna's designs as seen in the climax where Elastigirl's Galbaki-design supersuit gets a massive tear on her right shoulder. In early concept art, his costume for Elastigirl would even have violated Edna's "No Capes" rule.
• Kari the babysitter and her parents were supposed to get a cameo appearance in the film's opening, but Brad Bird dropped it because he thought it didn't fit the film, and that he felt Kari's arc was fully resolved in the Jack-Jack Attack short.
• Brad Bird has said that Pixar suddenly switching the release dates of this film and Toy Story 4 left him without enough time to put in all the ideas he had, but he's keeping quiet about just what he had to leave out for the moment as he still hopes to be able to put them in a third film.

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