Concept Art for a scrapped villain named Xerek.
What Could Have Been for The Incredibles
For examples related to Incredibles 2, go here.
- While Brad Bird was working for Warner Bros., he pitched the film as a traditional 2D animated film note . 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 .
- Rumor has it that Harrison Ford note 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 , Disney/Pixar would have held a casting call for many young teenage girls for the role.note
- 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 , 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
- 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 . 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
- Ironically enough, the "Superheroes being illegal" subplot note was originally meant to be resolved in this film by having additional runtime adding into the film note . 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.
- For the Latin American Spanish dub, before Omar Chaparro was cast, Adal Ramones was the first choice as Syndrome. However, he turned the role down because he didn't want to be seen by his children as "the bad guy", which is why he opted to play sympathetic protagonists, such as Stuart Little (from the films of the same name) or Lou (from Cats & Dogs) to name a few.
