Great Characters: Mr. Incredible (“The Incredibles”)
Recently I asked if there were members of the GITS community who would like to participate with guest columns. Today’s Great Character post is provided by longtime GITS follower Jason Cuthbert [@A2Jason].
Great Characters: Mr. Incredible
(“The Incredibles”)
Most super hero movies predictably begin with the hero being not so super… BANG… Insert: “Bizarre life-changing event”… now they are oozing with “super”, wearing a crime-fighting costume that could beg for attention on its hands and knees — and an equally super-sized villain to butt egos with.
But this is Pixar Animation Studios that we are talking about here. The adjective “original” is their blueprint, not a disease that evokes fear and panic. The Incredibles, released in 2004, became the 6th consecutive Pixar smash hit movie. It leaped completely over the standard super hero origin story in a single bound and gave us Mr. Incredible, a righteous family man, who along with his wife and kids are already super heroes (who cares about how). They are actually trying their best at being paint-by-numbers, hum-drum Earthlings instead.
The Incredibles plot summary from IMDB:
A family of undercover superheroes, while trying to live the quiet suburban life, are forced into action to save the world.
Mr. Incredible, or Bob Parr when he is bored and not wearing bright tights, is that family’s father figure that seems to struggle the worst with being forced into this “Supers Relocation Program” civilian life stuff — longing to return to his heroic glory days of being Mr. Incredible.
The Incredibles marked the introduction of a new director and screenwriter into the Pixar dynasty — Brad Bird (Ratatouille, Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol) — whose facial resemblance to Mr. Incredible was intentional. Not only did Brad Bird write and direct this second largest worldwide grossing Pixar film, (up to that point), but The Incredibles also won Pixar its second Best Animated Feature Academy Award.
Success of this incredible magnitude requires a great character that the entire world can truly root for. Mr. Incredible and his plain-clothes alter ego Bob Parr, voiced by actor Craig T. Nelson (Poltergeist), manage to accomplish audience loyalty with one trait even stronger than that super strength — selflessness.
Mr. Incredible is unable to turn off that inspirational “my happiness comes from your happiness” quality that has worked really well for the likes of Mother Teresa, Gandhi and Jesus Christ — human beings that remained selfless enough to set the bar even higher for our species.
It is Mr. Incredible’s noble nature that makes it easier for us to still totally have his back even when he lies to his wife about where he goes at night. The guy isn’t out chasing salacious whores — he is saving lives:
BOB: Want to catch a robber?
LUCIOUS: No. To tell you the truth, I’d rather
go bowling. Look, what if we actually did what
our wives think we’re doing… just to shake
things up?Then Mr. Incredible risks not being a good insurance salesman to be a good person when he very quietly instructs a client on how to take advantage of an insurance policy loophole:
BOB: [whispering] Listen closely. I’d like to
help you but I can’t. I’d like to tell you to
take a copy of your policy to Norma Wilcox on…
Norma Wilcox,W-I-L-C-O-X… on the third floor,
but I can’t.[Bob’s client scribbles details of Bob’s loophole on a small notepad]
BOB: I also do not advise you to fill out and
file a WS2475 form with our legal department
on the second floor. I would not expect someone
to get back to you quickly to resolve the matter.
I’d like to help, but there’s nothing I can do.This same desire for selfless social service, this time to stop a mugging, even leads to the blue-collar Bob version of Mr. Incredible getting fired from his insurance job.
In fact, it isn’t until Bob secretly becomes Mr. Incredible on a full-time professional basis that he wakes up out of his depression, becomes more attentive to his family members and trades that office cubicle blubber gut for the physical fitness that can only come from bench-pressing railroad trains:
What keeps Mr. Incredible from being a pompous, self-absorbed power-thirsty diva dragon is that his compulsive need to live up to his super destiny is not driven by getting his own realty show or free front row seats at the Lakers game next to Jack Nicholson.
Mr. Incredible just needs to protect his planet — and protect his family. And while selling insurance coverage may save lives by making bloated hospital bills doable, it sure can’t beat saving lives with freakin’ super powers.
Mr. Incredible’s message is clear — be the greatest version of yourself. Why settle for watered-down Bob Parr (as in on “par” or average) when you were meant to be incredible? The world needs our very best.
For his selfless swagger — Mr. Incredible is one incredibly Great Character.
When we look for Protagonist characters, one thing to zero in on is what their state of Disunity is at the beginning of the story. With Mr. Incredible, and indeed his whole family, we have superheroes force not only to repress their own innate special powers, but live incognito as ‘normal’ people. It’s worse for Mr. Incredible because he still feels the pull to do good, help people and save the world. And that is an excellent example of how a Protagonist’s psychological struggle with self-identity can set up the entire rest of the story.
Thanks, Jason, for your guest post on GITS. Please join Jason and myself in comments to discuss this superhero figure and his abnormal family tasked with trying to live a normal life.
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