MANILA, Philippines — Long ago, before wisecracking superheroes ruled the world like some dysfunctional superfamily, there was The Incredibles. Brad Bird’s 2004 Pixar movie came out before Marvel’s first Iron Man and its resulting avalanche of Hollywood Marvelosity, thus predating — and possibly inspiring — much of the tone of those later superhero gatherings, with its humor, meta awareness of fans and their obsessive demands, and recognition that characters can have both superpowers and very real human vulnerabilities at the same time.
Fourteen years later, sitting with the press at Pixar Animation Studios and preparing to unleash a self-written/directed sequel upon the world, I find myself asking Bird if Marvel ever thanked him for, you know, opening the door to their huge success.
“He said it! Not my words!” the blond-tufted director jokes in a voice prone to cartoony shifts. “We were all fine over here until you showed up! You’re just trying to cause trouble!” (What he means is that Pixar and Marvel are both under the Disney tent now, so don’t make things awkward. Message received.)
Bird is a brilliant commander of voices, quips and subtle shades of sarcasm. (“Why did you decide to do Incredibles 2?” Bird: “You know, I wanted to buck the trend. I felt like there was an alarming shortage of sequels, superhero movies and CGI family films. So I decided to combine them all into one.”) Bird, who’s directed other hits like Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and Ratatouille, could have done anything with Pixar next, but he decided to return to the Parr family — Bob and Helen, Violet, Dash and baby Jack-Jack, a family with various superpowers — 14 years after the original. With a script he began developing about three years ago, Incredibles 2 takes place literally moments after the first ends. Yet the world has changed a lot: superpowers are outlawed; Helen has a new job, spinning positive PR for superheroes and being the breadwinner, while restless Bob takes care of three kids at home — including a baby with incredible new powers.
The one character who remains constant is Edna Mode, the diminutive half-German, half-Japanese fashion designer who revamps the superheroes’ outfits and is possibly Bird’s most inspired creation. Modeled on a number of pegs — including designer Edith Head, Anna Wintour, Bette Midler and Linda Hunt — the voice is all Brad. Someone asks him what it’s like writing, directing and acting as Edna. “I tried to listen to the director, but it’s hard because (in Edna voice) I know everything.”
How much of her is you, we ask? Producers Nicole Grindle and John Walker, also at the presscon, pipe up: “It’s all him! Every single character!” Brad demurs: “It’s weird, I actually think of her as a separate person. I don’t think I’m her at all.” Then he fesses up: “No, I do see plenty of her in me. The bossiness? Absolutely. The overweening confidence at moments? Sure. So I’m Edna at moments when I think I’m absolutely right and there’s no doubt and (switching to Edna) surely, if you were sensible, you would realize that I’m right!”
Despite the huge success of Marvel’s superhero canon since 2004’s The Incredibles came out, Bird doesn’t think there’s much overlap. “It’s easy to get distracted by the superhero part, but that’s not really what interested me originally; it was the family part, and the superhero genre being useful in commenting about the family. So we had fun with that. There’s always good stuff about families.”
True, the Parrs, cartoon or not, possess very human qualities. They bicker and banter and disagree about who will attend PTA meetings, and all of this comes from Bird and his Pixar team’s different perspectives on life. Despite the 14-year gap, the Parrs haven’t aged a day.
Pixar is nestled on a campus in Emeryville, over the Oakland Bay Bridge of San Francisco, and Bird is asked about the vibe here versus Disney down in Burbank. “Pixar is a little bit more of a free-range chicken. It has a piece of its founders, Ed Catmull, George Lucas, Steve Jobs and John Lasseter. They’re all very creative people, there’s a little bit of hippie in the mix. Northern California is different from Southern California. Silicon Valley is in here; a little Whole Earth Catalogue. A little rebellion. San Francisco is kind of a city that has since its inception embraced oddballs.”
Oddballs or not, Bird and his team just want people to be entertained by Incredibles 2. “That may sound shallow, but I don’t think we have enough good times these days. If you can forget yourself for a couple hours at the movies and have some laughs, that’s a good thing. I would like to tell you (serious voice): ‘This film is good for you. It will straighten your teeth and freshen your breath.’ But the truth of the matter is I just want people to have a good time.”
Producer Walker adds: “I say it’s worth 10 bucks just to watch a baby fight a raccoon.”
And Bird, on cue, shifts into carny mode: “See… a raccoon fight a baby! See… the amazing stretching woman!”
Who can resist a pitch like that?