What A Cartoon Movie! - The Incredibles

John Barry is the (among other things) Bond composer that Brad Bird and co initially approached about scoring the movie, and as much as I would have loved to have one more great score of his, I can totally understand why he felt like he'd just be retreading his old work. He's one of my favourite movie composers of all time, having done 11 Bond movies, many of which are among some of my favourite film scores ever, and most Bond fans would absolutely say he's responsible for a lot of the way those movies sound, and the only one to really rival his input was David Arnold. -- Michael Giacchino does a GREAT job with creating a new score that echoes the feeling of the 60s 007 scores, and is just another example of how great he is in general. I just hope he doesn't end up more or less burning himself out like other film composers who get so many high profile billion dollar movies, like Danny Elfman or Hans Zimmer. Funnily enough, the three of them have all worked on Mission: Impossible, Batman, and Spider-Man in the same order of succession - Elfman first (M:I 1, Burton Batman, Raimi Spider-Man), then Zimmer (M:I 2, Nolan Batman, ASM2), and then Giacchino (M:I 3 and 4, The Batman, MCU Spidey).

Dylan (batmanboy11) Freitag

Big fan of the movie and this episode. I would add that Henry's comments on how superheroic craziness would affect courtrooms was addressed in Astro City: Local Heroes written by Kurt Busiek and drawn by Brent Anderson. A lawyer stuck with defending an obviously guilty mafioso murderer started suggesting it might have been shapeshifters, an evil twin from an alternate universe, etc. It led to the murderer going free but also changes in the law to close those loopholes, something unaddressed in either Incredibles film. Also, related to the many Venture Bros. comparisons, the neighbor kid is literally named Rusty. Coincidence? Yes, but still amusing.

What a great movie, and a great job, doing the podcast on this one. Personally, I don’t mind the additional time spent on the island, but I completely recognize the fact that I am a bit older than the both of you and, for me, the timing/pacing of the movie mimic the old Sean Connery Bond movies perfectly (perhaps too perfectly?). I totally realize that kind of pacing is a bit dated by modern standards, even when this movie was released, but I particularly enjoyed the slower pace. I loved the time it gave for Bob and Helen to be in the environment of the island without things constantly exploding. It really showed the extent to which the secret base had been built out, with the monorail, the launching yard, all of that really cool world building stuff. Really really liked it. I do enjoy it, and it does make me chuckle, but sometimes you guys get a little up your own butts about commentary being inherent to every tiny piece, and I mean that with affection. When Helen says “it’s in your blood” I’m reasonably confident that’s not a commentary on the validity of eugenics. Come on guys, not everything is a conspiracy, ha. I have two kids. There are definitely some things that are “in your blood.” it doesn’t mean that Nazi supermen are our superiors. Great job, got me watching the whole movie again, and had a great time. Thanks for the work that you do and congratulations to the both of you on your moves. It may sound trite, but when I invest in Patreon content, I’m always excited for the creators to succeed and you guys are both kicking ass. Love you both and can’t wait for you to come back to Portland for another show.

RyoGeo

I don’t think any movie is above criticism. But when you stack up any flaws here against what Brad Bird was able to do in 2004 (!) they are just *so* easy to forgive. I still remember fondly how in awe I was as a 15 year-old, thinking, “THIS is where it’s going”… Yeah, greatly mistaken. Bird was never going to survive at a studio where he wasn’t a John L. protege and was a much more talented director than John L. himself. And American animation will never go in the direction of *real* mainstream, straightforward adult films. But it was nice to think it could, and nice to think that, like the first two seasons of Ren & Stimpy, something could even *be* a game changer in corporate Hollywood. It’s the best Pixar, bar none, and the best superhero movie ever made.

Thad Komorowski

Physicist here. The most I can think of in terms of actual uses of "zero-point energy" is the Casimir Effect showing up in micro-electromechanical systems ("MEMS"). Even then, it's more of a nuisance, from what I've heard. (Not my field.)

Bradford A Barker

The first Darksiders is okay, the second one is genuinely as good as Zelda

RaggyB

Re uber drivers and names, I was divisive hanging out with my friend who had written many books about wrestling actually, and we were waiting for the uber he'd called for me, and the driver's name was "Bah"? When he arrived he asked us both for a 4 digit code we didn't know and he just left. More relevantly, I've gone by several different names in the past decade due to like, art and stuff, and it gets so annoying! I guess I've brought it on myself, but it's also not my fault I'm a girl with a guy name.

Theo Flood

I remember getting really excited about this movie when I saw that first teaser trailer on the Finding Nemo Blu Ray. Every time I try to watch it though it loses me around an hour into the movie. I've rolled credits on it, but every time I watch it I go into thinking "This is the viewing where this movie will land for me," but it just never happens. I don't think I ever watched the sequel. Despite that though I made it through all six hours of this podcast so I would like my participation trophy now. Elemental being a box office bomb felt easy to see coming. The trailer makes it look like another Pixar 101 type of story and after Turning Red, Luca, Soul, and maybe another movie I'm forgetting went right to streaming (and Lightyear made it there rather quick too) there's no real incentive to run out and see it. They really need to convince an audience that something is worth seeing in a movie theater and I honestly don't know how they do it. Their movies just feel formulaic at this point. They're still good, but not in a way that excites most. Maybe they need an influx of new talent or something, but I'm guessing this recent failure is just going to send them back to Sequel Town. I can't wait for Toy Story 8 and Monsters Rest Home!

Joe Hodgson

I can only imagine how long incredibles 2 will be...or when you guys finally get to the simpsons movie on Talking simpsons.

Frank Grimes

Actually, something that came up in my research of A Bug's Life is how, when renegotiating the original contract with Disney after Toy Story, Jobs was adamant in the Pixar name being given more prominence in marketing. Even back then he was annoyed that Disney was getting all the credit for their movies. - Bob

Talking Simpsons

Oh wow! You guys did this justice for SIX hours. This hit me at the right age of an adventure movie of a dark storyline (very silly in retrospect, my kingdom for a low stakes action movie 😅)

G

Edna Mode came to the US on Operation Paperclip

Matt LS

I know Henry kept bringing up the bonus features on the blu ray...but he's right to! I've often told people that the 2nd disc of the original 2-disc set is the holy grail of special features that was (and still is) unprecedented for an animated film. everything he touched on is amazing and worth checking out, but I'll also mention a feature that really fleshed out the world of supers in a way that blew the mind of 12 year old me. you could listen to audio-files of interviews of all the various supers (voiced by animators) alongside data about their powers. but each one felt unique and honed in to their abilities while some audio files were missing and instead had Rick Dicker speaking with something like "Stratigale's file was damaged by [insert horrible incident]" which really set the tone for "oh. all of these were people in this world and are dead now". We didn't know how good we had it in the early 00s of the DVD boom in terms of special features. Speaking of "how good we had it", i'm getting majorly bummed hearing all the "Disney presents a Pixar film" in the ads for this movie vs the post-buyout "Disney Pixar" lumped together in some horrible conglomerate. I so badly wish Steve Jobs held his ground and didn't sell. If any studio had the means to stake it on their own, they were in the best position to do it. I find it deeply gross that Iger's self-aggrandizing book has so many chapters on his professional relationship with Jobs where he all but swore on his deathbed he would protect the studio as agreed to their terms and now he's signing off on all these needless layoffs after Chapek dumping 3 of their movies on Disney+ turned out to be a miscalculation - oopsie! I always point people to Disney War if they ever want some real dirt on just how long Iger has been a dick. But one who's just much better at being a public face than the likes of Chapek. Will wrap up but fantastic podcast as always, from someone who has followed the studio since its birth and grown alongside it. Those making-of warts and all featurettes were my bread and butter as a tween and I'm sad there's no glimpse into that world as much as there used to be. Fascinated by the choice of A Bug's Life for the next entry and can't wait to hear.

Blake R.