Why I hate 'The Incredibles'

First off, I just saw "The Incredibles" a couple of days ago with my son, and we both thought it was an "Incredible" movie. He has no clue who the FF are (he's only 3), but we'll see that too and he'll like FF also. He loves super heroes. Period.

Secondly, I just read an article about "The Incredibles", where the creators at Pixar were asked about the characters and where they got their inspiration. One of the first things they said was that it WAS patterned after the FF, with a few changes, because they wanted to pay homage to the "First Royal Family of Marvel", without being a copy. But they said that was really the only similarity. Also, they stated how they came up with the powers for each character.
1) Dads are supposed to be strong and invulnerable, i.e. Mr. Incredible.
2) Moms are always being pulled in several different directions at once, but are able to remain flexible throughout it all, i.e. ElastiGirl.
3) Small boys run around constantly and never seem to tire; they're just one big ball of energy, i.e. Dash.
4) Violet was based on the idea of a young teenage girl who doesn't feel as if she fits in; she feels vulnerable, so she puts up a lot of walls (force fields) and would sometimes like to just disappear (invisibility).
5) Jack Jack (the baby), IS a temper tantrum.
Say what you want, but I thought this was a beautifully created movie. My son (a mixture of Dash and Jack Jack), also loved it. And ANY successful comic genre movie helps keep comics alive. The success of the Spider-Man and X-men franchises have allowed the FF movie to be made. This goes for the new Bat Man film, Dare Devil, Elektra, the Hulk, etc. "Spider-Man" kept Marvel Comics ALIVE. Any successful comic book-based movie is good for comic book publication in general, and it keeps it alive for a whole new generation of readers and collectors.

I dont mean to discredit its artistic value as a film...I want to see it, and it looks like a good movie...regardless i thought that other guys comments were inaccurate and mean disrespectful...thats the real reason i had to say something

I would like to tell you about a group of superheros to see if you can guess who I am talking about. There is a group of four superheros that are a very close knit family. They are named after a superlative adjective. Their leader is called "Mister" and then the superlative adjective. One of their members has the power to turn invisible and create force fields. She is frequently asked to make force field bubbles to protect their team. Another member has the ability to stretch and will often squeeze between small spaces or take the shape of a ball or parachute. An additional member is known for his brute strength. The girl with powers of invisibility has a brother on the team who is a young blond kid who is often cocky and overconfident which frequently gets him into trouble. At one point, one of the family members exhibits the ability to spontaneously burst into flames. The group is illustrated as very human and flawed. They frequently argue amongst themselves, and usually the person with the stretching powers is trying to break these fights up. They live in a large city but eventually find themselves trying to hide their identities in the suburbs. Two of the team members eventually get married and have a baby. At first they believe that the baby has no super powers and often have to leave their baby with a babysitter while they fight crime. They eventually discover that their child has the awesome power to do virtually anything. Their arch enemy is a evil man that has known the leader for a long time and holds a deep resentment towards him because of an event many years ago. He has no super powers but is a master of technology. He wears a mask, bracelets that shoot powerful beams of energy, and boots that allow him to levitate. He also builds multiple robots to attack the foursome. The first time that the team actually forms and establishes themselves, they are attacked by a crazed man wearing dark glasses who lives underground and burrows up to the middle of the city to attack them. Of course it would be obvious to anyone that I am talking about the new Pixar movie "The Incredibles". It is also an exact description of the Fantastic Four. The Incredibles was a very good movie. It was also incredibly obvious that is was stolen intellectual property. Marvel Comics definitely deserves at least a portion of what was made from that movie.

they sued city of heroes because it was possible to make likenesses of certain marvel heroes. i wouldnt be surprised if they sued disney (their at each others throats already).

but if your gonna make a family of heroes it'd be damn near impossible to come up with unique powers because most of em have been done already. so people should just get on with it. fantastic four will do fine, and if anyone bitches about them ripping off the incredibles, show them an ff comic. problem solved.

I'm sorry. After reading this I had to register and reply.

I would like to tell you about a group of superheros to see if you can guess who I am talking about. There is a group of four superheros that are a very close knit family.

First off, where do you really get that? For most of the movie, they weren't a team of four. Hell, we didn't even have a duo to start off with. We had Mr. Incredible. Solo super hero. We had Elastigirl. Solo super heroin. They are forced to stop being heros, so they are forced to become normal people who happen to have powers. They have 2.5 kids, live in the brady house, with a practical car and dad has an office job. That's the first half of the freaking movie. Team of four my ass. Dash and Violet weren't superheroes. They were children, going to school, fighting with each other. They were super powered, but not super heroes. Not off to a great compairison here. When they finally go to save dad, it's still not a team. Mother goes, and tells kids to hide. Still not a team of four. Kids get in trouble and parents run to save them. They all meet up and finally we have a team. They get captured, and try to get back home. Once there and fighting the robot, again, the father tries to do it alone, and the mother tries to keep the kids from getting involved. Still not a team of four. They really didn't become a real superheor team until right before the end credits. They have so much more different here than the same it's not even funny.

They are named after a superlative adjective.

Oh no. Spider-Man better watch out, since he is "Amazing" and "Spectacular" and that "Incredible" Hulk better watch out. And good thing that "Invincable" Iron Man is rich so he can afford to settle out of court. Oh wait, the FF themselves better watch out, because "Super"man had done that first. Nobody better ever use a thesaurus and input the word "Great" or "Super" to find a way to name a team after, or else they ripped off the Fantastic Four. "Wonder" Woman. "Uncanny" X-Men. "Mighty" Thor. Hercules "Prince of Power" Flash "World's Fastest Man" Captain Marvel "Worlds Mightiest Mortal" I mean, I could go on and on. I wonder if these "Superlative adjectives" and bigger than life descriptors are a common thing to super heroes? Nope. They stole it directly from the FF. Those Pixar BASTARDS!!!

Their leader is called "Mister" and then the superlative adjective.

First off. They never named their team in the movie. The movie was named that way after the hero. He was Mr. Incredible before ever being on a "team". Let's look at your family. If your dad is "Mr. Smith" then you are "The Smith's". Nowhere in the movie were they called "The Incredibles", that was the name of the movie. So quit trying to make a point based on soemthing that wasn't even there. And while we are at it, if they were so ripped off, why wern't they called "The Incredible Five"? I mean, if they ripped off everything, why leave off the number?

One of their members has the power to turn invisible and create force fields. She is frequently asked to make force field bubbles to protect their team.

And when we hear Stan Lee describe how he came up with thier powers, he tells us that he chose 4 because there are 4 elements. Sue got the power of air, and so creates forcefields out of air, and can turn invisible as air. No other reason beyond that.

Violet is a different matter. She is the shy pre/teen who is forced to hide who she truly is. She has to conceal herself for the good of her family. She wishes to be normal, but there are obsticals blocking her from others. Her powers are a metaphoric extension of her personality.

Another member has the ability to stretch and will often squeeze between small spaces or take the shape of a ball or parachute.

Show me one time she turned into a ball in the movie. They both may have similar powers, but they use them in very different ways. Mr. Fantastic uses his in more of an entangling way, or a quite method of travel (bouncing ball, slither through small cracks or tubes) as well as reach things from across the lab. I've also seen him steach to paper thin and deflect bullets away. Elastigirl on the other hand went to offense. She punches, throws things, and was unable to slip through doors and cracks like Mr. Fantastic could. Their powers are similar, but their mindsets are very different. Not to mention that they whole arguement that I made about Violet can also be applied here. Reed was given this power because it was water like. Elastigirl was given hers as another metaphorical extension of her personality (being pulled in all different directions by her family, yet flexiable enough to handle it all)

An additional member is known for his brute strength.

Oh my God. How did I not see it before? No other hero has ever had super strength before, and so anyone who happens to have that power must be a rip off of the Thing. I was so blind. Wait a second? I don't even need to go past Superman to show how silly this thought is. And once again. Ben was given his powers because Stan needed someone based on rock. Mr. Incredible, just like the rest of his family, has powers that are a metaphorical extension of his personality.

And if you were to try and make a case for rip off, you'd have a better one between Mr. Incredible and Superman. Both have a male gender descriper along with a "superlative adjitive" for their name. Both have super strength. Both were the biggest most looked up to heroes.

The girl with powers of invisibility has a brother on the team who is a young blond kid who is often cocky and overconfident which frequently gets him into trouble.

I always saw Johnny as hot blooded and a womanizer. Dash was more frustrated, curious and enthusiastic than cocky and overconfident. Dash is much like his fater in the movie. He feels he is unjustly being held back from his true potential, so he lashes out when he can. Mr. Incredible begins fighting crime on the DL, Dash puts tacks on his teachers chair. But once again. Johnny was based on fire. Dash's powers were based on his personality. I wonder if you see a patern going on here.

At one point, one of the family members exhibits the ability to spontaneously burst into flames.

Oh my God. Reaching much?

The group is illustrated as very human and flawed.

Human and flawed? I cannot connect with anyone of them besides maybe Thing. Aloof super genious who more often than not doesn't show his family that he loves them and would rather spend time messing with his gadgets. Womanizing pretty boy how goes through girls like tissue. Buxom blonde who falls in love for the aloof super genious who...you remember. We have NONE of that in the Incredibles. The closest personality traite we have to connect the two is Violet to Thing. Both wish they could be normal and not have to hide who they are from the rest of the world. But then again, we also have Nightcralwer filling that role as well, so it's not all that uncommon.

They frequently argue amongst themselves, and usually the person with the stretching powers is trying to break these fights up.

So, given that the Incredibles was trying to show that these were "real people" and they are brother and sister, their fighting isn't at all based on the fact that brothers and sisters in families fight. No, they had to steal that from the Fantastic Four. Gotcha. Brothers and sisters never fight in real life, so the Fantastic Four is the only place this could have came from.

They live in a large city but eventually find themselves trying to hide their identities in the suburbs.

WHAT? I mean really? WHAT? You do know that one of the major things about the FF is that they DON'T have secret identies, right? Drastic total opposite of what they were saying in the movie. The whole world knows that Reed Richards is Mr. Fantastic and so on. The whole world knows they live in New York. The whole world knows they live in the Baxter Building. They do public apperances, interviews, and lectures. Very different than what they were showing in the Incredibles.

Two of the team members eventually get married and have a baby.

Let me fix this for you. "Two heores fell in love, got married, had 2.5 children" Very different than what you are saying. They were NOT team mates when they married. They had MORE than one baby. Seems like you HAD to change these facts to make more of a case.

At first they believe that the baby has no super powers and often have to leave their baby with a babysitter while they fight crime.

I missed the part where that nerdy little girl was a master of the mystic arts who knew the kid had powers and used her powers to contol the child. I also missed the part where Franklin was a baby in the books. He has been 5 for many many many years now. And I also fail to see what this really has to do with anything? What were they supposed to do? "Well, we don't want to be sued by Marvel, so instead of having the characters do the responsible thing and get a baby sitter while they go out to do dangerous stuff like the Fantastic Four did, lets take the baby into the heart of the danger. There, that's much better" Jeeze man. The choice was again taken from the story and characters themsevles. They are the "average family" (look at the family name. Parr) with 2.5 kids. They don't want to put the baby in danger. So, either have a baby sitter, or.....HAVE A BABYSITTER. I don't think any super parent is going to be shown running into battle with a baby cradeled in their arms man. Use some common sense.

They eventually discover that their child has the awesome power to do virtually anything.

Yes. One child has the abiltiy, when mad, to change it's shape and physical properties. The other has the power to create whole worlds as well as destory them with just a thought. Yes, they are very similar. 🙄

Their arch enemy is a evil man that has known the leader for a long time and holds a deep resentment towards him because of an event many years ago.

Wait, you just described Lex Luthor/Superboy. Or wait, Magneto/Professor X. Wolverine/Sabretooth. Spider-Man/Venom. God is this ever repetitive.

He has no super powers but is a master of technology.

Should I really list a whole bunch of tech based villians to show how absurd this thought is?

He wears a mask, bracelets that shoot powerful beams of energy, and boots that allow him to levitate.

Could you reach any further? And because of this reach, you missed some. Dr. Doom wears a mask to hide the shame of his own mistake. Almost EVERY villian wears a mask. Tech based hero using energy beams? Oh my GOD!!! The audacity of Pixar to steal that only from Dr. Doom. Hell, even Space Ghost fits that description so far. And Dr. Doom doesn't use boots to fly. He uses a jet pack when he needs to fly.

He also builds multiple robots to attack the foursome.

Dr. Doom, in his arrogance, makes robots....OF HIMSELF. Dr. Doom also doesn't plan plubicity stunts to make himself look good. Syndrom didn't send his robot after the foursome. Did you even watch the movie?

The first time that the team actually forms and establishes themselves, they are attacked by a crazed man wearing dark glasses who lives underground and burrows up to the middle of the city to attack them.

Ok, this part is classy on Pixars part. They saw similarities between what they made and the Fantastic Four, and pay homage to them.

Of course it would be obvious to anyone that I am talking about the new Pixar movie "The Incredibles". It is also an exact description of the Fantastic Four.

Not quite on many parts. You got the descriptions of the Incredibles wrong more than once, as well as the Fantastic Four. Seems like you had to change some things around to bluster your argument which is not as bad as you make it sound.

The Incredibles was a very good movie.

It was a great movie. One of my all time favorites. Brad Bird is a genius. Between this and Iron Giant. He knows his stuff.

It was also incredibly obvious that is was stolen intellectual property. Marvel Comics definitely deserves at least a portion of what was made from that movie.

Bull crap. If you look at everything in the movie, you will see that it stands on it's own without having to pull from other sources. There is tons of metaphor in the movie about life, family, growing older, martial problems, and family values. The super heorics are all metaphor and visual flair, but if you look past it you will see many things. You could write the whole story very differently if you wrote it straight out.

A guy is in the prime of his life. He meets a girl and gets married. He suddenly has to leave his old life behind. Many years later, he is stuck in a job he doesn't like to support his family who do nothing but remind him of what he is missing. He goes out and tries to relive his glory days and so begings "cheating" on his wife. She does some detective work and finds out about his cheating. She gets some support from her friend and goes to get him back. While they are working out their problems, someone is trying to take their kids away. They then have to fight to get their kids, and struggle to give them a future. Afterwords, the family is much stronger, taking on all problems together.

I may not have it perfect, but that is a pretty good rundown of the movie if you take away the super heroics. Does that sound like the FF at all? Doesn't to me. But throw in some superficial likness' and people like you are jumping all over it claiming that Pixar just copied directly from Marvel. They drew from super hero myth for their metaphor so that kids would enjoy the movie. Just like Marvel/DC/Image and other publishers pulled alot from ancient myth to create their characters. Did they "rip off" those myths? No. They were inspired by them, and crafted whole new stories because of that insperations. Same thing here. Please open your eyes and mind and you will see things beyond the superficial.

hahaha damn, Mallrat.....good post.
Very good rebuttals.

yeah... way to make an impression....

Originally posted by Mallrat
They drew from super hero myth for their metaphor so that kids would enjoy the movie. Just like Marvel/DC/Image and other publishers pulled alot from ancient myth to create their characters. Did they "rip off" those myths? No. They were inspired by them, and crafted whole new stories because of that insperations. Same thing here. Please open your eyes and mind and you will see things beyond the superficial.

Preach on, my brotha...

Originally posted by mlguyer

Of course it would be obvious to anyone that I am talking about the new Pixar movie "The Incredibles". It is also an exact description of the Fantastic Four.

Actually, it looks like you're giving an exact description of the fantastic four and just trying to look for similarities with the incredibles to support your rip-off claim. i'll give you a few concrete examples of why your description doesn't match the incredibles.

Originally posted by mlguyer

There is a group of four superheros that are a very close knit family.

the fantastic four is a family of 3 (husband, wife, wife's brother) and a close family friend. the incredibles are a group of 5. don't know where you picked up the idea of a family of 4.

Originally posted by mlguyer

Their leader is called "Mister" and then the superlative adjective.
An additional member is known for his brute strength.

your talking as if their leader is a separate person from the additional member with brute strength. that's true for the fantastic four, but definitely not for the incredibles because mr. incredible (head of the family and natural leader) is the one with the brute strength.

Originally posted by mlguyer

They frequently argue amongst themselves, and usually the person with the stretching powers is trying to break these fights up.

it is a mother's trait to act as a medium... which elastigirl portrayed a lot more than sue ever did.

Originally posted by mlguyer

They live in a large city but eventually find themselves trying to hide their identities in the suburbs.

although im not a huge ff4 fan, last time i checked the ff4 were living openly and without hidden identities. this is probably the only argument you stated that supports your claim that this IS an exact description of the incredibles.

Originally posted by mlguyer

Two of the team members eventually get married and have a baby. They eventually discover that their child has the awesome power to do virtually anything.

mr. incredible and elastigirl weren't team members when they got married. they were individual superheroes. being able to virtually do anything is quite different to being able to transform into anything. still sounds as if your talking about the ff4 and not the incredibles...

Originally posted by mlguyer

He wears a mask, bracelets that shoot powerful beams of energy, and boots that allow him to levitate. He also builds multiple robots to attack the foursome.

dr. doom builds multiple robots and sends them to attack. syndrome built multiple prototypes so that he would come up with a SINGLE perfect robot which he could send into the world which only he can stop.

honestly, alot of the characters in the incredibles were a parody of superheroes, just as shrek was a parody of fairy tales and scary movie was a parody of live films. it wasn't just the fantastic four similarities that were there.

iceman similar was there
flash similar was there
cyclops similar was there
the closest i could get to jack jack would be goose from that old galaxy rangers cartoon show. he could transform his body into any material he desired so long as he maintain his body mass.

Originally posted by FrothByte
Actually, it looks like you're giving an exact description of the fantastic four and just trying to look for similarities with the incredibles to support your rip-off claim. i'll give you a few concrete examples of why your description doesn't match the incredibles.

the fantastic four is a family of 3 (husband, wife, wife's brother) and a close family friend. the incredibles are a group of 5. don't know where you picked up the idea of a family of 4.

your talking as if their leader is a separate person from the additional member with brute strength. that's true for the fantastic four, but definitely not for the incredibles because mr. incredible (head of the family and natural leader) is the one with the brute strength.

it is a mother's trait to act as a medium... which elastigirl portrayed a lot more than sue ever did.

although im not a huge ff4 fan, last time i checked the ff4 were living openly and without hidden identities. this is probably the only argument you stated that supports your arguable claim that this IS an exact description of the incredibles.

mr. incredible and elastigirl weren't team members when they got married. they were individual superheroes. being able to virtually do anything is quite different to being able to virtually transform into anything. still sounds as if your talking about the ff4 and not the incredibles...

dr. doom builds multiple robots and sends them to attack. syndrome built multiple prototypes so that he would come up with a SINGLE perfect robot which he could send into the world which only he can stop.

honestly, alot of the characters in the incredibles were a parody of superheroes, just as shrek was a parody of fairy tales and scary movie was a parody of live films. it wasn't just the fantastic four similarities that were there.

iceman similar was there
flash similar was there
cyclops similar was there
the closest i could get to jack jack would be goose from that old galaxy rangers cartoon show. he could transform his body into any material he desired so long as he maintain his body mass.

and btw, i think mr. incredible is a lot more similar to he-man than to thing coz although mr. incredible is super-strong, he is not super-tough. he still bleeds and gets bruises from hits that probably wouldn't scratch thing.

A little something I like to do when people start spouting off "rip off"

Tell me what movie I'm talking about.

It's about a girl in a blue and white dress who has grown frustrated with her life. She dreams of a magical place that she will live at. She then chases a small animal which leades her to a great fall and she ends up in the magical place she spoke of before. She makes her way through this strange new land, where things are not the way they are in the normal world at all. She then in confronted by a powerful femal character who has henchmen that are changed versions of their real world counterparts. At the end of the movie, we find out that the whole thing was just a dream.

Tell me, is that Wizard of Oz or Disney's Alice in Wonderland? Would you call one a rip off of the other?

Excuse me for busting in on this... But since when is a super-hero movie come out thats not marvel or DC original?

First of all... Any movie that has to do with super-heroes is never going to be original, because either Marvel, or DC, have done the Idea first, and Marvel and DC got there ideas from Twilight zone.
Nothing now-adays is original, Especially super hero movies, its almost impossible to think up an original idea that DC or Marvel hasnt done in the Super hero genre.

Oh wait, I got one. This giant robot named Gigantor turns the whole world into Dancing chalupas, and The Aqua Teen Hunger Force has to save the day.
Rated R.
For Retarded.

I got another idea!
One man emerges from the Microwave dimension, to feast upon the remains of those who once lived, endowed with powers from the unknown not only can he now teleport, but he can also heat things up with his high powered micro-wave frequencies, cooking most of the dead people instantly. But wait... theres a problem. The micro-waves from his powers have made a dead person come alive, and he re-populates the species...
Rated R.
For Retarded.

Heres another. One man, swimming alone in the ocean... when suddenly he becomes fused with water itself. Leaving the ocean with his new found powers, he controls the water. He can make it rain. He constructs a fortress of percipitation and takes his new costume, a black storm cloud mask and leaves. His new rain powers he can rain out the area and make villains have to go inside, and plan there villainry deeds for another day...
All the while they go inside, and rob banks, and kill people....
Rated R.
For Rhinoplasty.

topic

there is no denying the incredibles has a lot of parallels to FF...a really long bias post that doesnt address these similarities wont change my mind...Like i said, i think its a good film, and im not trying to argue against its artistic value...regardless, the characters r not very original...but they r well done.

Sorry i have to interupt. A page back someone said they havnt made any FF games, they have. On the PS1, twas good but hard (i was 7).

Yea im retarded 😉

Originally posted by eleveninches
Has anybody noticed how 'the incredibles' is a TOTAL rip off of the Fantastic Four. Clearly, Disney just wanted to get this film released before the FF movie was.

Lets take a look at the similarities:

A family of superheroes (3 of the fantastic 4 are related)
One of them has an elastic body that can stretch a long way.
One of them is invisible.
One of them has super strength.
They have a baby with super powers as well.

Even the name of the film is a rip off of the fantastic four.

😠 😠 😠 😠 😠

u r damn right its a bunch of crap. screw the incredibles

Originally posted by i like eggs
u r damn right its a bunch of crap. screw the incredibles

Excuse me, but did you actually read this entire thread?

I loved the Incredibles. And I heard that Alan Moore's Watchmen is has more similarity than the FF.