The Incredibles was a breath of fresh hair for the superhero genre. It reminded us all that heroes didn’t always need to be dark and brooding, they could be fun and satirical too!
There’s a lot embedded into The Incredibles ; if you blink you could have missed it without even realizing. To illustrate my point, here are 10+ little details from The Incredibles fans didn’t notice.
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Don’t those wedding guests look familiar?
If you look in the pews during Bob and Helen’s wedding, you’ll see Dynaguy, Stratogale, Thunderhead, and Meta Man.
These are the examples she uses when she explains why all capes are dangerous.
Bob’s cramped office.
Yes, Mr. Incredible’s office is cramped in part because he’s a massive man.
But if you pay close attention, he also has a giant pillar in the middle of his cubicle.
Peter Sohn is a real life animator for Pixar.
For the courtroom sketches of Mr. Incredible, you can see a faint signature in the bottom right-hand corner.
The signature belongs to Peter Sohn , who worked on such Pixar films as Ratatouille .
I think I’ve been here before.
If you pay careful attention to the street names on Bob’s GPS, you’ll be able to see that a number of them are the real streets that surround Pixar Animation Studio.
Weren’t you in *Mallrats*?
Buddy is voiced by Jason Lee. When Mr. Incredible mistakenly calls him Brodie, this is a nod to a character Lee played in Kevin Smith’s ’90s cult classic, Mallrats .
The incredible Pez dispenser.
During the scene where a thief empties the contents of a woman’s purse, there’s a very noticeable Mr. Incredible Pez dispenser that falls out.
Remember Pez? Do they still make those?
*The Incredibles* is set in the 1960s.
While it’s true that an exact date is never mentioned by any character in the film, if you examine Bob’s newspaper you can clearly see that the date reads May 16, 1962.
…the date on Elastigirl’s file confirms this as well.
Yes, I understand it’s hard to read. But if you look right at the bottom, it says “Last active: 13/11/55.”
The corner of Andy and Luxo.
While listening to the police scanner, Bob and Lucius are parked between a deli called Luxo’s and a restaurant known as Andy’s.
This is a dual reference to Toy Story as well as the Pixar lamp.
Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em
Bob has a lot of clutter on his desk. But one interesting piece of memorabilia comes in the form of his Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots.
This is an allusion to Toy Story 2 and the office at Al’s Toy Barn.
Mirage’s hidden message.
If there was still such a thing as a touchtone phone this one would be a lot easier to spot.
But if you punch the numbers into the dial pad, minus the area code, it spells out “SUPRHRO”.
A most odd super power indeed.
When Bob is scrolling through the list of terminated superheroes, you can see that one of the powers of Downburst was “Gaseous Expulsion.”
So farting and burping, to put it bluntly?
All I could think about was the number A113.
Mr. Incredible is incarcerated on Level A1, cell block 13. Together, this forms the number A113, which is the classroom for the animators at the California Institute of the Arts.
A113 is in every single Pixar movie.
“I know you. I walked with you once upon a dream.”
Did you ever wonder who the two old men admiring Frozone and The Incredibles were? Their names are Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston.
They are the original Disney animators from films like Pinocchio and Peter Pan .
A nod to *Die Hard With A Vengeance*.
If the scene between Lucius and the police officer looked familiar, that’s because it was supposed to.
It’s a clever nod to another Samuel L. Jackson film, Die Hard With A Vengeance .
Bob’s jar of bullets.
You might need to break out the old magnifying glass for this one. But if you look at the jar on Bob’s desk, the label reads “Bullets that bounced off my chest.”
Pretty cool keepsake if you ask me.
The logo in the window
Take a moment to notice the stained glass that adorns the church door. Does it look familiar? It should.
That’s Mr. Incredible’s logo!
Bob doodles his own logo.
When Bob (Mr. Incredible) receives the encrypted message from Mirage, he rushes to his desk to write it all down.
Look close and you’ll see a scrap piece of paper where he’s doodled his logo.
The strange memo.
It looks like Insuricare is doing all they can to run a lean office.
“Employees will have to self-expense all office supplies. All parking will now be metered by the hour. Electricity and telephone charges will be deducted from paychecks.”
…it gets even worse.
The memo states that Insuricare “had the highest profit in years.” Clearly, Bob didn’t like being squeezed by the higher-ups.
Did Bob catch Bruce?
If you take a look at the framed picture of the shark on Bob’s desk, you’ll see a nice little Easter Egg.
The shark is supposed to be Bruce from Finding Nemo
A nod to Lou Romano.
Lou Romano is the voice of Linguini in Ratatouille . He was born on April 15th. Lou also voices Dash’s teacher in The Incredibles .
The license plate reads LR0415.
How did they know how to move out of the way?
When Helen and the kids crash land into the ocean, she escapes the falling debris in time because she looks down and sees the reflection in the water.
How does the car turn?
When Bob backs out of the driveway after saying goodbye to Helen, the car turns even though his hand on the wheel remains completely in place.
A *Cars* cameo appearance.
If you look at the cars parked on the street, you’ll see a 1951 Hudson Hornet.
The same make and model as Doc from Cars .
The super threads are still out.
As Edna walks Helen through her laboratory, you can see that the threads she used to make the family’s uniforms are still on the table.
Where did that broccoli come from?
As the family sits eating dinner, you can see that Dash has 3 pieces of broccoli beside his steak.
After Bob leaves with Frozone, the camera pans to Dash and there is somehow broccoli on his steak.
Shouldn’t the water have spilled out?
When Frozone and Mr. Incredible are in the jewelry store, Frozone presses the vertical lever on the water jug to a horizontal position.
When he takes his finger away, it remains horizontal but the water stays put.
Helen’s strange zipper.
On the airplane, when Helen unzips her bag of luggage, the placement of the zipper keeps on switching from end to end.
Dash’s magic shirt.
During the scene where Dash and Elastigirl are in the principal’s office, Dash’s t-shirt changes multiple times.
The logo keeps vanishing and reappearing.
