Toon Talk: The Incredibles Blu-Ray
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by Kirby C. Holt
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The Incredibles
Disney Blu-Ray |
That�s Incredible
Seven years later, and Pixar�s superhero epic The Incredibles is still, well, pretty incredible. Now released, for the first time this week, on a high definition Disney Blu-ray, the Academy Award-winning adventure still ranks as one of the best of its genre, even with such newer entrants as The Dark Knightand Iron Man in the mix.
The new four-disc combo pack includes, in addition to a bonus standard DVD and Disney File Digital Copy of The Incredibles, two Blu-rays featuring a host of bonus features, both old and new. Disc One carries over, from the film�s previous Collector�s Edition DVD, two full-length audio commentaries (one from writer/director Brad Bird and producer John Walker, the other by supervising animators Tony Fucile, Steven Hunter and Alan Barillaw and animators Gini Santos, David DeVan, Kureha Yokoo, Dave Mullins, John Kahrs, Robert Russ, Angus McLane, Travis Hathaway, Doug Frankel and Peter Sohn) and two bonus animated shorts, the Oscar nominated/Annie Award winning Boundin� (with optional audio commentary by creator Bud Luckey) and Jack-Jack Attack.
The latter short is explored fully in the brand new �Jack-Jack Attack Exploded�, a visual commentary with director Brad Bird, story supervisor Mark Andrews, character designer Teddy Newton and animator Bret Parker, better known as the voice of Kari McKeen, Jack-Jack�s intrepid babysitter. Within the commentary (which uses the �picture-in-picture� format to show concept art, storyboards and even live action reference footage alongside the short), you�ll learn the inspirations behind both baby and sitter, as well as how several ideas, such as Jack-Jack�s varied superpowers and the Men in Black-style twist, were originally conceived for The Incredibles. It is also noted how Jack-Jack Attack was a first for Pixar, a short that�s story actually takes place within the framework of the feature film that inspired it. The subsequent shorts BURN-E and Dug�s Special Mission (�mid-quels� for WALL-E and Up, respectively) would also follow this format.
Disc One�s other new bonus is the 22-minute feature �The Incredibles Revisited�. Brad Bird leads a recent roundtable discussion with fellow Incredibles alum John Walker (producer), Mark Andrews (story supervisor), Rick Sayre (supervising technical director), Lou Romano (production designer), Teddy Newton (character designer) and Tony Fucile (animation supervisor). Reminiscences include several not-too-subtle allusions to Bird�s notoriously� let�s say passionate� demeanor and how his resemblance to the film�s villain Syndrome may or may not have been a result of that.