The incredible’s and Super hero codes and conventions.

In this article I will be discussing the codes and Conventions of cinema superhero films to see what aspects they share and in some cases how they differ. In this essay I will mainly be looking at the Disney film ‘The Incredibles’. This film is very interesting because it  goes both with and against the codes and conventions.

Plot

This film concentrates of one main character and his family as he goes on a journey which puts himself and his family at risk by a villain known as syndrome.

The film starts off with MR. Incredible AKA Robert Parr in his prime as he is battling criminals in the streets of his city using his super power of super strength, whilst doing so he is being followed by his biggest fan 'Incredi-boy'. Annoyed by the child, Mr. Incredible tells him to go away and later meets his soon to be wife Elastic girl (soon to be Helen Parr) who posses the power to stretch her body. They get married but shortly after the marriage superheros became banned and all supers had to stop their superhero jobs and settle down, due to this Mr. incredible and Elastic girl go to using their normal names Robert and Helen Parr.

Mr. and Misses Incredible

Many years later Robert and Helen have started a family with three children, Violet who is the eldest sibling, she and quite Violet posses the power to turn invisible and to create force fields. Dash the second eldest sibling has the power to run at super speeds, a cocky trouble maker dash always finds himself in trouble. and last but not least there's Jack-jack, still a child he has no powers what so ever.

Violet, Dash and Jack Jack (left to right)

Now with a new life and identity Robert is still unsatisfied, he wants to re live the glory days where he was Mr. Incredible, because of this he and he best friend Froze-zone secretly go out to fight crime under the radar. As this is happening they are being watched by a secret agent who discovers that Robert is Mr. Incredible, which is their primary target.

The agent contacts Robert about a top secret mission in which a government machine called the Omnidroid 9000 has gone loose and they need his help to take it out. Reminiscing about the past Robert decides to go for it with out telling his family.

When he is there he discovers its a trap and that his biggest fan from the glory days became Syndrome the evil villain who controls the robot and wants to use it to become super. Mr. Incredible gets captures and is imprisoned on the island as Syndrome plans to cause havoc in the city using the Omnidroid.

Whilst he is caught Helen discovers he is not where he says he is and goes after him as she fly a jet over to the island she discovers that Dash and Violet stowed away on the plane and whats worst is that missiles have locked onto the plane and destroy it. Surviving the explosion they get to the island and Helen tells Dash and Violet to stay put as she goes to find Robert.

As Helen breaks into the compound which Robert is at she discovers a rocket being launched and another rocket within the compound. She makes her way through the place until she finds Robert and releases him and make their way out.

Meanwhile Dash and Violet are found and are pursed by Syndromes henchmen. As they fight of the foes they run into their mum and dad, together they team up and fight Syndromes men only to be stopped by Syndrome himself. Syndrome captures them and locks them in the compound as he goes to the city with the Omnidroid to cause havoc.

As they are stuck in Syndromes base, Robert apologies to the family and lets them know how sorry  he is for being so selfish and putting them at such great danger. Violet discovers that her force field can get her out of the contraption they are stuck in, after escaping herself she releases the rest of her family and together they pursuit Syndrome using the rocket that Helen saw before.

Whilst on their way to the city the Omnidroid has been activated and is destroying the city, Syndrome is there pretending to fight the Omnidroid when he is actually controlling the machine using a remote on his wrist.

When the Incredible's finally reach the city they come face to face with the Omnidroid and begin a battle to destroy the machine, as the fight progresses froze-zone joins them in the fight and they discover that the remote controls the robot.

Using the remote and Mr. Incredible experience fighting the old machine they trick the Omnidroid into destroying himself using one of his claws.

Now with the Omnidroid destroyed and Syndrome nowhere to be seen the city realizes the need for super hero's like the incredible and Froze-zone. With the city being happy with the return of the supers the Incredibles are escorted to their home in a limousine where they realize that Syndrome has captured Jack-jack and is going to abduct him in order to make him Syndrome side kick. 

Syndrome blast through the roof of the Parr residence with Jack-jack in his arms and he flies to his private jet which is waiting above the house. As he gets closer to the jet Jack-jack gets angry and unleashes his power of shape shifting. He shape shift into flames, a solid piece of metal and then a little devil and goes on to fight Syndrome in mid air.

Jack-jack is able to fight Syndrome off and make him lose control of his flying mechanism..resulting Syndrome being sucked into the jets engines and destroying himself and the jet.

After this the incredible live their lives happily as they are living as normal people among other normal people but when ever there is trouble they will become the super heroes which they really are.

The Incredibles is a very interesting type of super hero movie compared to most other super hero films and there are many reasons for it. When you look at the codes and conventions of ordinary superheros films and then compare it to this film the reasons why are extremely clear.

Codes and conventions in super hero films:

Target audience

This aspect is probably the most out standing feature of this film which has such big impact of the film. The target audience of this film are children aged 3-15 but provide adult innuendo. Due to this, this film is very restricted in the nature of its content for example the violence factor. 

A typical hero film such as 'Batman the Dark Knight' is jam packed with fights and violence which an older, more typical superhero target audience's find very attractive, as they like gripping action scenes in which the bad guys get hurt. 

Because The Incredibles target audience is family friendly it must have action scenes but themes which are sutible for very young children. This means no over the top killing, no blood, no scary themes, no swearing ETC. This is definitely the main reason why this film is different because of the nature of the target audience although, this film has attracted a skew in older audiences which are not put off by the reduction of violence and other normal super hero features. This shows that this film is a great success because even when going against the codes and conventions of a typical superhero film it still manages to capture the typical target audience well.

Studio

The makers of this film are Pixar studios, which have made such animated films as the very popular 'Toy Story', 'Cars', 'monsters inc' and many more. This company is very good at what they specialize in, family friendly animated films, they have been doing it for years and with the massive entertainment company Disney owning Pixar they are sure to have a big budget and advertising.

Disney differ a lot when compared to companies which typically make super hero films. Companies like Warner Brothers which have made many of the Superman and Batman films, as well as 20th Century Fox which work of many Marvel feature films, are all more serious and mainly use live action rather than Pixars animated movies style. 

Another way the film goes against the codes and conventions of superhero movies. Where most superhero films are live action with massive budgets and costs, Pixar differ and animate their films which is unorthodox especially for a super hero film. This all comes down to target audience because children will find a cartoon much more appealing that live action.

Characters

The characters in the incredibles are very interesting as they follow conventions and also go against them. Any one who is familiar with super hero trivia can straight away point out the resemblance between the Incredibles and marvels Fantastic four. 

Mr. Incredible and The Thing both share the power of super strength, Mr. fantastic and Elastic girl both have the ability to stretch their limbs. The greatest similarity is with Violet and Invisible woman who both share not only one but two powers, the power to turn invisible and to create force fields. Pixar have definitely taken inspiration from this very well known group of hero's. Another aspect which the characters in The Incredibles share with many conventional super hero is the fact they are in an alliance, very similar to other groups such as 'The Avengers', 'The justice league', 'x-men' and even the fantastic four. although this aspect of fighting in a group is familiar the reason why The Incredibles fight together is because they are exclusively immediate family, something that not many other groups of super hero can claim to do.

The reason for this comes back to the fact the target audience are children and family audiences, the idea of family bonds seem very appealing to them and is very friendly.  

Narrative

Here is an aspect of the Incredible which does in fact follow the codes and conventions of a super hero movie accurately. Firstly the narrative is linear and follows a progressive time line, This is similar to a lot of superhero films. Some super hero films may include flashbacks but nothing which actually influences the structure of the narrative itself. One example of a super hero movie where the narrative is not linear is the new X-men movie called The days of future past, where the story goes back and forth between past and future.

The Incredible also follow Todorovs theory very accurately, his theory states that a successful narrative follows this order.

Equilibrium

·      Disequilibrium

·      Recognition of disequilibrium

·      Attempt to resolve disequilibrium

·      Resolution - equilibrium restored

    Where these points are covered in the Incredibles is as follows:


Equilibrium - Supers are respected around the world and crime is being beaten out of society by super hero's

·      Disequilibrium - Supers are banned and a government machine is going rampage in a private island (it must be stopped)

·      Recognition of disequilibrium - Mr. Incredible discovers the truth about the machine and the antagonist has been revealed. Mr. incredible then gets captured and needs to be saved (very popular plot line in most films)

·      Attempt to resolve disequilibrium - Mr. Incredible gets saved by his family and they attempt to destroy the Omnidroid 3000

·      Resolution - equilibrium restored - They destroy the Omnidroid 3000 and people realize that supers are needed, therefore the supers regain their respect and make a come back.

The target audience which is a family friendly audience (parents and their children aged 3-15) feel very familiar with this narrative as it is easy to follow and for young people very understandable. The aspects which the younger target audience will find more appealing would be the animations and characters such as dash and violet which they can relate to themselves. Older audiences such as parents will find the aspects such as tension very appealing, they may also connect to Mr. and Mrs. incredible as they feel as if they reflect their own family. As well as this the audience want to see a film where the protagonist wins, this is with all super hero films. The audience is sympathetic towards the main character and feel a connection with them, that's is why the audience want to see them prevail.