The Incredibles - The Lost Movie Poster
Pixar’s "The Incredibles" (2004) is one of our family’s favourite films. Judging by interest in the movie posters, it is a sentiment shared by many of your own tribes.
Set in 1960’s suburbia, each super-hero character's abilities mask truths recognised by youngsters and adults alike. In David A. Price’s ‘The Pixar Touch – The Making of a Company' (2008), director and writer Brad Bird wrote…
"The dad is always expected in the family to be strong, so I made him strong. The moms are always pulled in a million different directions, so I made her stretch like taffy [toffee]. Teenagers, particularly teenage girls, are insecure and defensive, so I made her turn invisible and turn on shields. And ten-year-old boys are hyperactive energy balls. Babies are unrealized potential."
Despite its leading-edge computer graphics and fantasy / sci-fi story-line, it is a film with very traditional roots.
Even after watching the film, many people are still surprised to hear that it is set in the ‘60’s. (It is. Bob Parr / Mr. Incredible is seen reading a newspaper dated 16th May 1962.)
The modern ultra-sleek movie posters probably have something to do with that…
… but it could have been very different.
Nearly ten years after the film was released, Brad Bird tweeted this…
Woaahhhh!! An original poster by legendary movie poster artist Robert McGinnis!
McGinnis is responsible for some of the most iconic movie posters of the 1960’s (“Breakfast At Tiffany’s”, “You Only Live Twice”, “Barbarella” and “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” amongst them) and so it was only fitting that he should design and illustrate the movie poster for this film.
But, for reasons unknown, it went unused.
We suspect that the marketeers wanted to emphasise the film as a modern CGI, along the lines of Toy Story, rather than 'a cartoon', but that is pure speculation.
A very small number of the McGinnis posters did make it out of Pixar / Disney. They are hard to come by, but well worth tracking down. They are beautiful.
You can see which movie posters we have for “The Incredibles” movies here.
Adam and the Art of the Movies team.
