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(Spoilers follow. The one about Mr. Incredible being a stay-at-home dad was already known due to trailers.)
When do you see this? Before “Incredible 2” rolls, the stars voicing the main characters of the film talk about an incredible process to make the sequel happening, from screenwriting to animation and so many other facets of filmmaking.
So when people see Mr. Incredible in the kitchen, instead of wondering if that’s OK, they could instead think about the idea just implanted in their minds as to just how difficult it was to pull off this film.
At the least, it seems that there was one form of preparation. Disney focused its marketing as Mr. Incredible/Bob Parr (Craig T. Nelson) as a stay-at-home dad. It, along with Elastigirl/Helen Parr (Holly Hunter) as the sole earner (let alone breadwinner), were the themes of the trailers. That made it for audiences to not need to be surprised by Bob’s domestic status.
Since stay-at-home fathers make up just 16 percent of the United States population, according to the Pew Research Center, there is quite possibly still stigma around it.
In their plug over the hard work that went into the film, perhaps Samuel L. Jackson, Nelson, Hunter and others who were featured wanted folks to look past their opinions opposite the one seen in Mr. Incredible, or Bob Parr.
And perhaps Disney, who presumably put the actors to the task, wanted to tread carefully in being a social-change advocate. Of course, traditional families, with mothers doing house chores and fathers at the water cooler, have long been fans of the studio.
We certainly know that the advocating for the long time it took when it comes to screenwriting is a stretch. One of just two main storylines is the baby Jack-Jack’s (Eli Fucile) powers. Director/writer Brad Bird only had to recycle an idea that seemed clear could be explored in a sequel, as some of the abilities were revealed to end the first film. (Though it’s worth asking whether they should have been, or if the scene in the first movie should have remained as nothing more than merely something fun—a morsel of pure entertainment only.)
Was this the best way to go about introducing a man—and a man’s man at that—being the nurturer?
Again, Disney has a consumer base of traditional families.
With the Jack-Jack arc being central to the film, there was more to the preliminary video than about it being a tough movie to put together. (The focus was on the length of time—as Jackson said, the film’s predecessor was released 14 years ago.)
Pulling off a film is true of basically any movie—I have gained a sense of that personally. And that’s not including only those that have shown theatrically.
It was certainly excellent to see that Bird had Bob so intent on being a good father (and overall, being successful). One scene showed Bob staying up into the night to study an expression of math that he wasn’t familiar with. He ended up pulling an all-nighter once he helped his son Dash learn what the material meant to be prepared for his test that day. Bob was also shown to have thoughtfully cooked meals—healthy ones for the children.
There’s much more, too.
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Photo by Krists Luhaers on Unsplash.
