​Brad Bird Has An Excellent Reason Why The Parr Kids Haven’t Aged In ‘Incredibles 2’

When we found out we'd be getting a sequel to Disney's 2004 animated hit The Incredibles, we were left wondering what could have happened to the Parr family in all this time. After all, A LOT can change in 14 years.

The first full trailer was released back in February, which gave us signs that Bob will be taking on parenting duty after meeting some tycoon who 'wants to bring superheroes back into the sunlight'. For that, they want Bob's wife Helen - or Elastigirl - to take the limelight instead of him.

With clips of Bob helping Dash with his mathshomework and taking care of baby Jack-Jack while Helen is out fighting crime, it seems like Bob finds being a full-time dad even harder than his days as Mr Incredible - and his old desk job.

via GIPHY

But while we already know that change is afoot for this next movie, that doesn't include the kids' ages, it would appear - as they look pretty much the same age as they did well over a decade ago.

According to director Brad Bird, there's a very good reason for that.

"To me, that's a much more common idea, and I think that part of the intent of The Incredibles is to capture people and how their powers connected with the way they are at a certain age and their roles in the family," he told Entertainment Weekly.

"That was actually kind of the 'Aha!' idea for me when I thought of the original film."

From the first film, Bird explains that the familial expectations were clear.

"Men were expected to be strong, so I made the dad super strong," said Bird.

Disney Pixar

"Mothers are pulled in 20 different directions at once, so I had her be elastic. Teenage girls are defensive and shy and insecure, so I made Violet invisible and gave her force fields.

"10-year-olds are energy balls, so I made Dash super fast. And babies are unknown! So Jack-Jack either has no powers, or every power in the universe, because babies are all about possibility."

He added: "So, if you age them up, then they're just powers. And that's not interesting."

Pretty solid reason, that.

The long-awaited sequel is set to finally come out on 13 July this summer, and we can't wait to find out what's happened to the, ahem, incredible family after all these years.

Topics: Disney, Film, TV and Film, Pixar

Jess Hardiman

Jess is a journalist at LADbible who graduated from Manchester University with a degree in Film Studies, English Language and Linguistics - indecisiveness at its finest, right there. She also works for FOODbible and its sister page Seitanists, which are both a safe haven for her to channel a love for homemade pasta, fennel and everything else in between. You can contact Jess at [email protected].

@Jess_Hardiman