Two days ago, some applause-worthy marketing hit the internet as the Parr family home from Incredibles 2 was revealed as a listing on Zillow’s website. Now, let’s get into the details behind the 19,962 square foot mid-century home, as well as some other facts about how the team created the new house for Incredibles 2.
It should be noted that this article may contain spoilers due to shared discussions with filmmakers and insights into the sets of the film. They are light spoilers, but we wanted to let you know in case you’re avoiding all details prior to the June 15 release date.
PRESENTERS
- Ralph Eggleston – Production Designer
- Bryn Imagire – Shading Art Director
- Philip Metschan – Visual Designer
- Nathan Farris – Sets Supervisor
THE PARR’S NEW HOME
At the end of The Incredibles, the Parr family were once again uprooted from their cozy suburban home as Syndrome’s demise also led to the demise of their house. After the family spends several months in a bland one-room motel trying to figure out “what’s next”, an opportunity falls into their lap. That opportunity also leads to a new place to call home — a sprawling mid-century inspired hillside house.
Our first insight into their new home came as Ralph Eggleston and Bryn Imagire shared stories of how Brad Bird wanted the roofline of their new home to be pointing upward — since things were looking up in their lives as well. (It’s important to note that their first home’s roofline sloped downward because things were tough and that slope also visually represented that.)
That is some wonderful planning by the team to think those elements through in that manner. But, keep in mind, sometimes visuals can be used to trick the viewer into thinking that things are looking up, when maybe they’re just going sideways.
The interior of the house has a water feature that runs through every room. At first, this feature thrilled the family, but it soon becomes a nuisance and leads to a bevy of gags. Even the bottom of the swimming pool is the ceiling to the den — and there was even a gag for a while that the pool would contain a mermaid (to show just how over the top their new house was).
The home shown above wasn’t originally intended to be the Incredibles’ residence in the film — originally it was a much more humble home, but a late story change made a larger house more suited to the new direction. Since the original house was fully designed and already into the lighting phase, the team decided that it could be repurposed for Tony Rydenger’s family rather than scrapping the house. (Note – Tony was Violet’s secret crush from the first film.)
It took the team 8 months to design the first house and their new 20,000 square foot house had to be designed in two-and-a-half weeks! They certainly had to work as fast as Dash to get the finish line on that one.
As seen in the trailer, Jack-Jack is sitting on a terrazzo countertop. Terrazzo is an aggregate material combining marble chips into a concrete mix and is then ground smooth and polished. The team chose to use terrazzo materials because it can often be found in upscale homes in the mid-century design aesthetic.
Every detail was scrutinized to create an authentic look — the team had to create several different layers to give the countertops their signature look. This was loosely done in a similar fashion to how the paint was layered in the Cars movies with a base coat/color and additional layering of flecks and clear coatings.
The details in the countertops and floors are carried throughout the home — Bryn discussed why visiting Palm Springs, Florida for their research trip (a hotbed of mid-century design) was the perfect place to get ideas on which authentic woven textures to apply to the surfaces to make it feel more authentic.
The home is such a key element in the film that there are 24 pages dedicated to the design in The Art of Incredibles 2. Don Shank, one home’s set designers noted that when he designs a space, he thinks of what scenes might happen there to influence his layout.
The passion the team has for the design can probably best be summed up by Don’s comment when he said, “I always get a little sad when i have to hand off a set like this, because as I’m designing it, I start to think of it as if I really lived there.”
Check out more of The Art of Incredibles 2 in our video review embedded below, or directly on the Pixar Post YouTube channel.
PART 2 – PODCAST AUDIO INTERVIEW
Check out Episode 60 of the Pixar Post Podcast with the audio interview from the team behind the Parr’s home.
Pixar Post — T.J.
