MovieChat Forums > The Incredibles (2004) Discussion > Anyone else notice how Elastigirl's body...

Anyone else notice how Elastigirl's body parts get much larger when she's in her superhero costume?

posted a year ago by RustyShacklefurd (2025)
19 replies | jump to latest

Helen Parr's entire body is quite skinny when she's wearing her regular housewife clothes but her breasts, butt and especially her thighs somehow are much larger when she's wearing her superhero costume. The same isn't true for Violet. Her body parts all remain the same size when she wears her superhero costume. It feels like the movie was intentionally sexualizing Elastigirl as much as possible.

[–] AmeriGirl26 (12384) a year ago

That's an illusion. Helen Parr is aware that she's put on weight since she became a mom, and to be fair, if you look at her on her wedding day, versus 15 years later, she was always curvy and hourglass-shaped. She really didn't gain that much weight. But it's perfectly normal for moms.

She was clever with her clothes and wore stuff that made her appear thinner, when she actually isn't. The super suit doesn't leave much to the imagination, sadly, whereas the civilian clothes can easily fool you. It's an old trick moms have been doing for ages to disguise signs of weight gain. It's a nice little detail of realism a lot of people miss when watching some of these films.

[–] Otter (24464) a year ago

It was also realistic that Bob did nothing to disguise his weight gain.

[–] RustyShacklefurd (2025) a year ago

AmeriGirl26,

It's not an illusion. There's a clear difference in the size of Elastigirl's body parts between when she's wearing civilian clothes and when she's wearing her superhero costume. That's a clearly deliberate choice by the animators. There is no difference between when she got married and after she had 3 kids. The animators didn't show her gaining any weight over that time period. She was just as skinny in civilian clothes when she got married as she was after having 3 kids.

[–] AmeriGirl26 (12384) a year ago

From what I heard, the animators (with embarrassment) confessed that when they work on the 3-D models for movies like this, the characters start out "naked," but with no details. So they were working on Helen doing the scenes "naked" at first, and then put the clothes on in later renderings of the different scenes. I don't see a change in her body. The illusion of looking thinner is very good if you choose the right cut of clothing, trust me. The trouble with her super-suit was, it showed her entire body, and the red coloring made hear appear larger.

[–] RustyShacklefurd (2025) a year ago

You'd have to be blind not to see the difference between Elastigirl in her civilian clothing and Elastigirl in her superhero costume. In her civilian clothing every part of her body is skinny and small. In her superhero costume her breasts, butt and thighs are clearly enlarged. Just compare her in these 2 scenes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-Ij7ElJnqM

In that scene she's wearing civilian clothing. Every part of her body is conspicuously skinny. Her breasts and butt are barely there. Her thighs are just as skinny as her lower legs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR-6NxmGtxg

In that scene she's wearing her superhero costume. Pause at 1:28. Notice how large her breasts, butt and thighs are compared to the rest of her body. Notice how big those body parts are compared to her arms, lower torso, lower legs and neck, which remain very skinny. Her breasts, butt and thighs visually stick out way too much in that costume to not be noticed. It's way too noticeable to be a coincidence. The animators could have made her body just as uniformly skinny in the superhero costume as in the civilian clothing if they wanted to.

[–] Otter (24464) a year ago

Oh bull. When she's in housewife mode she wears loose shirts that cover her waist and most of her torso, when she's in superhero mode she wears the catsuit, which shows us the small waist and narrow torso that couldn't be seen under the loose housewife shirt.

https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.a0076771751fa0aaa65518413615eb68?rik=YVWomp1qlIg1tg&riu=http%3a%2f%2f1.bp.blogspot.com%2f-GYMeseRoPsA%2fUgCkcnBT-LI%2fAAAAAAAAxd0%2fSrLVQOK-D_Y%2fs1600%2f10_Imcalling%2btomarkamomentous%2boccazssion.jpg&ehk=WaSzz4rmDd9EM47dhgLiT9tyiyp6iuNuCdZ30gSrK6s%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw&r=0&sres=1&sresct=1

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/lady-bug/images/d/d7/Helen-Parr-Incredibles-2.png/revision/latest?cb=20180515102455

Helen wears the loose shirt because she looks more proportionate and less bottom-heavy with the loose shirt covering her small waist, with the catsuit her butt looks bigger. And yes, the pictures are crap, but I couldn't be arsed to spend more than ten seconds looking for pictures of cartoon characters.

[–] RustyShacklefurd (2025) a year ago

Helen's civilian clothes don't fully explain the difference. Her breasts, thighs and butt are simply much larger in the superhero costume. Wearing the superhero costume makes those body parts literally grow in size. The 2 pictures you show prove that in regards to her breasts and the 2 videos I showed prove that in regards to her legs and butt. You don't know Helen's rationale for wearing those clothes because it's never explained in the movie. Even if what you say is true, that's still a choice of the animators. Regardless of why she looks the way she does in civilian clothes, that doesn't alter the clearly resulting change we see in certain body parts when she wears her superhero costume. That's a choice made by the animators. They purposely animated her breasts, butt and thighs to be as large as they are when she wears her superhero costume. They were clearly sexualizing her. It's that much clearer when you compare Helen to Violet in her own superhero costume. Every part of Violet is very skinny in her superhero costume because they didn't sexualize Violet.

[–] Otter (24464) a year ago

No, clothing choices make more difference than you think, and the superhero catsuit probably works as shapewear as well as to facilitate superheroing.

Feel free to look up "shapewear", as you don't seem to have heard of it.

[–] RustyShacklefurd (2025) a year ago

First off, you're reading more into Helen's supposed thinking behind the civilian clothing she wears than is warranted. You talk about what she wears as if it's a "choice" that reflects a certain intention on her part even though she said literally nothing at all in the entire movie about why she wears the civilians clothes that she does. What I do or don't know about "shapewear" is irrelevant to that. We're talking about the intentions of the *animators* here. These are THEIR choices that we're talking about. All your explanations of the supposed 'why' within the reality of the movie doesn't change the 'what' that I'm talking about.

Her breasts, thighs and butt clearly look much larger when Helen is in her superhero costume. The animators could have made those body parts look just as small in her superhero costume if they WANTED to. How she looks in her superhero costume is entirely THEIR choice. And look at how skinny her arms and neck are compared to her thighs and head in the picture you showed me! No actual person in real life looks like that! Those impossible body proportions could only be the result of her being *INTENTIONALLY* ANIMATED that way. That picture you showed is clearly the product of the animators intentionally sexualizing Elastigirl.

[–] Otter (24464) a year ago

Nope, the whole team of animators put together never thought this hard about Helen's "body parts"!

Time to get out of the house and talk to some real women.

[–] RustyShacklefurd (2025) a year ago

How the heck do you know that the animators never thought about this issue? Have you really never heard the saying that sex sells? It's clearly in the filmmakers' interest to animate a physically attractive woman in order to attract a larger audience to the theater. Why do you think physically attractive actresses dominate the big roles in live action movies? You seem to be denying not just what everyone knows about Hollywood but also what everyone knows about human society as a whole.

I don't know what you think talking to "real women" would prove. For all you know, all of the animators who worked on The Incredibles were men. And even if some of them were women, that would still not change the fact that the director Brad Bird is a man. Even if some of them were women that would not change their motive of the bottom line. The Incredibles is a Pixar movie. It was specifically meant to make lots of money. Don't you think that such a physically attractive character is meant to help with that?

[–] Otter (24464) a year ago

[Backing away slowly... ]

[–] RustyShacklefurd (2025) a year ago

Your ridicule of what I said is neither justified nor funny. What I said isn't nearly as ridiculous or controversial as you seem to think it is. It is widely accepted knowledge that most people are aware of. Your comment speaks volumes about your ignorance.

[–] Otter (24464) a year ago

FYI on my planet, which we call Earth, writing a novellas worth of verbiage about a cartoon character's boobs is considered to be weird. And worthy of mockery.

[–] RustyShacklefurd (2025) a year ago

Your response reeks of non-transparency. My previous response before the one you responded to with ridicule was actually even longer. And yet you responded to that with a normal rebuttal. Why the sudden change in attitude? FYI, on my planet, which we call Earth, a measly 2 paragraphs is hardly considered a novella. And those 2 paragraphs merely explained the *rationale* behind Elastigirl's body proportions rather than her body parts themselves. For all I know you realized that I proved my point and you just didn't want to admit it so you instead resorted to cheap ridicule. You're the one worthy of mockery.

[–] Otter (24464) a year ago

"Why the sudden change in attitude?"

Obviously taking you seriously was a mistake, as you are either a troll or crazy.

So whenever your conversations turn from serious and informative to bitchy or mocking, as I assume happens to you a lot, that would be why.

[–] RustyShacklefurd (2025) a year ago

I've been completely serious about everything I said. For all I know it's you that's either a troll or crazy. Me pointing out that fan service is an actual thing in Hollywood doesn't come anywhere close to being crazy or ridiculous in any way. And you don't seem to realize that it actually reflects very poorly on you that you deny that fan service is a dominant factor in Hollywood. Your whole shtick about 'backing away slowly' just makes you the one that's bitchy and mocking.

[–] PaladinNJ (20324) a year ago

It's possible that she intentionally changes her body shape while in costume to further protect her secret identity. There was a superhero in DC comics back in the 1980's called Starman who did that.

[–] RustyShacklefurd (2025) a year ago

I would accept your explanation if Elastigirl said in the movie that was the reason but she never said anything about it. What I'm talking about is why the animators chose to draw her that way and the clear answer is fan service.