San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Behind the making of Jack-Jack, the summer’s breakout star
NEW YORK — The breakout star of the summer moviegoing season isn’t a dinosaur, an Avenger or anyone aboard the Millennium Falcon. It’s a giggling pipsqueak in diapers.
“The Incredibles 2,” which last weekend set a new boxoffice record for animated films with $182.7 million in ticket sales, has been a coming out party for Jack-Jack, the seemingly all-powerful baby of the Parr family. Jack’s superhero powers were teased in 2004’s original, but they were, crucially, kept out of view from his family members.
“The Incredibles 2,” though, is a runaway-train of Jack-Jack revelations. Just as infants half-consciously babble and wobble as they feel out their abilities, Jack-Jack’s unknowingly careens through his Swiss army knife of superpowers.
A sneeze rockets him through the roof. Anger turns him into a purple devil. His crib can be escaped by simply walking through the bars. (Those are just some of his powers. Estimates run as high as 17.)
The New York Times called him “the burbling, gurgling cherry on this confection.” The Wall Street Journal hypothesized that Jack-Jack could be “as valuable a commodity for (Disney’s Pixar) as the Minions who stole the show in ‘Despicable Me.’ ”
Jack-Jack fever has struck. And that’s been especially enjoyable for the real-life JackJack, who was just a toddler when the first “Incredibles” was hitting theaters. Pixar animator Tony Fucile, who supervised animation and designed the characters for both “Incredibles” movies, used recordings of his infant son, Eli, to craft Jack-Jack’s voice.
Eli Fucile, now 16, is in the strange position of starring in one of the year’s biggest movies while being unable to recall ever participating in it.
“I didn’t really understand it when I was younger. But as time went by, I realized: ‘Wow, I was actually in a pretty good movie,’ ” said Eli in his first interview. “It’s been nice to see all the feedback. I guess everyone loves Jack-Jack.”
Eli was 10 months old when his father, a regular collaborator with “Incredibles” director Brad Bird, was animating the first film. Tony’s newborn son, also gifted with an especially spherical head, resembled the baby they were in the midst of creating.
“We actually designed the character first and then the actual being came into existence,” said Tony. “I was talking to Brad and I said, ‘You know, Eli’s been doing some wacky sounds. It’s this sort of pre-verbal jag he goes on. He’ll wake up and he just goes. It’s laughter and sort of all over the place. Kind of like Stromboli (of ‘Pinocchio’).”
Bird, intrigued, got Tony an audio recorder and boom mic, and instructed him how to use it.
Those recordings have remained like the Dead Sea Scrolls of Jack-Jack. They supplied the basis of the character’s voice for the first “Incredibles,” a 2005 Jack-Jack short and even the new sequel.
“I wish we had done more recording,” said Tony. “I didn’t expect that it would last.”