We did it everybody! It only took 14 years but we finally got a sequel to The Incredibles! Returning to her role in the Disney/Pixar superhero sequel as Helen Parr a.k.a. Elastigirl is Holly Hunter. However, The Incredibles isn’t Holly’s only outing in a superhero film.
Fans might remember the Academy Award winning actress as Senator Finch in 2016’s Batman v Superman, the one who blocked Lex Luthor’s import license to bring Kryptonite into America.
Although both Incredibles movies were critically praised, with the sequel now raking in the money at the box office, while BvS…um…wasn’t and didn’t. Holly does say that both films do have something in common. She never received the full script while shooting either movie.
With Batman v Superman, I had part of a script, a fragment, but that was under lock and key for all different reasons. Incredibles 2 wasn’t under lock and key, but that’s part of the methodology of constructing an animated movie. It’s made out of order in a way that a regular movie isn’t.
It’s common practice for big movies and TV shows that the actors are only given part of the script to prevent leaks of the plot. Shows like Game of Thrones have even gone so far as to create fake scripts with multiple stories, just in case one does leak, so that the real story isn’t spoiled. Also in the case of Ms. Hunter’s character in BvS, she wasn’t in the movie too much so it was also not necessary for her to receive the full script.
As for The Incredibles 2, or any animated film, the dialogue is recorded out of order, at least more than a live-action film. It is done at the earliest stages of production, leaving it up to the animators to bring to life the words being spoken in a way that fits the tone and scene. So it was less about keeping the plot from leaking and more about best practice in animated filmmaking.
Although the films themselves saw various levels of success, Holly Hunter was consistently good throughout them all. We won’t be seeing Senator Finch anytime in the DCEU future, seeing as she was blown up by Granny’s Peach Tea, but hopefully we will be seeing the return of Elastigirl. Let’s just hope it doesn’t take another 14 years.