Ashley Gilker Gilker 1

Professor Skelly

English Composition I

16 October 2019
The Importance of Visual Effects

From the first movie to current cinema, visual effects help to tell the story. Visual effects

also help to get the emotion that is trying to be portrayed to the viewer. The movie Incredibles 2

uses visual effects such as camera angles, use of colors and placement of objects to showcase the

family’s powers and panic in the town.

Incredibles 2 is about a family of superheroes, who are not allowed to use their powers

because superheroes are illegal. The mother, Elastigirl, ends up getting a job with a company that

wants superheroes to be legal again. She has to fight a criminal that enslaves people by hacking

their computer screens. But Elastigirl gets enslaved by the criminal and Elastigirl’s family has to

come and help her. They end up finding out that the person Elastigirl was working for was the

criminal that tried to enslave people.

At 3:45, there is a criminal that blows up the ground that a bank is on, so that he can rob

it. There are flashes of lights, from the hole underground, that shows the audience that a bomb

has gone off. Then smoke comes from under the building as they fall to the mine under them.

After the criminal robs the banks, he runs, but leaves the giant drill behind. The drill goes to the

surface and creates a giant smoke cloud. The cloud is able to be seen from a distance which

causes panic. The drill hits the rail of the train causing it to fall at 5:30. This results in more of a

panic, until Frozone, who has ice powers, catches the train on ice. The drill then goes into the

corner of a building and flips cars. The cars are thrown in different directions and are crushed

when they land. People are also running away from the drill. At 8:00, Frozone is trying to stop

the drill of going straight into the town hall, by using ice to push it up at an angle. All the while
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the Incredibles are trying to stop the power. The Incredibles push the boiler over and green liquid

spills out. This green liquid causes there to be a fire inside the machine. The Incredibles are

inside of a forcefield while there is a fire around. The drill ends up crushing the ice, and crashes

into the town hall. The Incredibles celebrate the stopping of the drill at 8:28, however they broke

the law and that the police are there to arrest them.

The use of smoke throughout the scene allows for the viewer to see that there is a great

amount of destructruction that is happening. The placement of the crushed cars and people

running shows the viewer that there is a city wide panic, because people are running in all

directions. The crushed cars showed the viewer just how strong the drill is, because it was

throwing the cars as it ran over the cars. The camera angles also help the viewers understand

what is happening in the scene. Such as when the drill falls into city hall. The camera shows

Incredibles are inside being thrown around and then shows the drill falling into city hall. This

change in view, shows the viewer the complete story.

At 36:57, Jack Jack starts to fight a racoon. The racoon is running away from Jack Jack

because the boy has powers. Jack Jack is able to turn into fire. When he does this everything he

touches catches on fire. Jack Jack starts to throw the lawn chairs in order to get to the racoon.

The racoon knocked over the grill, which created a puff of smoke. The smoke resulted in Jack

Jack no longer being on fire. Jack Jack then started to chase the racoon. He had lasers coming out

of his eyes as he tried to catch up to the racoon. Jack Jack ended up burning the grass and wall of

the house as the racoon dodged the lasers. Jack Jack then used the lasers to trap the racoon in an

umbrella. When the racoon escapes from the umbrella it attacks Jack Jack. Jack Jack however is

able to become like rubber. He is not hurt by the racoon at all. After Mr. Incredible comes
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outside to stop the fight, Jack Jack duplicates himself and continues to go after the racoon. The

fight stops at 38:37, when the racoon runs away from the house.

The camera angles in this scene are helpful, because the camera is flipping between the

point of view of Jack Jack and the point of view of the racoon. These camera angles allow the

viewer to see what Jack Jack sees. This can help the viewer to know how Jack Jack is feeling

because they see it from Jack Jack’s point of view. The viewers also get to feel how the racoon is

feeling because they get to see how Jack Jack uses his powers against the racoon. Such as when

Jack Jack turns into fire and starts to throw chairs. The view witnesses that from both points of

view. Not only are the use of camera angles helpful, but so are the use of colors. When Jack Jack

uses his lasers, he starts by pointing them at the ground. The grass ends up with lines that are

brown and reddish orange in it. This shows the audience that Jack Jack’s lasers can burn things.

There are also black lines on the wall from the lasers along with an orangish where he burned the

umbrella.

At 1:23:35, there is a fight scene that starts. It is inside of the house. Heroes that are being

controlled by the screen slaver and are trying to get Mr. Incredible and Elasticgirl’s kids.

Frozone comes to the house to protect the kids. However, the ice block he put the “villians” in,

did not hold them long. The kids and Frozone are running around the house trying not to get

blasted with lighting and fire. All the while trying not the crushed or enslaved. The fight ends at

1:24:59, when the kids get away and Frozone gets enslaved.

The use of color in this scene helps the audience to know who is enslaved, because the

people that are enslaved have glasses that are blue with eyes on. The use of color also helps

when watching many different powers being used at once. The person who can throw lightning is
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blue and the person who spits fire is orange. The force field used is purple with blue lighting

bouncing off of it.

The use of camera angles, colors and placement of objects help with telling the story that

the movie is trying to tell. The camera angles help the viewer to understand the characters’ point

of view. The use of colors help to show what has happened in the scene, such as if something

was burned. The placement of objects also helps to show what has happened in the scene, such

as if something was thrown or crushed.

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Works Cited

Bird, Brad, director. The Incredibles 2 . Netflix, 15 June 2018, www.netflix.com