Helen Parr/Elastigirl

Helen Parr/Elastigirl is Mr. Incredible's wife who possesses the abilty to stretch her body like rubber in The Incredibles.

Background[]

Personality[]

Before marrying Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl seemed to have a strong opinion, stating that she both planned to break the "glass ceiling" (as Supers were a predominantly male profession) and would not settle down, at that time, in her firebrand ways as a married housewife. However, life had other plans for her as Mr. Incredible had managed to be so dazzling that she broke down and agreed to marry him. Shortly after their wedding, a chain reaction of events involving lawsuits results in Supers being outlawed by the U.S. government.

Since it became illegal to work as a Super, her goal of becoming a prominent superheroine was made a moot point. Elastigirl then changed to a more traditional role: becoming a housewife and devoting her effort to being a good wife and mother. This is particularly important for raising three children while living in witness protection and raising super-children in a normal world.

Helen adjusted skillfully to the anti-Super law by completely renouncing her career as Elastigirl, which spared her from being discovered and targeted by Syndrome, unlike her husband and Frozone who found it more difficult. In the privacy of the Parr residence, however, she still sometimes used her superpowers to aid her in housework and keep her three children under control. Her biggest concern is that since both she and Mr. Incredible were superheroes, their marriage has begotten "superkids", and she does not want her children to break the anti-Super law (whereas her husband takes the stance that the kids need to revel in their very special abilities). While she can be a little irritable at times, she usually tries to remain composed, though she can get panicked or angry under pressure. She is a quick-witted, resourceful, talented, passionate, driven, and supportive woman.

Physical Appearance[]

According to official sources, Helen is in her late thirties (38-years-old). She is 5'8" (172 cm) in height and 125 pounds (56 kg) in weight. She has a stretchable, slender, pear-shaped body, fair skin, rosy cheeks, and pink lips. She has brown eyes and brunette hair.

In her glory days as Elastigirl, she had long red hair in a flip and a slim, athletic figure with a narrow waist and wide hips. She wore a light gray legless leotard with a black and white "EG" symbol on the chest, with a scarlet eye-mask and belt, long scarlet gloves, and thigh-high scarlet boots.

After fifteen years of forced retirement, Elastigirl is still slender but with significantly wider hips and thicker thighs. She remarks this in the movie when acknowledging her more apparent pear shape. Her hair is cut in a medium length, has lost its luster, becomes more or less auburn in color, and is worn in a short side-bob shaped like a curved heart.

Following Mr. Incredible's secret return to hero work, the family's old friend and designer extraordinaire Edna Mode designs a new super-suit for him, along with matching suits for Helen and their three children. Helen's "Mrs. Incredible" super-suit is a red unitard with a black eye mask, and black bottoms, gloves, and thigh-high boots, and an orange, black, and yellow "I" symbol on the chest that houses a homing device.

When Helen is tapped to lead a campaign to bring the supers back in Incredibles 2, she gets a new suit designed by Alexander Galbaki. The suit has a silver leotard with a magenta belt and a magenta "EG" symbol on the chest, with a black eye mask, black gloves, and thigh-high boots. However, the suit gets ripped on the shoulder near the end of the film on the EverJust, and she reverts back to her red "Mrs. Incredible" suit. When she's in her hotel room, she wears a white bathrobe and is barefoot.

Powers/Abilities[]

Elasticity: Elastigirl's minimum thickness is stated as 1 mm, which would limit her stretch distance to 30 meters (about 98 ft); however, the Operation Kronos database states that she can stretch up to 300 feet (90 m) and leap up to 80 feet (24 m). She can use her elasticity to throw objects with far more force than her slight stature would imply, as in one scene in which she supports the weight of a Winnebago suspended during flight.
- Superhuman Agility: Helen possesses super agility, which allows her to perform acrobatic and gymnastic movements very easily.
- Invulnerability: As part of stretching, Elastigirl displays some amount of invulnerability. Forced stretching, even under several tons of load, appears to cause pain and discomfort but no permanent or even temporary harm. A high degree of protection is also afforded by her super suit. Edna Mode states that she can injure herself by stretching too far. Her limits are unknown, but at the most she can survive an explosion of 3 missiles.
- Bullet Immunity: Combined with flexibility, this should make her immune to bullets, though this is never demonstrated save when she is caught by doors while sneaking into Syndrome's compound and manages to have a ricochet of bullets deflected from hitting her leg by her boots.
- Shape-Shifting: She has also shown the ability to shapeshift with her elasticity. An example of this is when she transformed into a boat in the middle of the ocean to get her children to land.
- Density Alteration: The fact that she can also manipulate her body shape and even decrease in volume means her mass can be moved to go with it.
- Rapid Recovery: Because she possesses a degree of invulnerability, Elastigirl can recover quickly, even able to wake up after an explosion.
- Gliding: Elastigirl can glide through the air when she transforms her body into a self-made wingsuit.
Superhuman Durability: Due to the great malleability and elasticity of her body, Elastigirl has high durability to physical injury. A high degree of protection is also afforded by her super suit. Combined with her super-flexibility, this, in theory, should make her immune to bullets, though this is never truly demonstrated, save for when she is caught in between several doors while sneaking into Syndrome's compound and manages to have a ricochet of bullets deflected from hitting her leg by her super suit's boots though Edna Mode verified her suit was capable of withstanding gunfire.
Hand-To-Hand Combat: In both the original movie and the sequel, she is depicted as an masterful operative, hand-to-hand combatant, investigator, and tactician.
Enhanced Eyesight: Elastigirl has shown to be able to see minuscule objects, even at long distances. For example, she was able to spot a tiny piece of wall rubble on Bob's shoulder, even from the other side of a dimly-lit room.
Expert Pilot: Elastigirl proved herself to be a capable pilot when she temporarily eluded the surface-to-air missiles Syndrome launched at her plane although she was ultimately unable to avoid them despite her evasive action. Another example is when she flew one of the three helicopters flying the ambassador to protect her from the Screenslaver who hijacked the aerocade when Elastigirl held an interview with Chad addressing her saving the Metrolev train.
Expert Motorcyclist: Elastigirl is an expert at driving motorcycles, having once had her own personalized motorcycle that was called the "Elasticycle" before her retirement. She demonstrated great skill in driving the one given to her by Evelyn and was able to ride precarious ledges and use her elastic powers to slingshot herself and her cycle across far distances in order to catch up to a runaway train.

Weaknesses[]

Blunt Force Trauma: She can be knocked out by blunt force. This was demonstrated when she is stunned by three anti-aircraft missiles destroying a plane that was carrying her, Violet, and Dash on board, though she quickly regains consciousness. Also, in spite of her bodily malleability, Elastigirl can be disoriented by solid enough impact, such as her own blows, as seen when Voyd re-directed one of Helen's elongated punches through a portal and causing Elastigirl to accidentally punch herself, leaving her briefly dazed.
Elasticity: Her own elasticity can sometimes be problematic, as it caused her leg, torso, and arm to be caught in three doors. Another example is when she's using her elasticity to try to force her kids to stop fighting and they end up pining her under the table since they are still able to reach each other.
Freezing Temperatures: If Elastigirl is exposed to extreme cold, she will be unable to use her powers as Evelyn states, "Try to stretch and you'll break." Much like how rubber breaks when it is frozen, the same principle will happen to her if she tries to stretch in freezing temperatures.

Appearances[]

The Incredibles[]

At the beginning of the film, Elastigirl helps Mr. Incredible take down a robber, during which she teases him when he offers her assistance, although Elastigirl insists she can handle things herself. She ends their chat advising Mr. Incredible not to be late for their wedding and heads to the cathedral. To her dismay, Bob arrives late to the altar, but they are married nonetheless; during the ceremony, Helen worries that Bob got into trouble as Mr. Incredible, which Bob assures her that, as superheroes, they are prepared for what comes their way. Unfortunately, the supers are subsequently outlawed and required to live solely as their secret identities.

Over the next fifteen years, Helen becomes a housewife and tries to help the family adjust to a normal life. She does use her super-powers in private to control her rowdy family. Bob, however, does not adjust happily to civilian life. Helen eventually discovers his clandestine crime-fighting with Frozone (Lucius Best), using the cover story that they are going bowling. This results in a marital conflict between Helen and Bob.

Bob (as Mr. Incredible) is subsequently lured by Syndrome to his private island, Nomanisan Island, under the ruse of an assignment. Helen finds a strand of platinum-blonde hair on Bob's clothes that evening, and she becomes suspicious when she hears Bob talking on the phone to his contact, Mirage. After calling Insuricare Helen learns that Bob was fired from his job months ago and realizes he is in danger (as Syndrome intends to kill him) after Bob is once again lured to Nomansian Island, where he discovered to his horror that Syndrome murdered a long list of supers, but was unaware of Elastigirl's location, much to Bob's relief. After learning Bob's own location thanks to a tracking device Edna put earlier in his supersuit. Helen later borrows a jet from her old friend Snug to journey to the island, but during her flight, she finds that Violet and Dash stowed away and left Jack-Jack in the care of babysitter Kari McKeen. She later discovers that their plane is in danger to be destroyed by missiles attempting to destroy them. She manages to defeat two of the six missiles but the plane is destroyed. Fortunately, Helen and the kids survive the explosion, so she parachutes to safety with them. The three make it to shore and take refuge in a safe-looking cave. Before leaving in order to save Bob, Helen urges both Violet and Dash to sharpen the use of their powers from then on; to bolster Violet's confidence by telling her that she has more power than she realizes; she also warns them that their enemies are merciless killers, and gives them masks and instructs them to protect their identities at all costs. Just as Helen exits the cave, Violets runs up to her, apologizing for her failure to protect the plane with her force field. Helen, in turn, apologizes to Violet for demanding something Violet had no way of being prepared for. She also bolsters her daughter's confidence with the advice that she need only to trust her instincts in order to make good use of her abilities.

Helen then leaves the kids to find Bob and manages to infiltrate Syndrome’s base unnoticed, where she gets a glimpse of a strange rocket. As she begins to look at the mirror reflection of herself, she disappointingly observes her retired and “fatter” physique, as unlike before, she now has a large butt that is noticeable by the tight superheroine outfit. She ran into trouble when parts of her body got stuck in the doors while hiding from some of Syndrome’s security guards. She manages to defeat the guards by knocking out one of the guards with her foot, then using her posterior to knock out two more. She then manages to grab the card key to unlock both doors to free herself and takes the unconscious guards to a locker.

Meanwhile, Syndrome's assistant, Mirage (who lured Mr. Incredible to the island as his contact), becomes disillusioned by Syndrome's narcissism and callousness. Her change of heart leads her to free Mr. Incredible. Mirage informs Mr. Incredible that his wife and kids are alive (it was previously assumed they were dead). Helen walks in as Bob gives Mirage a grateful embrace. Helen punches Mirage (knocking her out) as she believes Bob was cheating on her with Mirage. However, she does accept Bob's truthful statement that Mirage hired him and nothing more. After some initial awkwardness and tension, Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl escape. Meanwhile, Violet and Dash manage to acquit themselves well after being attacked by Syndrome's security force.

Syndrome recaptures the entire family and reveals that he intends to use his latest Omnidroid model to attack the city of Metroville, and then orchestrate a rescue, in which he appears to defeat the immense weapon, which is in reality under his control. The Parrs escape again and manage to journey back to Metroville, where they, along with Frozone, destroy the Omnidroid v.10.

On their back to their house, Helen listens to Kari's voice calls on the phone about "strange things" happening to Jack-Jack and also thanking her for sending a replacement babysitter, to which the Parrs realized Kari had been tricked since Helen didn't call for another babysitter. They rush to their house, where they are confronted by Syndrome, who tries to kidnap Jack-Jack. Bob and Helen manage to retrieve Jack-Jack by letting Bob throw Helen to Jack-Jack, catching him. After Bob throws his car at Syndrome's plane, Syndrome is killed when his cape is sucked into the turbine of his private jet, resulting in the explosion of his plane and the destruction of their house.

Three months later, Helen is seen with the rest of the family cheering on Dash at his school's sports day where he finished second place. With the threat of The Underminer looming in the city afterward, Helen is seen wearing her mask as she joins the family in the fight against the villain.

Incredibles 2[]

In the sequel, the fight with The Underminer picks up where it left off. The Incredibles are unable to defeat the Underminer, as he escapes. However, they also get arrested for the damages the Underminer caused. Rick Dicker bails them out and escorts them to a motel that they will live in until they find a new home after the destruction of their house in the first film. Rick also tells Helen and Bob that the Super Relocation Program has been shut down and they can only stay at the motel for two weeks. That night, after having an argument with Bob about supers being illegal and when later Helen and Bob were talking about what to do. Frozone shows up and escorts them to DevTech. There, they meet Winston Deavor and his sister Evelyn. The Deavors tell them that they are going to come up with a campaign to make Supers legal again and they want Elastigirl to be the public face of it since she causes the least collateral damage. Helen is reluctant to accept but Bob urges her to say yes as their choice is to accept the offer and try to make themselves legal again or remain illegal and become homeless.

After moving into their new home and leaving the kids in Bob's care, Elastigirl takes off for the city in her new Elasticycle where she saves a runaway train and makes a new enemy in the Screenslaver. Helen later discovers that Screenslaver is so named because he uses screens to hypnotize people. With Evelyn's help, she manages to track the Screenslaver and bring him to the police. However, she later discovers that the man she caught is just a puppet right before Evelyn puts Hypno-goggles over her eyes.

Few hours before the historic moment, Elastigirl wakes up, being tied up to a chair in the freezer room of the EverJust, unable to move due to the weakness of her powers as Evelyn, who revealed herself to be the Screenslaver, pointed out. Evelyn also revealed that she hated superheroes due to her father's death and did not see eye to eye with her brother Winston ever since. She also plans to use supers to cause mayhem in a way to permanently outlaw them while harming thousands of innocent lives. She then led the hypnotized Elastigirl to the conference room as bait to lure Mr. Incredible to his doom. Evelyn rings Bob to tell him that his wife is in trouble, so he decides to suit up and go to Devtech, but not before asking Lucius to look after the kids. Once at Devtech, Evelyn leads him to Elastigirl, but she attacks him. After he reminds her of who he is, Elastigirl kisses him, but this was so that it was easy to place a pair of hypno-goggles on him.

Her kids rescue her when Jack-Jack telekinetically removes the goggles from her eyes, enabling Helen to free her husband and Frozone from Evelyn's control as well. They manage to free the wannabe supers and stop the Devtech ship from crashing into the city. Helen stops Evelyn from escaping and saves her life when she falls from her plane (with Helen discovering Jack-Jack's powers for the first time), and the Incredibles stop Evelyn and make Supers legal again.

Trivia[]

In Incredibles 2, Helen tells Bob that she used to have not only a bike (The "Elasticycle") during the Glory Days, she also had a mohawk. Bob was unaware of it, which leads to Helen reassuring him, "You didn't miss anything".
Helen is the fourth female protagonist in a Pixar feature film, the other three are: Merida, Joy, and Dory.
According to official sources, Helen is in her late thirties (38 years-old) and she is 5'8" (172 cm) in height and is 125 pounds (56 kg) in weight.
Helen's (Holly Hunter) flight approach into Nomanisan Island is similar to Dorinda's (Holly Hunter) end-of-movie flight in Always where the plane is in an uncontrollable dive and then she pulls hard on the controls to regain control of the plane. In both, she is initially distracted before returning to the controls to avert complete disaster when the plane crashes.
When borrowing a plane, Helen's pilot call sign is "India Golf Niner-Niner", which translates to IG99, a reference to the 1999 film The Iron Giant, also directed by Brad Bird.
In the alternate opening to the first movie, Helen Parr (then known by Helen Smith) was to be present at a welcoming ceremony by their neighbors along with her husband and daughter Violet (who was an infant at the time). One of her neighbors talks badly about children, causing Helen to snap at her and almost reveal her true identity, but managed to stop herself when her neighbor asked what her former job was. She also ended up allegedly taking Bob Smith to the hospital after the latter allegedly severely injured his fingers with a butcher knife while working the barbecue (in actuality, he was not injured at all and dented the cleaver with his fingers as a result of his superhuman durability, so they were forced to fake his injury in order to maintain his secret identity). They were later endangered by an old enemy of Mr. Incredible, Syndrome (then a minor villain), but they managed to escape the house when their encounter with Syndrome caused a gas leak that detonated, although Syndrome was not nearly as lucky.
Coincidentally enough, Elastigirl, Helen's superhero name, is also the name of a superheroine with similar elasticity-based superpowers that originated from the DC Comics superhero team, the Doom Patrol. The character's civilian name also resembles Helen's, her surname being Farr.
- This was the main reason why Disney/Pixar was forced to use the name Mrs. Incredible for marketing to avoid copyrights. The DC character's name has since been changed to "Elasti-Woman", presumably as a compromise to allow Disney/Pixar to use "Elastigirl" again.
- The name "Mrs. Incredible" is used in the first movie only once, by Mirage, because in that moment nobody knew Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl were married.
Elastigirl shares a powerset with Mr. Fantastic of Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four. Other members of the family have counterparts in the team (Bob/the Thing, Violet/Invisible Woman, Jack-Jack in fire form/Human Torch).
Originally, Elastigirl's location was unknown to Syndrome, when Bob was checking the database. However, when she attempted to rescue Bob, Syndrome recognized her and discovered her marriage to Mr. Incredible.
In earlier scripts of The Incredibles, after Helen calls her friend Snug Porter inquiring about a jet, he pilots her and the hidden children to Syndrome's island, and is killed when the plane was destroyed by the missiles. Helen realizes he is dead when she spots his cap sinking into the ocean depths with the wreckage. This is foreshadowed by photographs of Snug and Elastigirl together in her youth as boone companions still seen in the final cut of the movie, suggesting he was her flight instructor instead.
- Brad Bird fought to keep the scene as it was originally written which reached storyboard stage, but ultimately accepted that having Helen at the controls, and thus having the situation entirely in her hands, created more tension and impact.
During the interview that opens the first movie, Helen's attitude towards a possible retirement is denying the idea completely, while Bob admits he would do it; while actually retired, their attitudes are reversed.
Elastigirl will meet Winnie the Pooh and friends in Winnie the Pooh Meets The Incredibles.