Brad Bird

Written by director Brad Bird, The Incredibles took over a decade to make it from a sketched-out idea to a full-blown screenplay. Talk about commitment.

Bird first had the idea back in 1993. We can only assume that he was wearing flannel, listening to Nirvana, and playing with a Furby at the time, but maybe we're just projecting. Either way, this hare-brained idea was a reflection of the challenges Bird faced in his own life balancing the personal and professional—a conflict that pops up repeatedly in the film.

An old friend of former Pixar head John Lasseter, Bird joined the studio in 2000. That doesn't mean The Incredibles was a shoo-in, though. Prior to the film, Pixar hadn't made a movie with mostly human characters, which presented all sorts of challenges for the still-young studio. It's a lot harder to animate people than bugs or toys, apparently. That, along with the ambitious nature of the script, made it a long shot.

Somehow, though, The Incredibles won the day. (Typical superheroes.) It may have taken eleven years, but Brad Bird's super-powered family finally completed its leap from its writer's brain to the silver screen.