Daily Dialogue — February 27, 2017

“Shh! The baby’s sleeping. You took away my future. I’m simply returning the favor. Oh, don’t worry, I’ll be a a good mentor; supportive, encouraging. Everything you weren’t. And in time, who knows? He might make a good sidekick.”

— The Incredibles (2004), written by Brad Bird

The Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Sidekick, suggested by Angry Cyborg. Today’s suggestion by Will King.

Trivia: Brad Bird drove his teams hard to be as creative as possible, insisting on greater attention to details and characters than any other previous Pixar production. The teams responded by pumping the film full of references and in-jokes, one of the most noticeable being the villain Syndrome being modeled on Bird himself.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Will: “The sidekick in the superhero genre is a given. The pair may have difficulty finding a way to work together in the beginning, but eventually they become a team. The Incredibles turned this trope on its head. As a child, Buddy tried to force himself as an unwanted sidekick upon Mr. Incredible and was rejected, which motivated him to become Mr. Incredible’s antagonist Syndrome. Here, Syndrome, again thwarted, uses the very term ‘sidekick’ to make one last desperate dig at his former idol.”