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Jack Jack Attack

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Directed by
  
Brad Bird

Music by
  
Michael Giacchino

Produced by
  
Osnat Shurer

Written by
  
Mark Andrews Rob Gibbs Teddy Newton Bosco Ng

Based on
  
Characters by Brad Bird

Starring
  
Bret Parker Bud Luckey Eli Fucile Jason Lee

Jack-Jack Attack is a 2005 computer animated short film produced by Pixar based on their film The Incredibles, and directed by Brad Bird.

Contents

Unlike many of their previous shorts, it was not given a theatrical release, but was included on the DVD release of the film. The idea for this short came from an idea for a scene originally considered for inclusion in the film The Incredibles; it was cut from the feature and subsequently expanded into this short. The short is based on the baby, Jack-Jack, and takes place at around the same time as the events of the main film. From The Incredibles, the audience knows that Jack-Jack's babysitter Kari McKeen started experiencing difficulty with him shortly after hanging up the phone with his mother, Helen Parr (also known as Elastigirl or Mrs. Incredible).

Plot

This short film shows Rick Dicker, a government agent assigned to aid "supers" in maintaining their anonymity, interviewing Kari about the events that unfolded while she was babysitting the youngest member of the Parr family, Jack-Jack.

Kari begins by stating that she received a call from Mrs. Parr, who expresses reluctance about allowing Kari to babysit. Kari attempts to re-assure her that she is more than capable of taking care of Jack-Jack, but the conversation is cut off by the Parr's plane being fired upon. Thinking nothing is wrong, and that they were simply cut-off, Kari turns her attention to Jack-Jack. She begins by playfully asking Jack-Jack if he is ready for some "neurological stimulation". She begins by playing Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 11 for him, which has the result of Jack-Jack having an epiphany about his latent superpowers.

When Kari's back is turned, Jack-Jack seems to disappear and reappear in the kitchen. Finding this odd, Kari tries calling Mrs. Parr again. While she is leaving a message, Jack-Jack floats onto the ceiling and spills milk onto Kari's face. Kari puts him in his playpen, flipped upside-down so that he cannot float away, and tries calling Mrs. Parr again. He promptly escapes the playpen, leaving a perfectly circular hole in the bars, and appears on a high bookshelf. Just as he falls, Kari dives in and tries to catch him, but fails when Jack Jack passes through the floor into the laundry room. Running down to find him, Kari sees Jack-Jack passing through the walls and floating around, babbling happily, before she finally catches him.

Kari takes Jack-Jack back upstairs and ties him to a barbell. Then, to calm him down, Kari tries showing him flashcards. This works well until she shows him a card of a campfire, at which point he suddenly bursts into flames. Horrified, Kari picks up Jack-Jack with a pair of fireplace tongs and rushes into the bathroom, where she douses him in the bathtub.

Early the next morning, as the sun is rising on a new day, all appears well from outside. Inside, the house is a shambles and Kari is teetering on the verge of madness, desperately struggling to stay awake. She appears to have mastered anticipating Jack-Jack's abilities, spraying him with a fire extinguisher when he ignites and deflecting laser beams from his eyes by using a mirror. Kari has laid other items close at hand including a garden hose from the back yard, the fireplace tongs, oven mitts, a butterfly net, some rope attached to a grappling hook, and a chainsaw. There is a knock at the door; Kari answers it and meets Syndrome, who asks if this is the Parrs' residence. Kari thinks he is the new babysitter come to relieve her, but wonders what the "S" on his costume stands for. He claims it stands for "Sitter", because if he called himself "Babysitter", his uniform would have to say "BS" on it.

Dicker is incredulous that Kari believed Syndrome, Kari in her defense shouts that the baby was exploding and she was not in a sound state of mind at the time. Dicker asks Kari if she told anyone else about the incident, to which she replies that she did tell her parents, who didn't believe her and thought she was joking. As Kari expresses her wish to forget the whole thing, Dicker promises that she will as he activates a device to erase her memory.

Cast

  • Bret Parker as Kari McKeen, the babysitter for Jack-Jack.
  • Eli Fucile and Maeve Andrews as Jack-Jack Parr, who, as Bob and Helen Parr's infant son, initially shows no sign of super power but is later revealed to have a wide range of abilities including shape-shifting, teleporting, laser vision, elemental transmutation, flight, etc.
  • Bud Luckey as Rick Dicker, the government agent overseeing the Relocation Program.
  • Jason Lee as Buddy Pine/Syndrome, who uses advanced technology to give himself super powers. He plays along as the frantic Kari mistakes him as the "replacement babysitter".
  • Home video release

    Pixar included the film on the DVD release of The Incredibles in 2005 and as part of Pixar Short Films Collection, Volume 1 in 2007.

    Awards

  • 2006: Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation - Short Form (Nominated)
  • References

    Jack-Jack Attack Wikipedia