The movie itself has a secret weapon in director Brad Bird. Now 48, this artistic juggernaut has been building steam since age 11, learning his cinematic moves from the world's best animators--in particular, from Disney legends Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, whom Bird describes as "two of the greatest animators that ever lived."

"If you put all their best stuff end to end, it's like watching the great scenes that Brando did," Bird says, going on to list the ice-skating scene in Bambi (1942), Kaa hypnotizing Mowgli in The Jungle Book (1967), the romantic spaghetti dinner in Lady and the Tramp (1955) and other "indelible scenes."

"I think that these guys developed so much of the language that any feature-length character animator uses," Bird says. "I think they were inventive, I think they created empathy for their characters, I think their draftsmanship was impeccable."

Realizing that people like Thomas and Johnston existed was an early turning point in Bird's life: "By the time I was 11 I had figured out that...cartoons weren't making themselves, that some people--adults--were actually getting paid to do this, and this was a job, just like being a postman or a fireman or any of the other jobs that kids all grasp. That there was a job out there somewhere that was 'animator.' And that was amazing and wonderful to me, because that meant that the adult world didn't have to be boring, which I kind of thought that it was from a kid's perspective."

Bird says he started his first animated film at 11, a version of the tortoise and the hare story in which the tortoise is a Wile E. Coyote-style villain and the race ends in a five-way tie. He finished the film before his 14th birthday.

"That's kind of what brought me to Disney's attention, and things just went from there," he says. But Disney didn't simply happen to notice him. On top of Bird's talent was another secret weapon: audacity.

"I sent it to Disney because I thought they were the experts and my dad always believed that you start at the top and work your way down," he admits. "If your stuff is good enough, you want to get it to the best people because they're going to have the most interesting things to say about it. Fortunately it worked out."

He wouldn't actually work at Disney for years--he did a few scenes on The Fox and the Hound (1981), Thomas and Johnston's last picture--but his animation career was under way.

Before directing films, Bird worked on the first eight seasons of the U.S. animated television show The Simpsons as an "executive consultant"--whatever that means.

"At a certain point, if your job is eclectic and wide-ranging enough, there's no way to describe it in a couple of words, so 'executive consultant' works as well as anything else. One of the executive producers of the show, Sam Simon, introduced me to the rest of the crew...as their 'secret weapon.' And I oftentimes regret that I didn't use the title 'secret weapon' instead of 'executive consultant,' because I think it's much more flashy."

In concrete terms, "I consulted on how the stories were developed; how to board the stories, which means figuring out how the stories were presented visually; critiquing the director's work and saying where we needed to improve things. It's kind of a little bit of everything, and it was a very fun role. But it's a bit obscure...It's kind of like directing the directors."

"Much of the visual style of (The Simpsons) has a certain amount of my stamp on it," he says.

He did the same job for one season of King of the Hill--which he found enjoyable but "a more conservative show, visually"--and then went off to direct his first animated feature film, The Iron Giant (1999), an emotionally powerful story about a boy who befriends a giant robot.

Bird's idols Thomas and Johnston have cameo roles in that film, as the voices of two of the first adults to encounter the robot.

In The Incredibles, Bird himself does a voice: Edna Mode, a sly, petite, imperious and unquietly retired fashion designer.

"We do temporary soundtracks when we assemble the movies. It's a way to sort of rehearse the movie before we get to the actual actors," he explains. "I did several voices in the temp track. I also did Bob (alias superhero Mr. Incredible, ultimately voiced by Craig T. Nelson) and I also did Syndrome (Jason Lee). But people seemed to like Edna the way she was. I was thinking we were going to get a qualified actress, but everyone liked it, so I was urged to leave it alone."

The Incredibles also features brief voice appearances by--you guessed it--Thomas and Johnston. (Thomas died Sept. 8, aged 92.) This time they play two old men who cheer as Mr. Incredible slugs it out with the Omnidroid, fighting it "old-school."

Asked how The Incredibles might be "old-school," Bird replies: "I think first and foremost that you care about the characters. There's a tendency nowadays to put flash above connecting with anyone in the film, that if you have enough noise and movement that you don't need to care about anyone...I feel there ought to be an underlying foundation of emotional engagement."

And emotional connection makes the action meaningful: "I've been gratified that people are on the edge of their seats, which I don't think they normally are with animation. I think that that part of their chair"--he pats the forward edge of the sofa he is sitting on--"has got all the original fluff on it, and this film will wear that down a little more."

Bird says this is difficult to achieve because animation is "a medium in which characters are constantly jumping off buildings and surviving and dusting themselves off, ready for the next round. So to create a feeling of jeopardy is hard."

"This film is a little more immersive than most animation," he says, "meaning...that you feel that you're in it."

For some viewers that feeling lasts through the closing credits, where a notice that the term "Omnidroid" was used by permission of Lucasfilm Ltd. has prompted some fans to speculate that The Incredibles offers a sneak peak at a character from the next Star Wars film.

"No. No, no, no," Bird says with a laugh, when asked if the secret weapon has a secret of its own. "I like that they think that, but it's more the term 'droid' is Lucas and we made the term Omnidroid (and then got the OK as a courtesy). So, no, there's no sneak. But God bless those fans. They're crazy."

But craziness--and its milder cousin audacity--are powerful forces. One of them could prompt a villain like Syndrome to try taking over the world. And the other might convince an 11-year-old he has what it takes to become a great animation director.