SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN

THE DESIGN SCHOOL

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT

NAME: YVONNE CHIN YUN MIIN

STUDENT ID NO: 0315662

FILMS SELECTED: 1. THE INCREDIBLES

2. CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

WORD COUNT: 1033 WORDS

ENGLISH 2 (ENGL 0205)

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY

LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA

SUBMISSION DATE: 18th APRIL 2014

The Incredibles vs. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Ever since the superheros rose to prominence in comic books back in the

1940s, they were adapted to Saturday movie serial majorly aimed at children.

Unfortunately in the following decades, the decline of Saturday serial and turmoil

in the comic industry had put an end to superhero motion pictures, but with

exception of episodes of the superheros television series, the movie industry has

compiled them together and turned it into a theatrical release. Along the years and

inspired by the new interest of science fiction and fantasy films with the success of

Star Wars, the first ever major superhero movie Superman (1978) by Richard

Donner was proved a critical and commercial success. In the 20th century, Marvel

Enterprise has brought in profitable franchises when it all began with a surprise hit

of 20th Century Fox and Marvel’s X-Men film series. Now, you can see superhero

franchise stores in most of the shopping malls even now in Sunway Pyramid there

are two of the shops named DC Comics Superheros and Superheros United.

As much as I love to read superhero comic books, I have a craving of

watching superhero movies whenever it is released in the movie theatre. I tend to

imagine myself as the damsel in distress, waiting for her hero to save her and

whenever I think of it, it makes myself laugh. Most girls are just waiting for their

superman to swoop them up from their feet and fly into the night sky watching the

beautiful lights of the city coming alive and getting a closer glimpse at the shimmer

stars up above their heads. But most importantly, superheroes fight for justice and

they keep the city save from evil treacherous villains. The best ever animated

superhero movie I watched was The Incredibles, and recently I just watched my

favourite superhero movie, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Both of them are

amazing even if they are produced in different ways, having different storyline and

having different characteristics.

For the movie of The Incredibles, it was produced by Pixar Animation Studio

and released by Walt Disney Pictures in 2004. 3D animation is not as easy as it

seems. Unlike the tradition animation way, Bird himself found working in computer

animation difficult in a different way, finding animation softwares sophisticated and

unfriendly, which was very different from traditional ways like calling the camera’s

ability to easily switch angles in a given scene “marvelously adaptable”. It turned

out to be the most complex movie yet for Pixar. They had to create an all-human

cast which required new technology to animate detailed anatomy, hair and skin.

Even though they faced a lot of challenges in the way, it did not stop them by

creating a 3D animation of superheroes with different super abilities that looked

realistic in the movie using visual effects and so on. On the other hand, for live

action movie of Captain America. The actors have to act and react to portray their

character and to become one with their character. When they are in the zone the

ficitional world becomes their world and they have to put themselves out there for

all to watch which would make them feel vulnerable. Actors are not able to

analyze or observe their own performances but they have to do whatever the

director wants for multiple times until they achieve what he wants. The difficult for

them is to make it effortless and feel completely natural even though they just act

as what was written in the script. Most importantly is that casting of actors for a

film is very important since different actors brings different take on a character.

Furthermore, the storyline of The Incredibles is a lot more different than

Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The plot of The Incredibles is that it takes a

will to hide superhero talents from a world that still needs a hero, yet no longer

appreciate it. Going and living through a normal life and having a boring insurance

job, Mr. Incredible longs for the glory days of upholding law and order while his

superhuman family tries to fit in to the neighbourhood without revealing their

superhuman abilities. Years later, the family was relief from quiet suburbia to

uncover a diabolical plan of Sydrome the enemy and together the family must

bring their respective birth-given powers to save the day. In contrast, the movie

Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Steve Rogers a.k.a Captain America is

living quietly in Washington DC, trying to adjust to the modern world. But when

S.H.E.I.L.D.’s second commander Nick Fury was attacked by an anonymous

assassin, he was embroiled in a web of intrigue that threatens to put the world at

risk. Joining forces with Agent Romanoff, Black Widow, Captain America

struggles to expose the conspiracy while fighting off assailants sent to silent him.

When the villainous plot of the Hydra was revealed, a new ally, Falcon was

enlisted to help Captain America and Black Widow. Disastrously, they soon

found themselves facing a formidable and unexpected enemy -- The Winter

Soldier.

Moreover, the characteristics between Mr. Incredible and Captain America

are different even though they share the similarities of having super strength. Mr.

Incredible was born with the super strength powers whereas Captain America was

just Steve Rogers before he participated in the “Super Soldier Serum” after he

encountered the Nazi Germany’s horrific atrocities. He was the first test subject to

be injected with the serum and the process successfully altered his physiology

from its frail state to the maximum of human efficiency, including greatly enhanced

musculature and reflexes, which represented the pinnacle of human physical

perfection. Captain America has very high intelligence, as well as agility,

endurance, speed, strength and reaction time.

“Sometimes the truth is not enough, sometimes people deserves more.

Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded...”. In conclusion, both of

the movies differ from production, storyline and hero characteristics. However,

they both bring a strong message of a hero that stops anyone that jeopardize the

safety of the city and brings crime to justice.

REFERENCES

Langan, J. College (2010) Writing Skills, (8th ed.)New York: McGraw Hill

Perrin, R. (2012) Pocket Guide to APA Style (4th ed) Boston: Wadsworth

30 SUPERHEROES ONE-LINERS. Retrieved March 31, 2014 from

http://shortlist.com/entertainment/films/30-superhero-one-liners

Marvel Universe Wiki: Captain America (Steve Rogers). Retrieved April 1, 2014

from

http://marvel.com/universe/Captain_America_%28Steve_Rogers%29

Pixar feature films: The Incredibles. Retrieved April 1, 2014 from

http://www.pixar.com/features_films/THE-INCREDIBLES-