The Incredibles’ Dash is the only member of the family that doesn’t possess a power from one of the members of Marvel’s The Fantastic Four.

The Incredibles draws on several graphic sources, but the two most salient seem to be Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four (1961-present) at Marvel Comics and Alan Moore’s landmark 12-issue series Watchmen (1986-1987) for DC Comics. Three of the family Parr, in fact, replicate the exact powers of the Fantastic Four (The powers of invisibility/force fields, elasticity and inhuman strength are transferred to the Parrs; Dash substitutes super speed for Johnny Storm’s ability to “Flame On!”). Bird has studied this source well: The final scene of the movie (and most savvy fans picked up on this) pays homage to the first issue of the comic. Early Fantastic Four Annuals by Lee and Kirby used to feature vignettes depicting the team relaxing at home in their Baxter Building HQ. The FF are a picture of domestic bliss until the Thing and the Human Torch start to bicker and taunt each other. Bird replicates some of this dynamic in the early part of the film to good effect.

The Watchmen details the adventures of retired superheroes. Costumed crime fighting, once a great adventure in the 1940s, has turned into a dark nightmare by the 1970s. Some heroes have been co-opted by the government and all are eventually seen as a public menace (“Who Watches the Watchmen?”). They are finally eradicated by the Keene Act. To greatly simplify the intricate plot, the Watchmen are forced back into clandestine action. The villain of the series is revealed to be a former superhero who was attempting to bring the world to his vision of order; much the same can be said of Syndrome, the villain featured in The Incredibles. Watchmen confronts the reality of superheroes in a chaotic, cynical world that needs protection but can’t admit it. Bird appears to have garnered sundry details from this source (including a treatise on the potential lethality of wearing a cape).

Because the conventions of the superhero saga are so strong in The Incredibles, the film wears its capital on its costumed sleeve. No comicbook fan watching this movie questions the details of a world filled with super-powered operatives and their adversaries. What is the origin of Elastigirl? How did Mr. Incredible gain his powers? Serums? Cosmic rays? Mutations? Who cares? Suffice it to say that because this sort of universe has been so clearly limned (back to the days of Gilgamesh, in fact) even the geekiest fanboy/girl does not quibble over details such as how many times Mr. Incredible faced Bomb Voyage prior to the encounter seen in the movie. They clearly know each other: maybe it was last month (or perhaps back in Issue #2), but what does that matter? The Incredibles, right down to some of the conventions borrowed from James Bond (a special operative in his own right), draws its cultural capital from the enduring, continuous powers of myth.

Shark Tale goes as far as making its characters look like the star that provide their voices.

In the DreamWorks feature, Shark Tale, there is no such mythic resonance. Cultural capital is drawn from widely recognizable sources representing today’s modes such as celebrity and hip-hop music. Shark Tale is a film informed by cultural recency and recognition of which celebrity is playing what part. The last point is driven home by having the characters physically resemble the voice actors portraying the roles, as if they had been fitted into piscine prosthetics. Had the film been without credits, audiences could still make very informed and accurate guesses as to which actors and actresses were doing the roles (Hey! That fish looks just like Angelina Jolie! That shark is DeNiro!). With Shark Tale this recognition is central to the enjoyment and appreciation of the film.

Other sources mined for cultural capital in Shark Tale include earlier films. Although the Mafioso family has been a staple of the modern crime film, Shark Tale does not even reach back as far as The Godfather (1972). DreamWorks’ effort is far more informed by Martin Scorsese’s 1990, film GoodFellas. This beloved gangster film has achieved cult status and as recently as this year documentaries were being produced about the making of the movie. It is no coincidence that Robert DeNiro stars in both films or that Martin Scorsese shows up as the voice of Sykes in Shark Tale. Goodfellas is not so far removed from the present as to interfere with recognition by the young, hip target audience and is thus heavily referenced in Shark Tale.