Pixar 20-year veteran reveals the unlikely animation feat on The Incredibles that "almost killed him"

Pixar has long been at the forefront of animation wizardry, but sometimes it's the more mundane sequences that cause the most head-scratching from its talented staff.

Dave Mullins, who worked at Pixar for two decades, took to Twitter to re-share a work-in-progress sequence from his time on 2004's The Incredibles.

In the scene, Holly Hunter's Elastigirl is seen juggling a phone, complete with cord (remember those?). No superpowers, no change in perspective or complicated 'camera' work – but it proved an issue all the same.

"Man that phone cord almost killed me back in the day," Mullins joked. See the evidence for yourself below. In truth, we're still getting our head around how that all works frame-by-frame.

Despite the movement being possible through computer animation at the time, Mullins revealed in the replies, "We could do it then, but it was cheaper and more fun to animate," adding that the process took an "embarrassing" number of days to complete.

The Elastigirl headaches continued elsewhere, with Mullins pointing to a rooftop scene involving Holly Hunter's hero stretching around Mr. Incredible in a bid to get him to be more "flexible."

"The first render came back and was approved – but the motion blur was messed up," Mullins recalled. "I threw a little fit and had it rerendered (it was expensive, we were in crunch.) The shot came back much better, but if you frame through it you can still see some motion blur issues. I'm probably the only person who ever really noticed."

Mullins worked on a whole host of Pixar classics at the studio, including Monsters Inc., Up, and Finding Nemo, before leaving in 2020 after co-founding ElectroLeague studio.

The Incredibles, meanwhile, powers on as a franchise. A threequel is in the works, with Brad Bird back to write the script. However, Elemental's Peter Sohn will direct due to Bird's prior commitment to Skydance film Ray Gunn.

For more, check out our picks of the best Pixar films ever made, then take a look ahead to next year's cinematic offerings with our movie release dates guide.