So I talked about this on a recent episode of the Maccast Loop, but in case some of you missed it I thought I would mention it here. The other day I was watching the Pixar film “The Incredibles” and noticed it had a scene that could have possibly inspired the Macbook Air. If not, it at least has an eerily predictive nature about it. Since Jobs was in charge at Pixar at the time it just made me wonder if maybe the scene inspired him to think up the Macbook Air or was it just random coincidence. Maybe the ad agency just borrowed the concept for the commercial, who knows?

In the scene Mr. Incredible gets a secret message delivered in the form a ultra-thin tablet-style computer which he slips out of a manila style envelope. Take a look at the two images below (thanks Robert for the caps) and you’ll see what I mean.

MBA1.jpg
MBA2.jpg

There are 14 comments on “Incredible” inspiration for the Macbook Air?:

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  1. David Sparks | Feb 11 2008 - 12:57

    Adam,

    So true! I actually loved the styling and music in that film. It is by far my favorite Pixar movie. Now if I could only get myself some of those rocket boots or put those homing beacons in my kid’s clothing.

  2. UltimateQuiz | Feb 11 2008 - 12:20

    It really looks like the MacBook Air ad…

    Congratulations for the discovery! :)

  3. shaun | Feb 11 2008 - 05:30

    Adam,

    I have watched this at least 30 times as my son is 2 years old and loves i. It is a for sure way to get him to ‘calm’ down. I heard you mention this when talking to Victor and was glad I wasn’t the only one who made this corollation. Let’s see if they can’t get some cool new gadgets into a sequel we can look forward to Steve announcing in the future. Keep up the great show.

    Q.

  4. Toby Rush | Feb 11 2008 - 11:17

    But remember how that scene ends… let’s hope that the MacBook Air doesn’t include *all* the functionality of the version in the movie! :)

  5. paul | Feb 12 2008 - 12:59

    your appletv update is out now

  6. Rene | Feb 12 2008 - 02:28

    Adam is busy watching movie rentals on his upgrade Apple TV, now a Take Two. The Incredibles comes to mind, because it is such a great movie to watch. Ratatouille is a second rental he could be watching. ;-)

    I’m green with envy, here in Europe.

  7. Marcus | Feb 13 2008 - 02:23

    I daresay they would have thought of the concept and then placed the envelope in the movie, subtle advertising placeholds infiltrating our minds! Whoa!

  8. Deane | Feb 25 2008 - 07:18

    It seems that Pixar have conceptualized that scene just like in MacBook Air or both scene were made by Pixar as well?. Wow how did you discover it anyway?.

  9. Yearblook | Mar 30 2008 - 09:33

    This is an interesting post. You should submit it at yearblook.com/submit. Yearblook is a competition to find each day’s best blog posts. At the end of the year, the 365 best posts (1 from each day) will be published in a book (a real, printed book, you will find it on Amzon).

  10. LookingSoftware | Apr 30 2008 - 02:39

    I watched this movie two times but I never notice that. You discovered it, yes you are great.

  11. Macbook Air | Jun 01 2008 - 07:10

    I have watched this with my kids, like – 100 times and I never remembered it!

    Such an excellent film too!

  12. Un1K3n | Aug 05 2008 - 06:50

    Nice find. Given the Jobs connection between the movie and Mac, my uneducated guess is that it was placed in the movie with the full knowledge of the impending Macbook Air, planting the seeds of “futuristic” and “hero” into our heads for when we saw the actual commercial. Great catch!

  13. matt | Nov 13 2008 - 05:57

    Whoa,

    I remember that scene as well, and you never know…

    BTW, I loved the movie as well, and I think it may be pixar’s best movie. Wall-e was visually stunning but not nearly as exciting and hip as the incredibles.

    Matt

  14. Kareem | Dec 18 2008 - 01:17

    The Incredibles was a masterpiece and i have not seen pixar come out with anything yet to match up to it and i haven’t seen anything out there for that matter. I doubt that the idea for the air comae out of that scene but you never know.