Honestly, the best part of Incredibles 2 wasn't the big villain reveal or the high-speed hydrofoil chase. It was a toddler getting into a backyard brawl with a scavenger over some leftover chicken.
The Jack Jack vs raccoon showdown is arguably the most famous sequence in the sequel. It’s chaotic. It’s loud. It’s basically a Looney Tunes short dropped right into the middle of a high-stakes superhero flick. But while it looks like a throwaway gag, that fight was actually over a decade in the making.
The Robber in the Trash Can
You’ve probably noticed the raccoon wears a natural mask. Jack-Jack certainly did. While Bob Parr is passed out on the sofa, the baby is watching an old black-and-white crime movie on TV. He sees a burglar in a mask. He looks outside. He sees a raccoon in a mask.
In his tiny baby brain, the math is simple: Mask = Bad Guy.
He doesn't just want the raccoon out of the trash; he’s trying to make his first citizen's arrest. This wasn't some random idea the writers scribbled down at the last minute for the 2018 release. It was actually pitched by Teddy Newton back during the production of the first movie in the early 2000s.
Why didn’t we see it in 2004? Technical limitations.
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Back then, Pixar's computers struggled with the sheer volume of "stuff" happening in that scene. You have fire, multiple versions of the baby, goo effects, and complex fur simulation. Brad Bird—the director—knew the tech wasn't ready to make it look as messy and tactile as it needed to be. So, they shelved it for fourteen years.
Every Power Jack-Jack Used Against the Raccoon
The raccoon (who the production team nicknamed Rocky, though it's never said on screen) is probably the most durable creature in the Pixar universe. He takes a beating that would level a building.
Jack-Jack basically treats this poor animal like a testing ground for his "Swiss Army Knife" of abilities. During the three-minute scrap, we see a wild variety of powers:
- Phasing: He walks right through the sliding glass door like it's air.
- Telekinesis: He yanks a chicken leg out of the raccoon's paws without touching it.
- Self-Combustion: He turns into a human torch, which is when the backyard really starts to go up in flames.
- Laser Vision: Bright green beams that slice through patio furniture.
- Multiplication: This is the big one. He splits into about half a dozen copies of himself to swarm the raccoon.
- Gelatinous Form: He turns into a weird, sticky goo that the raccoon gets trapped in.
One of the coolest "blink and you'll miss it" details is how Jack-Jack uses his lasers. If you look closely at his eyes during the fight, he actually crosses them to focus the beams so he can cut through the patio umbrella. It's that kind of attention to detail that makes the sequence feel "human" despite the baby being a literal god-tier superhero.
Why the Fight Actually Matters for the Story
It’s easy to dismiss this as just a funny break from the plot, but the Jack Jack vs raccoon fight is the turning point for Bob Parr.
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Up until this moment, Bob is struggling. He’s tired, he’s jealous of Helen’s new job, and he’s failing to help Dash with "New Math." When he wakes up and sees his son multiplying like a rabbit and shooting lasers at a rodent, his entire perspective shifts.
He stops being the "grumpy dad who wants to be back in the glory days" and starts being the "excited dad who is obsessed with his kid's potential."
Brad Bird has often said that the powers in The Incredibles are metaphors for family roles. The dad is strong. The mom is pulled in ten directions. The teenager is invisible. Jack-Jack represents the "unrealized potential" of a baby. They can be anything. Or, in Jack-Jack's case, they can be everything all at once.
Behind the Scenes: The "Han Shot First" Rule
When the animators were putting the fight together, they had a major concern: Is this too mean?
Watching a super-powered baby beat up a wild animal can quickly go from "funny" to "cruel" if the tone is off. To fix this, the team applied what they called the "Han shot first" rule. They made sure the raccoon was the clear aggressor. The raccoon snarls first. The raccoon tries to swipe at the baby first.
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Because the raccoon gives as good as he gets, the audience feels okay laughing when Jack-Jack teleports him into the air.
What to Watch for Next Time
If you’re going back to rewatch this scene on Disney+, keep an eye on the background. The "movie within a movie" playing on the TV is actually timed to match the rhythm of the fight outside. When the "cop" in the movie shouts or jumps, Jack-Jack is often mirroring that action in the yard.
Also, look at the fire. In the 2004 film, Jack-Jack's fire form was more of a glowing orange blob. In 2018, the tech allowed them to make the fire look realistic while keeping the baby's facial expressions visible. It's a massive leap in digital artistry that most of us miss because we're too busy watching a raccoon get hit with a trash can lid.
If you're looking to dive deeper into the lore of the Parr family, your next move is to check out the short film Jack-Jack Attack. It fills in the gaps of what happened with the babysitter, Kari, during the first movie, and shows that the raccoon fight was really just the tip of the iceberg for Jack-Jack's chaotic development.