Winner: Holly Hunter —
The Incredibles

 Brief Synopsis: It’s been 15 years since public opinion turned against Supers and they were outlawed, and things haven’t been as incredible for the superheroes formerly known as Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl. Instead of basking in the glow of saving the city, Bob Parr saves stockholders a few extra pennies at an insurance company while Helen Parr tries to hide their children’s powers from the public. No easy feat considering their teenage daughter Violet can turn invisible and create force fields, their adolescent son Dash can run at lightning speed, and baby Jack-Jack can... well, he can do a little bit of everything. Bob spends his days toiling away at a job that is slowly destroying his soul and his evenings illegally saving citizens with his best friend Lucius (AKA: Frozone), which is slowly destroying his marriage. One evening, Bob receives a mysterious offer to become Mr. Incredible again — go to an island and defeat a rampaging robot. But in accepting the offer, Bob falls into a trap of a person of his past and risks losing his entire family.

Holly Hunter hits an emotional range that adds an exceptional richness to Elastigirl / Helen Parr. No one in the film (and quite possibly, any Pixar film) is asked to do more vocally than Holly Hunter, because Elastigirl is the glue holding her family together. The line she has during the wedding ceremony — “I love you, but if we’re gonna make this work you’ve gotta be more than Mr. Incredible.” — is kind of the model for how Holly Hunter voices Elastigirl, because she’s a character who is constantly asked to don different roles (or “masks”) throughout the film. If we trace the first half of Elastigirl’s plot arc, we see all these different personas Helen Parr is asked to be: 

— Super (“leave the saving of the world to the men? I don’t think so.”)

— Romantic lead (“Well, I think you need to be more…flexible.”)

— Life Partner (“Go save the world one policy at a time, honey. Oh! I gotta go pick up the kids from school.)

— Consoler (“Everyone’s special, Dash.”)

— Disciplinarian (“Dash, you have something you wanna tell your father about school?”

— Pragmatist (“You know how I feel about that, Bob. Darn you!” We can’t blow cover again!”)

— Frustrated spouse (“I am such an idiot. I let this happen, you know. The new sports car, the getting in shape, the blond hair, the lies.”)

— Pilot/Parent/Super (“Mayday, mayday! India Golf niner-niner is buddy-spiked! Abort! Abort! There are children aboard.”)

Especially when Helen interacts with her children, you can feel that she chooses her words more carefully to avoid betraying her frustration at having to sacrifice her Super identity on permanent lockdown. The restraint in her tone is noticeable, as is the tension building between her and Bob. By the time we reach the last mask/role, we see the layers to Elastigirl, and that the plane crash scene is the moment where all of these different personas mesh together (like little cogs), despite her best efforts to keep them separate. It’s a wonderful performance from Holly Hunter, expertly transitioning from one role to another, which allows the film to set up the second half where Helen becomes Elastigirl again. One of the defining moments for Elastigirl’s character arc is how she levels with Violent and Dash when they’re stranded in the cave — “They won’t exercise restraint because you’re children. They will kill you if they get the chance.” — because the bluntness and urgency to her line is a direct contrast to what we’ve seen prior.