THQ debuted its new videogame, "The Incredibles," at an event at Pixar's lush headquarters two weeks ago. Following the first public unveiling of the new trailer for "The Incredibles" movie, director Brad Bird ("Iron Giant") was on hand to talk about the film.

Bird said that "The Incredibles" combines all the elaborate elements of the old Disney films with the modern sensibility of shows like "The Simpsons." He believes the film will play to kids 6 and older, but also has the potential to attract an audience that normally wouldn't get into an animated film.

This bodes well for THQ's videogame based on "The Incredibles," which is the second in a three-title licensing deal with Disney and Pixar. THQ-owned Heavy Iron Studios was on hand to play through several levels of the new game, which will ship for Xbox, PS2, GameCube, PC and Mac before the movie opens on Nov 5.

The third-person perspective action game will allow players to take control of the five central characters from the film. Each super hero will have unique abilities that will introduce new play mechanics to the game. The game demo featured two distinct levels, one featuring Mr. Incredible, who used brute force to tear through the environments in Nomanisan Island, and the other focusing on Elastigirl, who can stretch and swing like a certain web-crawling super hero.

The collaboration that is ongoing between THQ, Heavy Iron and Pixar is unprecedented in the long history of Pixar videogames.

"We felt it was critical to have a THQ studio in the process of creating a game based on this movie license," said Peter Dille, SVP Worldwide Marketing. "This allowed us to work more creatively with Pixar from inception to where we are today."

THQ employed an independent UK developer, Traveler's Tales, to make the "Finding Nemo" game, which has sold over 4 million units to date. But that film was well into production when THQ signed on to do the Pixar games.

"We've made sure that Heavy Iron had all the art assets, scripts and other elements that they needed to work on the game, but we left the game development up to them," said Anne Moore, Project Manager, Interactive, Pixar.

Artists from Pixar and Heavy Iron met regularly to discuss the film and game. Ben Butcher, Creative Resources Artist, Pixar, said that a lot of artists at Pixar are gamers, so the game development process was a true partnership. As the movie script was revised, the game, which was in development concurrently, also had to make changes. Some of the henchmen in the game were originally planned for the film, but cut, so the game actually gave some ideas a new venue. Working with the artists also allowed Heavy Iron to create new items and objects for the game that remain true to the movie universe.

"Our game expands on the 90 minute film experience and turns it into an interactive adventure that lasts 15 hours," said Lyle Hall, general manager and executive producer at Heavy Iron Studios. "We have all the key scenes from the movie, but we extend elements out for the game. Something you see in the movie for a few minutes can become a 30-minute gaming experience."

When Heavy Iron began working on the game, which will have a 20 month development cycle by the time it's finished, they were working off a storyboarded cut of the movie that didn't have final character designs, said Shiraz Akmal, Director of Development, Heavy Iron Studios. He said the game will replicate "The A-Team" meets "G.I Joe" feel of the movie.

Other synergies included using composer Michael Giacchino ("Alias") is crafting separate scores for both "The Incredibles" movie and game. THQ hopes to get about 90 percent of the voice talent from the movie, which stars Craig T. Nelson and Holly Hunter, into the game. Negotiations are ongoing.

THQ is expected to follow a similar development model with the John Lassiter-directed "Cars," which opens in theaters next fall. That game is already in development in conjunction with the movie.

And Heavy Iron is well underway in its other Hollywood licensed game, which is based on Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob SquarePants: The Movie." That game will share much of the same core technology from "The Incredibles" game, since they're both 3D action platform adventures. Akmal said the major difference is in details, they're trying to fit as much as the details from the vibrant Pixar worlds into the game as possible. With "SpongeBob," they're adding details to the 2D worlds of the movie to enhance the environments for a 3D game experience.