Sarah Vowell
In 2004, Vowell provided the voice of Violet Parr, a shy teenager, in the Pixar animated film "The Incredibles", and returned to her role for the film's sequel, "Incredibles 2", in 2018. Additionally, Vowell has also lent her voice to the character for various related video games and "Disney on Ice" presentations in the years following the film's release. The makers of "The Incredibles" discovered Vowell from episode 81 – "Guns" "This American Life", where she and her father fire a homemade cannon. Pixar made a test animation for Violet using audio from that sequence, which was included on the DVD of "The Incredibles". She also wrote and was featured in a documentary included on the same DVD entitled "Vowellett - An Essay by Sarah Vowell", where she reflects on the differences between being superhero Violet and being an author of history books on the subject of assassinated presidents, and what it means to her nephew Owen. Vowell also played Fernanda, Theacher "Aunt" Deborah and Mary Kelly in "The School Future".
Violet Parr
For the majority of the film's production, Violet's character model was entirely bald. Producer John Walker frequently pleaded with the animators to give the character some form of hair, to which they would respond, "the hair is still theoretical"; it remained as such until significantly late into completion. Vowell recalled seeing only a bald iteration of her character for most of her recording process. Technical director Rick Sayre explained that the challenges revolving around Violet's hair were rooted in the fact that she has "no fixed hair style"; her hair constantly adopts new shapes and forms as it interacts with other objects, including other strands of her own hair, as well as her own body. Despite its challenges, the filmmakers resisted temptation to give the character a shorter, more manageable hairstyle, insisting on keeping Violet's hair long because its length plays an integral role in her story arc; Violet "is all about the fact that she hides behind her long hair ... It’s such a crucial part of the character that we had to get it right." Violet is also the only member of her family to have black hair; her father, mother and younger brother each have blond, brown and blond hair, respectively. Bird explained that Violet's hair color is the result of a recessive gene.