The Incredibles

-Pixar/Disney (2005)

Summary:

A team of four superheroes combine their powers to fight the forces of evil. No, this isn’t the Fantastic Four movie.

My Thoughts:

When I date a girl there are a lot of times I'll end up watching a bunch of animated features that are geared more towards a younger audience, such as Disney films. I’m not saying that this is a bad thing, but my animated film quota has gone way up over the last year. Regardless, it’s a good way to catch a lot of films that would normally pass under my radar. I was pleased to find I enjoyed The Incredibles quite a bit. Instead of coming from the approach of, “Let’s make a crappy animated film about fish/robots/generic-cutesy-things,” The Incredibles is centered on an amazing script that shows a love of superheroes and comic books at its core.

The Incredibles begins with the aptly named Mr. Incredible fighting crime in his fair burg. Things go badly for him when he saves a man who was trying to commit suicide. The man then sues Mr. Incredible and wins, opening a door for every money grubbing moron out there to sue superheroes into oblivion. Many years later, Mr. Incredible has been relocated to the suburbs where he lives with his wife (former hero Elasti-Girl) and their three children. Living a life of a normal guy isn’t working out for Mr. Incredible, now known as Bob Parr. His job sucks, and he finds himself longing for the days when he could go out and be a superhero. Things change for the better when he gets an offer from a shady company to fight a giant robot . I’m not going to spoil the rest of the film for you, but the entire family must work together to defeat a new super villain. The family works so well together that this is how I imagined the Fantastic Four when I wasn’t busy imagining better super heroes like the X-Men going at it, or picturing what certain girls at my school looked like naked.

Anyway, the voice acting is on par with all of Pixar’s other films. Craig T. Nelson was the perfect choice for Mr. Incredible, and Holly Hunter fits the role of his wife just as well. The rest of the cast is right on the mark, and blends perfectly into the amazing animation.

The Incredibles is supposedly a kid’s film, but it’s got a lot of great material for the older audience since there’s plenty of action and humor for anyone above the age of ten. If you like superheroes then this is the film to watch.  It also has a lot of death, which I found really surprising. Tons of superheroes are killed off screen, and let’s not forget how many henchmen bite the bullet. You might not see it on screen, but there aren't any G.I. Joe style parachutes dropping for those guys.

If you want a good superhero film, then The Incredibles is one to watch. The animation and direction is amazing, the script is superb, and the acting is gold. You can’t ask much more in a film, unless you’re Satan (I hear he’s a pretty rough critic.)

Extras:

This is a two disc special edition that will cram you so full of extras that you won’t want anything more, unless you are a sadist. On the first disc you’ll find the film and the entertaining commentary track. Here’s a fun side note: the full screen edition says that it’s family friendly. I never realized that widescreen is anti-family!

On disc two you’ll find a whole mess of extras including the feature entitled “Jack Jack Attack.” It’s a must see for anyone who loved the film, because it fills in what happens when the family is away adventuring, and is a pretty funny watch on its own.

The “Deleted Scenes” are also worth your time. Since this is animation and scenes aren’t fully animated before they are ditched, the scenes are more of a moving storyboard. This doesn’t detract from them at all in the slightest, though. There’s over thirty minutes of these scenes with some decent commentary on them.

“Behind the Scenes” is the section containing documentaries like the thirty minute “Making The Incredibles.” If that wasn’t enough for you there’s “More Making the Incredibles,” which is over forty minutes long. By God! Anyway, if you still aren’t sick of special features there’s “Animation Blunders” which is pretty interesting, and one of the weirdest extras I’ve ever seen entitled, “Vowellet.” It’s a spotlight on the actress who plays Violet, Sara Vowell, who is one of the geekiest, strangest people I’ve ever seen. The selection “Art Gallery” is obviously a collection of pictures covering topics such as the characters, design, and sets. The “Publicity” section contains some interviews between the characters and morons like Access Hollywood types and the trailers for the film.

The “Top Secret” selection is one of my favorite features of this edition. It contains the hilarious cartoon “Mr. Incredible and Pals.” “Mr. Incredible and Pals” is one of the world’s cheapest looking cartoons, and if you watch it with the commentary turned on you’re in for even bigger laughs. Also in this section are the “NSA” files, a collection of dossiers on many of the superheroes that exist in the world of The Incredibles. 

“Boudin’’” is the short film that proceeded The Incredibles in theaters. Boundin’ is a great little film, if a little weird. The commentary track shouldn’t be missed. There’s also a “Who is Bud Lucky?” mini-doc that explores the man behind this short film.

Score:

Film: 9

Extras: 9

Edition: 9

-Paul