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The Incredibles (2004)
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Movie Review by Bobby B 
March 21st, 2008
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Living Up to the Name
The Incredibles takes every comic book hero cliche, every standard, every formula, calls attention to them, laughs at them, embraces them, and in so doing, becomes the most original and exciting movie of the year, the kind of movie that gets ignored come Oscar time because it is too intelligent, too forward thinking, too much fun to be considered a serious contender for Best Picture. It's a movie that creates its own zeitgeist, a complete aesthetic. It is razor sharp, compassionate, wise, energetic and funny. It never makes a false step or tells a lie and it never stops being eminently enjoyable.
And it's not just about comic books. Comic books are merely the paradigm through which the film views American pop culture as defined here not just by comics but also movies and television. None of the movie exists in a vacuum. It constantly taps into the audience pool of collective knowledge and humor. It assumes a relationship the audience has to all its many references. And it knows a lot about the vast majority of people who are going to see this movie. It's a movie about Marvel and DC yes, but also a movie about Leave It to Beaver, The Brady Bunch, Star Wars and Indiana Jones. It's about the nature and dangers of celebrity and the life of the middle class in twenty-first century America. The complexities of survival for a typical(?) American family are explored with humor and a light touch as are the dynamics of growing older. Finally, it's a movie about family. The director, Brad Bird, draws on all these sources of inspiration and blends them all together to create a seamless tapestry of excitement and perhaps more importantly -- community. It's a rarity to see a movie operate so smartly and efficiently on so many different levels.
The story is a simple one: Super-heroes used to once populate the world in some abundance but eventually wore out their welcome due to the general populace's fear and prejudices and, perhaps, due to the reckless behavior of the 'supers' themselves. Years later we find the Parr family, Bob and Helen (Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl) and their three kids, Violet and Dash and Jack-Jack, as they struggle to make a go of it in their new home. The entire family is in deep undercover. No one must know of their powers as supers have been outlawed. Unbeknownst to them however they are being sought out by someone who knows who they are, who knows who all the supers are. After Bob is discovered attempting to re-live the glory days with his friend Lucius/Frozone, he finds himself the beneficiary of some covert operations to take out some bad guys. Bob leaps at the chance to re-claim some of the thrill and excitement of his youth and the decision to do so re-energizes his marriage, his family and himself. When things turn out to be not exactly as presented Bob finds himself in a sticky situation that Helen and the kids (stowing away on the plane) have to get him out of.
The action is fast and furious and always delightful. One centerpiece scene features the young son Dash, blessed with super speed, as he's chased by two bad guys in flying saucers. Dash is running so fast he finds he can run on water. The moment he makes this discovery is so pure, so wonderful, so right on, that the audience is swept up in Dash's exhilaration and feels it as their own. It is a moment that the film has earned with the previous hour and a half and it is a crystallization of the magic of movies.
The closest The Incredibles comes to making a mistake is one of its strongest points: the fashion designer (yes!) who creates all the super-heroes costumes, Edna Mode, is so striking a character she threatens to upset the delicate balance the movie has achieved. Edna is as strange and funny to the other people in the film as super-heroes are to us -- though presumably she'd fit right in sitting next to a walkway in Milan. She is a brilliant character, brilliantly executed from the way she looks to the way she moves to the way she talks (voiced, in fact, by Bird himself). She's the kind of character people think they want to see more of but she's so rich in her uniqueness two scenes is all she needs.
From the "old TV" opening to Helen using her stretching powers to emphasize her point in an argument with Bob, to the teen-aged Viola turning invisible when her crush glances her way to a fashion designer who makes the costumes for the supers The Incredibles is a movie chock-filled with moments of delight and imagination and intelligence. That it does this using as its source material cliches, stereotypes and formula is an achievement that is nothing less than...incredible (I had to, sorry). The Incredibles is one of the best movies of the decade.
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| Bobby B
Mar 21, 2008 5:19 PM
also wrote a review of The Incredibles
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| Buy the DVD. I'm not a big fan of special features but the ones for The Incredibles are the best. They provide actual insight into movie making and the nature of the creative process. A must for artists of every discipline. |
 | Zombie Boy
Mar 22, 2008 10:46 AM
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| This is by far the high-water mark for the new age of animated films. |
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Mar 23, 2008 6:26 AM
Oh...THAT'S why you hate the Oscars.
Aug 5, 2008 9:42 AM
Aug 6, 2008 5:03 PM