Movie Info
Movie Name: The Incredibles
Studio: Pixar Animation Studios
Genre(s): Animated/Comic Book/Action/Adventure/Family
Release Date(s): October 27, 2004 (London Film Festival)/November 5, 2004 (US)
MPAA Rating: PG
Being an undercover superhero is hard
Superheroes have been outlawed. Now, Bob Parr (the former Mr. Incredible) and his wife Helen (the former Eastigirl) find themselves with three children and trying to make a normal life. With Violet and Dash having superpowers and Jack-Jack just a baby, Bob finds his urge to protect calling him. Working as a secret superhero with Lucius Best (the former Frozone), Bob is contacted by a mysterious benefactor who has summoned Mr. Incredible to work for him on a secret island. As Mr. Incredible uncovers the truth about his new boss, he discovers he might have involved his family in a plot that could kill them all.
Now that’s how you deal with a bad boss
Directed by Brad Bird, The Incredibles is a Pixar-Disney film. The movie was a followed Pixar’s Finding Nemo in 2003 and was met with positive reviews. The movie won an Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature Film and Best Achievement in Sound Editing and received nominations for Best Writing—Original Screenplay and Best Achievement in Sound Mixing.
The Incredibles is Watchmen for kids. With similar themes and ideas, the movie smartly combines a “real” comic book story with a kids movie to form a great, fun action picture that the whole family can enjoy as kind of an “intro to superheroes”.
The Goodship Elastigirl
The story takes its basic framework from Marvel’s Fantastic Four which was always played as “the superhero family”. Three of the four Incredibles have the same powers of the Fantastic Four and Syndrome feels a lot like the Mad Thinker (with his own Awesome Android). There is even another nod to the Fantastic Four in the final scene with the arrival of the Underminer who is a take on the Mole Man. Despite being intentionally derivative, the movie does develop its own story and characters in a way that makes them fully dimensional and fun.
A family that fights crazed supervillains together stays together
The Incredibles has a strong cast, but due to fewer players, it is more scaled back than a regular Pixar film. Craig T. Nelson and Holly Hunter feel like a real couple and years of playing “the parents” pay off in this movie. Jason Lee’s Buddy Pine (aka Syndrome) is a good match for him because he comes off as rather whiny (something Jason Lee also does). It is rather interesting to see Samuel L. Jackson in a kids’ picture…I wish he’d go into a Snakes on Plane rant. Character actor Wallace Shawn plays Bob’s overbearing boss Gilbert Huph and director Brad Bird plays Edna Mode himself. Elizabeth Peña plays the sultry Mirage and rather than cast big name celebrities for the children, they took more traditional voice actors Sarah Vowell and Spencer Fox. Pixar regular John Ratzenberger shows up at the end of the film as the Underminer.
We can heroes…just for one day!
The Incredibles shows a strong improvement over the previous Pixar films. The characters of the film have real weight and the movie is a solid action-adventure film for kids. The explosions, the battles, and the action despite being animated often is just as real as a live action film. The movie is rated PG for some of the violent imagery but it really isn’t worse than some of the older Disney films.
I love The Incredibles and with Monters Inc., I think it is one of Pixar’s best films. The movie’s success immediately spawned talk of a sequel. When the relationship between Disney and Pixar broke down, The Incredibles sequel fell to the wayside. With Disney’s acquisition of Pixar, Incredibles 2 finally was made and released in 2018. Pixar followed The Incredibles with Cars in 2006.
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