SF Signal: MOVIE REVIEW: The Incredibles

News Feeds: Entries
Commments

Search: Search this site:

MOVIE REVIEW: The Incredibles

REVIEW SUMMARY: Fun for the whole family.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The story of the decline and rise of the modern superhero family.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Top notch animation; funny; some tense moments; leaves you wanting more.
CONS: Moved along a bit slowly near the beginning.
BOTTOM LINE: Another winner from Pixar.

I took the family to see The Incredibles today. We all loved it.

As the movie opens, superheroes are a dime a dozen and a well-established norm. When Mr. Incredible gets sued by several people he has rescued, society begins to take a dim view of all superheroes until they are eventually driven into hiding by a government superhero relocation program. Fifteen years later, Mr. Incredible, stuck in a dead-end, un-super job as an insurance claims specialist, sneaks out to secretly rescue people in need. When new super villain Syndrome appears on the scene, the Incredibles (Mr. Incredible, wife Elastigirl, and kids Violet and Dash) are forced into the superhero role once again.

This movie has a lot going for it. As usual, Pixar's animation is first-rate. There were some water scenes that were very well done. The story was also very strong although my high expectations left me feeling like it started a bit slow. Several moments were very suspenseful. All characterizations were well done, including "E" (a rip on James Bond's "M" voiced by the movie's creator, Brad Bird), the seamstress preferred by all superheroes. I loved the parts where life's everyday minutia becomes an impediment to saving the world. For example, when Mr. Incredible's friend, Frozone (voiced by Samuel Jackson), asks his off-screen wife "Honey? Where's my supersuit?" The themes of the story included a positive pro-family message, which is nice. The potentially controversial PG rating (Pixar's first, I think) was no big deal. My six year old has seen worse on TV commercials.

In short - this film is fun for the whole family.

As a prelude to the film, and in tradition for Pixar, We saw an animated short called Bounding. Although not as funny as other Pixar shorts, it had a very positive message about looking at the bright side of life. The end credits, disappointingly, did not contain any outtakes, a tradition we miss. Maybe they'll do it for a re-release before the Christmas holiday as an enticement for a second viewing (similar to what they did for A Bug's Life)?

(BTW Star Wars fanboys: At our theater, we did not get to see the Star Wars episode III trailer (D'oh!). Thank goodness for the web!

The outtakes usually show up several weeks after the initial release, usually around a holiday, when they are trying to get some additional family business. And of course, they will be on the DVD!

"Bounding" I thought was interesting, in that they seemed to be trying out some new effects (look at the fur on the lamb next time). Just as all the work on water in "Nemo" showed up again in "The Incredibles" as even better than the first time around, I'll bet you the movie after "Cars" involves some furry critters...

Me, I loved the movie. I wish they would tackle some more adult movies as well as the kid/adult movies such as "Nemo", "Incredibles", etc. I'd love to see Pixar do a E.E. "Doc" Smith space opera, for example.

Posted by Fred Kiesche on Saturday November 06, 2004 at 11:54 PM

That would be cool. Although...Pixar's movies seemed to center around a simple, easily-identifiable concept like toys, bugs, cars, fish, superheroes, monsters, etc. I think that's part of their success, actually.

Dreamworks had success using the same simple formula with Shrek (fairy tales). And yet Antz, which I personally liked, was not as successful as A Bug's Life. DW's current Shark Tale, regardless of its box office success, somehow does not draw my interest in the same way that Pixar's Finding Nemo did. Ah well...

Did your kids enjoy it, Fred? (You did take them, right?)

Posted by John on Sunday November 07, 2004 at 12:06 AM

Kid, singular. Yep, she enjoyed it, as well as the short. In fact she has already asked if we can bring home the DVD!

Posted by Fred Kiesche on Sunday November 07, 2004 at 8:29 AM

What's with the broken picture links?

Posted by Peter on Sunday November 07, 2004 at 9:12 AM

I saw it Sat morning at 10am (the time to go, by the way, to avoid the crowds - of course my local theatre was showing it on 6 screens so it might not have been crowded no matter what) and my son (5 years old) and I loved it.

What's not to like? The only thing I'd say was that it was a little bit over the head of a 5 year old (he had no idea what it meant to be sued, for example.) The voice acting was great (Holly Hunter is awesome), the visuals looked excellent, and the story was really interesting. It really felt like I was watching a comic book. All in all I'd say it was a 5 out of 5 for me. I can easily see the family watching this one over and over again, must like Toy Story and Shrek.

Posted by Scott on Sunday November 07, 2004 at 5:42 PM

Oh and here's a bit of trivia - the writer/director was Billy Bird, the writer/director of The Iron Giant (another very fine animated family film) who also did work on The Simpsons and Amazing Stories (which I personally really liked despite the critical failure.)

Posted by Scott on Sunday November 07, 2004 at 5:46 PM

Bah it's Brad Bird, not Billy Bird!

Posted by Scott on Thursday November 11, 2004 at 3:15 PM

<funnyvoice type="parrot">
Billy Bird...Billy Bird
</funnyvoice>

Posted by John on Thursday November 11, 2004 at 3:36 PM

How wonderful it is! Today, I had seen the film - "The Incredibles" this afternoon, My father also had seen this film in this evening. This cartoon movie is powered by Disney-Pixar.
In this film, I love the people's sensation, scene, bugbears. The scene is so sublime.
With the great imagination.

Posted by Creford on Friday March 11, 2005 at 7:11 PM

Does anyone know the name of the seamtress in the movie?
ANYONE?

Posted by ME on Wednesday May 03, 2006 at 9:05 AM

It's "Edna Mode" who was voiced by writer/director Brad Bird.

Gee, if only there was someplace on the web where we could go to get such information...some sort of Internet Movie Database that could collect movie-related data...that'd really be helpful.