The Incredibles

The Incredibles actually managed to take a familiar set-up and produce something completely new without even knowing it. When the Pixar animated movie came out in 2004, the world had already seen its fair share of funny superhero movies and TV shows with options like The Tick and Mystery Men, but nobody had ever tackled a superhero family before and that’s what director and animator Brad Bird wanted to do when creating the idea. Initially trying to win back his hype after the box office failure of his last movie, The Iron Giant, he got in contact with his old college friend, John Lasseter, and pitched the idea to him at Pixar Animations. After getting the okay, it was set to be the next film in Pixar’s line-up as well as being their first with a fully human cast. Upon release, its easy to say it won people over very quickly and became an iconic film within their line-up. In a world of superheros and super-villains, the regular people eventually grow tired of those with powers destroying their livelihood, which results in them being made illegal and forced to remain in hiding. One such superhero, Mr Incredible (voiced by Craig T. Nelson) known under the named of Bob Parr, has found a life for himself with his wife Elastigirl (voiced by Holly Hunter), now known as Helen Parr, and his three children; Dash (voiced by Spencer Fox), Violet (voiced by Sarah Vowell) and baby Jack-Jack. Though seemingly normal, Mr Incredible is struggling through his own mid-life crisis, wishing to return to the old days of heroism. His chance comes when he’s called by a mysterious woman named Mirage (voiced by Elizabeth Peña) who wants him to shut down a military-styled droid with the capabilities to destroy whole cities. Upon realizing she’s working with his former fan/turned super-villain Syndrome (voiced by Jason Lee) who wants to use the weapon for his own villainous goals, this situations ropes in the rest of the family as they come together as a super family to take down another super threat. People fell in love with The Incredibles when it came out and its not hard to see why with a lot of the film managing to capture a style, personality and attitude that would be very appealing to adults and children. Though not quite as spotless as the Toy Story franchise in terms of emotional depth and story, its easily one of the best that Pixar has to offer for its memorable characters, unique animation style, and impressive action set pieces.

Superhero satire had become pretty familiar at that point and with the film’s child-friendly rating and being associated with a family-friendly studio, it wouldn’t be able to tackle seriously mature themes and ideals, so just going for the traditional route wouldn’t have been very interesting. Thankfully, the movie is clever enough to construct a story that incorporates familiar tropes of the superhero genre, yet maintains a retro feel that allows it to feel wholly unique from a presentation level. The film took inspiration from several different comic book superheros, mainly ones from the 1960s as well as traditional spy movies that would have been around when Bird was a child. The movie seems to encompass a lot of the excitements and peppy action that was prevalent within those types of movies yet also features a mature modern style that adds a nice new element to ground it with some form of identifiable reality.  It’s a movie that can be enjoyed by both adults and kids because of how it balances its realistic familial dynamics with its overblown comic book action.  It operates a lot of its emotions which is honestly more beneficial as the actual inner workings of the plot aren’t elements that a majority of kids would get into. Talks of political debates, possible affairs and hidden super-villain conspiracies won’t be that focused on for the kids, but the adults will recognize them and realize how effortlessly its woven into its narrative. What saves it is how the focus is still on the people and their emotional issues. It’s a nicely told story with plenty of funny lighter moments but isn’t afraid to get intense when it needs too, but never too much that its unpleasant, it’s an enjoyable sit that keeps you entertained for its almost two-hour length. With Bird both directing and writing the film, he demonstrates his past experience working on projects that highlight retro media as well as creating believable family dynamics within this movie, doing pretty solid at leading the story as well as creating it. Its pacing could be a bit better handled, at least in regard to how it spreads screen time between its characters. The movie is about Mr Incredibles mid-life crisis, so it makes sense to have a majority of the focus on him, but since the family in this movie together are so likeable and portrayed as pretty realistic, having less time with them is kind of disappointing. It starts off okay and the last act does a fantastic job balancing out all of them together, but the middle section feels like it sways a little too hard to only focus on Mr Incredible. He’s not a bad focus and the movie does come around in the end, but it’s a shame more couldn’t be tackled with the other characters.

Brad Bird had previously worked on projects like The Simpsons, which honestly helped in shaping how well he is at writing family drama and conflict. He really manages to capture the spirit and energy of each different role and how each individual would react given the situation; how the kids act with the situation that is out of their league but still feel capable of taking on, how the husband and wife would argue yet still be very loving, and how all of them are slightly abnormal from other people but still love each other dearly like a normal family would. It’s a talent that he’s great at handling and it thankfully really helps in making this family great to be around and great to watch. They are all just so likeable and relatable, it’s an angle and dynamic that most early comic book heroes didn’t quite capture right and this one did it pretty spot on by having the familial element as the focus and not the crime-fighting. It’s just awesome to see them come together as a family and take down the bad guys, with each at least getting a moment to highlight their strengths in a memorable fashion (particularly in the climax). As previously stated, Mr Incredible does get a little too much attention, but the character is thankfully never unlikeable or too selfish, and Craig T. Nelson does good at bringing that excitable heroic tendency being crushed by mundane reality which results in a few frustrating outbursts. Elastagirl gets a fair share to do during the second act, and the fun way they show off her stretchy powers mixed with Holly Hunter’s voice acting makes her a great character to follow as well. The supporting cast is also great including Samuel L Jackson as Mr Incredibles best friend and former superhero, Frozen, Mirage is an entertaining illusive character, Bud Luckey as the government agent responsible for relocating superheros has a cool face and leaves a memorable impression for only a bit part, and the character of Edna Mode (actually voiced by Brad Bird) as a designer for superhero suits is one of the film’s highlights for how ritzy and yet disturbingly passionate she is about her costume designs results in some very funny scenes.  While the heroes are great, they also need a great villain to go against, and Syndrome is a surprisingly fantastic villain. He weirdly works on all the levels a good villain should work on; he’s funny but can also be intimidating, his motivation and plan are pretty pathetic but fit with the character, Jason Lee does great as the voice and with him being a representation of overly obsessed fans going overly extreme after being hurt, he’s arguably ahead of his time with how fandom has evolved over the years.

Pixar has never really looked bad even during their first movie where they were still testing out CG technology, which comes from how their efforts to always try something visually new and creative allowed their effects to still look presentable today even if it hasn’t held up that well. The Incredibles actually proved to be one of their most time-consuming movies to animate as it required a lot more detail because of its human characters and its variety of locations. Despite how much time it would have taken and how expensive it would have been, it remains as one of early Pixar’s best looking films. The realistic motion of the characters allows them to feel stylized yet presentable in generic human settings and flashy and dynamic in the superhero action sections. The characters look so distinct and unique for 3D characters because of Brad Bird’s past history with 2D animation, as he along with Tony Fucile and Teddy Newton (two animators he brought over from Warner Brothers) created these designs using familiar 2D knowledge, which helps them look instantly recognizable, expressive, unique looking and possibly changed the framework of how CG characters would be created from then on. The environments have a lot of effort put into them and have a lot of fun with its usage of color throughout the whole movie. It’s surprisingly diluted in terms of its color which works for creating an emotional feel (having the color drained from your life means literally having the environment look pretty grey) and it really helps when the costumes come out with the bright reds being pretty prominent. The music by Michael Giacchino is easily a memorable highlight of the entire movie (also being matched up with one of the best ending credits of all time). Its retro-futuristic energy through the use of brass instrumentation and orchestrational tempo allows it to be catchy and fit into various different moments throughout the movie, whether it needs to be sly and quiet or bombastic and exhilarating.

The Incredibles, for lack of a better word, is exactly that, Incredible. It took something that’s been home to plenty of comedy-centric outings and made it into something that while funny, is also heart-warming, engaging, well-thought-out and thrilling for all ages. Its amazingly engaging as a child, yet still as captivating as an adult as it can be viewed from a whole new perspective with a better understanding of the stuff behind the family connection which really holds the movie up. Its true that there’s a few little chinks in the armor, but aside from that, its story is engaging, its characters are likeable, the visuals still hold up, its funny, its action packed, its timeless, It all fits into a nice little package and just makes it even more sad that people had to wait 14 years before they saw a continuation of this great film. Revisit it again to get those nostalgic feelings rushing back and enjoy one of Pixar’s best.