The Incredibles

Bob and Helen Parr (Craig T. Nelson and Holly Hunter) have recently moved into their new suburban home with their three children, Violet (Sarah Vowell), Dash (Spencer Fox) and baby Jack Jack. Bob spends his day behind a desk at an insurance company and Helen stays at home. Attempting to blend in in the suburbs is difficult for them, but especially difficult for Bob. He used to be Mr. Incredible, before a series of lawsuits forced all of the Supers into retirement. Helen has acclimated more easily, but finds it difficult to keep a lid on their children's burgeoning super powers. Jack and his friend, Lucius (Samuel L. Jackson) go out for a boy's night, which for Bob includes listening to police scanners and trying to find clandestine ways to use his superpowers. After rescuing folks from a burning building, Bob returns home. But the fire has been ignited again. He soon receives a mysterious offer and jumps at the chance to use his powers again. Learning that many of the other Supers in retirement have disappeared, Mr. Incredible comes face to face with Syndrome (Jason Lee), the new villain in town."The Incredibles" is easily one of the most appropriately named films to be made in a long time. It is simply that. The newest film from Pixar combines human characters with the same attention to detail that has made all of their previous films so memorable.Written and directed by Brad Bird, the director of "The Iron Giant", a thoroughly underrated traditionally animated film released some years ago by Warner Bros., has found the perfect home for his talents, "The Incredibles" represents the perfect marriage of director and studio. Bird has been working on this project for a number of years, even before he started working with Pixar. At Pixar, they were able to help him realize his vision through computer animation. My friend Shannon described the film to someone as a "great action film that's animated". I couldn't have said it better myself.Shortly after the theatrical release, there was an article about the film and Bird in `Los Angeles' Magazine. It described how obsessed Bird became with every detail. This was his baby and he wasn't going to take any shortcuts. It clearly shows in every frame of the film.The film deftly blends comedy, edge of your seat suspense, great visuals, bright, colorful animation and great voice acting.The scenes of the Parr family living in suburbia are truly funny. To watch Bob, a huge hulking guy with a broad torso (think Superman, crammed into a small mini car, drive into his driveway and sullenly walk inside his home perfectly captures how many people feel about their lives. Violet and Dash are portrayed in a very realistic way. Violet is the older child, in Junior High, shy and afraid to talk to the boy she likes. Dash is the younger, more outgoing, precocious kid. They behave like a normal brother and sister would. They fight all the time. But if they have to help each other, they do and this shows that they really care about one another. Helen is gamely making a go of it in suburbia, because she is afraid of the consequences if her family's true identity is revealed.If you took all of the scenes of the family in suburbia and made a film simply of those, the result would be a great stand alone addition to any comedy library.After the family gets drawn into the action plot, things really kick into gear. Deftly combining elements of filmed superhero movies, James Bond adventures and action films, "The Incredibles" creates an amazing backdrop to tell an involving, exciting story.Many of the action sequences are set in buildings and landscapes clearly inspired by the James Bond films of the 60s. As Jack and Helen make their way through Syndrome's headquarters, a structure inspired by "Dr. No" or "You Only Live Twice", the filmmakers also play music inspired by 007 films. This provides a nice, unique and fun visual reference for the adults, to keep their attention.The action scenes are visually stunning, especially a scene referred to as the "100 Yard Dash". In it, Dash runs back and forth throughout the forest, trying to stay ahead of Syndrome's army of goons who are chasing him in small flying saucers. The camera moves at dizzying speeds, back and forth, up and down. It would have been extremely difficult to do this with live action.The film also takes an irreverent tone towards super hero films; much like "Scream" made fun of horror films. A scene in which Jack and Helen visit Edna, the costume designer to the Supers, evokes similar scenes between James Bond and Q. Edna is a hilarious character, inspired by famed costume designer Edith Head, and voiced by director Brad Bird. All of the clichés of superhero films make appearances. For instance, Mr. Incredible tosses out a one-liner when he dispatches a villain, creating a pun about his name, much like James Bond does. Jack and Lucius talk about `monologueing', a trait they came across many times as Supers. After capturing them, the villain would begin a monologue about his greatness, in the process giving them time to escape.All of the voice actors are spot on. Craig T. Nelson (TV's "Coach") does a great job of capturing the boredom of everyman working a humdrum life and the unabashed excitement at doing something he is truly excited about. Holly Hunter is great as Helen and Elastigirl. Her lilting Southern drawl provides her character with an innocence that masks her toughness. The two child actors capture the moods and attitudes of children growing up. Violet has a voice that is low and bored, but will probably change any minute. Dash is always excited or extremely bored. Jason Lee is also great as the crazed Buddy and Syndrome, the villain, perfectly capturing the glee of the more over the top villains from other films. Samuel L. Jackson's role as Lucius and Frozone is also very effective. He is a bit more like Helen, than Jack, trying to acclimate to civilian life, but when the opportunity presents itself, he immediately throws himself into the role of Super.The animation in any Pixar film is top notch, and "The Incredibles" is no exception. What you might not notice is that with each new film, the animation becomes even more advanced and realistic. As mentioned before, this is the first Pixar film with an all `human' cast'. The attention to detail on each of the characters is amazing. Especially the hair. In previous digital animation, the hair has provided problems. For instance, in the first "Toy Story", there is a little puppy. He looks good, but he looks animated. In the second, this puppy looks 100 times better, because the software for animating the hair was that much more evolved. In "The Incredibles", each of the humans appears to have real hair, especially Syndrome, whose shock of hair resembles a large flame. There are many details which still appear `cartoonish', but these are intentional, for the sake of laughter; for instance, Bob's small car. I have no doubt that Pixar could animate a film that looked almost photorealistic.Bird is clearly in tune with superheroes. His previous film "The Iron Giant" is a very effective, sweet-natured homage to the sci-fi films of the 50s. Using traditional animation, he evokes a story of a lonely boy who stumbles across an Iron Giant. They become friends, but there are problems when the townsfolk realize that a giant robot from outer space is living in the vicinity.The DVD for "The Incredibles" is simply beautiful. The widescreen version of the film is clear, bright and colorful. Of course, since the film was created in computers, the transfer is naturally going to be more brilliant than a traditional film transfer.The second disc in the set contains a Making of Documentary, complete files on all of the Supers, an `early' animated effort featuring Mr. Incredible and Frozone, deleted scenes, and a `new' cartoon called "Jack Jack Attack".In the film, there is a moment in which Helen calls home to check on the babysitter watching Jack Jack, the baby. The babysitter has left a series of frantic messages. It is a funny scene. "Jack Jack Attack" is a short cartoon depicting the events leading up to the phone messages, before the family returns home. I am pretty sure that this cartoon was created from footage cut out of the original film. Perhaps they felt it was running too long. It is fun to watch the footage, but when a character, from the film, makes an appearance at the end of the short, it sort of gives away the real origin of this footage. As a stand alone cartoon, there is no reason for this character to appear. As I said, its fun to watch, but it really should have been included in the Deleted Scenes area, and not billed as a new creation. It's a great idea to create new shorts featuring these characters, as Disney did with Roger Rabbit.The Deleted Scenes are interesting and include an alternate opening that is more than a little odd. Thankfully, they didn't use it or any of the other deleted scenes. These scenes are presented as animatics, a sort of rough draft of the film, that animators use to make sure everything is working well, before doing all of the final (most time consuming and expensive phase) animation.The `early' animated short, with commentary by Mr. Incredible and Frozone, is interesting, but odd. I really think this was created recently, as part of the filmmaking process. Not as some sort of early project by Brad Bird. I could be wrong.The complete files of the Supers (which Mr. Incredible quickly scrolls through in a scene in the film) are interesting to read through. There are also audio files from each of the Supers, in their voices, talking about their lives."The Incredibles" is yet another top-notch addition to the Pixar library and yet another top-notch DVD that belongs in every collection.

The Incredibles is one hour and fifty-five minutes and was released in theaters on November 5, 2004. The Incredibles tells the story of Bob Parr (Mr. Incredible) who in his heyday belong to a group of super heroes who belong to the NSA (National Supers Agency). After he saves a man life and the lives of people on a train, people begin suing Mr. Incredible and later on other supers. The supers are forced into retirement and to lead normal lives. It is fifteen years later and Bob and Helen (his wife and former Elastigirl) have three kids and Bob works as works at Insuricare where helps client find loopholes in their claims if they are turned down. This is a job that Bob does not like and hates his boss even worse because he is heartless and only cares about making a profit. Bob winds up getting fired because he threw Gilbert Huph (his boss) through five walls because he would not let Bob prevent a person getting mugged and when the person is mugged Mr. Huph mocks the victims. Bob is now home and unemployed again and has not told his wife about what happened at work. While going through is briefcase he discovers an envelop and opens it up and there is a message like the one seen in the opening scene in the Mission Impossible TV show; even exploding ten seconds after it is played and causing the house water sprinkling system to go off. There is a message from a person who call herself Mirage and offers Mr. Incredible a job and that would pay him three times his yearly salary. Bob accepts the offer and heads to the island to destroy the Omnidroid. Mr. Incredible is out of shape and his back seems to out on him at times when he is fighting the Omnidroid; in the end Mr. Incredible defeats the Omnidroid. While Bob is waiting for his next assignment, he works out in a train while Helen is thinking he is at work. Also Bob is getting reconnected with his family and is no longer miserable. One day Bob visits Edna Mode to have his original super suit mended. Edna wants to make Bob a new suit and throw away the old one claiming she does not look back. Edna agrees to repair the old suit while at the same time making Bob a new suit. Mr. Incredible is called back to the island for a new assignment and finds out that new Omnidroid that has been update is ready to take on Mr. Incredible. It is during this fight with the machine that Syndrome is controlling the machine. Syndrome at one time was Incredi-Boy for a few brief minutes of his life. Buddy Pine, Incredi-Boy, wanted to be Mr. Incredible sidekick but told Buddy to go home because he worked alone. Syndrome uses the Omnidroid and his zero-point technology to toss Mr. Incredible around. It is with his zero-point technology that Syndrome tosses Mr. Incredible too far and accidently let him escapes. Mr. Incredible is able to save himself by swimming into a cave and hiding behind the dead skeleton of Gazerbeam. Mr. Incredible is able to sneak back into the cave and finds the information about the other Supers who have been killed by earlier models of the Omnidroid and only Elastigirl and Frozone are the only two who remain alive. Meanwhile Helen visits Edna who believes know something about Bob whereabouts. Edna thinks that Helen is here to get the new Super suits she has made for the family. While at Edna's place, Helen finds out the Bob has not been working at Insuricare the last two months and thinks he is cheating on her. Edna tells Helen to fight for her husband and go and get him. Helen charters a plane to find Bob and does not know that Dash and Violet have sneaked aboard. Back at the island Mr. Incredible has been caught when his homing signal went off; a device he did not know he had. Mr. Incredible is now a prisoner of Syndrome and Syndrome begins to torture him. He wants to know how is on the plane and makes Mr. Incredible listen to a radio transmission. Mr. Incredible recognizes the voice of Helen but does not tell Syndrome about his relationship to her. Syndrome sends out heat seeking missiles to destroy the jet and succeeds in doing so. Unknown to Syndrome and Mr. Incredible, Helen, Violet, and Dash all survive the plain wreck and make it to the island. Helen leaves the children in a cave and goes to look for Bob. She finds Bob and the two make a break from the cave and eventually hook up with their children. Syndrome is able to recapture them and is surprised to learn the Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl are married and got busy, my favorite line in the movie even if I did quote it correctly. Violet is able to use her force field powers and is able to free the family. The Incredibles with the assistant of Mirage fly a rocket back to Metroville where the Omnidroid is set loose of the city and Syndrome tries to destroy his own machine but is knocked unconscious in the fight. The Incredibles and Frozone fight to destroy the Omnidroid and are successful in doing so. Syndrome is enraged and heads to the home of Parrs. Syndrome kidnaps Jack-Jack and flies out of the house with him. Jack-Jack is scared and begins to turn into a ball of fire, lead weight, and a devilish creature. This causes Syndrome to drop Jack-Jack and Elastigirl rescues her son. Mr. Incredible throws his new car at Syndrome which causes his cape to get caught in one of his jet engines and that blows up the plane and kills Syndrome. The Incredibles is the first Pixar movie to have human only in it. Also the computer animation is great too. The Incredibles gets an AAAAA+++++.Disc 1IntroductionPlay MovieCommentariesA) Brad Bird & John WalkerB) AnimatorSneak PeeksA) CarsB) Chicken LittleC) CinderellaD) MiyazakiE) Lilo & Stitch 2F) The Incredibles Video GameG) The Twilight Zone: Tower of TerrorSet UpIndexDisc 2IntroductionJack-Jack AttackDeleted ScenesBehind the ScenesA) Making of the IncrediblesB) More Making of the IncrediblesC) Incredi-BlundersD) Vowellett-An Essay by Sarah VowellE) Art GalleryF) PublicityTop SecretA) Mr. Incredible & PalsB) Commentary By Mr. Incredible & FrozoneC) Super FilesBoundin'A) CommentaryB) Who is Bud Luckey?Set UpIndex

Entertaining and funny

Good movie