The Incredibles
Review
by : Geoff Jacks
Family Reality
At a time when the Superhero films seem resigned to go the
way of the Western (too many/too similar/no new ideas), Brad
Bird (Iron Giant) comes out with a concept that not only promises
something different from all the Spider-Bat-X-Man stories…it
delivers: Superheroes who kick butt that we can actually identify
with.
Enter
the world of Bob Parr (Coach’s Craig T. Nelson), a good-hearted
insurance-claim representative whose size (and ambitions)
are far too large for the cubicle life has placed him in.
You see, Bob is, or was, once the powerful hero, Mr. Incredible.
But in a world where being exceptional is a crime against
conformity, he, his super-heroine wife (voiced by the wonderfully
raspy-voiced Holly Hunter), and their equally powerful children
are forced to live as anyone else in suburbia…quietly,
reservedly and without incident…a tough thing to accomplish
when you can lift diesel engines or break mach 7 on the school
track.
Enter
the plot: Fired from his work-a-day job for shoving his boss
through SEVERAL walls (and really…who wouldn’t
if they could), Bob is contacted by a mysterious woman with
a chance to don his tights and battle evil once more…and
Mr. Incredible is back in a liberating catharsis that would
do any armchair quarterback proud!
But how
does it all look? We go see these movies as much for their
look as for the story, right? The scenes are fabulous as Pixar
proves, once again, they are at the top of the CGI game. As
with most computer-animation features, each seems to be a
new experiment in design and function. As Monsters, Inc. did
with hair/fur, The Incredibles works with clothing…how
it hangs, how it moves, etc. When you watch it, take special
notice of the sheen of their red costumes…almost as
if you could reach out and feel the threads of the material…wild!
You’ll
also notice the pace of the film is decidedly different. In
Finding Nemo we experienced chase scenes utilizing the main
characters, but the as the backdrop was the unchanging ocean,
there was little sense of going anywhere. In this film, (especially
the scenes where son, Dash, is racing away from the bad-guy’s
minions in flying shurikan-style hovercrafts) we feel every
branch that breaks across his chest, every tree trunk he barely
dodges. If your cup of tea is action films, this scene is
worth the box-office price, alone.
But while
the wide eyes may come from the action and spectacle…the
smiles and laughter come from familiarity found in the characters.
Perhaps it’s familiarity in ourselves in the “what-has-become-of-my-life”
of Incredible’s mid-life crisis, or the familiarity
of the conversations a family has around the dinner table
(hopefully without force-fields at your house). You will identify
with the Incredibles either from your childhood or, if you
have kids, your life now. Of course, as with any good story
(animated or otherwise), there are many themes presented to
titlate the audience: ordinary vs. extraordinary, contentment
vs. ambition, the regret of past wrongs, even the denial of
one’s true self.
But the
film is most successful as a defense of family. While presented
in a more sugar-coated fashion by the Spy Kids trilogy, this
film gives us a truer sense of family ! devotion, acceptance
and even loss. In the end, you’ll not only believe The
Incredibles are a real family…you’ll believe they
can fly.
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