Originally published 11/17/04
The Incredibles
Director: Brad Bird
Writer: Brad Bird
Producer: John Walker
Featuring the voices of: Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Jason Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, Elizabeth Peña, Spencer Fox, Sarah Vowell
Some movies move fast because they’re afraid that if they slow down, they’ll die. We sense their desperation, and that they have nothing to offer. Then there are movies like The Incredibles, which move fast because they are having too much fun to hang around, and burst with enthusiasm and joy in every frame.
Zippy, bright, and endlessly inventive, The Incredibles carries on the winning streak of the animation geniuses at Pixar. Though it doesn’t have the heartstring-tugging depth of their best work like Finding Nemo or Toy Story 2, this sort of like saying Rubber Soul isn’t the best Beatles’ album. Its mere existence places it head-and-shoulders above most of the competition.
The movie is written and directed by Brad Bird, who made the criminally-underappreciated The Iron Giant. If you haven’t seen that masterpiece, stop reading and go watch it right now. I mean it. I’ll wait. In both movies, Bird shows not only an awe-struck appreciation for the un-ironic whiz-bang heroics in 50’s/60’s comic books and cartoons, but a colorful embrace of all the details of the period. Michael Giacchino, a relative newcomer to film scoring, provides a lively, horn-heavy retro soundtrack that is the most fun of this year.
And as for the visuals – take the island fortress where much of the center portion of the story is located. It looks like someone gave Ken Adam (legendary designer of all those master villain hideaways in the James Bond movies) a blank check and permission to finally fully-design the miles-sprawling volcanic lair of his wildest dreams.
From the yawning cavernous chambers where the villain Syndrome (Jason Lee) holds court, to the hip mod spherical monorail system, it’s an orgy for the eyes that shows Pixar’s artistic prowess still growing with every feature. The water, the grass, the leaves, the hair – it’s all beautiful. Some people use animation to make a buck off children. Others use it to realize fantasies that simply wouldn’t play in live-action, like a super-kid speeding so fast he’s literally gliding across the surface of water, dodging in and out of rocks while being chased by giant flying discs.
Dreaming and daring big is part of this movie’s ethos. It traces the descent of Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) and his new bride Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) into obscurity after a world which once was grateful for their protection drives them underground with resentment and lawsuits. Greatness is held up as an un-asked-for nuisance; it’s no wonder that the mild-mannered alter egos they adopt to blend in are named “Parr”.
And so 15 years after the government instigates the “Superhero Relocation Act”, “Bob Parr” and family are squirreled away in suburbia. The former Mr. Incredible sports a heavy gut and works for an insurance company that, while legally required to pay some claims, doesn’t exactly encourage it. Once a week he and his old superhero buddy Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson) each tell the missus they’re going out bowling, then hunker down with a police scanner to see if they can do some incognito good deeds.
The Parrs now have three kids: Violet (Sarah Vowell) who, unlike most adolescent girls who wish they could become invisible, actually can (not to mention make vibrant purple bubble shields); Dash (Spencer Fox), who like many boys can drive you crazy with his ability to be everywhere at once, only in his case it’s because he can run at hundreds of miles per hour; and Jak Jak, who as an infant has yet to reveal his super-abilities.
All are strongly discouraged from using their powers even at home. The risk of being revealed as different, even if that difference is extraordinary, is too dire. They must strive to blend in.
It all drives Mr. Incredible crazy. When you have super-strength and your son has super-speed, a game of catch can take on whole new dimensions, and he thinks that should be celebrated. While “Helen Parr” makes the best of the domestic life, he chafes: “These people just keep finding new ways to celebrate mediocrity!”
So when he gets a mysterious invitation from the sultry Mirage (Elizabeth Peña) to don his old duds, come to the aforementioned island, and take care of a little problem, it’s just the thing to put a little spring back in his step. Of course, he doesn’t know of Syndrome’s master plan, or just how he and Syndrome were linked in the past. But all in good time.
The Incredibles is a little more grown-up than past Pixar features. We’re warned almost immediately from the first frame, when after a brief intro we’re thrust right into the middle of a bullets-whizzing police chase. There’s nothing bloody or more than cartoonishly-violent about it, but as they’ve been around long enough to see children reared to adolescence on their movies, it’s clear Pixar enjoys the freedom to play to a more sophisticated demographic.
At the same time, a lot more sly jokes play to the grown-ups. Kids likely won’t understand why Mrs. Incredible has such a big smile on her face and keeps pulling Mr. Incredible back inside the house once he re-discovers his superhero mojo, nor will they laugh with the grown-ups when Mrs. Incredible, in the midst of some derring-do, stops by a mirror to reflect disappointedly on figure that, while holding up admirably, has undeniably produced three children.
But the kids certainly will never be bored, as barely a few minutes ever go by without a chase, an explosion, a giant robot attack, or someone being chucked through a wall or two or eight. Bird, who also voices the superheroes’ indescribable costume designer Edna Mode, keeps nudging us, a smile on his face, towards the next surprise, the next bit of action ingenuity. By the time a world-threatening crisis really has the Incredibles gelled and going into battle as a unit, that he simply finds something for each of them to do is impressive. But what makes The Incredibles such surpassing entertainment is that what they do works in such constantly evolving harmony, just like a good nuclear family should.