Who Asked You...Movie Reviews - The Incredibles

The Incredibles

Directed by Brad Bird ("Iron Giant")
Starring the geniuses of Pixar Animation Studios and the voices of,
Craig T. Nelson ("Coach")
Holly Hunter ("Little Black Book"
Jason Lee ("Chasing Amy", "Almost Famous")
Samuel L. Jackson ("Pulp Fiction", "Jurassic Park")

The streak is intact.

Pixar Animation Studios has scored again with its new hit movie that you may have heard of "The Incredibles". If the 70+ million dollars it made during it's opening weekend wasn't enough to tell you it was a hit, then maybe the constant media blitz and talk around the proverbial water coolers will.

After some unfortunate litigation (a pro-tort reform Disney film??), all of the 'supers' in the world are forced to go into hiding and not use their powers. This includes the super-est super Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson). Mr. Parr as he is now known lives a hum-drum existence as an insurance adjuster while his wife Elasticgirl (Holly Hunter) raises the families three kids and tells them not to use their powers. But Mr. I wants excitement and he gets it when a mysterious force enters his life.


"The Incredibles" is a very imaginative film. The characters are well crafted both in terms of the smooth animation and the deeper than you'd expect personalities. Each character is given an action sequence to show off their "special talents" and at the same time act like regular people who just happen to be super. The gags are sharp very clean and the dialogue is original and interesting. Again, everything you'd expect from a Pixar film.

The one weakness in "The Incredibles" is in the lack of originality in the plot. The 'super-heros as regular people with regular problems' concept has been done already. In fact, it has been done quite a bit lately. The underachieveing "Mystery Men" was one example and the under exposed "The Specials" was another. Television once even got in on the act with "The Tick". "The Incredibles is certainly not the first film to borrow an idea from another work. Steve Jobs, founder of Pixar, has even said in the past that, "Great artists steal." Their view is that there is nothing wrong with a creative person taking a poorly excuted idea from someone else and improving on it. Apple Computers (The first company Steve Jobs founded) is well known in computer circles for getting three of their greatest innovations, the graphical user interface, mouse, and laser printer, from the Xerox company.

That being said one cannot argue that "The Incredibles" is not an improvement. Bringing the story to the level of children allows the film to focus more on having fun than on the internal turmoil in a super's soul. Sure there is enough foreshadowing that you will know the end of the film during the beginning. But you will be sure to have fun watching the ride.

If it weren't named in such a way, I don't think I would refer to Pixar's latest work as 'Incredible'. That being said, it is still a fine film that is very entertaining and that kids will love without a doubt. Only the youngest of children will be scared in anyway by the action. While the fast paced gags and stunts will keep anyone who's under 16 (physiologically or mentally) interested the whole time. The Pixar win-streak stands at six and shows no signs of weakening.