The Incredibles Review
by Jerry Saravia (faust668 AT aol DOT com)November 22nd, 2004
THE INCREDIBLES (2004)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Viewed on November 18th, 2004
RATING: Four stars
Maybe it is really high praise but "The Incredibles" is the best superhero movie I've seen, a high-octane, comically dazzling, jazzy, relentlessly funny, grab-the-arms-of-your-seat type adventure. As pure entertainment, it sets a whole new standard to any comic-book or animated movie I've seen. It is so damn good that I could have sat down for another viewing.
Craig T. Nelson is the voice behind Bob Parr, the patriarch of an amazing family, who works a monotonous job at an insurance agency (he gives his rejected clients tips on how not to be rejected in the future). Bob was not always so bored with his work, he used to be a superhero known as Mr. Incredible. The problem is that Mr. Incredible faced one too many lawsuits from saving people who did not want to be saved. Therefore, Bob and his family had to constantly relocate thanks to a superhero relocation program. Bob's wife is Helen, also known as Elastigirl (voiced by Holly Hunter), who hopes Bob can make something of his life beyond superheroic duties. They have three children, the kind that would give parents nightmares. There is Dash (voiced by Spencer Fox), the fast-as-the-speed-of-light runner in the family who loves to play pranks with his teenage sister, Violet (voiced by Sarah Vowell). Violet's specialty is that she can turn invisible except for her clothes. There is also the newborn baby who has trouble mimicking her mother's eating habits (oh, yes, he has superhuman abilities but they are best left undiscussed here).
Naturally, it doesn't take long before Bob Parr is asked to reprise his superhero duties by some secret agency. The trouble is that Bob is overweight and can't fit into his spandex suit. So the Edith Head of superhero costume fitters, Edna Mode (voiced by writer-director Brad Bird), designs a spanking new suit for the hero and off he goes to save the world. Unfortunately, the agency may have an ulterior motive when it is discovered that it is run by Bob's archnemesis, Syndrome (voiced by Jason Lee), wants to destroy Mr. Incredible and uncover his identity. Now that Bob is in trouble, the family will have to band together and save him. Yes, there is more than a passing nod here to The Fantastic Four.
"The Incredibles" is rich in character details and nuances, showing the kind of depth in superheroes you rarely see in this genre. Brad Bird (writer and director of the underappreciated "Iron Giant") is not interested in mere wall-to-wall action, he personifies his superheroes with wit and intelligence in equal spades. Bird also clutters his narrative with plenty of visual gags, bright one-liners and action scenes of real exuberance at every turn (One action scene with floating bikes in a forest is as hair-raising as a similar one in "Return of the Jedi"). This is also the first animated film from Pixar to exclude talking animals or amphibians, focusing in squarely on the humans and it is an outstanding job. Thanks to the voices, these characters seem more alive than any Hollywood film with real humans. What is remarkable is that Bird also focuses on his heroes' vulnerability so that we can see ourselves in Bob's mundane job and his anger (though very few of us are capable of lifting a car over our heads) or Helen's hope that her family can adjust to suburbia without using their superpowers.
Kudos must also go to Bird's attention to the children and their own eccentricities. It is fun seeing Dash and Violet dash around violently in the dining room, or seeing how Violet always covers her face with her long black hair. She also hopes that she'll be noticed by a cute boy in school. It is also fun at seeing how eager Dash is to run at lightning speeds. There is one miraculously funny scene where Dash is shown on a videotape to have possibly placed a tack on his teacher's chair, but the kid is so fast that he disappears from his chair for less than a nanosecond.
At a breakneck speed of 120 minutes, "The Incredibles" is rollicking good fun from start to finish. It is consistently funny and comically charged with a high-wire intensity that is unusual to find in an animated film. It is as exciting and thrilling as any "Star Wars" or "Indiana Jones" flick, and far superior to any Marvel, D.C. or other type of comic-book movie I've seen. I know there is a "Fantastic Four" movie coming in 2005 but it won't come close to the grandeur, humanity, excitement or drollery of "The Incredibles."
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