Review: The Incredibles

After being sued by a man he rescued, Bob Parr, AKA Mr. Incredible (voiced by Craig T. Nelson) gets married to fellow superhero Helen, AKA Elastigirl (voiced by Holly Hunter) and agrees to a life of work-a-day, 9-to-5 normalcy. It’s not just Bob, though, as superheroes all around are finding themselves in similar legal hot water and after a government order, taking off the spandex to find ‘real’ jobs. Cut to 15 years later and Bob and Helen have the American domesticity thing down pat, even siring three kids. Of course the kids are born with special powers including invisibility, super-speed, and well, you need to see baby Jack-Jack’s power for yourself. Bob has been keeping a secret from his family, however. He and former superhero Lucius, AKA Frozone (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) sneak out every night listening to police radar to find people to save and crimes to stop. Bob is contacted one night by a secret government organisation that requests his super-heroic services. However, he soon discovers (but, being a bit dense, not soon enough!) that all is not what it seems at this volcanically-housed superhero HQ and is actually part of a villainous scheme by fanboy turned embittered supervillain Syndrome (voiced by Jason Lee). Meanwhile, Helen uncovers her husband’s recent superhero activities through superhero costume designer Edna Mode (voiced by Brad Bird). 

 

Often referred to as the best Pixar film to date, I’ve finally caught up with this 2004 Brad Bird (“Ratatouille”, the live-action “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol”) animated superhero comedy/family movie after 10-11 years. Yeah…still gonna go ahead and favour “Monsters Inc.”, I’m afraid but it’s certainly way ahead of “Cars”, the bland “Ratatouille”, and the frankly overrated “Up”. I’m also shocked that Pixar haven’t capitalised on the film’s success and delivered the obligatory sequels, as it wouldn’t be hard to come up with workable ideas. I’m sure Bird didn’t want to taint the original, but that wouldn’t necessarily stop the studio itself, surely. I’m not a huge fan of this film as many seem to be, but it’s quite cute, and probably works best as action-adventure than as comedy, where it’s far spottier and mostly confined to the opening 20 minutes.

 

Writer-director Brad Bird (or his voice) himself towers over all as the wonderful cinephile in-joke that is Edna Mode, clearly based on legendary Hollywood costume designer Edith Head. Her ‘no capes’ policy is especially cute. Jason Lee also scores well voicing the chief supervillain of the piece. As the #1 super-fan turned scorned supervillain, he’s hilarious and the source of a lot of the film’s humour, along with Ms. Mode. I’m not sure what Patrick Warburton was doing at the time, but it’s clear that he was born to voice Mr. Incredible. Instead we get “Coach”. Really? OK then, and it’s one of Craig T. Nelson’s finer hours, but still his casting is a bit of a head-scratcher to me. I did like Mr. Incredible’s stupidity, though. It’s amusing that Mr. Incredible’s new employer lives inside a volcano. ‘Coz…y’know, Blofeld. Mr. Incredible may be incredible, but smart and observant he ain’t. He’s kind of a gullible idiot, borderline Homer J. Simpson. I’m afraid I have an allergic reaction to the sound of Holly Hunter’s whishhhling Texashhhh twang, and Samuel L. Jackson’s vocal talents are appallingly wasted. His character needed to be in a lot more of this, though his wife gets the film’s funniest line: ‘Greater good? I am your WIFE! I’m the greatest good you’re ever gonna have!’. I also liked the opening scenes, with a funny interview segment followed by a huge action set piece…to rescue a kitten in a tree. Priceless.

 

The best thing in the entire film is actually the top-notch music score by Michael Giacchino (“Super 8”, “Star Trek”, “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”) which is similar to scores by John Barry and the like without ripping them off or directly referencing them (It’s strangely the only Pixar film score up to that point not to earn an Oscar nomination. Insanity!). It’s easy to see that animation has clearly dated since 2004 (something 1995’s “Toy Story” has to contend with even more so), but the design itself is very clever and very familiar to anyone who has watched even one James Bond movie pre-Brosnan. The superhero HQ is really cool-looking, actually. There’s also a nice use of shadow which I always enjoy, and really it’s only the character animation that feels dated, the rest looks terrific.

 

It’s cute, but awfully overlong I must say. Perhaps I arrived too late to the party here, but I honestly don’t see much more here than a fun animated superhero action-adventure with a few decent moments of humour here and there. It’s solid, but I’m afraid it’s a long way from “Monster’s Inc.”, “Toy Story”, “Toy Story 2” (slightly better than the original in my view), and even “Monsters University” in my book.

 

Rating: B-