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5 Jan 24th, 2005 

88 Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful

Advantages:
You name it, its got it

Disadvantages:
The costumes  -  yeah, sorry !

Recommendable Yes:

Detailed rating:

Did you enjoy it?

Story

Characters / Performances

Special Effects

How does it compare to similar films?

TheChocolateLady

TheChocolateLady

About me:

שלום! Sorry, but I no longer have time to read or write for this site. I wo...

Member since:21.06.2000

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Okay, so I'm a little slow off the mark here, seeing as I prefer to be one of the first reviewers of a movie, but sometimes I just can't resist - and there's something just so irresistible about this movie that I had to write this review. I also think I can bring something new to this review that I believe others might have overlooked. So, here goes.

By now, almost everyone reading this review already knows the story. The super-heros have been banned from saving the world due to a slew of unfortunate legal battles, but they aren't adapting well to non-super-hero lives, since they have to hide their super-powers from the world. But evil still lurks and of course that means they're going to have to come out of hiding, eventually. Yes, that's the basic plot here - no need to get into more details, if you ask me.

The first thing people will notice about this movie is the stunning graphics. Pixar has yet again brought us a computer generated animated film that will WOW us. Using its total spectrum of the abilities they've developed until now, we are given characters that look as human as possible - while not being totally human. In this - as opposed to Polar Express - I don't think there was a real attempt to make the characters look completely realistic - but rather to make them more fun and interesting, and I truly appreciated this. Still, they are very well rounded (pun intended) characters. So, why not use humans, then? Simply because with animation we get the flexibility of that lets characters do the humanly impossible bits without calling in the fancy stunt doubles and later touch ups by the special department. And anyway, its fun to see how the animators made caricatures out of parts - sometimes heavily basing their features on the stars whose voices later dubbed those parts.

Mind you, some of the backgrounds are still a little on the flat side, and I felt that in some scenes we lost a touch of the 3D feel when the super-heros were particularly active, but it still was quite a visual feast for the most part. Of course, an animated film doesn't need special effects - it is a special effect all on its own, and as I already mentioned, this one is first rate.

Then there's the acting. Of course, in this case, it's the voices we depend upon to get our characters straight. Just to let you know, I happen to hate Holly Hunter's voice, and she reads the main female role of Helen Parr/Elastigirl. And yet, for some reason, her voice didn't put my teeth on edge this time! You won't recognize many of the other voices here except perhaps Samuel L. Jackson reading Lucius Best/Frozone. Some might recognize Craig T. Nelson's voice doing Bob Parr/Mr. Incredible, but that's about it. I actually recognized Elizabeth Pena's voice doing the character Mirage, but I may be the only one. What's really important isn't whether you can figure out who's behind the voices, but rather if they sound the part and do a convincing job of it. Personally, I think they all had a fantastic time working on this film, and it shows in their voices - everyone seems to be perform at the top of their ability, and there were no weak links in the bunch.

And how about how this film was constructed? I found much more than just a kids movie here. Of course, we have the super-hero genre which includes Superman, Spiderman and a myriad of other animated and/or human played miraculous characters. There's also a touch of the science fiction thrown in, as well. We then have the animated children's genre ranging from classic Disney films through to Pixar films such as this. Let's not forget the genre of action films, and you can take your pick which bang-bang, blow them up movie you'd like to compare this with. Nothing out of the ordinary, except that it seems to capture so many genres. But there is something else.

Personally - and this is where I think I have something unique to say about this film - I think they also stuck in some James Bond! Yes, that's exactly what I saw in this film that I think others have overlooked. Good old double-oh seven appears in several bits of this movie. For instance, there's a tropical island where the bad guy has set up his high-tech laboratory for his plan to... em... do whatever evil he's planning to do (Dr. No, to name just one). Or how about the underwater entrance to the villain's lair (Die Another Day)? And certainly those dasterdly gadgets in this film would be the envy of any Q from MI5.

But it doesn't stop there. Oh, no - the list goes on, but that role call is far too lengthy for this review. Still, I have to mention the topper - that is, there's a distinct Bond-ian flavour to the action music soundtrack for this film. To me it was unmistakable, but I'm a die-hard Bond fan, so that's something I'd notice. Would that I could add sound clips to this review to show you the similarities. But since I can't, you'll just have to trust me that Incredible's composer Michael Giacchino did just enough careful transpositions in his score to keep Bond Theme composer Monty Norman for suing him for plagiarism. Really! But since I'm such a Bond lover, that hardly made this a drawback for me.

Speaking of drawbacks, yes, I do have to say that I found one. The was in the costume department. Unfortunately, I have to be honest and tell you that the new super-suits that were developed for The Incredible family just weren't as pretty as Mr. Incredible's original suit. Sure, red is sexy and hot, but the blue in the old uniform - that was really pretty. Also, Elastigirl's original outfit had a really cool sparkly mask, which far outstripped the plain black one she gets later in the film (I'm not giving anything away here - those costumes are on all the posters for this movie). Yes, its sad, but true - nothing is ever perfect. But I'm hardly going to reduce my rating for this little foible - perhaps in the sequel they'll hear my plea and get some new costume designer to help them out. Who knows?

Bottom line - its no wonder that this film is called The Incredibles, because to tell you the truth, after you've seen this film, the first words out of your mouth will certainly be "That was just INCREDIBLE"! I am totally confident that your kids will enjoy it, and if you don't have any kids, you shouldn't be embarassed to go see it anyway - I can assure you that you'll have a great time watching this film with or without kids alongside you. Unreservedly recommended for young and old and everyone in between.

Thanks for reading!

~~~~~
Technical Stuff:
This is a review of the film only, as per the criteria below.

The official website of this movie can be found at: http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/incredibles/index.html

This is already available on video and DVD in the US and Canada, but not yet in the UK. However, when it is released in the UK on or about March 18 of this year, the DVD will cost £14.99 and the video will cost £15.99 via Amazon (huh? The DVD will cost LESS than the video? That's strange). The soundtrack can be purchased for £10.99 at Amazon. Oh, and if you can't wait to buy this, and if you have missed it in the theatres, then you should know that Amazon now has a rental service. How about that?
~~~~~
 

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Comments about this review »

Aussieme1106 27.03.2005 14:47

Incredible title, Incredible review..... Got to say, it has to be the most incredible review I have read on the film. I watched it and thought it was awsome... Many thanks for sharing Davida..... Mandy xx

ilusvm 26.02.2005 12:20

i watched this with my 5 year old brother (good excuse to watch it!!) and really enjoyed it. Actually i agree with you on the suits - blue was better! Em x

alan666 25.02.2005 18:15

excellent review, also, excellent title

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