The Incredibles was the 2004 offering from PIXAR, who brought us some of my favourite animated movies of all time - Finding Nemo, Toy Story I & II, and A Bug's Life. After reading several rave reviews of this one, I was expecting another wonderful movie from them. Perhaps it would even be… INCREDIBLE!!!!
At the start of the film Mr Incredible is saving the day yet again (he just about has time before getting married), despite the best efforts of his sidekick wannabe ("Buddy"). Part of his heroics involving saving someone who's jumped off a building… leading to a lawsuit for saving someone's life against their will. So he and his family have to relocate under a new identity, and are forbidden to use their superpowers. However, civilian life isn't easy for Mr Incredible (especially as he now works for an insurance firm and he's committed to helping people, which are obviously incompatible philosophies…)
He misses the old life of fighting criminals and saving people… so he (along with a superhero friend who feels the same way) continues to look for opportunities to aid the police without them realising. Of course, this can't go on for long before someone notices… but what are the intentions of the mysterious organisation that contact Mr Incredible? Other characters include the super-stretchy Elastigirl (stretchy limbs to die for) and an evil genius (there's always one, isn't there?!?).
The storyline is good throughout (albeit rather derivative) and keeps the pace going nicely. Being PIXAR, the animation is of course superb. The voice acting too cannot be faulted, though no-one particularly stood out to me. Writer and Director Brad Bird obviously had a lot of fun voicing eccentric designer Edna 'E' Mode. Compared to other PIXAR movies there's a lot more violence in The Incredibles, and some children (and obviously parents) have not been too happy about this. Due to the nature of the plot I guess this was largely unavoidable but it will put off some parents from letting their children watching it. It's certainly not gory, but there are a lot of explosions and bullets flying around. More worrying to me was the fact that the children in the audience when I saw it seemed to find the most violent parts the funniest… The writing very occasionally came up to the standard of Nemo or Toy Story 2, but for most of the film it was good rather than inspired. If the satirical element from the beginning of the movie had been sustained throughout the movie then it would have improved the overall script no end, but sadly we're left with only a few grin-inducing comments about superheroes. To me the action doesn't really make up for the relative lack of humour (don't get me wrong, there are funny moments, just not enough). Obviously with many glowing reviews I've seen of this on various sites, many disagree with me on this!
The action happens thick and fast, and along with the plot it certainly keeps you interested. However I didn't find it as funny as any of PIXAR's previous films (with perhaps the exception of Monsters Inc). Another drawback with this was the fact that few if any of the effects haven't been seen before in live-action films. With, for instance, Finding Nemo, you had an environment and characters that couldn't possibly be realistically portrayed in a non-animated movie. Another odd thing was that, while superheroes did get satirised to some extent, the whole latter part of the film was more a pastiche of James Bond films (and possibly Spy Kids 2) than anything! The whole film was certainly entertaining and I did enjoy it, but the magic and charm of Toy Story I and II, A Bug's Life, and Finding Nemo was noticeably missing. (If this were not a PIXAR movie, I may well have given it 5 stars - they are a victim of their own success!)
The Incredibles is a good movie, but not a great one. However, I would happily watch it again, so it's definitely well deserving of 4 stars - I just don't feel it quite deserves five. It's not one of my all-time favourite animated movies, but it still comes thoroughly recommended!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: Highly entertaining, a movie for all, irrespective of age, sex, creed or colour Disadvantages: Its so good, it makes you want to see it again!
Aug 26th, 2005
very helpful by (95%):
helpful by (5%):
