The Incredibles
Cast: Holly Hunter, Samuel L Jackson, Craig T Nelson, Jason Lee.
Directed by Brad Bird.
Story: A retired family of superheroes unretire.
Running Time: 2hrs.
Certificate U.
The Incredibles is the latest Pixar animated offering, following in the footsteps of their past
highly-acclaimed movies such as Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo. That's all you need
to know, you can go and watch some TV now!
Oh alright then. The Incredibles are a family of superheroes forced out of superheroing by an increasingly
litigious society. They are forced to relocate and adopt new ordinary lives, hiding their extraordinary
superpowers. The children of the family, Violet and Jack Jack, have always been taught to hide their powers,
but as events pick up, they are allowed to learn and develop their talents. As usual, the whole film is
computer-generated, but this is the first time that Pixar have made a movie in which the cast is human.
It's remarkably difficult to make animations of humans look real and so the designers and animators have
gone with a cartoony look rather than a realistic one, which is probably the sensible way to go.
In fact, when looking back at The Incredibles,
I remember some scenes as a 2D cartoon rather than a 3D animation, such is its cartooniness. They weren't 2D,
of course, but the style, the movement and the characteristics are so similar to past 2D cartoons that my
memory has stored them that way. That's not a bad thing, it's just different.
The Incredibles, as with most animations, deals with common issues at a high level. The feeling of family
togetherness and coming of age smacks a little of Thunderbirds, which isn't
a good thing, but fortunately it is dealt with with much more humour and panache - and much less cheese.
The actors voice the parts as well as you would expect (it would have been hard to do it badly), with the
unknown (to me, at least - he has a long CV though) Craig T Nelson playing Mr Incredible, and the
predictable story plods along amicably and pleasingly. There are plenty of funny moments, the most memorable
of which features Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) caught in three sliding doors at the same time (she's very bendy).
I can't help thinking, though, that there is something missing. Maybe it's because these kind of movies
are becoming more commonplace so they need to try harder. Perhaps in an attempt to address this, there is
a "bonus" movie at the start called "Boundin'", which lasts around 10 minutes and features a cute bouncy
sheep and lots of fluffy toothy creatures. It's a touch weird but it's ... well, nice.
This is The Incredibles kryptonite. It's nice. Everything is done well, but you get the
impression that it's just another movie churned out by the Pixar factory. I liked it, I laughed and I'd
recommend it to anyone, but it doesn't quite have the edge that make Finding Nemo and Shrek 2 such a joy.
Pixar has plateaued.
I enjoyed this film: 4/5
I think the average moviegoer will enjoy it: 5/5
Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: 0/5
To enjoy this film you should: like cartoons.
To see the trailer for the upcoming Pixar movie "Cars", click this link:
Pixar - Cars trailer
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