Living in an ordinary world...

Rating: Null/10 (4 August 2008)

There are elements of the animation in this film that are quite staggering. The hair and fabric especially look so lifelike that you begin to wonder where it's all going to end. I caught a bit of a Formula 1 race the other day; the camera was located in the driver's cab so that we could see what he saw and my first thought was how much it looked like a video game. Thankfully, the likes of Pixar aren't content to simply amaze its audience with its computer images but also devotes time and care to the storyline of superheroes trying to fit into an ordinary world.
The film, although immersed in bright and saturated colours, has a dark undertone that will fly over the heads of the kids at which it is primarily aimed to hit the their adult companions square between the eyes. We're all super-heroes in our own eyes  or we'd all like to be  and our powers are constrained only by the mundane chains of job and mortgage with which we bind ourselves. Couple that with a yearning for the glory days and you have either a recipe for depression or a launch pad for wild fantasy. The film acknowledges the fact that we're all different, but doesn't patronise its audience by pretending we're all special. It's OK to try to be something more than we are, just stay within society's rules and values as you try.
The film provides a few belly-laughs too. Worth catching.