Story is the cake... animation and humor is the icing.

Rating: 9/10 (28 March 2005)

Teaming up once again to bring an instant classic, Pixar animation studios and Walt Disney present "The Incredibles". Sitting down to this film, I was expecting it to be a heartwarming modern day fairytale like "Finding Nemo" or "A Bug's Life". Disney's latest animated movie delivered something a little more grown-up however. The film takes your modern nuclear family and swaps in a cast of super powered members, each with their own unique abilities that tie in with their role in the family. Mr. Incredible, who stars as the main protagonist, is a combination of the Hulk and your average middle class workaholic who is always dreaming about his younger years. His wife Elastigirl spends much of the film being pulled in several directions at once while trying to remain the perfect mother and wife. Playing the role of the younger child and average hyperactive six year old is Rush, who speeds around the entire film at an incredible rate. His older sister Violete, the shy teenager who shuts out her parents, later in the film saves the entire family several times with her ability to create forcefields and invisibility. While the movie is light in tone and humorous at parts, the focus is more so on the dynamics of family life then laughs, and each characters development and maturity is presented as a parallel to the adventures they each experience. And as always, good old Samuel L Jackson makes another appearance as the super cool hero Frozone, proving once and for all that the man is in fact trying to be in every movie every made. BOTTOM LINE: Not as gut-bustingly funny as Shrek or Monster's Inc. but a definite winner for kids and their parents to watch together. See if you can figure out which of the main characters go through the same incredible challenges you do!