Cute little adventure films, with a hint of elitism...

Rating: 7/10 (13 June 2005)

This is more of the good stuff we have come to expect from Pixar. It has memorable characters, funny dialog, and lots of action. In the movie, superheroes have all been forced to retire due to liability issues. Their super-battles did so much damage that society has decided to battle evil the old-fashioned way. Mr. Incredible and Elsatigirl try to make a go at "normal" family life and forget their super-ness. However, Mr. I cannot let go of the old days, and his longing is manipulated by an evil genius to perfect killer robots. Soon, the whole family must emerge from normal life and use their super powers to bring down the bad guy. Thrilling action sequences and witty dialog ensue.
If you want to find something wrong with this film, the only obvious flaw is that it is formulaic in plot and the characters are recycled from some comic book or another (in fact, the three quarters of the family is very similar to Marvel's "Fantastic Four": a strong man, a stretchable person, a girl who can turn invisible and create force fields).
An added bonus to this film are the philosophical nuggets it throws out. There is an obvious message that one should be true to one's self, instead of trying to conform to society. More subtle is the constant barbs against normal people the superheroes make. They bridle against the mediocrity that they are expected to imitate. The bad guy was not born with super powers, but made himself super through his hard work and inventive genius. The bad guy goes so far as to threaten to provide the world with inventions that will give all people super powers. Mr. Incredible opines that if all people are super powerful, than nobody is super.
What does it mean? Do the Incredibles represent old inhertied wealth, despising the crassness of the nouveaux riches bad guy? Is it better to simply be born with advantages, or to create one's own opportunities?