Much Action, But Missing Something

Rating: Null/10 (7 November 2004)

Big Pixar fan here. Also a big CGI fan. I took my three kids today to the movie and left a little dazed by its pace and length.
I had superhuman expectations for this movie and it came up just a bit short. The action was great. The CGI was fantastic. But after all that, it just seemed to be missing something. To me, the "style" of the movie wasn't terribly notable either. Unlike Nemo and even Toy Story or Bug's Life, there were few "wow" moments where the eye candy of the CGI spoiled the viewer. Perhaps it's because we've already been spoiled from past Pixar and Shrek level pictures. This picture takes the action to a whole new level but that aspect tended to blur too many times for my tastes.
Viewers who loved the thoughtful moments of The Iron Giant may be a bit disappointed here. Some of my favorite moments of The Incredibles were the small, clever instances rather than the manic action. I laughed out loud at some of these instances and wanted more. The Samuel L. Jackson character seemed underdeveloped. Even the main characters seemed thin to me. Yeah, we learned about Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl's early career fame, but nothing prior.
I think this movie will stand out in the Pixar collection for the action, but it's getting easier for these CGI movies to numb the senses. There's enough here to satisfy many types of viewers, but the pace will make a second viewing necessary to get everything. Having seen The Polar Express premier the same weekend, I may have been jaded. TPE is heads and shoulders above TI in my opinion, but the former's story was already a classic. The quality of its CGI was jaw dropping too, where as The Incredibles just seemed very good.
I think we expect each new computer animated movie to set a higher standard than the previous, but they'll have to level out at some point. I think we may be near that point (i.e. Shark Tale). It's now possible with CGI to do "anything". But the story will continue to be most important. I noticed during several points of The Incredibles that I should be more impressed with what they were able to do on screen, but I felt it didn't matter. The story wasn't keeping my interest a well as I would have liked.
Pixar has set a high standard and this movie will make them financially happy, but I don't think it's Oscar-worthy. They're mortal and may not please all of us all of the time. But it's hard to not expect instant classics from them, which may be our fault more than theirs.