Incredibly Derivative

Rating: Null/10 (16 November 2004)

In general movie fans, the public at large is already very-well-aware of the "retro"-influences on 21st Century American Films... nobody need point out the fact that 'Incredibles' follows suit. We are a nation of commercialism and various forms of capitalistic endeavors, and (I really needn't point out the most obvious) the fact that Disney/Pixar's latest (2004) animated feature is less about originality, and more about repackaging; you all know what inspired the creation of the Parr Family and their non-unique superpowers, et al, ad infinitum.
Yes, this computer-animated feature is all that it may have promised in the minds of children and adults; state-of-the-art cyber-generated realism, the importance of quality time spent with members of one's own family... the list goes on, again ad infinitum.
And yet... And yet I found myself eating up all this "regurgitation" and loving myself for doing so. Who cares right? This Disney/Pixar "collaboration," however, is more Pixar than Disney (as was previous collaborations). After all, Disney only distributes and markets them, and after their next and last feature ("Cars"), Disney will have to fend for itself.
The general consensus (and admit it, everyone already knows this, so why point it out, right) that Disney used-up it's "Last Leg" before it went into business with Pixar in the first place (I didn't even bother going out to see that cow-cartoon "Home on the Range," what was Disney Thinking!)
In "The Incredibles," I found myself occasionally forgetting I was watching an animated feature, and (sort-of) viewed the action and character-interplay as if it was a real-life drama being filmed, with real-life actors and 'natural' settings. Case in point, I was impressed with the "special-effect" of witnessing a wall of water open up, curtain-like, to allow the bubble-shaped monorail car enter the villain's fortress of evil.
There are other things I liked about 'Incredibles, but see it for yourself. I believe you'll enjoy it immensely. Most amusing is male-director Bird as the gravelly-voiced female "Edna" (comic-relief on top of all the rest of The Incredibles' comic-relief).
But let's not forget that this is recycled material (the characters, the situations and the smarmy attempt to take more cash out of our wallets). Walt Disney once said something like "Disneyland will never be completed, as long as their is imagination left in the world." Well, Walt, Disneyland was completed a long time ago, you and your WED Enterprises Company just happen to know how to resell it in new and innovative ways. Take out the "Energy" exhibition at EPCOT and rebuild it as something similar and more up-to-date at Animal Kingdom, and call it "Dinosaur" (how generic is that!). And by the way, we already have dinosaurs on the "Primeval World" train ride here at Disneyland, in Anaheim, California.