Fantastic Job by Pixar and Brad Bird

Rating: 10/10 (5 September 2007)

First, it's the most realistic looking animation I've ever seen. The water looks like water, the characters' hair looks like hair, etc. I think the primary purpose of any movie is to tell an entertaining story, and to use the story to explore truths that never change. Brad Bird delivers this in SPADES! I'm going to hit on the high points. One is where a series of lawsuits forces the government to place all the "supers" in a "witness protection" type program and prohibit them from using their special abilities. This commentary on our litigious society alone makes the movie worth seeing. Another is where Bob Parr/Mr. Incredible first loses his job, then gets a mysterious message from a woman offering him the chance to use his abilities. He jumps on it, and goes to a remote island where the woman, Mirage, tells him there's a robot called the Omnidroid running amok, and has to be subdued without destroying it. He does so, using his brains as much as his brawn, and tears his old costume in the process. He then goes to the woman who designed it, Edna Mode. She's a cross between "Q" from James Bond and a fashion designer. She doesn't just want to repair his old costume, she wants to design him a new one. He muses aloud about adding a cape. Edna goes ballistic, shouting "NO CAPES!" When he disagrees, she brings up examples of "supers" who got their capes caught on objects or sucked into jet engines and killed, and he relents. No comic book I ever read explored the disadvantages of a superhero wearing a cape! When Bob returns to the island, he is ambushed and defeated by an improved version of the Omnidroid prototype robot. He is held captive there by Syndrome, once a young fan named Buddy Pine. Buddy once wanted to be Mr. Incredible's sidekick, but was harshly rejected. Bob manages to escape from Syndrome and discovers that Syndrome has killed many of his superhero friends in the process of developing the Omnidroid. When Helen/Elastigirl finds a platinum blonde hair on Bob's clothes, she suspects he's having an affair. She then discovers the repair job on his old costume, and goes to Edna to ask her about it. Edna tells her about the new costume she designed for Bob, and reveals the matching costumes she designed for the entire family. Next, Helen is flying a Lear jet towards the locater beacon Edna installed in Bob's costume, which has caused Bob to be recaptured. She discovers two of their children, Violet and Dashiell, have stowed away in the plane, leaving the baby, Jak-Jak, with a sitter. Earlier in the movie, we saw that Violet has the powers of invisibility and force field projection, and Dashiell (Dash) has super speed. Syndrome fires missiles at them while making Bob listen to Helen's mayday calls and shoots them down. Everyone, including Bob and Mirage, assumes everyone in the plane are killed. However, thanks to Helen's abilities and her costume, (which can withstand a temperature of over one thousand degrees and is completely bulletproof), they all survive. Meanwhile, Bob grabs Mirage and threatens to squeeze her to death if Syndrome doesn't set him free. Syndrome calls his bluff, and he releases her. When Syndrome starts berating Bob for being "weak", she tells him, "He's not weak, you know. Valuing life is not a weakness. And disregarding it is not strength." Helen and the kids arrive on the island, where she tells them to hide in a cave. She then infiltrates Syndrome's HQ, just as he launches a large rocket to carry the Omnidroid to Metroville. Dash has gone deeper into the cave, and discovers that it leads to a vent for the rocket's exhaust, which is rapidly approaching. He rushes back to Violet and they escape. Later, when they're discovered by Syndrome's henchmen, they both come into their own. Dash starts running through the forest at super speed, (the scene where he runs into a swarm of insects and gets them splattered all over his face is PRICELESS), and Violet uses her invisibility to evade death. Dash has discovered that he can actually run on water, and also shows that he can THINK just as fast when one of the henchmen chases him into another cave. He sees another bad guy coming at him from inside so he just stops and sinks into the water, causing the bad guys to collide above him. He runs back into the forest, and runs right into his sister, who hasn't been able to sustain a force field. More henchmen arrive and start shooting at them, and she projects a force bubble around them. She tells Dash to start running, and he does, which brings her and the bubble with him. They literally run right into their parents. A battle with the henchmen then ensues, with the family fighting as a team. After taking out the henchmen, they go back inside, where Mirage helps them take off after Syndrome. They get to Metroville, where Syndrome tries to "battle" his robot, who quickly figures out he's using a remote control on his wrist and shoots it off. Meanwhile, Bob's friend Lucius/Frozone is looking for his costume so he can join the fight, and is shouting to his wife, asking her where she put it. I won't go into detail, except to say the woman needs to take some lessons from Mary Jane Watson on supporting her man. (Remember the end of Spiderman 2?) With a combination of teamwork and quick thinking, they defeat the Omnidroid, but Syndrome escapes. I won't tell you how it ends, but it's a great ending. With the voice talents of Craig T. Nelson (Bob/Mr. I), Holly Hunter (Helen/E-girl), Samuel L. Jackson (Lucius/Frozone), Sarah Vowell (Violet), Spencer Fox (Dash), Jason Lee (Buddy/Syndrome), Brad Bird (Edna Mode), and Elizabeth Peña (Mirage), it's a great movie and a great ride the whole family will enjoy. 10/10