Incredible!

Rating: 10/10 (7 January 2005)

When you think of track records by companies that are entirely first class in the movie business, you'll be stumped but then consider Pixar. These are the guys behind Toy Story 1 and 2, A Bugs Life, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo and now The Incredibles. That is a fantastic CV with nothing below very good. The weakest of the Pixar movies is A Bugs Life but that's only because it had its thunder stolen by Antz. Once again Pixar deliver a superb, exciting, funny, and all round entertaining family film. If anything this is their most adult because the first 40 minutes deals with Mr Incredibles suffering at his boring life, since he was fired as a superhero. The family of superheroes have to hide their powers and it plagues them. There is a surprising amount of everyday life, drama here and this was a brave move for a film primarily made to cater for youngsters. It has a similar thematic depth to it as another Superhero film by the name of Spiderman. They allow these characters to be real people in an extraordinary situation not just making it a simple and hollow superhero flick, all about their powers.
The story follows Mr Incredible and his family. For some time they have been living as ordinary citizens after Mr Incredible rescued someone who was trying to commit suicide and the guy sues him. This starts a spate of liable cases against superheroes (a thinly veiled jab at Americas sue happy culture.) and they are forced to live like normal people. This is all very well and good but Incredible yearns to be a hero again rather than a pen pusher. He and his friend Frozone go out on nightly rogue missions to help people getting into trouble along the way. The story soon has the Incredibles back donning their suits to fight a new foe, called Syndrome, also known as Buddy Pine who was once Incredibles biggest fan. They must fight giant robots on secret islands and in Manhattan as well. Rest assured the film is funny and has great action but more than that it is a change of pace for Pixar. This film is not as heavily comedic as their other films. There aren't a whole host of quirky and eccentric side characters. It's not a laugh a minute film because they have some family drama in it and it plays out more like and action movie. It never resorts to spoofing the Hero genre too much which I felt it would probably do. The film is entirely light hearted but it isn't scattered with jokes throughout. Some people may like this change while some may prefer to have more humour but in any case the film is funny enough.
Once again the film has the lush looking visuals and pushes the envelope even more than the last film but it works to its degree thanks to the excellent voice work. That has always been a Pixar strength, the fantastic vocal performances. You see some films where the vocal performance doesn't work, particularly in some recent Disney movies like Sinbad. Craig T Nelson is excellent as Mr Incredible and plays it very well, he makes the part his own and you must respect the fact that Pixar didn't just go for the biggest names on the block. The same is true of Jason Lee as Syndrome. The big names come in the form of Holly Hunter, as Elastigirl and Samuel L Jackson as Frozone. In one respect I can compare this excellent casting to Albert Brooks in Finding Nemo, Brooks not one of the biggest stars but he had the lead and did it well, with TV icon Ellen Degeneres superb at his side. These films could easily resort to brining in the Clooney's, Pitts, Farrell's, Blooms and giving them lead parts, without them really being suited to the parts, but they cast the best person for the job. Sure their first film might be accused of doing that by casting Tom Hanks in the lead, but he was perfect for the part of Woody.
This is another example of good storytelling combined with cracking visuals and its fun for all the family. It was risky increasing in the serious side and losing some comedy, because it could have alienated the kids, but the pacing is perfect and the youngsters never lost interest when I saw it, they were transfixed. As was I! *****