Good - but not great!

Rating: 7/10 (12 March 2006)

The Incredibles is a good film - but I don't think it is as good that it should make the top 250 of IMDb.
The film has some premises and plots that are original enough - superheros are forced underground because their actions, which inevitably lead to massive property destruction and other interferences, have resulted in enough lawsuits that they were banded. Added to this is an over-anxious fan, who takes his hero worship to the point that he wants to destroy the superheros, and very nearly succeeds, all the while becoming a superhero through the use of devices he invented himself. And finally, two of the superheros had gotten married and had super kids. This presents a large, and frankly entertaining, subplot to the film as we superimpose situation comedy family life over the nominally perfect world that superheros are usually portrayed as having.
The problem I have with the film, as noted by another reviewer, is that these elements are overshadowed by the larger action sequences, which are violent and tend to be based on other films. Dash's sequence while he is running through the jungle, for example, seems to be virtually identical to the Princess Leia/Luke Skywalker/Imperial troopers floating motorcycle sequence in "Return of the Jedi". The robot that Syndrome uses seems to be taken from the classic Jonny Quest episode "The Robot Spy". While I have no problem with borrowing from other films/sources, I prefer it to be done for satire reasons - this was not the case here.
I will admit - the animation keeps getting better and better - the facial expressions are the best I have seen yet in a Pixar film.
So, a good film certainly - but not an excellent film. And the violence would discourage me from showing to a very young audience.