Great for the whole family

Rating: 8/10 (6 September 2011)

This is an older Disney Pixar film that I recently watched again with my three year-old. I've been revisiting an abundance of children's films and decided to start reviewing them on our blog. This seemed like as good of a place as any to get started.
We are first introduced to Mr. Incredible, Frozone and Elastigirl in the prime of their crime fighting days. We see them stopping muggers, saving cats from trees, stopping bank robbers and performing feats of heroism in a montage. However, trouble soon develops in the guise of lawsuits by citizens against Mr. Incredible and other superheroes for personal injury and property damage. The government tires of paying for these lawsuits and forces all the superheroes into retirement.
We then see our heroes struggling to act normal in suburbia. Mr. Incredible is forced to be a drone at an insurance agency while his wife Elastigirl is a stay at home mom with three children. We witness her struggle to convince them to keep their budding super powers in check. Other than the fact that they have super powers the struggles and frustrations will be easy for every family to relate to. Eventually an overweight and out of shape Mr. incredible is offered a new assignment by a mysterious benefactor and the plot really takes off.
Many of the sub characters in the film were as memorable as the main characters. I especially enjoyed the super hero costume designer Edna 'E' Mode voiced by Brad Bird. That role just really tickled my funny bone. A few other things that stood out as particularly enjoyable to my three year-old were giant monster robots, volcanoes, giant tikis and robot birds.
The Pixar animation in this film is top notch as usual. I really like the heavily stylized retro style to a lot of the décor. The characters are fun and easy to relate to even with my lack of super powers (as far as you know). Most importantly both I and my three year old could enjoy the film together. There are not many worse things than having to sit through terrible children's movies.
I found similarities in the film to the Fantastic Four Comics and to the Alan Moore the Watchmen graphic novel. If you like great animation, an enjoyable funny plot and believable family dynamics, I think you will enjoy this film.