A Rich, Meaningful, Funny, And Visually Arresting Family Film

Rating: 10/10 (9 May 2013)

This refreshing cartoon is so much fun! And it's honest fun, built on character and story without relying, for a change, on pooh-pooh humor or juvenile idiocy. This film has a family of all-too human characters, which, although each member has special super- human characteristics, is also burdened with all-too-human personal challenges-- whether it be a boring job, the struggle for adolescent identity, or the need to be special in some way--this family is quite wonderful.
The Pixar animation is dazzling, from the recreation of wild, tossing seas to the attack of whirring saucers in a tropical jungle, pixar magic takes you there, but only in context of a thrilling story--and the characters are tellingly memorable, especially a costume designer likely based on Hollywood's Edith Head combined with Coco Chanel--who would have thought it in a kiddy pic? How refreshing to have a film that doesn't go for the cheap trick, the easy laugh, the lowest common denominator, but instead aims for genuine heart. This is a family film in the best possible sense of the word and will withstand the test of time.