The Incredibles

Rating: 7/10 (22 August 2010)

In a world where superheroes and villains are common, life is good for two heroes named Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl who like their jobs of saving people and finally marry each other. Due to an unfortunate lawsuit against Mr. Incredible, the use of all superpowers is banned and the heroes are forced to lead ordinary, normal lives. The dull suburb life is hard especially for Mr. Incredible (civilian name Bob Parr) and his lively son Dash, while his shy daughter Violet would prefer to be a normal girl despite her skills. When Bob is offered a top secret chance to resume his heroic antics, he agrees enthusiastically, much to the chagrin of his wife Helen. Things are not what they look like though and soon the whole world is in grave danger, prompting Helen to get back to business too.
Pixar Studios' strengths are in good use in the movie: the conventions of James Bond-style action movies are lampooned amusingly, particularly the colourful character designs of the superhero subgenre – actually the whole plot premise sounds similar to the Watchmen graphic novel that was made into a movie in 2009. There are also some enjoyable mature jokes, such as the legal battle over saving someone's life against their will and the urban anxiety caused by an uneventful office career. The training montage and the cape mishap collection are funny too, but mostly the comedy is very action oriented. This is also where the film's biggest problems lie, as the last act of the story is almost nothing but an endless action sequence. Perhaps kids are entertained by hordes of supervillain henchmen being beaten by the family or a giant robot destroying a city, but I was getting a bit bored by the hectic, noisy mayhem that leaves little time to examine the characters' personalities. I understand the movie is not supposed to be a deep character study, but I really feel the pacing gets stuck on full speed for too long at the end.
I saw a dubbed version of the film, so I cannot comment on the original voice actors' performances, but if they are as enthusiastic as the Finnish actors, the constant yelling also adds to the numb feeling caused by the excessive action (which is also surprisingly violent for a family film, even if cartoonish). At the end of the day, I don't think The Incredibles reaches the quality of the best Pixar productions that I've seen (Toy Story 1 and 2, WALLE), but it is a decent piece of entertainment in any case. I enjoyed the first half more than the second, but I'm sure many people disagree with me, so give it a go if you have enjoyed Pixar's works so far. Any superhero fan should also get a kick out of it.