Another Smash Hit for Pixar

Rating: 10/10 (22 December 2005)

It's tough to be a superhero and not be allowed to manifest your prowess due to a lawsuit which has made you go into a "superhero protection program" and live the life of an Average Joe.
This is the case of Bob Parr, Mr. Incredible as he is also known. Living in marital complacency in suburbia with his wife Helen, also known as Elastigirl and his three kids, he works as a mindless office drone who needs to support his family and occasionally gets together with his buddy Lucius Best/Frozone and tries to fight small crime.
Until one day when he gets called on a special assignment in a remote location which leads him smack into the lair of a former fan, now turned arch-nemesis, Syndrome, who has an interest in destroying the world and also destroying his family.
What could have been a by-the-numbers story is enhanced by much of the "performances", or rather, the way the characters are made to interact to one another as per the screenplay. Bob and Helen are clearly in love even though their glory years as superheros (they believe) are over. Bob frets that he's become this paunchy bear of a man, Helen now has to multi-task since she is raising three children, each with a personality of their own, each with superpowers of their own.
I find it interesting to see how their kids also are given distinct personalities: Dash has the restless spark that his superpowers will require him to have and Violet is as close to channeling Lydia Dietz from Beetlejuice as possible -- shy, goth, and starting to develop her powers of invisibility and create force fields but beset by feelings of insecurity. Even Jack-Jack, the baby, has his moments, mainly caused by typical baby tantrums and in a crucial point, sheer fear. And this is where the script works: it never forgets that they are essentially kids who have these powers and would treat them as any kid would.
Brad Bird has in his hands an excellent, humanized tale of superheroes that borrows liberally from the Fantastic Four and takes it into an Ozzie and Harriet setting. He's created a movie that is tricky: while animated, it has some elements that will not be understood or suitable for children, such as Bob Parr going through his identity crisis, for example. At the same time, this is the first time that a film has broken grounds in its background animation. While the people are seen as cartoons, the locations are something else and have the look and feel of actual scenery. It's the first time water looks like water; that made me almost feel like reach out and touching the screen.
Much of the credit in establishing the characters are the voices used. Craig T. Nelson brings a beautiful masculinity to Bob Parr who would probably resemble bodybuilder Jeramy Freeman. Holly Hunter's voice makes Helen spunky, resourceful, feminist but devoted at the same time. Samuel L. Jackson brings his own star power into Lucius Best and the scenes involving his wife at a tense moment is side-splitting and cheerfully stereotypical. And what Bird himself does with his own rendition of Edith Head is nothing short of camp heaven.
In short, excellent family entertainment with a smart spin on what becomes of superheros once their fifteen minutes of fame are over.