The Incredibles: 8/10

Rating: 8/10 (19 November 2004)

Being part of that very elite club that didn't think that much of Finding Nemo, I didn't really know what to expect from The Incredibles, another computer generated film by Disney/Pixar. I had heard amazing things about it, but I had also heard amazing things about Nemo. The standard opening short, "Boundin'", made me doubt how good the actual film would be. But now I see that there's an inverse. Nemo's opening short was the hilarious "Knick Knack," and the movie just turned out to be mediocre. Here, "Boundin'" was quite atrocious, but The Incredibles was great. How could I tell it was great from the beginning? Well, I knew that Pixar made kids films, and the opening scene had a car chase filled with guns firing at each other. I knew this was going to be a different film, and, by golly, I knew I'd love it from then on in.
Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) is a superhero, saving his fair city from supervillains. However, when he rescues someone who didn't want to be rescued, it starts a whole line of lawsuits against superheroes, so Mr. Incredible, after his marriage to Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), is forced into retirement. He's now Bob Parr, an insurance agent living with Helen and their three children, Dashiell "Dash" (Spencer Fox), Violet (Sarah Vowell), and baby Jack-Jack (Jack-Jack? I mean, seriously, JACK-JACK?). A deranged former fan of Mr. Incredible, Buddy Pine (Jason Lee), decides to destroy every former superhero in the world by becoming Syndrome, and Mr. Incredible has to decide whether or not to keep his quiet suburban life to go back into the now illegal field of superheroing.
Ever since Toy Story came out, the bar for animation has continually been set higher and higher. And since Shrek, the look of the animation hasn't changed at all. That is, until November 5, 2004, when The Incredibles was released. This being Pixar's first film only featuring human characters, and since human characters were Pixar's weakness in all of their other movies, it's corrected here. And since there's not as much cartoonery here (in relation to Nemo, etc.), everything has do, and does, look a lot more realistic. It's this leap of animation that puts Brad Bird's movie up on the charts. Bird, who did the supposedly underrated The Iron Giant and various work on The Simpsons, took on this arduous task of writing and directing this two-hour long scope CG film. I'd hate to see the man who makes a perfect movie with those qualifications, but I have to say Bird did a damn good job.
The greatest asset of The Incredibles is how the story, unlike Nemo, isn't condescending to, or even for, kids. Gunplay, suicide, violence, peril involving young children-this is the type of action movie everyone's been waiting for. The Incredibles can be enjoyed at the same level by any age group. There aren't really many gross gags, like Nemo or other Pixars. In fact, the movie worked great because it's not a comedy. It's an action movie with many funny spots in it. It's like Bird's work on The Simpsons-many of the best episodes are not only funny, but are also fun to watch (which is part of the fault of the newer episodes, but I digress). Since the movie's major focus isn't humor, it can focus on the well-developed characters, the plot, and all of the details. The movie, at two hours long, flew by.
People have said that Craig T. Nelson's voicework is unrecognizable, but to them I have this to say: if you saw him and saw him talk, would you be able to recognize him? I thought not. The animation matched his voice perfectly in all of its deadpan glory, so, I suppose in that regard he did a good job. Hunter is pretty good, but Bird, as Edna Mode, is way overrated. I don't understand these people who say that Edna should have her own sequel, but that's another story. Samuel L. Jackson, as "Frozone", is awesome, as he always is (can he be anything else?), but he's only in about two scenes. Everyone knows that he's awesome, so why make his role so small? I couldn't place Lee's voice at first, but it was basically generic voice-over work. That's the weakest part of The Incredibles, is the voice-over work. Everything else is-dare I say-incredible, that it's brought down by such mediocre voices.
My rating: 8/10
Rated PG for action violence.