Just So Awesome!

Rating: 10/10 (8 November 2004)

This has got to be one of my favorite animated films, ever. Ranking up there with The Triplets of Belleville. Everything in this film just works so well, falling together perfectly. Each voice casting, the visuals, and the story. Brad Bird has to be one of my favorite animation directors (creating the excellent Iron Giant, and directing one of my personal favorite episodes of The Simpsons, "Krusty Gets Busted")and he masterfully displays his skill here.
This blows Finding Nemo away (which, I feel, was overrated) as well as anything else that Pixar released. And it deals with issues you'd never think you'd see in a Disney movie. Like infidelity and fights that occur within families. And then so many of the heroes die, though this is usually told in a flashback way and is really funny.
The story is excellent and the action sequences are intense. The forrest chase between the two kids and those razor bladed hover-things was great, reminding me of the speeder chase in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, except done MUCH BETTER. The final fight was just as intense. This time, with Samuel L. Jackson's Frozone coming in to kick some robo butt as well. Oh, and note how Samuel L. Jackson plays a character that freezes things, further defining how cool he actually is.
Basically, this movie is just so awesome. Better than a lot of things I've seen this year. Shrek 2 and Shark Tale, two other big computer animated releases, are left in this film's dust. In means of story and visuals. Visually, sometimes landscape scenes look so REAL, that you wonder if George Lucas is going to use them for the upcoming Star Wars film. And the characters interact in a real way too, that it seems the animators at Pixar had to hold themselves down so people remember that this is still an animated movie.
Kudos to you Brad Bird. For 115 minutes, you kept us gripped!