Funny lines, great animation, breathtaking action...excellent film

Rating: 10/10 (10 April 2005)

Hollywood has again shown that their best product tends to be of the animation variety. Pixar has again shown they make the best of the best cartoon movies have to offer.
After too many lawsuits for injuries sustained during rescues, the government creates a superhero protection program and the best heroes are sent into hiding. Of them is Mr. Incredible, who longs for the old days. At home, he feels unfulfilled with the family lifewife (Elastigirl, wonderfully voiced by Holly Hunter and able to stretch and bend to unbelievable lengths; daughter Violet, who has her own powers (invisibility and force-field creation) and looks eerily like Samara, the villain of "The Ring"; son Dash, whose power is the ability to run at super-speeds and resents not being able to show them off; and baby Jack-Jack, who seems to have no powersyet!) He gets his chance to relive the glory days through a top-secret experiment on a tropical island, which he soon discovers is a front for the villain. Looking like the Heat Miser from "The Year Without a Santa Claus," our bad guy is trying to eliminate all the superheroes and become a self-made one; his plot is to use his robotic creations to fool the people of the world into thinking they are under attack and he is there to rescue them.
This all makes for an entertaining story line in itself and the way director Brad Bird presents it is wonderfully exciting. Adding to the mix are the wonderful lines of the characters. They are funny, sarcastic and very well written. If only most comedies were half as funny as this movie is. I laughed more at this movie than I did any other released in 2004.
The animation, with its retro-futuristic rendering of 1960's designs, is amazing. The people at Pixar continue to amaze and impress. Rarely do they misstep and this is no exception.