The Incredibles is Incredible. (Can I stop the review now?) (Also I really wanted to say that)
Pre Ramble: The Incredibles was released back in 2004 back when The BC was an annoying little tyke. This was back in a time where the only good animated movies were only coming from Pixar & had no track record of an average movie unlike today, especially in 2004 not just in the animation department. This movie was directed & written by Brad Bird & he has a pretty good record & this is my favorite movie of his. So with the new movie on its way & since I’ve haven’t reviewed any animated movies I thought why not make a review on it. I guess I should say spoiler warning because people freak out if you don’t have one so here you go.
Influences: It’s not very clear where the movie is set but if you pay close attention it’s clearly set sometime in the 60’s or 70’s. This is more true if you look up on Wikipedia it says Brad Bird took lots of inspiration from stuff from his childhood to create this movie. From the colorful costumes to the superheroes having normal lives while fighting crime & even some spy elements like the supervillain secret island. The setting of the movie is about superheroes being outlawed by the general public & has to go into hiding, kind of like a certain graphic novel set after the Vietnam War. (But less kid friendly) Especially since The Incredibles are based on another team of superheroes with a compliment in their team name. Except for Dash who you could take a wild guess who he’s based on. (If you guessed The Six Million Doller Man you deserve a pat on the back) Brad Bird clearly a fan of this stuff & Pixar gave him all the control he needed to make this fun family superhero movie.
The Plot: A long time ago Superheroes were everywhere saving the day & throwing bad guys into prison & also dying of costume design flaws. One day Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) really annoys a guy when he saves him from jumping off a building, (Did this go over your head when you were younger) then all the superheroes are being sued for being superheroes & are forced to go into hiding (Too bad those government officials in Civil War didn’t think of this) 15 years later Mr. Incredible lives a normal life with his morally supportive wife Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), sky teenage daughter Violet (Sarah Vowell), their irresponsible son Dash (Spencer Fox) & the baby Jack-Jack who’s a baby.
The main story is actually about Mr. Incredible getting away from his boring mundane life & going back to his glory days of fighting crime. That’s when he meets Mirage (Elizabeth Pena) who gives him the opportunity he always wanted. This leads him to a secret island run by his number one fan Syndrome (Jason Lee) who’s killed a bunch of superheroes waiting for the day to humiliate his idol & then show the world if your rich & have loads of money you can be a superhero too. Mr. Incredible is captured & then the rest of the family goes after him but they also get captured.
But they escape by working together & then they fight a big robot in the middle of a big city. They save the day, then the baby defeats the main villain & they all live happily ever after. Until another evil villain called The Underminer (John Ratzenberger) shows up to enslave humanity. The family puts on their masks then the movie ends & 14 years later I’m still speculating the fight between The Incredibles vs The Underminer. (I doubt the PS2 game will have any play in this)
An Adult Drama Disguised As A Fun Kids Movie: Most Pixar movies are good fun movie for kids & it’s got engaging enough story for adults to enjoy. I haven’t seen the other Pixar movies in a while but I don’t remember them being as adult oriented as much as this movie. The plot is kicked off because of a suicide attempt, Mr. Incredible is depressed, Mr. Incredible & Elastigirl both compare their own out of shape bodies, Syndrome makes a few sex jokes, there’s some political drama in there & the reason why Elastigirl goes to the island in the first place is because she believes her husband is cheating on her.
While still being a movie about self-discovery, revenge & the most over used message of them all you can’t do everything alone but you can do it better with a helping hand. Pixar & Disney have always being good at telling a good story for all ages can get behind, but this one is aimed more to older audiences. Like how many kids do know could pick up on the villains never learn to shut up joke? But there are still fun parts kids can get behind that whole chase scene with Dash on the water I remember baby me always thinking that was awesome or Elastigirl sneaking into the base while beating up all those guys.
It’s a fun for the whole family. But now I more like the scene on the plane where the family is in danger & Syndrome is taunting Mr. Incredible. The by the end Mr. Incredible has the potential of becoming a much darker character when he believes he has lost his family. It’s so tense & the comedic scene where Frozone (Samuel L Jackson) is asking his wife for his costume will never get old.
Everything Is Incredible: I’m glad I rewatched this again because I really have nothing to complain about. Probably besides the animation looks a bit dated but I can get over that. It’s a timeless movie in my eyes a movie I can always go back to it & continue to enjoy myself every single time I watch this. The music composed by Michael Giacchino is fantastic I would rank it as one of my favorite soundtracks of all time. The writing is excellent, the characters are all interesting & fleshed out (Except Mirage) & the performances are great, especially from Craig T Nelson, Helen Hunter, Samuel L Jackson, Jason Lee & Brad Bird as Edna Mode because Edna is the best. They were all amazing in this movie. Ironically this is an incredible movie.
Final Thoughts: The Incredibles is one of my favorite superhero movies, one of my favorite Pixar movies & one of my favourite animated movies. It’s pretty much a masterpiece in my eyes & it’ll never get old for me. Here you go my first 10/10 rating its Incredible. (It’s not funny anymore I know) If you haven’t seen it I cannot recommend it enough it’s a superhero movie for all ages & I just know that this new Incredibles movie isn’t going to be as good as this one.
That’s pretty much all I have to say on The Incredibles so if you agree or disagree please let me know in the comments. If you can share it with your loved ones that would be great and if you haven’t notice I’m a huge fan of movies, TV Shows & Video Games and I’m willing to suffer for my audience so let me know on what I should review next. (It’ll probably be Oceans Women or the new Incredibles movie we shall see)
Thanks for reading this review and I’ll see you again in the next review.
