Movie Mondays: The Incredibles

I loved superheroes when I was a kid. I wasn’t big into comics, but I did watch a lot of cartoons featuring them. X-Men the animated series, Spiderman the animated series, Static Shock, Ben 10 and the DCAU were all among my favourite shows growing up. A lot of that was just the power fantasy of it but it was a little bit more than that.

My favourite episode of Justice League Unlimited is “Patriot Act”. In it, a bunch of lesser-known heroes are asked to take part in a parade while the big leaguers are busy. During this event they’re attacked by a villain who’s taken some special serum and turned into a hulking monstrosity. The heroes are completely outmatched, I mean it’s a goddamn stomp. And yet, despite being out of their league and having no chance of victory, they still keep fighting to protect the civilians. That was what I loved about superheroes, they still kept on fighting even if things were hopeless.

So when I found out that Pixar was doing a movie about superheroes, I was ecstatic. My favouritie film studio tackling my favourite subject, sign me up. What I didn’t know at the time was that this wasn’t really a Pixar film. Instead, the film is the creation of animator Brad Bird. Bird is best known, or at least was best known at the time, for serving as an executive consultant for the first eight seasons of The Simpson, which are also the best seasons by the by. I’m not sure what exactly an executive consultant does but he did direct a few episodes and helped establish the series art style.

After Brad Bird left the show, he would go to work at Warner Bros where he would direct the underrated classic The Iron Giant. But when The Iron Giant flopped due to Warner Bros being Warner Bros, he soon left the studio and got picked up by Steve Jobs to work at Pixar. Say what you want about Steve Jobs, the man knew talent when he saw it. Brad was more than willing to join Pixar anyway because he was good friends with John Lasseter having been friends since the two’s days at CalArts. And yes, that is the same CalArts responsible for making televised animation outright unwatchable these days.

After joining Pixar, Bird already had an idea for the film he wanted to do. He had been kicking around the idea of a superhero family for several years and when he pitched it to Pixar, they loved it and thus The Incredibles was put into production. Make no mistake folks, this is Brad Birds film. He not only directed and wrote the film himself, making this the first Pixar film to have solo writing and director credits, he also voiced one of the characters. Make no mistake, this is Brad Birds movie.

The Incredibles was released in 2004 and would go on to become another critical and financial hit for the studio. Since then, it’s become known as one of Pixar’s best films. Many people cite The Incredibles as their favourite of Pixar films and I’m one of them. Well at the time anyway, since then other Pixar films have proceeded to take the top spot, but The Incredibles is still in my top 3. it’s not just one of my favourite Pixar movies, it’s one of my favourite movies period.

Before we get into the plot though, I want to gush about the films looks. One thing you need to know about Brad Bird is that the man loves his nostalgia. If The Iron Giant is a love letter to science fiction of the 1950’s, then The Incredibles is a love letter to spy films of the 1960’s. This gives the film something that, in hindsight, other Pixar films lacked somewhat, a sense of style.

Don't get me wrong those other films still had great animation but they weren’t stylized in any particular way. This movie is dripping with an early 60’s style and it just looks cool. It doesn’t use its retro affectations to look antiquated either. It has modern and even futuristic technology thrown in as well. What's funny is that the film takes place in 1962 but I thought it took place in modern day for the longest time. I think that’s a good indication for how timeless this film is.

Of course it’s as well animated as one would expect from the studio at this point, but it was also a big milestone for them. This was the first Pixar film to have an entirely human cast. No inanimate objects, animals or the like, just human beings. They finally had the technology to pull them off convincingly. The animation has also aged very well. If you go back and watch a film like, say, Shrek, you’ll notice the human characters have an uncanny feel to them because they went with a semi-realistic look. The Incredibles characters are a lot more stylized and as a result they’ve aged like a fine wine.

Then there’s the music. I said this film takes heavy inspiration from spy films and nowhere is that more apparent than with the soundtrack. Composed by Michael Giacchino, this is a soundtrack that takes heavy cues from movies like Mission Impossible and James Bond. Giacchino would go on to do the soundtracks for later Mission Impossible films and you can see why. The main theme almost sounds like a direct riff on the famous Mission Impossible theme. It's one of the best Pixar soundtracks so far.

But it isn’t just spy films that The Incredibles takes inspiration from. This is a movie that pays breathless homage to the golden and silver ages of the American comic book. The colourful costumes, the over-the-top villains, it revels in all of the classic tropes and cliches. Yet it doesn’t do so to mock them but rather does so in reverence. Brad Bird clearly loves this stuff and he treats the topic with respect.

Which brings us to the story. Set in a world where some people possess fantastic powers, the film centres around former superhero Mr. Incredible. Once the most popular superhero of his day, when he saves someone who didn’t want to be saved and is sued in the process, this eventually leads to more and more lawsuits and an increasing public outcry against the Supers.

This causes to the government introducing the Superhero Relocation Act, forcing superheroes to hang up their capes and go into hiding as normal civilians. Now Mr. Incredible is average man Bob Parr and is married to Helen Parr, another retired hero who went by Elastigirl, and has 3 kids. Violet a shy girl who can turn invisible and create force field, so basically a teenage Invisible Woman, hyperactive son Dash who has super speed and baby Jack Jack who has no powers other than being goddamn adorable.

Bob to be blunt is unhappy with his life. He works in a dead-end job, he’s overweight and he feels rejected by society. He misses the glory days and even moonlights as a vigilante with his old partner Frozone. All he wants is to help people and the world has told him he can’t.

Bob is soon given a chance to relive those glory days when he’s contacted by a mysterious benefactor for a special assignment of taking down a killer robot on a remote island. Bob takes the offer, allowing him to become Mr. Incredible once again. He succeeds and becomes much happier than he was before, spending more time with his family and becomes motivated enough to get back into shape.

Things take a sour turn when he’s brought back to the island and finds a new and improved killer robot, coming face to face with his creator, Syndrome. A supervillain with a vendetta against Mr. Incredible. The entire family ends up on the island to rescue Mr. Incredible and must work together to stop Syndrome’s sinister plot.

The Incredibles is a very different movie than the previous Pixar films we’ve looked at. When I said this wasn’t really a Pixar film, I meant it. While the previous films were comedies, this one is more of a straight superhero story. Don't get me wrong there is comedy here, it’s an animated family film I'm pretty sure it is illegal for it not to have any, but by comparison it is a lot more serious and action focused.

It’s also the darkest Pixar film so far. The movie focuses mostly on Mr. Incredible as he struggles with what is basically a mid-life crisis. I’ve heard people lament the fact that the movie focuses too much on Mr. Incredible and not the other family members, but I have to disagree. When you have a film with a large cast it helps if you have a focal point and it’s not like the other characters don’t get any time to shine.

There’s also a lot of death in the movie too. The henchmen don’t just get knocked out, a lot of them straight up die, and the main villain has a very high body count. Hell, the whole events of the movie started when someone sued Mr. Incredible because he prevented his suicide. That’s dark for a family friendly movie and I kind of love it for that.

Remember when family movies used to be dark, or at least had dark moments in them. I miss those days. Back then they treat kids with respect, they knew they could handle that stuff. The Incredibles doesn’t treat kids like idiots, and I respect it for that.

But then there’s the overall theme of the movie. One of the things the movie touches on is the idea of what happens when exceptional people are shunned while mediocrity is praised. Mr. Incredible even says so at one point in the movie. To an extent, I can see where the movie is coming from, one need only to glance at the wasteland that is modern Hollywood to see this actually taking place, and the movie does show us the effects this rejection has had on the Supers, particularly the Parr family.

Both Dash and Violet both struggle with this in different ways. Dash wants to try out for sports but because his super speed will basically make him the best by default, and this would out them in the process, he isn’t allowed to. So he becomes a bit of a troublemaker since he doesn’t have a creative outlet to express himself. Violet meanwhile outright hates her powers and wants to just be a normal girl. This self-loathing has led to her being more introverted, I can relate, and lacking in self-confidence.

Then there’s Mr. Incredible himself. Mr. Incredible is a man stuck in the past obsessed with his former glory. It would be easy to write the character as simply a glory hog but that isn’t the case here, he legitimately wants to help people. He even tries to stop a mugging while being reprimanded by his boss but is prevented from doing so. I love the irony of this man who can bench press a train being brought down by a man he could snap in half because they have all the power.

You understand Mr. Incredibles frustration. He wants to do great things, not for glory and admiration, but just because it’s the right thing to do. And yet society has told him he can’t, they don’t want or need him anymore. Really the only member of the family who is seemingly ok with all this is Elastigirl, I mean she is the most flexible of them after all. She's the glue that tries to hold the family together like a good mother should.

But to go back to what I was saying before. Mr. Incredible might be frustrated that the world has turned him down, but he’s guilty of the same thing. Which brings us to Syndrome. Syndrome is easily the best Pixar villain, straight up none of the others touch him, though some do come close. Syndrome was once Mr. Incredibles biggest fan to the point that he wanted to be his side kick. But Mr. Incredible told him no, he wanted to help his hero and was shot down. Now he’s an insane megalomaniac who uses his inventing skills to make weapons rather than to help people.

Syndrome is a play on the toxic fanboy. He feels that just because he’s his number one fan he deserves to be Mr. Incredibles side kick even though he would just get in the way. He didn’t want to help, he just wanted admiration and attention. When he was denied that he turned to villainy and now plans on claiming the glory he feels he was denied.

His ultimate goal is to have his killer robot, called the Omnidroid, attack a city, stage a fake fight, defeat it and look like a hero. The Omnidroid itself was tested on numerous other heroes, all of which it killed just so it would be perfect. This guy killed dozens of supers just to make believe as one. And that’s not even the end goal, his ultimate plan when he’s had his fun is to sell his inventions so everyone can be super, to make everyone the same so they can all feel as worthless as he once did.

That’s kind of the main thesis of the movie. If everyone is special, then no one is. If you choose to condemn exceptional people and embrace mediocrity, then all you get is mediocrity. And if you do ignore those people, they might use their gifts, not to help people, but to hurt others. Syndrome could have used his brilliant intellect for good, but because Mr. Incredible refused to acknowledge it, he turned to villainy out of anger.

But hey, this is a superhero movie not a philosophical lecture. And what’s a superhero movie without lots of action. I am of the opinion that superheroes are made for animation. Sure, you can do them in live action just but there’s so much more you can do with animation. The Incredibles takes advantage of this and has a lot of very fun action sequences. I like how different each of the Incredibles powers are different since this leads to better variety in the action and we see them combine the different powers in unique and interesting ways. The best example of this is where Violet creates a forcefield bubble that Dash rolls around in like a hamster ball. Always loved that part as a kid.

I also like that the action isn’t just big fight scenes and bigger explosions. There are some scenes where the characters have to be sneaky, and those sections are just as exciting. And the reason the action is so exciting is because they don’t dial anything back. Even though Dash and Violet are kids they aren’t afraid to put them in dangerous situations. The bad guys don’t fuck around either, they use machine guns and giant spinning death machines on these kids who only just barely make it out.

The action here is a lot better than most of Disney’s films. See action drives on excitement, excitement comes from a sense of tension and a scene is only intense if the characters are in clear and present danger. If I don’t feel like the characters are in any real danger then it doesn’t matter how good the action scene looks, at that point it just becomes mindless spectacle. It's why 90% of anime fight scenes don’t work.

Of course, this only works if you actually like the characters. I mean if you didn’t why would you care about what happens to them. And if the entirety of the preceding review didn’t clue you in then let me spell it out for you, the characters in this movie are fantastic. The Incredibles themselves are portrayed as a typical American family which is something you don’t see a lot of in Superheroes. The closest I can think of is Fantastic Four, but this is the first time where the superhero family dynamic felt authentic.

The way the characters work off of one another is exactly what you would expect from a family unit. The dialogue in this movie is exceptional. The argument scene between Bob and Helen sounds like a real genuine argument two parents would have in that situation. The way Violet and Dash bicker with one another sounds like how a real brother and sister would act. The Incredibles is the first time I’ve seen the “superhero family” as an actual superhero family.

And that’s the aspect of the film that I think has made it so endearing to so many people, the characters feel genuine and go through real relatable issues. Mr. Incredible is going through a mid-life crisis, Violet is shy, Dash is frustrated at not being able to play sports and Elastigirl is struggling to keep everyone together. These are problems a lot of family’s deal with and can reate to. This is probably why even people who aren’t fans of superheroes still like the film.

Of course, that’s just the main cast, the supporting cast is also equally as good. I already talked about Syndrome and how I think he’s the best Pixar villain, but why is that exactly? It’s not just because I find him the most interesting on a thematic level, he’s also just really entertaining to watch. He's a giant nerd who knows all the super villain cliches and loves reveling in them and pointing it out. He's just a kid playing pretend and doesn’t care about anyone but himself. He's not a joke either, he is a genuine threat, and he can show a cold calculating menace when he needs to. He's a great villain and Jason Lee is clearly having a lot of fun in the role.

Then there’s Mr. Incredibles old partner Frozone voiced by Samuel L Jackson. They could have just made him the funny black sidekick, but he’s more than that. Though he does have one of the funniest scenes in the entire film. I like that he helps out in the final battle, it shows he’s a great hero in his own right. He's just a cool character, pun only slightly intended, and I wish he was in more of the movie.

And then there’s Edna Mode. Edna is my favourite character in the film. She’s a costume designer who used to design for superheroes and clearly loves her work. She's super smart and knows what she’s doing, and she will make you know she knows what she’s doing. Edna is mostly there for comedic relief and she’s one of the funniest and most entertaining characters in the film. Every scene with her is a delight. Brad Bird himself does the voice for Edna and he does a fantastic job. I’m surprised Brad Bird hasn’t done more voice acting cause he’s very good at it.

The Incredibles is a great film. It's a rare superhero movie that appeals to both fans and non-fans alike. If you’re not a superhero fan you will enjoy the family dynamic and if are a superhero fan, then there’s plenty of that superhero action to enjoy. I’ve heard people compare this film to other superhero satires like Powers and Watchmen, but it isn’t like any of them.

Watchmen was a cynical pastiche on the idea of superheroes, showing them as deeply flawed individuals who become superheroes for selfish reasons. The heroes in The Incredibles aren’t like that. They're good people who just want to help others in need like real heroes should. It’s not a deconstruction of superheroes, it’s a love letter to them. Though it does poke fun at certain elements.

Normally this would be around the time when I give you the films flaws. I always try to point out where a film screws up because no film is perfect, but folks I think I've found one of the rare exceptions to that rule. I can’t think of a single flaw in The Incredibles. I can think of a few minor nit-picks, but nothing so bad that it ruins my enjoyment. I can’t think of anything to complain about, there’s no third act break up, or sudden tonal shifts or anything. This really is one of those rare perfect movies.

So yeah, I absolutely recommend this movie. It understands the appeal of superheroes but adds an adds a unique element of its own, the family dynamic, to craft a film that will appeal to fans and non-fans alike. It's one of Pixar’s best films, one of the best superhero movies ever made and a contender for my personal favourite film of all time.

Alright everyone, this is the time when I tell you what the next Pixar film is going to be, but I'm going to shake things up. I enjoyed reviewing something different last week, so these Pixar reviews are going to be bi-weekly from now on. So next week we’ll be looking at something completely different. But when we return to Pixar, we’ll be looking at what many people consider their first misfire, Cars. Is it as bad as people say it is, you’ll have to wait and see. Until next time.