The Incredibles (2004)
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The Incredibles Movie Review
The Incredibles is a 2004 animated superhero film directed by Brad Bird. It is one of Pixar’s better, although still somewhat flawed efforts.
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“I never look back, darling!
It distracts from the now“
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The storytelling is strong in this film and although in its basic idea the film is basically a rip-off of Fantastic Four, in execution it becomes its own thing almost entirely. It has its spy overtones, but it’s basically a superhero flick and one of the strongest animated superhero films so far.
So the film is basically two films put into one. The first half is a slow and thematically rich drama that explores issues such as minorities and hiding away your true feelings/powers, the middle age syndrome and the family dynamics. The second half is a superhero action flick where the family finally organizes together to fight the villain.
Now in my opinion the film’s themes are important and very well realized with the highlight being the middle age syndrome so superbly explored. However, the minority angle was somewhat too obvious and the film was just way too slow in that first half and overly serious. I respect serious and mature storytelling, but still the pace should have been faster.
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The second half is much more entertaining with stupendously executed action sequences and a lot of memorable fights and chases. I loved the villain’s hilarious death, Dash’s running sequence is truly thrilling and of course whenever the family worked together was a lot of sweet fun. The ending calls for a sequel a bit too much though.
Let’s talk about each and every character. First off, our main Parr family. Bob is very well developed and one of the highlights. You feel for his frustrations with life and work and he is just a very empathetic, relatable person. I cannot say the same for Helen who is just too much of a female stereotype, especially for 2004. She is a nagging, overbearing housewife which was frustrating to witness.
Violet is also somewhat typical as this insecure teen girl, but she became better during the second half. Dash is actually highly endearing and such a cute, fun kid. Syndrome most definitely has a typically comic-booky backstory which is also not fair in its portrayal of fans, but still he proved to be a pretty solid, capable villain.
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I also liked Mirage quite a bit and of course Frozone is a good, loyal and amusing friend of Bob’s. Jack-Jack is intriguing in his cartoony powers and of course Edna Mode stills the show whenever she’s on screen with a high number of hilarious, observant and clever lines. She’s one of Pixar’s funniest creations.
Mr. Incredible’s power is strength which is your regular superpower, Violet’s include force shield and invisibility which are both superbly realized in special effects and quite a lot of fun and Dash’s super-speed is one of the highlights in terms of action scenes. Frozone’s ice powers are also cool, but Elastigirl’s rubber stretching does not sound or look cool at all and I disliked it.
As for the acting, I am not the biggest fan of these voice actors. Everyone did a fine job, but I just found Craig T. Nelson’s voice unappealing and Holly Hunter’s one too recognizable, though both of them gave very good performances. Samuel L. Jackson is also recognizable, but highly entertaining. Although you can see it is a guy (Brad Bird) voicing Edna, he still did a very good job and gave her a strong, memorable voice.
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The Incredibles features incredible animation for its time. The character design is pretty good and interestingly retro as the whole film definitely evokes the style of the sixties incredibly well. I loved that mix of old-fashioned and modern in its execution. The effects are also terrific. However, the film did not age as well as ‘Monsters, Inc.’ or ‘Finding Nemo’ did because it relies extensively on humans and thus it lost its timeless appeal as the humans are especially hard to animate and they do not look great here and neither do the backgrounds. Again, the film did not age well, but it was respectable for its time.
In terms of the technical aspects, the film is quite polished. For once we get a pretty good score from Pixar as Michael Giacchino is a much better composer than Randy Newman and he perfectly incorporated retro style music here. Brad Bird’s direction is reliably terrific as he always does a great job in the director’s chair. Although far from his best works, he still did a fine job here. The pacing is problematic at first, but later becomes better. The script is strong and although the film is quite long for an animated film, it mostly flies by as it’s quite a lot of fun.
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The dialogue is actually one of its highlights as it is quick, clever and highly memorable at times. The humor is also pretty superb as Edna Mode, Frozone and sometimes the family surely made me laugh. The film truly is clever both in humor and in dialogue and I also loved its attention to detail in recreating the sixties time period. The fashion and technology are so well utilized here. It also has its moving moments and the family dynamics are amazing and whenever they fought, argued or bonded, the film shined. The same goes for the action sequences which are truly thrilling and just a lot of fun. For all those reasons, it is the second best film behind ‘Monsters, Inc.’ up to this point in Pixar’s history.
The Incredibles has its problems such as slow pace in the overly serious first half and an ending which calls for a sequel a bit too much, but its themes are well explored, the plot is pretty good and the animation is admirable for its time, though it did not age as well as some of its contemporaries. The action scenes are thrilling in execution, the dialogue and humor are both clever and very strong and the characters are all superbly developed and most are terrific. The highlights here are the wonderful family dynamics between the Parr family. Consequently, it’s one of the better Pixar films, but not one of the best.
