Film Review: The Incredibles

It should be no surprise that The Incredibles is great film. Nine years after Toy Story, Pixar have yet to produce a bad movie, and, if anything, as the animation gets sharper, the writing is improving as well. And with Brad Bird in the chair (director of the much underrated The Iron Giant) The Incredibles was always a safe bet for a good film.

Animated films have come a long way in those last nine years. When Toy Story first hit cinemas most audiences were only familiar with cartoons and the odd bit of Wallace and Gromit. Such was computer animations novelty that Toy Story was able to get away with the occasional unconvincing human character passing by briefly. In that respect The Incredibles breaks new ground as the first computer animated film whose protagonists are "human", and convincingly so. At the same time it brings the superhero movie genre full circle. After a flood of recent live action comic book films (albeit aided and abetted by computer animation) the genre now returns to its animated roots.

The story revolves around two former superheroes, who fell in love and were marrieed shortly before a McCarthy-esque purge of the "supers" forces them to live normal lives in exchange for protection from frivolous lawsuits. Fifteen years later they have three kids who are also struggling with the frustration of keeping their superpowers under wraps. Mr. Incredible, however, has been keeping his hand in, teaming up with an old pal to do some secret world-saving in his spare time. But when something goes wrong Elastigirl (a.k.a. Mrs. Incredible) finds out and comes to his rescue, along with her univited offspring.

Pixar have always managed to create a good balance between entertaining children and the adults who pay for them to come along. This film is no exception. Whereas certain other franchises trying to do this have actually ended up making kid's films for adults (e.g. Shrek) The Incredibles achieves this perfect balance once again. Some of Shrek's jokes make the adults laugh, but at the same time they hope their children don't get them (Pinnochio's cross-dressing for example). On the other hand, certain jokes in The Incredibles might go over the kid's heads, parents can actually enjoy the fact that they'll get them one day.

However, it's not just the more intelligent gags that give something extra for adults to appreciate, Bird's script deals with grown up themes of identity and spending time with those you love, refusing to give us simple 2D animated heroes. In fact one of the real strengths of the script is how it gives a rounded view of the family and how they struggle with their identities in a way that everyone can relate to. The males of the family want to be someone, Dad dreaming of his past glory days, whilst his son dreams of the future. Meanwhile his teenage sister's shyness means she hides her face behind her fringe like her mum hides her figure. Mum is easily the most secure of the family, but even she winces when forced into a lycra suit again. The beauty of The Incredibles is that everyone can relate to someone in the film. Even those between the generations can remember the child they were, or think of the adult they might become. The superparents even argue, but in such a way they when their kids catch them doing it they honour each other and drop their differences.

The film also has much to say about vocation. The scenes of Mr. Incredible in an insurance job show him cramped into a tiny office, just as he is cramped in by being unable to use his gifts. The sparse variety of greys that make up his cubicle block contrasts strongly with the vivid red he sports when he is doing what he was born to do. Twice we are told that "if everyone is special no-one is", but the film actually undermines that view - subtly hinting that we all have the potential to be special in our own way. By implying this rather than getting someone to state it out flat the film skillfully gets its point across without making you want to throw up.

It would also have been easy to ruin such a point by resorting to the well worn film cliche of kids that are smarter than their parents. It's true that the opposite extreme was once the prevalent view, and also that there are still some films / programs that can still make this work, such as the Simpsons. But it also seems that the pendulum is starting to reach the middle again. All the characters have their weaknesses, and whilst the kids have their moments of smartness they also mess up. In fact, ultimately it's Dad's idea that saves the day.

It would have been so easy for The Incredibles to get it wrong on any number of counts, yet somehow it takes on difficult issues, entertains immensely and pioneers new technology with flair. In fact the the only question that remains is this: Why do the families of heroes always take their father's super-surname?

Posted by: Matt Page on Wednesday Dec 15th, 2004

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