The Incredibles

[StevePulaski]

The Incredibles (2004)
Directed by: Brad Bird

From left: Dash, Violet, Elastigirl, and Mr. Incredible.

Rating: ★★★

The Incredibles was a pivotal moment for Pixar, who by this point in their almost decade-long run, proved to be an ever-reliable powerhouse for A-list animation. Just a year after Finding Nemo, Pixar's follow-up showed them accomplishing something they had trouble doing for the longest time — animating human beings. Revisit the first and second Toy Story films and take note of the large-headed, skinny-necked brutes that made Jimmy Neutron's features look proportionately rendered. In addition, this is the film when Pixar began to get super-serious about discovering the boundless abilities of their aesthetics, in particular, how immaculate sound-design can be for an animated film. There's a reason that, when viewing the film on DVD, there is an introductory bit from Brad Bird imploring you to configure the sound and video on your television set appropriately.

However, even with its central characters being superheros, Pixar yet again finds the humanity in those who aren't quite human, although in this case, the superpowers of these individuals seem almost secondary once we get to know them. The film spends most of its time following Mr. Incredible (voiced by Craig T. Nelson), a dashing hero cut from the cloth of flawless, bygone American superheros. The film's prologue notes that once the government's Superhero Relocation Program took effect — a program that came about when superheros became entrapped in many lawsuits, many for unlawful rescues — superheros were forced to cloak their powers in efforts to blend in with the general public. With that, Mr. Incredible married Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), and the two became known as Bob and Helen Parr, subsequently confining themselves to the suburbs to raise their three children: teenage Violet (Sarah Vowell), tween Dash (Spencer Fox), and infant Jack-Jack (Eli Fucile, Maeve Andrews).

Bob spends his days working as an insurance salesman, while Helen raises their children. Violet is an introvert, whose superpowers allowing her to turn invisible and summon force-fields to protect her seem all too relatable to the struggle of "fitting in" many teenagers experience. Dash, on the other hand, can sprint at unfathomable speeds, mimicking the hyperactive nature of most boys his age, while Jack-Jack makes use of his fertile powers of shape-shifting as impulsively as babies' behaviors usually are. Meanwhile Bob, who must resist the urge to flaunt his superstrength in frustration, grows to loathe the life of an insurance salesman, and though Helen and her extremely flexible limbs do not particularly enjoy the bustle of raising children, she knows it's a necessary evil that has its own merits. But as soon as Bob receives a confidential letter from an agent known as Mirage (Elizabeth Pena), he darts over to a remote island where he must utilize his powers to defeat a robot named Omnidroid 7. The machine is a creation of Syndrome (Jason Lee), a disillusioned loon who grew to detest Mr. Incredible after he rejected his persistent attempts to become his sidekick.

Crystal clear in The Incredibles are things that have become foggy in the day and age of superhero movies dominating the film industry and those attributes are character development along with clarity. Brad Bird — whose initial flop The Iron Giant has now gone on to be beloved by millennials — illustrates heroes that are boldly passionate, fun to see interact, and delightfully charismatic as individuals and as a larger collective. Even Syndrome's motives are outlined, not in meticulous, overblown detail, but in a manner that helps us comprehend both his methods and his madness. Bird is even confident enough to invite another hero, Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson), whose superpower is freezing things, into the story to serve as Mr. Incredible's confidant who empathizes with the pitiful restrictions put on their kind.

The scope of Bird's film suggests the project itself shouldn't be able to sustain such weight both visually and narratively. On top of the challenges presented in animated humans, Bird's decisions to include a myriad of action sequences show a film that had to be nothing short of an exhausting challenge to undertake. It pays off, however, in the way it all comes together: a seamless, entertaining cacophony of kinetic bits that add up to a cohesive whole that is surprisingly not cartoony. The legion of animators juggle Pixar's consanguineous "Avengers" by giving them space to operate and hone their powers, in the end, leaving no character feeling underutilized.

I suppose the only detriment of Pixar redirecting its attention from monsters, toys, fish, and bugs to humans is the inevitable familiarity that is the interworkings of watching our own kind function. Even with the bodily modifications, a part of The Incredibles' magic feels decidedly less so than, say, Monsters, Inc., where a distinctly original verisimilitude had to be crafted, or later efforts like Inside Out, that retained focused on humans but went beyond them to penetrate their psyche. What I'm trying to say is that humans, particularly superhumans, aren't as exciting as seeing a world of cars or monsters in their natural habitats, and with the omnipresence of superheroes in pop culture, the Incredibles feel more a part of the world and less so drastically different from it — in the world of animation, the latter is what you want.

The Incredibles' merit does indeed go beyond the handful of action sequences that dazzle, in particular blossoming with its soft commentaries on suburban living. It shows the beginnings of Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl's lives as an enviable stretch of self-discovery deadened by the misbegotten anger and iron-fisted control of a government that would much rather see the oversized Mr. Incredible working in a tiny cubicle with a generic name like Bob than making life "more difficult" elsewhere. Finally, reading some criticism of the film published at its time of release, The Incredibles also seems to be one of the films that made adults realize that animated films could indeed be smart and appeal to them as well. I personally chalk some of that praise up to the film's more impressive points of realism, such as Bob and Helen arguing in front of their children, even as they are cooperating. Such moments make Pixar so real that they make you forget you're watching CGI creations.

Voiced by: Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell, Spencer Fox, Samuel L. Jackson, Jason Lee, Elizabeth Pena, Brad Bird, Eli Fucile, and Maeve Andrews. Directed by: Brad Bird.