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A Review of "The Incredibles"
First off, this is Slashdot. You know, News for nerds, yadda yadda. So, let's start off with talking about the special effects, or more generally, Pixar showing off all that they have learned and accomplished.
The big hype in the animation sector has been the characters - real human people. Don't be fooled by the hype. Pixar has been doing humans as characters since "Toy Story". With the single exception of "A Bug's Life", human beings have featured as a major character in every Pixar film, and while the effect here is fantastic, it is evolutionary, not revolutionary. No, what stands out in terms of technical acheivement here is the movie's stunning use of light. Sure, "Finding Nemo" accomplished a lot here, but in that film, light was a tool to give depth to the water that surrounded the characters. Here in "The Incredibles" the light is a thing unto itself. Gorgeous shadows, warm red lava, sunlight against clouds, all of these things are breathtaking. The use of sunlight, especially in the jungle sequences, give objects a three dimensionality they have never possessed in a Pixar film before. It's clear that Pixar didn't have the chops prior to this film to do action sequences, because prior to this, the feeling of moving in a three dimensional space just wasn't there.
The movie itself is not just a breakthrough technically, it's a very different movie from previous Pixar productions. This is very intentional. All previous Pixar movies have been dreamed up primarily by John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton, Pixar veterans. So the story goes, these guys are looking back at Pixar history and while they see the series of wonderful made films that the rest of us have seen, apparently they also saw something else: an encroaching rut. There was a very real chance that Pixar could have become the next Disney in a very short time, making well produced and financially successful repeats of their earlier successes for years on end. They didn't want that to happen. And that takes fresh blood. Enter Brad Bird. Bird was an art student with Lasster, and had made one feature film five years ago - the sady underseen "Iron Giant". Brad Bird was challenged to make a different kind of movie, with complete creative control - he wrote and directed. This gamble paid off hugely.
This is not a kids movie. Seriously. Previous Pixar films have been consumate kids movies, movies so well made, and so funny that parents could enjoy them. And there are even a few adult gags the kids might not get. "The Incredibles" is a completely different tack. "The Incredibles" is an action movie, first and foremost, one of the best of the current crop of superhero films. Then it is a family film second, and a kids movie third, if at all.
To give you the basics: the world is full of superheros. The biggest are Mr. Incredible, super strong and invulnerable, Elastigirl, a Ms. Fantastic of sorts, and Frozone, a Silver Surfer/Iceman hybrid. Due to events that occur on Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl's wedding day, superheros wind up on the wrong end of - get this for deja vu - lawsuits. Lawsuits by the thousands. The government comes up with a relocation program, hiding the supers and pardoning them from actions performed in spandex, with the agreement that they hero no more.
Mr. Incredible becomes Bob Parr, an overweight insurance adjuster, with three kids. The symbolism is rampant. Once incredible, now he must suppress both his gifts and his insatiable need to help people, getting in trouble with his boss for actually helping their customers. From incredible, to just par. He's huge. He fills up the entirety of his cubical space, he fills up his entire car, he bends doorknobs, and cutting through his son's steak, he cuts through the table. He is too big for the small world that society wants to peg him in.
On the other hand, he's missing the one incredible part of his life - his family. His son Dash is tired of suppressing his lightning speed, and his teenage daughter Violet is tired of moving everytime the government needs to cover up her father's identity. When she can't hide behind her goth hair, she uses her powers to turn invisible. Managing the two of them and their third child, a normal baby named Jack Jack, Elastigirl is getting tired of being the only real parent.
Their marriage is strained, their kids are young and angry, his job is about to fall apart, and her patience is thin. It's a domestic situation primed to explode, and for the many of us out their who have seen couples divorce, we know exactly where it's going.
Except something happens.
And thereby hangs a tale. As you can see, this isn't some allegory about our lives from the point of view of a bug or a toy or a monster. It IS our lives. But with superpowers. Much like the also fabulous "Shaun of the Dead" the real story is a human one, but framed within spectacular events. The visuals are awesome, the special effects are fabulous, and the dialog not only funny but at times witty. I can bet that 90% of Slashdotters will see themselves on screen, most likely identifying with the daughter Violet or the villain Syndrome.
The performances are of course amazing. Pixar continues its talent of finding distinctive and expressive voices in the world of more traditional acting. Jason Lee as syndrome hints at his performance in "Dogma" and Craig T. Nelson shows us he can be so much more than just the coach from Coach. Holly Hunter shows her never ending flexibility (no pun intended), and newcomer Sarah Vowell as Violet (from National Public Radio's "This American Life") is quite delightful. And the only complaint about Samuell L. Jackson is that there isn't enough of him.
One sad difference between "The Incredibles" and Pixar's previous offerings is that it has a few minor niggles. Regardless of how you feel about Pixar's previous work, it was all carefully and consummately made. The movie's mixture of family interactions and superheros almost always works, but is slightly shakey with its villain Syndrome. He's got great lines, a good backstory, and a perfectly over the top performance from Jason Lee, but something just doesn't quite work, and that's the first time I've ever said that about a Pixar flick. But in the end it doesn't matter. So much works here, that the little stuff gets washed away.
It's precisely because of that sort of thing that the movie works. Rather than "Copy", though, it's more frequently called "tribute" and "satire" (the latter gaining them protection from lawsuits).
There's touches of Fantastic Four, X-Men, Superman, Spiderman, James Bond, Rankin and Bass HeatMiser and more. Just look for them and enjoy the cultural richness
:-)
Undoubtedly the best Pixar movie yet. Sure, it has beautiful visuals and a great story, but there is something layered much deeper than hit right with me while I was watching it.
I think it's the message.
In public schools, kids who are incredibly intelligent and wish to progress forward in learning are discouraged to do so because it would be "unfair" and what have you. Because of that, they are sent down to the same classes as those who are, to put the bluntly, stupid(or just not as gifted).
It's the same thing in this movie, the unique(or "super") are sent down to live with those who they were once helping because they don't want it anymore.
Now MAYBE I'm just reading too much into something that isn't there, but it sounds like it is a metaphor for an ignorant populace that no longer wants to be helped by ones who can, which could be a metaphor for those who are creative and intelligent. Essentially, scientists and engineers(and the combinations of the two).
They all celebrate mediocrity and everyone being the same. It's a rather socialist point of view, and the Incredibles finally pull themselves out of their stuper and go back to helping mankind.
That's my view on it. Which is why I'm going to go see it again.
And again.
Many, many times over.
Can an invunerable man commit suicide? What could he do to himself that supervillans couldn't?
Eisner & Co. may get the last laugh. The Pixar deal has one more picture to go, "Cars" in November 2005. Disney has said that the previous offer that Pixar rejected was the best they would offer and if they return to the bargaining table will not even be that generous again. Of course there is a lot of corporate posturing going on here by both sides and both companies are run by men of extraordinary egos. Pixar stands to gain huge by owning their movies and just cutting a distribution deal - as George Lucas has with Fox for the Star Wars franchise. But Disney has an Ace up their sleeve. They will retain the sequel rights to all the Pixar movies made under the current contract. So they can churn out straight-to-video sequels to Toy Story at will. The Incredibles practically begs for a sequel. But ask yourself if you want the company responsible for The Lion King 1 1/2 or The Return of Jafar (aka Aladdin II) to make them. Can the Pixar talent that crafted these films bear to see that happen? Can they cut all ties to their creations and move forward with the same drive and determination? And will they continue to create new films that are both critical and commercial hits? While they are contemplating this Disney has a lot of time and money to build a new kind of animation studio to compete with Pixar. Maybe they will even find some of that old time Disney magic and start prioritizing great storytelling. I'm still willing to bet on Pixar in head to head competition, but I think Disney is in a much better bargaining position than most people realize.
Although we're really close, we'll get to a point where the animation no longer constrains the story.
Well, if we look at some recent Star Wars and Matrix film achievements, I'd say current animation far exceeds constraints of the story. Or rather, it's not the animation capabilities holding back the story. No amount of CG would have made Star Wars good, or The Matrix better. Titanic might be a good example of CG gone right.
Except the Incredibles don't rule: they SERVE.
The intelligent guy who wants to manipulate the world, he's the one who wants to "rule."
I think the point is much more "it's important to be yourself even if you're not 'normal'" instead of "use your talents to control the world".
And just to be devil's advocate: the young girl's powers DO go together. The theme is "she's hiding from the world and pushes people away." Like a lot of teenage girls. Much like the boy's powers are along the "bundle of energy" theme, and Elastigal is "stretched thin" as a mother.
The movie is really clever in how it visually references other films. Particullary good was a portion of the film which is a shot-by-shot remake of the Rocket bike chase in Return of the Jedi. It also spoofs You Only Live Twice in some really humorous ways too. In short, good movie for film nerds.
"It's clear that Pixar didn't have the chops prior to this film to do action sequences, because prior to this, the feeling of moving in a three dimensional space just wasn't there."
I don't see how you can make that argument. Video games, which have long been focused solely on action, and are far behind the quality seen in this film, have been doing action quite successfully for a long time now. If anything, action is MORE suited to poorer quality graphics, because everything whizzes by so fast you don't have time to notice any details. For the stylized cartoonish animation that Pixar does, the technological enhancements really aren't that noticeable anymore. I think Pixar is reaching a point of diminishing returns here... which isn't bad, it's just to say that things are just about as good as they are going to get doing this sort of cartoon animation.
"Previous Pixar films have been consummate kids movies, movies so well made, and so funny that parents could enjoy them. And there are even a few adult gags the kids might not get. "The Incredibles" is a completely different tack. "The Incredibles" is an action movie, first and foremost, one of the best of the current crop of superhero films. Then it is a family film second, and a kids movie third, if at all."
I mostly agree with this. While I think that this movie would be very entertaining to children, they weren't it's focus. The movie was told from the perspective of the parents, with the children being the supporting characters. A lot of the issues that the parents deal with will fly over the heads of the children, which is ironic in a sense, as you see the same thing happening to the child characters in the movie. Still, it should be made clear that this movie doesn't really go any further than that, and most likely couldn't and remain a kid's movie. Non of the adult characters are really faced with any complex situations or moral dilemmas. There's a firm line between good and evil. Things go down a rather predictable path. Things are spelled out mostly and little left to our intuition. So don't go to the movie expecting anything like that. The ADD kids will have their attention kept by the action, and the ADD adults will have their attention kept by their identification with the adult characters and jokes (ya and the action too =P).
The movie's mixture of family interactions and superheros almost always works, but is slightly shakey with its villain Syndrome. He's got great lines, a good backstory, and a perfectly over the top performance from Jason Lee, but something just doesn't quite work, and that's the first time I've ever said that about a Pixar flick. But in the end it doesn't matter. So much works here, that the little stuff gets washed away.
OK to discuss this I'm going to have to throw out a few spoilers here, so you should probably stop reading here. I think his character worked quite well... for a kids movie. He was a two dimensional villain, [SPOILER] which was somewhat disappointing given that they had taken the time to make him be a childhood fan of Mr. Incredible. It almost looked like they were leading up to a sympathetic villain, but then decided they wanted a very firm line between good and evil in this movie. If perhaps they had made Mr. Incredible more at fault for Syndrome's turn to evil, and have Syndrome struggle a bit more instead of being totally evil, he could have been made into a more interesting character. It would also have been nice to show a change in Mr. Incredible, from a young man who didn't really like children or understand them, to a father. They could have made Syndrome's attack on the city not be a totally evil move, but rather have his intention to be to put on a show and be a hero (with the attitude of collateral damage being just "breaking a few eggs"), and the machine goes out of control. Take out his serial killing of heroes, and he might be able to be a villain you could have s
If you were thinking about bringing an infant or toddler, please don't.
This isn't "Finding Nemo" - it has people getting killed. It shows parental fear & inability to protect children. Scarey stuff for a four or five year old.
I saw (and thoroughly enjoyed) the film yesterday, but it was partly spoiled by screaming babies. If you're the couple at the Colo Springs showing with four kids under five, that allowed the one baby to cry continuously - please don't do that to a theater again. Next time someone might say something awkward to you. Like "hey man, go be a dad".
And next time, don't assume that because something's animated it's great for kids.
And this is why Disney probably won't be able to make a deal with Pixar. Disney has never dealt with a company that can consistantly come up with new and interesting characters. The Disney way is to re-hash successful characters. The Pixar way is to create new. Disney can not understand this way of business.
While Disney could re-hash direct to video Toy Story movies, Pixar will continue to turn out interesting new characters and stories, and make a killing at the box office and through home sales. Pixar operates more under the original 17 year copyright law, while Disney operates under the current copyright law.
What, me worry?
The Incredibles is the first superhero movie that I have seen where the super powers were 'just right'. Usually powers are given that are so great that the either the hero 'forgets' to use them at a critical moment (which annoys me to no end... "you know, if he remembered that he could see through walls he would have caught the bad guy an hour ago") or arbitrary reasons have to be invented to prevent them from being used ("oh, the pseudoultramicroneutroniatron field is stopping your super powers again? guess we have to do things the hard way"). In this movie each individual power was not enough to overcome every obstacle, and every power was used to its fullest to overcome each obstacle, singly or via teamwork. As I walked out of the movie I remarked to a friend that I did not notice a single time in the movie where a power was stupidly forgotten or otherwise kept out of the action.