The Incredibles

Shortly after Dreamworks screwed up with the uninspired "Shark Tale", Pixar contains its remarkably success story with "The Incredibles". And while I have to say that I liked "Finding Nemo" a bit better, "The Incredibles" is still an amazing movie.

First of all, this is because it's funny. It's not so funny that you're constantly laughing out loud, but there are more than enough good jokes in the movie to keep you entertained, and it's full of good observations about superhero movies (note all the ridiculous superhero and villain names) and references to other movies. It's also a brilliant James Bond spoof/homage, containing all the gadgets, secret island bases and crazy schemes that made early Bond movies so much fun.

Secondly, this movie has heart and charm in droves. It's full of memorably and likable characters you can really identify with and care about. Characters like Edna are instant classics. The voice acting is universally excellent, but Holly Hunter steals the show as Elastigirl. This is a movie that doesn't need toilet humor, characters modeled like celebrities, or a "hip" soundtrack...it easily succeeds on charm and style alone.

Also, I found it to be a surprisingly good action movie. The plentiful action sequences are full of energy, extremely fast-paced, and exciting, and put many a live-action movie to shame.

Finally, I also liked the tone and message of the movie. "The Incredibles" basically makes a plea against mediocrity, breaking with the politically correct idea that "everybody is special" (and thus nobody really is), and encouraging people to use the talents they have been given. I think this couldn't be more true. Not all people are equally talented (just compare Pixar to Dreamworks), but this is no reason to keep the talented people from not reaching their full potential just because it makes the less talented ones feel bad.

"The Incredibles", while maybe not as hilarious as I had hoped (though it's still very funny), is nonetheless an extremely entertaining movie, that manages to charm you wit its combination of great characters, lots of style, tongue-in-cheek attitude and good message. Highly recommended.

****1/2 of ***** stars

WOW! What a movie. I can honestly say this is in my top ten movies of all time, how do Pixar continue to out do themselves at every movie release?

The Incredibles is a fantastic story, wonderfully scripted and with the most stunning animation you have ever seen, it provides a perfectly rounded story with plenty of action, laughs and (almost) tears.

Basically, this is a story of a man encountering a mid life crisis and leaping headlong into it without a care or a thought for his family, proving exceedingly selfish and failing to see the good in his life. Meanwhile the wife is left to try and look after the family. Really, that's the story. Now, what Pixar have done is drop in the idea that the parents are Superheroes, banned from being Super many years previously by the Government and the people, trying to live a normal life. Add to the mix that some of their children have inherited their own powers and that the Super villains are planning a comeback, and you have this wonderful movie.

I can't begin to convey how wonderful the animation is, it's perfect. I mean you'll always be looking at it knowing it's animation, but when the story takes you along you'll suddenly realize you're still watching animation. The subtle difference is that you forget, and there are parts (for instance when the father is cheering his son during the race) that you actually think it is real. The effects for water, fire (two of the hardest things to recreate in animation) and lava are wonderful to watch and caught me drawing a breath when I first saw them.

The characters and acting are wonderful, and you will find yourself caring about them as real people. At some points I could feel a big swallow coming up and a wavering adams apple, obviously due to the food earlier, nothing to do with the movie.

I often find that movies aren't paced well, that they either have too long or too short an introduction to the characters, or the events that lead up to the pivotal point of the movie are unbalanced against the climax, all sorts of combinations. Not here, this move is perfect and well balanced, the story takes you along just when you are ready, and there were no points where I wished we could move on, or something could happen quicker. My only frustration were at the kids, and this was only because they were behaving exactly as real kids would.

It was interesting to see the comparisons and links to other famous Superheroes through comic-lore. Definitely with nods to The Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer and huge nods to The Watchmen. My only concern is that there is so much similarity to The Watchmen that those who haven't read the graphic novel will be saying "That's the Incredibles movie" when Watchmen finally comes to fruition.

The short film showing before this was wonderful in itself, and had the audience laughing out loud loads. Excellent, and once again, outdoes every short that they've produced before. Boundin' was beautifully animated and wonderfully told. Guaranteed to bring a huge big smile to your face.

All in all I think this movie is perfect and truly incredible.

An amazing family film and also one of the best superhero films of all time. Action is amazing, especially in the final act with such a range of powers all used brilliantly. And do I need to say anything about the animation? Pixar just knocks it out of the park every time. The Incredibles is just full of personality and charm, making it endlessly rewatchable.

Also we need a Frozone solo movie.

I hope that this movie does really well because this has to be one of the best animated movies I have ever seen. The story is really cool and it's obvious that there is a lot of respect here for the source of superheroes, whether it be comic books, serial flicks or Saturday morning cartoons.

The movie has an undeniably cool retro feel to it and it shows not only in the design of the picture but also in the music, which definitely sounds like something out of a 60's 007 flick. It is also unusually dark, especially for a Pixar flick. I'm not saying it's dark where people are getting their heads delivered to someone in a box or family members are sleeping with each other or anything like that but there were moments where I found myself wondering if a little kid might be able to deal with the intensity of what was going on on screen. Maybe it was the fact that the heroes were in very real danger most of the time. The bad guys weren't out to catch them as much as they were out to kill them. When you discover who the film's villain is, you can literally feel his anger coming off the screen. I may be over-exaggerating a bit but then again, it really is to the film's credit that it deals with human emotions in the way that it does.

Even though you are watching a film that is populated by CGI characters, the emotions they convey in what they say and do come across as purely believable. Whether watching Bob Parr interact with people at his job or just sitting at his desk was something that rang true to me, just in the feeling of it. Everything about this movie has a very concrete feel to it, even while looking like something you'd see in a comic book. The computer graphics in general were absolutely amazing and the voice acting is excellent across the board, so good in fact, that I really can't pick a favorite from the entire cast. I have to say that Craig T. Nelson and Holly Hunter were very good as Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl respectively. They had a moment near the end of the film that actually touched me but you can see that for yourselves. Samuel L. Jackson was hilarious and thankfully, he wasn't overused. Dash and Violet were realized so well that every time they came up on screen, I loved every minute of it. Dash, in particular was one of the funniest characters in the movie. Jason Lee made for a formidable villain as Syndrome. I loved the fact that he was your typical antagonist but was also aware of the conventions surrounding such a role, like when he chides himself for 'monologuing'. He was also one ruthless bastard, I'll give him that. Even the bit part characters were hilarious. There was a kid on a tricycle in this movie who comes out twice and made me laugh out loud both times.

In fact, this movie reminds me of why I like Finding Nemo over Monsters, Inc. In Finding Nemo, not only are the main characters great but every other character they run into makes some kind of impression on you. Remember all the characters that Marlin and Dory ran into on their adventures together? Of course you do. Whether it was that crazy pelican with the Australian accent, Willem Dafoe as Gill, leader of the fishtank crew, or Bruce the Shark, you remember them after all is said and done and it makes the viewing experience that much richer. That's exactly how The Incredibles is. Every character that appears will make you laugh or intrigue you in some way. I have to admit that I was laughing myself throughout the entire movie, especially with the character of Edna Mode who almost steals the movie. Man, even the end credits are awesome! I have to give the director Brad Bird a big thumbs up for this one. He pulled it off and hopefully this will attract attention to his other animated film, "The Iron Giant", which was sadly overlooked when it was released and is also a really great film.

All in all, I can't recommend this movie enough. I left very satisfied and felt no need to compare this to the rest of Pixar's movies. This one is just as good if not better than any other animated movie released this year and rightfully deserves its place among the best animated movies of all time.

RATING: ***** out of *****.

Is it a bird, no it's a plane, no it's the Incredibles…Imagine if one crazed scientist had a colossal sized blender and put the love and affection of The Modern Family in it, then sprinkled some dysfunctional madness of Malcolm in the Middle and then added superpowers to the mix, I guarantee that what comes out still won't be a match for the crazy, adorable, high octane and utter zaniness that are the Incredibles. The dad is supper strong, the mother can stretch like taffy, and the teenage girl can become invisible and throw up force fields and the 10 year old is lightening fast, which is quiet lucky when they must come up against the rich, genius of the villainous Syndrome, who seeks to destroy the hero he once worshipped in Mr. Incredible and an the whole city along with him. Despite the film being an animation featuring a story line that was extremely fantastical, not once did I remember it was a movie. The actions scenes were spell bounding and highly imaginative. But most importantly, I really believed in these characters that spat witty sharp dialogue at each other at a furious pace, not just because they were funny, but because the characters were so believable and relatable. Subsequently it should come as to no surprise that film was nominated for a best screenplay Oscar, which is a rarity for an animated film, but this ain't just your average animated film, it's an Incredible animated film