The Incredibles

Fly or run at superspeed to your nearest cinema, because The Incredibles is simply the best superhero film of the year. Let’s not beat around the bush: The Incredibles are the Fantastic Four… more or less. In fact I’d wager that this will probably be a better film than the impending F4 movie. It’s fun and playful, but despite it’s appearance it isn’t campy. This isn’t a slap stick superhero film and it isn’t even really a fullout comedy, in tone its more like the first Addams Family film or the classic Bewitched TV series.

The basic premise of the film borrows certain themes from Watchmen or Kingdom Come, but wraps them in a comfortable 60s Silver Age sheen. It’s been 15 years since the Government forced the superheroes to retire and brought them all into the witness protection program. Civilian life hasn’t been easy for Mister Incredible and he has his wife Elastigirl and three children to support. Out of the blue he gets an offer that will allow him to be a superhero again, but who is his new benefactor, where are the other heroes and what will happen when his wife finds out?

The homages in the Incredibles are direct and blatent. Okay sure they’ve got their nudge nudge wink wink moments, but for the most part they wear their influences with pride. Mister Incredible is an early pre-flight version of Superman complete with Dini/Timm body shape. Elastigirl is a Mister Fantastic/Plastic Man gender swap. The son is a Impulse/Kid Flash like super-speedster and the daughter is a shy version of Sue Storm (complete with invisibility and force fields). And they are all almost upstaged by Samual L. Jackson’s Frozone (“WOMAN, WHERE IS MY SUPER-SUIT!?!”).

I’ll let you read more professional review which will tell you how this is Pixar’s first film to feature all humans and about how brilliant the animation is. When it comes down to it Pixar have got the technical stuff so good that you no longer think “oh I’m watching cgi,” they’ve perfectly married style with technical ability to create a form of animation that doesn’t constantly remind you that it’s computerized. Some of the early cgi films clammered to show you how proficient they were or how they could add more hairs to a human head, but with the The Incredibles I think the technique has finally reach maturity.