The Incredibles

It’s no secret that I, Sombrero Grande, have been a huge fan of Pixar ever since my first viewing of Toy Story on its opening night, but after watching The Incredibles, something has changed. I no longer consider the filmmakers in Emeryville, CA to be my personal creative heroes...I consider them my gods. I kneel at an altar to John Lasseter and give thanks for Incredibles writer/director Brad Bird, character designers Tony Fucile and Teddy Newton and everyone else listed in the credits--from the executive producer to the Pixar security guards--and pray that the good deeds I perform in life will make me worthy of witnessing the greatness they bequeath to the world.

So...yeah...I loved The Incredibles.

I LOVE the character designs in this movie. While other CGI animation houses try to create photo-realistic humans, Pixar designers Fucile and Newton have unleashed beautifully stylized and cartooned people with expressive, visually striking visages. The result is that instead of being creeped out by corpse-like husks, I want to live in the world of The Incredibles and see these people everyday. I could stare for hours at the lines in Bob Parr’s lawyer’s face or watch the movements of the characters’ facial expressions as if they were glittering fish in an aquarium or glowing blobs in a lava lamp.

I LOVE the world that is presented in The Incredibles of superheroes with real-life problems. If you enjoyed Spider-Man or X-Men, get ready for an even more in-depth analyzing of the issues that come with possessing superpowers. Lawsuits, fan-boys and fatal “wardrobe malfunctions” involving capes--oh my! What happens when superheroes accidentally injure people during the course of saving them...or save people who don’t want to be saved? Eventually the U.S. government tires of constantly footing the bill for increasingly numerous lawsuits against superheroes and so bans the heroes from practicing altogether. Superheroes are driven into hiding, obligated to conceal their abilities and afraid to let their true identities be shown.

I LOVE the fact that Pixar doesn’t play it safe. Just as they seem to be forming a pattern, Pixar breaks from it--for example, dropping Randy Newman as composer and the “outtakes” after Monsters, Inc.--and moving in new directions. The Incredibles is their biggest shift yet. The brainchild of Pixar-newcomer Bird, The Incredibles is a markedly more adult presentation than the company is known for. The good news is Pixar has done its usual, remarkable job of crafting a thoroughly entertaining and imaginative story in a new type of movie for them; the “bad” news is you’ll probably want to leave the really little ones at home this time as there’re some pretty startling, intense action moments. Perhaps this will pave the way for even bigger moves into new territory for Pixar?

Article Author: Sombrero Grande

This writer is a member of The Masked Movie Snobs, a collective that fights a never-ending battle against bad entertainment.

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