Movie review: The Incredibles
I really liked Brad Bird’s 1999 The Iron Giant, a quirky animated tale about a boy and his giant robot. When I first saw it at the historic Normal theater, I had no idea that Warner Brothers had botched the release, shutting out Bird from his labor of love. But most likely now, WB is eating crow 3 meals a day as Bird’s Pixar film, The Incredibles mops up a well-deserved victory at the box-office.
If you don’t normally go see animated movies, make an exception for this one. Here’s the setup: after meeting every villain and hazard, the world’s superheroes are finally defeated and forced into obscurity by a barrage of lawsuits. Somehow, that is so believable…
Mr. Incredible (who is married to Elasti-girl) whiles away his life as an insurance adjuster, a job he hates. No superheroing is allowed anywhere. It is an oppressive and suffocating premise that sets up the movie’s subtext of society’s “celebration of mediocrity.” Again; believable because it is so familiar.
I’m not going to bore you with a bunch of details and irrelevant history: you can click on the links I’ve provided for that. Just go see the movie! After The Iron Giant I could easily have been let down but this movie lifted me up. If you like smart, fun movies, it will lift you up, too.
Hey DOF,
Someone at dooce explained what the DoF meant in Mrs. DoF… and here I am visiting and reading.
I haven’t yet seen The Incredibles, but your description of the plot reminded me of the Vonnegut short story Harrison Bergeron:
http://www.stanford.edu/~guptaak/articles/harrison.html
See ya around
Hey, cool! Alas, the Stanford server seems to be having trouble this evening but I will definitely read the story when it comes back online.
Hope you enjoy The Incredibles!
How wonderful it is! Today, I had seen the film – “The Incredibles” this afternoon, My father also had seen this film in this evening. This cartoon movie is powered by Disney-Pixar.
In this film, I love the people’s sensation, scene, bugbears. The scene is so sublime.
With the great imagination.