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.

1. 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

   Posted by Sheryl  on  11/29/04  at  12:55 PM

2. 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!

   Posted by george.w  on  11/29/04  at  08:41 PM

3. 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.

   Posted by Creford  on  03/11/05  at  10:13 PM

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Decrepitude

A few selected articles from the last few years. Feel free to nominate others because really, I can't remember what all I've written.

9/11: five years on
Story from a picture
The Authority Gradient
If our lives are to have any meaning
What was lost
Cold and broken alleluia
Mary Mallon: being evil vs. being an evil
Artifacts of the long-gone man
A message to Republicans
Apple software review:
Because nature isn't waiting for us to wise up

Creative Commons stuff

I tried to figure out the Creative Commons and Wikimedia stuff but it was like doing your taxes in another language. Short version: it's OK if you copy my stuff as long as you give attribution and you're willing to share what you make of it with others. Here's the little logo:

This work by George Wiman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.