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Movie review: The Incredibles

November 26, 2004

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.

Categories: Reviews
  1. Sheryl
    November 29, 2004 at 12:55 | #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

  2. November 29, 2004 at 20:41 | #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!

  3. March 11, 2005 at 22:13 | #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.

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