Rating of
3/4
Could've been more "Incredible," but still good
The M.O.W. - wrote on 08/01/08
"Mister Inredible" (voiced by Craig T. Nelson) is a man with unique gifts which he uses to help his fellow man -- even if he is late for his own wedding to "Hellen," (voiced by Holly Hunter) whom the world knows as "Elastigirl". In fact, both were late for their own wedding because they both went after the same criminal.
Soon after the wedding, the superheroes were forced by the government to live their lives in their secret identities and not help those in need after a rash of lawsuits were filed against the superheroes. However, the government created a relocation program not unlike the witness relocation program for the superheroes. Years later, the two are now living a "normal" life raising their three children -- two of which have their own powers.
"Bob" now works as an insurance man, and hates it. "Helen" now is a stay-at-home mother who raises their children. But "Bob" wanted more, so he and long-time friend "Lucius" (Samuel L. Jackson) would go out and do heroic acts as masked men. But that wasn't enough, and he took an offer to put the superhero outfit back on, and it paid well. But he refused to tell his wife, so she became suspicious of his actions. However, it turns out that he has gotten in serious trouble, and she has to come to her husband's aid -- again.
Pixar seriously improved the animation in this movie. At times I thought I was watching those stop-motion animated TV specials around the Christmas season when I was a kid instead of a computer animated movie. In fact, the lead villain in the movie has a striking resemblance to the lead villain in one of the classic "Rudolf, the Red-Nose Reindeer" stop-action animated television special.
A lot of the situations depicted in this movie is not for children. It's pretty violent in a lot of scenes and has at least one situation that is pretty adult that children wouldn't understand. I might suggest that parents should watch this movie before allowing their youngest children view this movie.
The performances of the cast members were fantastic in this movie. There was a little problem with character development on the supporting cast. One supporting cast member helped with the development of the title characters, but another one only appeared when he was needed as backup for most of the time he was on screen. Another problem is that they seemed to have bunched together the action scenes and the slower scenes that were used to develop the characters.
Sadly, there were too few laughs in this film. Most of the laughs were thanks to physical comedy. The few jokes worked well and will get you laughing, but you won't bust a gut. There were many missed spots that could have had a joke inserted.
"The Incredibles" is an enjoyable movie that has a lot of fun moments, and the best animation presented by Pixar at the time. The performances by all those who provided voices is great and make the characters enjoyable. This movie would be a very good rental for a family movie night.
