Right so here is another post and this one is a little different again as rather than be a live action film this one will be based on an animated feature, so I've gone for one of the best, The Incredibles. So let's don the superhero outfits and kick some butts (or better yet let's just look at the film's plot, do my usual analysis and that will do it).
OK so the film begin with a family of "Supers" superheroes who after so many years of fighting against crime have been forced to relocate to different places due to lawsuits for the damages they have caused during their crimefighting. The family fifteen years later are relocated again and they live a quiet suburban lifestyle, with the father, Bob Parr (voiced by Craig T. Nelson) and Helen Parr (voiced by Holly Hunter) formerly known as Mr Incredible and Elastigirl respectively, who both have two children, a shy teenager Violet (Sarah Vowell), and a young cocky boy named Dash (voiced by Spencer Fox). And both Violet and Dash have super powers as well, as Violet can become invisible and create force field, while Dash can run at an incredible speed. Bob however struggles to adapt to his civilian life as he works in a boring white collar job and he longs for the halcyon days of his crimefighting. Bob however still on occassion moonlights his superhero work along with one of his friends, Lucius Best (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) who was once known as Frozone as the two of them act as vigilantes at night. But its not long before Bob get's into trouble at his work as he assaults his supervisor, who prevented him from stopping a mugging on the streets, which results in him losing his job.
When Bob arrives home he receives a message on his answer phone from a woman named, Mirage (voiced by Elizabeth Pena) who urges him to become Mr Incredible again as she offers him a mission to destroy a malfunctioning robot called Omnidroid on an island and as a result he will receive a substantial reward. Bob arrives at the island where he defeats the robot by tricking it into ripping into its own power source. This encourages Bob to become happier in his personal life and he trains hard to lose weight and get into better shape as he waits for more work from Mirage. Bob then decides to get his suit repaired after it has a tear, so he goes to visit superhero costume designer, Edna Mode (voiced by Brad Bird) who designs new costumes not just for Bob but for his whole family. When Bob arrives back at the Island he discovers that Mirage works for Buddy (voiced by Jason Lee) who was a former fan of Bob's when he was Mr Incredible back in the day, and Bob shunned him. Buddy now goes by the pseudonym of Syndrome, his super villain nickname, but he intends to use his robot to make himself appear to be a superhero, so when he disables the robot in public, he will make himself a hero to everyone and then he intends to sell on his invetions to the public, after which no one will be super. Bob then sneaks into Syndrome's base at night and finds out to his horror that Syndrome has used previous Omindroid prototypes to murder many formerly retired superheros, in order to perfect the design of his robot.
Meanwhile Helen pays a visit to Edna and finds out what he has been up to and is shocked to find that she has designed costumes for her whole family. Edna also gives Helen a homing beacon which can tap into Bob's suit and she uses it to locate him, however this results in Bob being captured in Syndrome's base. After this Helen tells Violet and Dash that she must go after Bob to save him and she takes a plane to fly to the Island. However during the flight, Helen soon finds she is not alone as Violet and Dash smuggled themselves on board. And from here the three of them fly out to try and rescue Bob and save the world from the villainous Syndrome and his creation.
There is no doubt that The Incredibles is one of the best animated feature length films ever made and it is a highly entertaining one from start to finish. And one of the things that works so well about The Incredibles is that it has a good story to tell and its not one that could easily have been easily more goofy, but here you get it is about a family who has gone through real life troubles, albeit on a more fantastical scale. The film also pokes fun at the whole superhero genre and its great how it even covers the often overlooked complications of superhero work, such as the massive damages done to towns and cities, which would result in lawsuits no doubt for sure. And in that respect this film is way more realistic than Superman was, as that's something he never has to worry about and it was never addressed in any of Superman films (especially Man of Steel which demands it!). But then again Superman in his world is a one off whereas in The Incredibles, superheroes were ten a penny.
As for the film's visuals, being a Pixar film, The Incredibles looks absolutely stunning and the characters are all brought to life brilliantly with the animation being top notch and each character taking on a rather amusingly disproportionate physicality, such as Bob having a big upperbody frame but thin skinny legs! The action set pieces in the film are also superb and there plenty of fun moments in the film such as when Bob first fights the Omnidroid on the island. Also when Bob is reunited with his family on the island and they have to fight off Syndrome's guards by using their superpowers and Violet and Dash start to utilise their own powers. Then there is the big showdown with the Omnidroid and the Incredibles in the city as they make it back home they have take it out before it destroys the city.
Getting on to the voice acting the cast are all top notch as well with Craig T Nelson providing a wonderful performance as Mr Incredible, as he plays the part with a sense of heroism, charisma, impulsiveness as well as a touch of arrogance. Bob is of course a true hero and he is a good hearted decent guy who wants what's best for his family yet he wants to save the world at the same time and he suffers the indignity of having to keep relocating his family whenever he get's into trouble with law for taking on vigilante acts. Craig has some wonderful moments such as when Bob is in his supervisor's office, and he witnesses a mugging outside the window and he attempts to do something about it, but his supervisor demands he stay or he'll be fired and Bob stops. Then Bob looks out and sees the mugger escape and he angrily says "He got away..." and as the supervisor "That was close, you almost lost your...." then Bob suddenly grabs his supervisor by the throat and throws him through several walls! Also later when Bob is reunited with his family and he runs through the woods of the island with Helen and his kids, he says to her "I should have you told you I was fired I admit it. But I didn't want you to worry. You keep trying to pick a fight, but I'm still just happy you are alive!". Craig also has another funny moment in the scene where Bob has to deal with his kids as they chase each other round the living room while they try and have dinner and Helen says to him to intervene and he angrily picks up the table and shouts "You want me to intervene??? OK! I'm intervening! I'm intervening!". And one of the nicest moments in Nelson's performance is when Bob comes home from a bad day at work and as he get's out his car (which is way too small for him!) and the door doesn't shut right, he loses the rag and picks it up and nearly throws it away and he turns to see a young kid on his bike look on amazed. And he says to the boy "Well what are you waiting for??" and the kid says "I dunno, something amazing I guess" and Bob sighs sadly and says "Me too, kid". The film also features some montage scenes where we see Bob workout use a couple of old train carriages to try and lose weight as he begins to work for Mirage which are funny. And the scene prior to that where he defeats the Omnidroid on the island is also funny as he carries extra weight and when he is shot out of a capsule to land in the woodland areas of the island, becasue he is fat he can't squeeze himself out of it when he lands, so he has burst the capsule wide open! And during the opening interview sequence as Mr Incredible, Craig also has some funny lines such as "No matter how many times you save the world, it always manages to get back in jeopardy again. Sometimes I just want it stay saved! You know for a little bit? I feel like the maid; I just cleaned up this mess! Can we keep it clean for ten minutes?!".
Holly Hunter is also great in her role as Elastigirl/Helen who marries Bob/Mr Incredible and they have a family together, only for Helen to take on the life of housewife as she has to deal with the mundanity of her homelife, that is until Bob starts to get involved in his heroics again. Speaking for the animated character Helen she has a great scene where she infiltrates Syndrome's base to rescue Bob and she uses her flexible limbs to sneak in through the doors of the base, and at one point she looks at her ass in a mirror and sighs (probably as its not as small and perky as it used to be, but it still looks good here! (sad perv mode off). Helen has another funny sequence where she finally catches up with Bob on the island and as she sees Mirage hug Bob, and she goes over to introduce herself, we see Helen's long elasticated fist punch her out. Helen's flexibility also provides some of the film's amusing moments such as when the plane Helen flies toward the island is fired upon by a missile, which destroys the plane, and she turns herself into a large parachute and grabs her kids just in time before it blows. And as Helen, Violet and Dash land in the water, Helen shapes herself into a liferaft and Dash uses his incredible speed like a speedboat engine to propel to shore. And after they land Helen warns her kids "Now these guards they don't care if you are kids, they will kill you if they get the chance. Just don't give them that chance!".
Jason Lee is also excellent in his role as the villainous Syndrome, and as a kid named Buddy, he was once a fan of Mr Incredible until he was shunned by him, after this he became bitter and twisted and he grew up to try and claim fame as a fake superhero. Lee's best moment comes when Mr Incredible learns of his nefarious to pretend to become a superhero. And Syndrome says "Oh I'm real. Real enough to defeat you! I'll give them heroics. I'll give them the most spectacular heroics the world has ever seen! And when I'm old and I've had my fun, I'll sell my inventions so that everyone can have powers. Everyone can be super! And when everyone's super.... no one will be!".
Samuel L Jackson is also great in his role as Frozone, a semi-retired superhero who can create ice from his finger tips and is also a good friend of Bob/Mr Incredible. Jackson's funniest moment comes when he sees the Omnidroid outside his apartment window wreaking havoc, and suddenly runs around trying to find his superhero suit. And as he frantically looks for it he argues with his wife and he says "The public is in danger! You tell where my suit is, woman! We are talking about the greater good!" and his wife replies in the background "Greater good? I am your wife! I'm the greatest good you are ever gonna get!". And Jackson has another good scene with Nelson when Bob and Frozone are out at night doing some vigilante work, and at the end of the night after a good night's work done, Frozone "Just like old times, huh Bob?" and Bob slaps Frozone hard on the back "Just like old times" and Frozone whinces "Ha ha, yeah. Hurt then, too!".
In other voice roles, Sarah Vowell and Spencer Fox are both good in their roles as Violet and Dash, Bob and Helen's pesky kids, who turns out to have superpowers of their own. Dash provides an amusing moment in the film where he get's into trouble at school for using his super speed to place a tack on his school teacher's seat, who makes the mistake of sitting down on it, and when they play it back on the video tapes you can barely see Dash move he's that fast. Violet also provides some nice moments in the film as the shy girl at school, who even uses her invisibility super power to hide herself from a boy she fancies, but she later gains more confidence after her exploits on the island. And Violet has another amusing moment where she uses her ability to create and manipulate force fields, to free herself from the force field that traps her and Bob, Helen and Dash, while Bob makes a heartfelt confession to Helen, and Violet in the meantime turns off the force fields. Elizabeth Pena also provides a nice bit of spice in her role as the sexy Mirage, who handles Bob/Mr Incredible for Syndrome, but she ends up fancying him, only to eventually find herself on the receiving end of Helen's right hook! And in the scene where Syndrome taunts a desparate Bob into crushing Mirage, in an act of defiance when he is imprisoned in the force field, Bob let's her go, and Mirage later says to Syndrome "Next time you gamble, gamble your OWN life!".
And lastly Brad Bird pitches in by doing the voice of Edna Mode, the costumer designer for superheros. Bird's high pitched camp delivery is a bit annoying at times in the film, and its almost like he knows he's made a great film here so its almost like he wants to put in a self congratulatory performance as well, which for me is probably the only slightly weak point in the film. Regardless of that though Bird does have a good scene where Edna speaks to Bob and when she sees him at the securing gate she says "My God, you've gotten fat!". Also in the following scene Edna amusingly tells Bob about the dangers of making a suit with a cape and the number of superheros who have been killed due to wearing a cape, as they have suffered fates such as being sucked into the engine of an airplane or something similar and Edna yells sharply to Bob "No capes!".
As for the music score by Michael Giacchino its is very good and he provides a score that is bright and breezy in places and suspenseful and dramatic in others. Giachhino also makes several nods to the James Bond scores by John Barry as there a few scenes where he provides a Bond-esque quality to the score, such as in the scenes where Bob and later Helen infiltrate Syndrome's base. In fact John Barry was initially asked to do the score for the film, however he was said to have been reclutant to want to replicate the sound of that period, so Giachinno did the score instead, and utilised the theme from Her Majesty's Secret Service in certain sequences, mainly where Helen uses her body as a raft, while Dash peddles them to shore with great speed.
So as for the flaws.... well this is again one of those rare times where I won't really bother nitpicking because The Incredibles get's so much right its really hard to pick it up on anything much, with the exception of maybe Brad Bird's almost smug self congratulatory performance as Edna Mode, which I've already mentioned. The only other thing I would say though is that its a bit of a crime that they haven't done a sequel to The Incredibles yet as its been 10 years since it was released and the end of the film left it wide open for a sequel to happen, but so far it hasn't, although the director Brad Bird has since expressed interest in making another film, so maybe we might see it yet.
And that's it for my look at The Incredibles, which to this day remains one of the finest animated feature length films ever made, and its still hugely entertaining, with stunning visuals, a fine soundtrack and excellent voice performances from the cast.
And with that I shall leave it right there and be back soon with another post.
Zdravo!
P.S. That's bye in Serbian, a nod to Novak Djokovic! (of sorts). Laters!
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