Review: The Incredibles

The Incredibles may fight to save the world, but they teach us to know thyself.

The Incredibles
Photo: Walt Disney Pictures

Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Team America: World Place made for half-assed political satire, but the film’s humorous anti-Bruckheimer agenda succeeds in exposing the bone-headedness of people’s embrace of tripe like Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor (presumably the same people who applaud George W. Bush’s war on terror). In much the same way that Parker and Stone skewer films like Armageddon and Pearl Harbor, Brad Bird (The Iron Giant) combines and sends-up the best and worst elements of countless James Bond and superhero flicks to suggest that Middle America is above the lies Hollywood sells the public.

Less cynical and infinitely more hopeful than Team America, though, The Incredibles looks to redefine the meaning of family-friendly entertainment. After a string of lawsuits sends the world’s superheroes into hiding, Bob Parr (Craig T. Nelson), a.k.a. Mr. Incredible, resigns himself to living out the rest of his days as just another schmuck in the crowd (in fact, Bob’s disconnect from the self—coupled with the structuralist vigor of Bird’s compositions—recalls the struggle of King Vidor’s main character from his silent classic The Crowd).

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Bird’s Pixar wonderland is a triumph of emotional frustration that wears on Bob’s soul. When called to a Dr. Evil-esque island on a top-secret mission, Bob reclaims his lost identity but must confront the effects a past transgression had on someone else’s sense of self. And from this remote island emerges the film’s disgruntled menace, a Dubya-esque ninny , Buddy Pine (Jason Lee), who looks to exploit an attack on a downtown financial district to his public relations advantage. Like Bird’s own scene-stealing Edna “E” Bird—an Edith Head-like fashionista who designs superhero outfits—Buddy Pine’s idol worship similarly addresses a certain wishy-washy relationship between the public and its celebrity heroes.

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There’s plenty of soul-searching throughout The Incredibles, but the film is most successful as a defense of family: When Helen Parr (Holly Hunter), a.k.a. Elastigirl, comes to her husband’s rescue, Bird gets considerable emotional mileage out of the character’s continued attempts to bend (here, literally and figuratively) in order to keep her family together. Just as riveting is Violet (Sarah Vowell) and Dash (Spencer Fox) coming to terms with their super powers, an emotional process that Bird uses to conflate the family’s love and respect for one another. The Incredibles may fight to save the world, but they teach us to know thyself.

Score: 
 Cast: Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Samuel L. Jackson, Jason Lee, Dominique Lewis, Jean Sincere, Spencer Fox, Sarah Vowell, John Ratzenberger, Wallace Shawn, Brad Bird, Elizabeth Peña  Director: Brad Bird  Screenwriter: Brad Bird  Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures  Running Time: 115 min  Rating: PG  Year: 2004  Buy: Video, Soundtrack

Ed Gonzalez

Ed Gonzalez is the co-founder of Slant Magazine. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle, his writing has appeared in The Village Voice, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications.

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