DVD Review HTF REVIEW: The Incredibles -- INCREDIBLY RECOMMENDED!!! (1 Viewer)

[Casey Trowbridg]

This was a great DVD, I watched all of the bonus material yesterday and today. As has already been said, I wish they had done more with the voice cast, they could've at least talked about them a little bit more even if we didn't hear from them.

Sara Vowell's essay was pretty cool though.

A great DVD...only thing I need to finish is the Animators commentary.

Oh yeah and just to go back a page put me in the sorry for Kari club. She really was trying to be a good sitter, she was just overmatched although I love it when Syndrome shows up and explains that the "s" is for sitter and that he thought of putting babysitter but he couldn't walk around with a "BS" on his chest.

 

[CarlosL]

Hey folks,

A random question, but could someone identify the Mozart piece playing during Jack-Jack Attack? It's beautiful...

Thanks!

 

[NickFoley]

It's the same music used during Nightcrawlers attack on the WhiteHouse in X-men 2. The song is by Mozart and the name is "Requiem Mass". Dies Irae is the most famous part of the song its that what you're hearing during the animated short.

 

[CarlosL]

Thanks, Nick!

 

[PeterTHX]

"Sorry for Kari Club" - I like that!

I'm not mulitlingual at all but I was playing around with the other audio tracks (a leftover habit, my ex-girlfriend was Mexican). I thought the Spanish version was pretty well done. SFX are a LOT quieter, though.

The PT Trilogy of SW Films (also by Skywalker Sound) have some of the best Spanish version tracks BTW. Pretty close. My ex-Mex commented how different people sounded on the native (English) verions of other films. Like "Fools Rush In" didn't even have native Mexican actress Salma Hayek dub her lines!

 

[Pat Frank]

The choice of Mozart was deliberately ironic, btw, albeit fairly subtle humor. Clearly a stab at the "Mozart for babies" trend a couple years back.

 

[Andrew Chong]

This is one nice DVD set.

Some random musings on what I thought were nice (apart from the sparkling feature presentation):

• Nice to hear John Walker and Brad Bird have fun talking about the movie.
• Nice to see that both commentary tracks have subtitles in multiple languages.
• Nice to see that some of the Easter eggs yield different video clips each time they appear.
• Nice to see Sarah Vowell's video essay: 'Vowellet' (clever! Vowell+Violet). Really well done. I haven't heard any of her work on NPR but have seen her many times on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and enjoy her wit.
• Nice to hear mention of animator Victor Navone in both commentaries. (For instance, he animated multiple versions of a guard being knocked out with a coconut thrown by Mr. Incredible; which can be viewed via one of the Easter eggs!) One of the animators stated that Victor is perhaps the only Pixar animator with an Internet following. I'm in that following. I've known of Victor since enjoying his 'Alien Song' short; this was before he joined Pixar. He has been there since Monsters, Inc. Well done, Victor!

 

[Rolando]

Figured this might be agood place to ask, can anyone confirm that the layer switch on the DVD is around the 57 minute mark?

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Yep. 57:07.

Right between Helen & Edna ("Do you KNOW where he is?") and Bob popping up from behind the cliff.

 

[John Alderson]

Just watched this two nights ago, confirming that it's indeed my new favorite Pixar film. It's spectacular both creatively and technically. I enjoyed it more this time than when I saw it in theaters.

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned, however, is that I noticed quite a bit of "noise" in the dark blue nighttime sky. Did anyone else see this? It looked an awful lot like compression artifacting to me. It definitely wasn't noise from cables; the noise stopped moving when I paused it. Otherwise it looked spectacular. My set is an anamorphic capable Wega. My contrast and brightness are set correctly, etc. It wasn't that bad, but I was surprised I noticed anything at all.

The effect is reminiscent of what film grain looks like in dark scenes on a poorly compressed DVD. Of course, this is (I'm assuming) a direct to digital transfer.

Looking forward to the special features.

 

[PeterTHX]

What kind of DVD player do you have, John?

 

[Tarkin The Ewok]

This DVD set contains a great film and some interesting bonus features. I'm surprised no one has brought up how excellent the sock puppet version of the film is. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but look for a character from a previous Pixar project to appear in that Easter egg.

 

[Jefferson Morris]

Here, here. We would have ended up with "Jessica Alba as 'Violet'", or "Sarah Michelle Gellar as 'Violet,'" or "Hilary Duff as 'Violet.'"

The animators make note of this on their commentary, pointing out that the "name" stars who get cast in animated films these days don't necessarily have voices that are all that interesting, which makes it tougher to animate to. The suitably restrained, well-cast voice talent in The Incredibles is another thing that sets it apart. I think it's clearly Pixar's best, and has become my favorite animated film, period.

--Jefferson Morris

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

Go ahead and pick on them, after Shark Tale, they deserve it.

 

[Ernest Rister]

The animators make note of this on their commentary, pointing out that the "name" stars who get cast in animated films these days don't necessarily have voices that are all that interesting, which makes it tougher to animate to.

And it doesn't really make a lot of sense. Sure, Robin Williams was great in Aladdin, but it was the idea of Williams as the Genie in the Aladdin story that got people fired up. That kind of stunt casting is a rare example of the planets lining up just right. Williams was born for animation, the character of the genie was born to be animated.

Voices should be chosen that are interesting and unique and enhance a character. A great vocal performance of an animated character should be like a great stage or film performance. After experiencing it, you shouldn't be able to imagine anyone else in the role. Eddie Murphy as Donkey in the Shrek films is a great example of this, as is Nathan Lane as Timon in The Lion King or - yes - Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story.

But you don't need famous names. Dan Castenella in The Simpsons is indelible. Peter Behn as Thumper is unforgettable. Look at the magic Mel Blanc accomplished without being an A-list movie star, or Sterling Holloway or Clarence Nash or June Foray. One of my favorite vocal performances of all time in an animated feature was given by Ed Brophy. Who? You may not know the name but you know the character -- Timothy the Mouse in Dumbo.

In fact, many of the greatest animated characters ever made don't speak at all. Dopey in Snow White, Tinker Bell in Peter Pan, the Carpet in Aladdin, Chernobog and the Hippos and Alligators in Fantasia, the great eagle Marahute in Rescuers Down Under, the Greed Monster in Spirited Away, or they have extremely limited vocabularies, like Stitch in Lilo and Stitch, or the Forest Spirit in Mononoke...some of my favorite animated films are narrated by an off-screen voice with very little actual character dialog, like The Legend of Sleepy Hollow or Pecos Bill, or How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Paying through the nose for name actors for character voices is the recent trend, but I don't think that did much for Sinbad or Road to El Dorado or Prince of Egypt.

 

[TheLongshot]

Actually, the more appropriate statement is paying through the nose for Elton John. I mean, that's what really made The Lion King successful.

Really, I think that better fits "Shark Tale". It looks to me they were trying way too hard to mold the animated character to the actor, rather than the other way around. It was all "actor playing a role" rather than a realised character.

With the exception of the "Robin Williams as the Genie" thing, an actor should desolve into the role, and we shouldn't be thinking this is such-and-such actor. Even actors with distinctive voices can acheve this. (The aformentioned Donkey in Shrek.)

One of the nice things was when the teaser for this came out, seeing people try to guess who was voicing Mr. Incredible. The fact that we couldn't, went a long way towards realizing these characters.

Jason

 

[Jefferson Morris]

Amen. The whole cast of The Simpsons is a great example - interesting voices (dozens of them), delivered by a solid ensemble, all virtual unknowns (save maybe Harry Shearer) when cast.

I particularly like Craig T. Nelson in The Incredibles. He doesn't ham it up, and brings a musical quality to his voice that I didn't know he possessed. I don't think, "Hey, that's the voice of Coach, or the Dad from Poltergeist" when I watch the film. I think, "That's Mr. Incredible."

Another interesting tidbit from the commentary - Harrison Ford apparently tested as Mr. Incredible too. I can't imagine his gruff tones working anywhere near as well as Nelson (although it would have been Ford's best film in years and years had he been cast).

--Jefferson Morris

P.S. My one beef with the otherwise great Incredibles disc is the lack of info regarding the cast (except for Sarah Vowell). I would like to have seen some behind-the-scenes stuff from the recordings.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Alrighty, here's how to find all the Easter Eggs. It's been a few weeks, and I hadn't seen all 12 revealed here yet.

Also, it should be noted that this is for the Region 1 release. The Disc 2 Easter Eggs have slightly different placement on the other region discs, but the idea is the same.

DISC 1:

Spin that needle, Bob

Go to the Commentary Menu. Wait for the menu to loop. Just prior to the loop ending, an icon in the shape of Mr. Incredible will appear on the lower left hand side of the screen. Press > and select it.

DISC 2:

All of the Easter Eggs on Disc 2 are found by waiting for the menu to loop and, just prior to the menu completing the loop, selecting the Omnidroid icon in the upper right corner of the screen by pressing >. Pages with two Easter Eggs use the same icon for access, so you need to try again after seeing one to get the other.

Guff!

On the Deleted Scenes Menu

Remote Control: Bob and Dash and Remote Control: Bob and 'zone

Both on the Publicity Menu

Buttons, buttons everywhere

On the Main Menu

Marky Mark and 2 of the 9 Old Men

Both on the Behind the Scenes Menu (This is a very long menu loop)

Ce-le-brate punching Dash, c'mon! and Rock Toss

Both on the More Making of the Incredibles Menu

Incredibles Puppet Theatre

On the Set Up Menu

Mmmmmm.... cake

On the Index Page 1 Menu

Scooter

On the Index Page 2 Menu

 

[Malcolm R]

Me too. The first thing I looked for in the extras after watching the film was the featurette on the voice work. Didn't find it. :frowning:

And the thing about celebrity voice casting is very true. Wallace Shawn is a great character actor, but hardly an A-lister. But he has a voice that is great to build an animated character around.

 

[Chris Farmer]

Agreed on Wallace Shawn as a great voice actor. I got some serious Princess Bride vibes when he was threatening to fire Bob though. I kept waiting for him to ask if Bob wanted to be unemployed in Greenland.