*** Official THE INCREDIBLES Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Stephen_L]

The Newsweek review really angers me, not because it had reservations about the film, but it clearly assumed that this animated picture should be geared for small children. The film has been clearly and appropriately rated and yet, in Mr. Giles estimation this films should be 'Care Bear' friendly. The great animated films were often violent and scary. Even when geared towards children they did not condescend to them.

 

[Richard Kim]

The Onion has an interview with Brad Bird. You can read it here:

http://www.theonionavclub.com/featu....php?issue=4044

quote:O: The Incredibles has some unusual content—characters die, and there's some real emotional trauma and a little implied sex. Was there ever any concern over content or appropriateness?

BB: I think they were a little concerned at some early points. One of the first sequences that we did on story reels was this section where the mom and dad are fighting, and I think [Pixar] had a brief period where they were worried that I was going to make an animated Bergman film. But once they saw the stuff that came before it and after it, I think they were fine with it. God bless them for wanting to stay true to the nature of this story. That was unbelievably refreshing.

 

[Chris]

I'll say this.. the more I think about this, this is easily, and I mean, easily, the best film ever done to capture the heart of comic books. This is not like an X-Men type film, but it's a movie that captures that child-like joy for fantasy storytelling. Fantastic action, on par with any live action film I have ever seen. At a certain point, I forgot altogether that it was animated and thought about it in the same way I appreciated "Bourne Identity" The action was intense, interesting, and plot focused. Their were plenty of -INCREDIBLE- subtext jokes (the joke about the drinking game late in the film cracked me up, and still I snicker about it) but there were lots of fantastic adult asides that gave the audience teh heads up that they thought about you as well.



This film should be a textbook for how to make the next superman film. If they can get that kind of joy-in-storytelling into the next superman film, it could be a success.



The opening of the story "you RUINED MY DEATH!" lawsuits cracked me up as well

 

[Joseph S]

Another well done Pixar film and short. Can't wait for Cars and another showing of The Incredibles before it leaves the theaters. That baby is a cute little Spoiler:devil.

Too bad there probably won't be any true Incredibles sequel by Pixar. At least they're about to get out from under the Di$ney contract.

 

[Quentin]

The action is phenomenal. All I kept thinking to myself was, "why even bother doing live action superhero films?" This form is the best choice for super hero action, and this movie is the best super hero movie out there.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Saw a promo screening on Wednesday...and then I was back dropping nine bucks on an opening night ticket!

If Pixar was a woman, she'd be Jennifer Connelly.

What a great flick this is.

Here's my review.

 

[Quentin]

I'm glad your review mentions the theme, Scott.



It is one of the truly special things about this very special film.



A film with a couple themes - a nice "the family that fights together stays together" theme...but, also the very strong theme of American political correctness smothering greatness. Super-heroes forced to live in shame and anonymity. Forced to not help people. Forced to fit in. It's great symbolism. And, I love when Mr. Incredible complains about the "graduation" from 4th grade to 5th grade!



Man...I dig this movie a lot...

 

[DaveF]

I enjoy all the Pixar films, and love a few of them. They consistently put out excellent movies. Even more remarkably, they are all G, making me wonder most studios are unable to create good clean fun as Pixar does almost effortlessly.



But I entered The Incredibles with hesitations. Had this move come out five years ago, the voice of one calling out in a wilderness of no modern superhero movies, it would have been a smashing success to me. It would have stood alone, presenting an engaging story about the contemporary, deconstructed superhero.



But in the past few years I've read some AstroCity , The Dark Knight Returns , The Watchmen and been treated to Unbreakable, X-Men, X-Men 2, and SpiderMan 2. The literary works educated me on the humanized superhero. The movies brought them to the silver screen very effectively.



Is there anything new to be said? Could Pixar add to, or improve, on this theme?



I'm not sure The Incredibles shed new light on superheroes. It didn't give me anything new to on which to reflect for understanding superheroes. But it is the equal to any of the new movies on this topic. The story was well told. The characters interesting, empathetic, and engaging.



The first half, I found a little slow just because I was always thinking about what it was saying about the concept of heroes. I think a re-watching will allow me to relax and enjoy the setup for what it is.



The second half was pure excitement. It fully embraced the heros abilities and used them in creative ways to move the story along as well as create wonderful action scenes. My criticism of A Bug's Life is that it did not embrace the buginess of its world as fully as Antz did. This time, I felt Pixar understood the world and fully embraced it.



By the end of the movie I was having a blast. I left smiling and feeling warm and fuzzy. The Incredibles is perhaps the most derivative movie Pixar has done -- [/b]X-Men[/b] meets Spy Kids. But it does it so well. A typically well executed Pixar film. I recommend it without hesitation.

 

[Chuck Anstey]

I am one of those parents who was disappointed in the level of realistic violence in this movie. I read the reviews here and knew it was PG, but there was no indication this wasn't PG because it was too intense for G (Iron Giant) rather than the actual case where it was simply not quite intense enough for PG-13. To me there is a big difference between the Army shooting at a giant robot that clearly cannot be killed by the weapons and "Kids, stay here. There are bad guys on the island that want to kill you and they won't care that you are children."



"From the creators of A Toy Story and those who brought you A Bug's Life comes a movie that is nothing like those and is really a 3D animated James Bond movie with slightly less killing." Promoting this movie as the next in line of a string of wonderful family friendly comedies and then claiming "What did you expect, it was rated PG?" is ridiculous. I think this marketing campaign will hurt "The Incredibles" box office take and future Pixar pictures as they will have lost the trust of some parents. Now parents will have to pre-screen or at least wait until after the first weekend before they can determine what the movie is truly like.



As a whole we enjoyed it but it was too intense at times for our kids. Also all through the movie my wife and I were distracted from the full enjoyment of it wondering if we had made a big mistake or if there was going to be a scene that was just too much. My kids are not scarred for life or anything like that but I will not see another Pixar movie on opening weekend again. We will instead wait for lots of reviews to make sure we fully understand exactly what the movie is really like.



I know many of you are thinking "But that is your job as a parent." and I agree with you. However, Pixar is in the business of making money and next time I will not be so willing or quick to part with my money.



Chuck Anstey

 

[Richard Paul]

Chuck, I understand your concern but I personally agree with Pixar's decision to make the bad guys actually bad. This made The Incredibles a more realistic movie and added a true sense of apprehension to it. Pixar has guts to put a true villain in a kids movie and I tip my hat to them.

 

[Michael Ballack]

I don't think there's anything wrong with intense scenes or scary ones in so called "children's films" or "family films". I'm not saying take your kid to see Nightmare on Elm Street, but since even before The Wizard of Oz( I was scared s*&^tless of the wicked witch) parents have been taking their kids to films that at moments can be scary. It's good to be scared or frightened every once in a while. It's what makes us human. You can't shelter people from everything. Brad Bird said it best in the above quote or article. Also, I've been hearing all week about how it has adult themes and is a little more intense then your average kid flick. What more does Brad Bird have to do please people? Should he have filmed a special video before the movie that said "This film is very scary torwards younger children. It might warp their fragile little minds. Danger! Danger! Leave now"?

Sorry for that little rant. I had to get that off my chest. The Incredibles, for me, is the greatest pixar film yet. At some point, The Incredibles world just seems so real even though the designs of the characters couldn't be more exagerated. It was refreshing to have an animated film that wasn't the standard 90 minutes. This is why Pixar is so creative, they don't follow formats or templates. Some may argue that the Incredibles uses every cliche in the book. It might, but it executes them to a point where they make it there own. I didn't find the first half slow at all. I guess it says something about the state of our society when you can't stop to have a breather or develop characters for later important scenes.

Couple of tidbits. That little fashion designer lady stole the show with the audience I was with. I recognized a few Star Wars references(no doubt this has to do with the film's sound being mixed by Skywalker sound and Pixar having started with Lucasfilm). Stretchagirl or Mrs. Incredible has to be the sexiest cartoon since Jessica Rabbit. Yes, flame away at my geekness.

Crag T. Nelson did a pretty good job. It's good to see him get some work. I wasn't too thrilled with the Cars footage that I saw before the movie. It's too early though, we still have more time to see what it's about) I can't wait to see what Pixar has in the future. The sky is the limit with them.

 

[Tarkin The Ewok]

I noticed that the name Omni-droid (the spherical robot from The Incredibles) is copyrighted by Lucasfilm. Have they already used the name for one of their products, or is it something forthcoming, perhaps for Revenge of the Sith?

 

[Thomas Newton]

quote:
Had this move come out five years ago, the voice of one calling out in a wilderness of no modern superhero movies, it would have been a smashing success to me. It would have stood alone, presenting an engaging story about the contemporary, deconstructed superhero.

I don't think the point of this movie was to tear down the idea of heros, for the sake of tearing them down. That sounds more like the idea behind Alan Moore's Watchmen -- where, at the end, most of the lead characters committed, or agreed to overlook, a 9/11-scale atrocity, in the name of "world peace".



The only person "in the know" at the end of Watchmen who managed to retain his integrity was Rorschach; a psychotic vigilante who refused to cover up for Ozymandius, even though that refusal cost Rorschach his life. His killer, Dr. Manhattan, regarded humans as little more than ants.



The Incredibles had a cynical undertone -- but it was aimed at society, not at pushing the idea that any person with power would inevitably choose to use it for evil. In the movie, the family chose to do the right thing, despite great danger, and the prospect that success would be rewarded with lawsuits and ingratitude.



In this, The Incredibles reminds me of DC's recent six-part "New Frontier" series. That series retold the origins (or appearances) of many key DCU characters in a 1950s-Red-Scare kind of world. After a while, only government lackeys (i.e., Superman) get to operate freely. The Government even holds the Martian Manhunter as a "dangerous" alien spy/invader! Only a massive do-or-die threat to the country (and perhaps all of humanity) is enough to get the Government to realize that, meta or non-meta, everyone has to (be allowed to) pull together.

 

[Peter Kline]

I have reservations about the length as well. Some of the plot situations did remind me of other films... although it's not really Brad Bird's fault since the film has been 4 years or so in the making. However, it is a PG rated film. Reviews and stories have mentioned the adult nature of what is on sceen. If you look at the rating block in the ads it says action violence. It's up to parents to pay attention and not get caught up in the hype about a movie. It's not a kiddie film.

 

[Andy Sheets]

quote:I don't think the point of this movie was to tear down the idea of heros, for the sake of tearing them down. That sounds more like the idea behind Alan Moore's Watchmen -- where, at the end, most of the lead characters committed, or agreed to overlook, a 9/11-scale atrocity, in the name of "world peace".

Yeah, I think The Incredibles is more of a reconstruction of superheroes (the only real nod to revisionist Watchmen-like stories is the joke about capes); except for letting goons die as collateral damage it's about as joyfully "old school" as you can get. If it makes any comment on the comics industry, it's to decry the mentality of the modern fanboy, like Syndrome, who always equates mature storytelling with nihilism and would rather see superheroes do anything but use their powers in inventively choreographed action scenes.



I almost feel sorry for anyone that tries to make a superhero movie after this, especially those poor bastards making the Fantastic Four movie

 

[Chuck Anstey]

quote:What more does Brad Bird have to do please people? Should he have filmed a special video before the movie that said "This film is very scary torwards younger children. It might warp their fragile little minds. Danger! Danger! Leave now"?

What a silly statement. How about a reasonable compromise. Stop promoting like it is the next family comedy by prefacing it with scenes from "A Toy Story" and "A Bug's Life". Instead promote it like an real superhero action adventure like "Spiderman" and show the clip "Kids, stay here. There are bad guys on this island that want to kill you and they won't care that you are children." THAT would have been all that was required to make parents like myself say "We might need to learn alot more about this movie."



Pixar built a reputation on creating only family comedies and then used that reputation to promote this movie as something it was not. That is what bugs me, not the movie or the decisions not to water it down, which I can respect.



Chuck Anstey

 

[Holadem]

Is it me or was there NO bass at all in this movie?!



Was it my theater?



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[Chris]

Must be your theater; the theater I saw it in -shook- with scenes from the robot, enough that I could feel the floor vibrate when the robot took out buildings and roads.

 

[Holadem]

Thanks Chris, something was wrong then, it may have been because I was sitting in the second row (I was late)? This is one of my favorite rooms (#10, Loews Kips Bay in Manhattan), which I made sure to see this flick in. I was pretty dissapointed by the movie AND the sound. Ugh.



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H

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

I'm counting down the hours until I get to go see this tonight. It is my most looked forward to movie of the year, and probably most looked forward to since Nemo.