Bob Parr (A.K.A. Mr. Incredible) and his wife Helen (A.K.A. Elastigirl) are the worlds greatest famous crime-fighting superheroes in Metroville. Always saving lives and battling evil on a daily basis. But fifteen years later they have been forced to adopt civilian identities and retreat to the suburbs where they have no choice but to retire of being a superhero and force to live a normal life with their three children Violet Dash and Jack-Jack (who were secretly born with superpowers). Itching to get back into action Bob gets his chance when a mysterious communication summons him to a remote island for a top secret assignment. He soon discovers that it will take a super family effort to rescue the world from total destruction.
Review
Shortly after Dreamworks screwed up with the uninspired "Shark Tale" Pixar contains its remarkably success story with "The Incredibles". And while I have to say that I liked "Finding Nemo" a bit better "The Incredibles" is still an amazing movie.
First of all this is because its funny. Its not so funny that youre constantly laughing out loud but there are more than enough good jokes in the movie to keep you entertained and its full of good observations about superhero movies (note all the ridiculous superhero and villain names) and references to other movies. Its also a brilliant James Bond spoofhomage containing all the gadgets secret island bases and crazy schemes that made early Bond movies so much fun.
Secondly this movie has heart and charm in droves. Its full of memorably and likable characters you can really identify with and care about. Characters like Edna are instant classics. The voice acting is universally excellent but Holly Hunter steals the show as Elastigirl. This is a movie that doesnt need toilet humor characters modeled like celebrities or a "hip" soundtrack...it easily succeeds on charm and style alone.
Also I found it to be a surprisingly good action movie. The plentiful action sequences are full of energy extremely fastpaced and exciting and put many a liveaction movie to shame.
Finally I also liked the tone and message of the movie. "The Incredibles" basically makes a plea against mediocrity breaking with the politically correct idea that "everybody is special" (and thus nobody really is) and encouraging people to use the talents they have been given. I think this couldnt be more true. Not all people are equally talented (just compare Pixar to Dreamworks) but this is no reason to keep the talented people from not reaching their full potential just because it makes the less talented ones feel bad.
"The Incredibles" while maybe not as hilarious as I had hoped (though its still very funny) is nonetheless an extremely entertaining movie that manages to charm you wit its combination of great characters lots of style tongueincheek attitude and good message. Highly recommended.
****12 of ***** stars