My "Incredibles" Review

[RyMickey]

Working at a movie theater has its perks, I must say. Granted, staying up until 4:00am and then having to go to class at 8:00am isn't so much fun, but in certain cases, it's worth it.

"The Incredibles" is, well, simply incredible. I'm not a big superhero movie fan. Sure, "Superman" is an okay movie. "Batman" is overrated. "Spiderman 1" was excellent, while "Spidey 2" was one of the worst movies ever in my opinion (I know that I'm probably alone on that one).

Nevertheless, I was looking forward to "The Incredibles" immensely. I loved director Brad Bird's previous animation flick "The Iron Giant" (it's a shame this didn't find an audience in theaters). I tried to downplay my excitement for "Incredibles," though, because I was psyched for "Finding Nemo" and, although visually stunning, I thought it was one of Pixar's weakest flicks (once again, I know I'm probably alone on this one).

Okay, so enough babble....what about the movie, right? I really don't want to say much about the plot. Everything unfolds so naturally and it works so darn good.

Voice acting: Superb.
*Craig T. Nelson (gotta love "Coach"!) was perfect - definite machismo, but also incredibly caring and touching.
*Samuel L. Jackson - His character, Frozone, isn't incredibly prevalent in the film, but the animators have mimicked his mannerisms so incredibly well.
*Jason Lee - The bad guy - Syndrome - Excellent. Comedic, but bitter (for reasons I won't explain here)
*Brad Bird as Edna Mole - Absolutely hilarious. Made me laugh everytime she was onscreen.
*The kids - Whoever played Dash was great. Violet, however, was a little too mellow for me. Sometimes, I couldn't even hear what she said. No fault of the actor, I just thought she was depicted as a little too much of a dreary teen (although this is my only qualm with the film)

The best, however, is Holly Hunter as the mom. Just perfect. Absolutely perfect. Touching, sweet, and quite the kick-butt mom.

Music by Michael Giachionni (spelling?) is great. Plays off of James Bond and the like, but it is definitely its own thing. This is his first movie score (although he scores one of my favorite shows, "Alias") and he did a great job.

The look is great. I have to say that the people don't look as "real" as in "The Polar Express" trailers that I have seen, but I don't go to see an animated flick for realism - "The Polar Express" people kinda freak me out. They looked great.

All this being said (which I know isn't a whole lot, because I don't want to give much away), this movie, while absolutely amazing, is not going to do well. What? What do you mean?

It will have a stellar opening weekend. However, this is not a kid's film. Guns are ablazing, people are dying. There's even a sexual reference made by Syndrome which made me laugh out loud...and then I said to myself, "That was kinda dirty." These reasons are why I loved this film. Brad Bird wasn't afraid to take risks. Little kids aren't going to like this movie.

That being said, if teens and adults can look past the fact that it's animation and go see this one, it could take on "Spidey"-like proportions. Unfortunately, I don't see it topping Shrek 2's total this year (which sickens me, really, that dreck like Shrek can make boatloads of money).

BTW, the cartoon before the flick, "Boundin'" is really good, too. But the trailer for "Cars" -- looks like Pixar could have their first clunker on the way. It looks really, really bad.

RyMickey

 

[meiandrew]

We just got back! Totally agree... the movie is incredible !! Did not think that I would enjoy a voice-over as much I we enjoyed Tim Allen as Buzz, but Craig T. is great !!! All of them were excellent !! Agree... Dash (Spencer Fox) is fantastic !!! The animation was amazing, especially the scenes where their hair gets wet. It was incredible how true to life the animators made everything look, and the end scene with the baby (dont want to give anything away) was hysterical.... And, DEFINITELY agree with you about "Cars"... Looks horrible !!!

 

[RyMickey]

And, DEFINITELY agree with you about "Cars"... Looks horrible!!!

I talked with others that had seen the trailer already. I thought maybe it was just me. Nope. Not a single person has a good thing to say about it.

RyMickey

 

[DisneyFanGuy]

Agree on all fronts. I thought The Incredibles was the best movie of the year so far.

I must admit that I really didn't like the Cars trailer at all. But I didn't like the first trailer on Nemo either, and never enjoyed any of the Monster's Inc. trailers right up to the release of the movie. I loved both movies, so Pixar gets the benefit of the doubt from me for now.

 

[myhandd]

I took my 4 year old ds to see it on 11/6/2004 and the whole theater was packed. I was worried that he wouldn't enjoy or would fall asleep because had started to doze in the car on the way there, but he loved it! There appeared to be a lot of younger kids even than mine, I don't know how much they could enjoy it but my boy is crazy about Disney/Pixar movies and he is still talking about it.

I was wowed by the effects and it had a nice story line, although there were moments when it was a little slow, but overall I really enjoyed it!

 

[Cinderella37]

Okay, let the flames begin, but my fiance and I actually walked out of the movie at the halfway point. Now, I am a rabid Disney fan, know the words to every animated feature ever made (except for the Fox and the Hound, Home On the Range, and Brother Bear), listen to basically only Disney music, collect like crazy, vacation at WDW at least once a year, etc. Yes, I have a borderline problem. I felt like I was commiting treason as we exited the theater (we were the only two people at the 10:30pm showing at a rather large movie theater). Loved every Pixar movie to date, in fact even styled my First Grade classroom on Monsters Inc.

We absolutely despised this movie. I fell asleep four or five times, with my fiance commenting, "If I have to stay awake, so do you." I read it had a projected weekend take of $70.7, but I can't imagine word of mouth not hurting it. This is the first movie I've ever walked out of in my 27 year existence. We thought it was simply terrible. This is the first Disney movie (besides Home On the Range and Brother Bear) that was awful and I didn't love. I'm wondering as I read the reviews on here if I was in the right movie theater. What did we miss? By the way, we love superhero movies, especially Spiderman.

 

[All Aboard]

Cinderella37, I'm trying so hard to figure out why you would deem this film awful. It was so visually stunning (both styalistically and technically), it bent the traditional "outcast" story in a unique way, it pulled you deeply into the characters. What a wonderful story and method of showing "family" demonstrating strength under extreme circumstances. Pixar once again moved its audience in so many emotional directions. I loved this film, flat out loved it. And, I really didn't expect to going in. To me, it shares a place with Toy Story (I & II) and Monsters, Inc. I found it substaintially better than a Bugs Life and Finding Nemo.

Don't get me wrong. I believe you. And I know as well as anyone that movies are received vastly differently by different people. I am just struggling to figure out how this movie could move someone to pick up their things and leave the theater.

Are you sure you didn't wander into a screening of Shark Tale by accident?

 

[dpic]

I absolutely loved this movie. I think it's Pixar's best--easily their best. Great family movie. Excellent writing. Stunning visuals, and funny. I laughed a lot in this movie.

Now, Cinderella37, I know where you're coming from. I didn't like Finding Nemo. If the little fishy kid has listened to his Dad, he would have been fine, but at the end the Dad's gotta change?!??. Oh, well... I'm one of two or three that didn't like it. I can accept the fact the rest of the world is wrong if they can.

As far as the trailers go, Cars looked B.A.D, type bad. Also, I thought the Pooh movie trailer looked cheap. I love Pooh and the older Pooh classic movies. This movie though (and I don't care how many times they said for "theater release only"), looked like direct to video quality to me. At least in the preview it looked thrown together and the writing seemed like Saturday morning quality. Sad they're doing this to Pooh...

 

[roymccoy]

Cinderella37, I'm with you! We almost walked out, and it would have been our 5 year old leading the way. She kept leaning over and telling me what a long movie she thought it was.

First off, as with Nemo, Pixar has decided to take over for Mister Rogers and go from making VERY funny movies, to "how's he gonna make it with the gimp fin" and "we gotta save the marriage and the family" films without a whole lot of jokes. Now, I know that there were a few jokes in this movie and I know that Ellen DeGeneres was hilarious in Nemo but Toy Story I and II, Bug's Life and Monsters Inc. were a laugh a minute. They were more entertaining and less "preachy". Maybe it's the switch to dramatic actors instead of comedians. No Tom Hanks or Billy Crystal in this movie...no, we get Holly Hunter (ha ha) and Craig T. "Gut Buster" Nelson.

I also thought that this movie was WAY too disturbing for young kids. I mean, there is a lot of violence in this film. People were killed, cars were crushed, buildings were destroyed and there was torture (I won't go into where so I don't spoil the movie for anyone else, but those who saw the movie know what I mean) and the villian was very scary. (Scarier than some of the James Bond villians and they're made for adults.) The children were almost killed a number of times and they seemed terrified at some points. This scared my kids. Oh, and did you notice how the chase scenes were setup in Playstation visuals, so the game would be just like the movie. When the boy would stop and turn, he turned just like the action characters turn in a video game. Both my wife and I noticed this one.

Finally, could Hollywood please put a black actor in a CGI movie and not make him act like the stereotypical black person??
From Eddie Murphy's "iz is jus a donkey" in Shrek to Wil Smith's gold chain wearing ghetto blaster listening and street talking character
from Shark Tale, it is an injustice to these actor's talents.
The Incredibles has Samuel L. Jackson, one of the best actors of our time, running around like James from Good Times. With Shakespearian lines like "Woman?! Where is my Super Suit??" I thought I was watching the guy with the afro from the Mod Squad.

Anyway, I guess as long as it makes money, PIXAR will keep pumping them out but as far as I am concerned...the best is behind them. (So far...)

Just my 2 cents.

Roy

BTW- Cars looks as bad as Home on the Range, and that ain't good.

 

[Buzz2001]

I thought it was a great movie. The jungle sequence and explosions looked so real. I can't imagine that tradition animation will ever rebound.

1 - The Incredibles BV/PIXAR $70,678,000 / $70,678,000
2 - Ray UNIV $13,800,000 / $39,800,000
3 - The Grudge SONY $13,500,000 / $89,580,000
4 - Saw LIONS $11,400,000 / $35,701,242
5 - Alfie PARA $6,500,000 / $6,500,000
6 - Shall We Dance? M'MAX $5,650,141 / $42,130,425
7 - Shark Tale D'WORKS $4,600,000 / $154,100,000

 

[DancingBear]

Haven't seen it yet, but a coupla points:

--this flick has an amazing 97% Fresh rating on RottenTomatoes.com

--It's rated PG "for action violence"

 

[SnackyStacky]

I thought it was okay, but I'm not really an action movie person. I don't think Pixar has bottomed out, or has lost their edge - it really is just my opinion of the genre they decided to go with.

I can't quite see how any of Pixar's previous efforts could not be considered preachy in the same way that Nemo and the Incredibles are being deemed preachy:

Toy Story - you must learn to accept change
Bug's Life - everyone has worth, no matter how different they seem
Toy Story 2 - there's no "I" in team!
Monsters Inc - different doesn't mean bad

They all carry one of those "preachy" messages (I wouldn't call it preachy - I think that Pixar knows that there will be kids in the audience, and I don't see anything wrong with sending them a message that's GOOD, and teaches them some values) just as much as Nemo.

The Incredibles IS more violent than anything they've put out in the past, however - as DancingBear pointed out, it got a rating of PG. It is also, if not THE longest, one of the longest animated movies ever made. I knew that before going in, and I don't have kids. It's not information that's hidden. I found it while looking for showtimes.

I do however think that the trailer was VERY misleading. I was looking for something far more comical, and less action, based on the trailer. That's not what I got, and that's okay. For that reason only, I was somewhat disappointed. But having said that, I can't discount Cars because it had a bad trailer. As others have pointed out, Pixar's trailers usually aren't a very good representation of what the movie will be.

Not Pixar's best (in my opinion), but still a really worthy effort that I think is representative of their canon.

 

[Planecrazy4dis]

http://www.macobserver.com/article/2004/10/29.4.shtml

Now this is the best idea yet...Steve Jobs as Disney's CEO. Check out the article. If that came true maybe Pixar could stay with Diz. What do you think about that?

Hey...we saw The Incredibles yesterday. My mother was kind enough to baby sit PJ. DW and I loved the movie. It reminded me of the 60's James Bond days. It was great. I was very impressed with the animation. Pixar's stories keep getting better and better too. I can't wait to dress PJ in a DASH costume someday. They definitely set it up for a sequel, which makes me wonder how that will work out with Disney. You have to see it just to see the whole Boundin' short. Boundin' was awesome. We give the the whole thing TWO THUMPS UP!

 

[laceemouse]

We saw it on Saturday. The theater was PACKED at a 3:30 showing, and this place had it on 2 screens. Our kids are 13, 11, 9, and 7 and all enjoyed it. No one was bored, no one even had to go potty! It was more action than I expected, definitely not a laugh a minute, but a good story and great voice actors. It always amazes me when people complain about kids movies not really being for kids. We don't mind comic book type violence for ours, but POC was the ONLY PG-13 we have let our kids see (DH and I too for that matter.) Every day I am SHOCKED at what my friends and neighbors let their kids see, I'm talking 8 and 9 year olds watching "Scary Movie" and other such trash. Then you get folks complaining about Disney, what a difference in parenting styles! Oh well, to each his own I guess.

 

[Bstanley]

First - saw Incredibles and thought it was great. Not sure if the 'classic' Disney audience (younger than 10) will like it as much as my 14 year old and I did though. Will be interesting to see whether it has long term legs.

Second - did anyone else find the latest 'sheep' short subject from Pixar remarkably uninteresting? Really not anywhere near as amusing as Geri's Game or Knick Knack (the Snowman).

 

[Golter]

My blond haired 6 year old son, came out of the theater and just started running as fast as he could. He was pumping those lil legs almost as fast as his new idol....Dash. It got A+ from our clan. It was different from the prior Pixar releases. It had an edge to it that was refreshing. Hey, at least they didnt knock off a parent like Nemo or Brother Bear did.