Metropolis Reality Forums - Review: 'Incredibles' lives up to billing

Welcome, Guest. Please Login or Register.
Sep 10^th, 2025, 11:53am

Home

Metropolis Reality Forums « Review: 'Incredibles' lives up to billing »

Hot Movie News and Reviews at Entertainment Spectrum!
www.EntertainmentSpectrum.com

   Metropolis Reality Forums
   Off-Topic Forums
   Movie Discussion (Moderators: Heather, yesteach, Isle_be_back)
   Review: 'Incredibles' lives up to billing

Previous topic | New Topic | Next topic »

Pages: 1

Add Poll

Notify of replies

Send Topic

Author

Topic: Review: 'Incredibles' lives up to billing (Read 315 times)

Rhune
ForumsNet Administrator

Gender:

Posts: 292

Review: 'Incredibles' lives up to billing
« on: Nov 11^th, 2004, 3:31pm »

Quote

Modify

Review: 'Incredibles' lives up to billing
Another rousing success from Pixar
By Paul Clinton
For CNN.com
Friday, November 5, 2004 Posted: 11:02 AM EST (1602 GMT)

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- "The Incredibles" is -- yes -- incredible.

Writer/director Brad Bird ("The Iron Giant") and the wizards at Pixar Animation Studios ("Toy Story," "Monsters, Inc," and "Finding Nemo") have created a marvelous movie that works for children and adults on both an emotional and humorous level.

This is the first time Pixar has used only human characters in a film and the result is a giant step forward in computer animation. "The Incredibles" offers a wonderful story brimming with social satire and clever metaphors, all coming back to the importance of family.

Rumor has it the film cost $145 million. It's money very well spent.

The film's clever premise is grounded in a world where superheroes are commonplace. Humans now take for granted being saved -- from any type of accident or force of nature -- on a daily basis by a caped crusader.

The biggest hero of them all is the amazing Mr. Incredible, voiced by the engaging Craig T. Nelson. Sharing the kudos -- and the headlines -- is the extremely flexible Elastigirl, performed by Holly Hunter. (One of the wonders of the film is the way the animators have beautifully captured the way the actress speaks out of the side of her mouth, which gives her character added spunk and charm.) The other main superhero of the day is Fronzone (who freezes water), voiced by the ever-terrific Samuel L. Jackson.

But humans -- being human -- aren't satisfied with just having their necks saved by these socially conscious heroes. As the old saying goes, "no good deed ever goes unpunished," and people start to sue their rescuers for property damage and the like. The superheroes are forced into a relocation program, pose as mere mortals or suffer dire consequences.

Mr. Incredible, who's always had a thing for Elastigirl, pops the question and they head off to suburbia. They become Bob and Helen Parr and years go by.

Off to save the world
Nature takes its course; they now have three children and the family's individual sources of power have become delightfully witty send-ups of their real personalities.

Dad, reduced to anything but incredible, is struggling to do what is best for the family. Mom is the multi-tasking mother who is forced to "stretch" herself in order to care for her demanding brood. The two oldest children, voiced by Sarah Vowell and Spencer Fox, are young Violet (as in shrinking), a shy teenager with the ability to disappear, and son Dash (who can naturally move at supersonic speed), a stereotypically hyperactive little boy. Young Jack-Jack (voiced by Eli Fucile) has powers yet to be determined.

Suddenly, Bob is summoned to a remote location in order to take part in a top-secret mission to -- what else -- save the world.

Every action-adventure movie needs a despicable villain and Jason Lee provides ample venom as Buddy Pine, also known as Syndrome.

But that's enough information, except to say that the rest of the film -- like any good tale -- keeps you guessing until the very end. The family struggles to overcome many obstacles while proving that staying together -- no matter what the cost -- is all that matters.

Magical
"The Incredibles" is more than just an entertaining family tale. The film riffs on action and spy films, particularly James Bond. Indeed, its most delightful character, Edna Mode (voiced by Bird himself in a wonderfully deadpan performance), is a clothing designer for superheroes -- a clever spin on Q, the high-tech equipment supplier in the Bond films.

Edna is an unlikely combination of Coco Chanel, Yoko Ono and George Patton. Edna determines what the superheroes will wear, thereby deciding their public image. She's a diva on steroids without a shred of self-doubt, and she single-handedly pushes the film's humor into overdrive when she enters the scene.

The people at Pixar have done it again. They've married state-of-the-art computer animation to great storytelling and have delivered a unique film full of heart, pathos and an unfailing faith in the triumph of good over evil.

The ability to entertain people of all ages with the same film is rare gift, but "The Incredibles" stays right on target. In Hollywood, that's beyond incredible. That's cinematic magic.

IP Logged

Rupey
ForumsNet Member

Can't top Pearl Islands!

Posts: 2147

Re: Review: 'Incredibles' lives up to billing
« Reply #1 on: Nov 12^th, 2004, 9:09pm »

Quote

Modify

We saw it today. I fell asleep midway through the film--not because it was boring but because I was zonked anyway.

The film was very good. I thought the central theme of the movie was about family and how each member of a family is vitally important to the whole clan.

The animation was very good and the story line was good as well. It was a film that might be difficult to completely capture the full attention of small children but older children and adults should love it. We went with another family and their kids today. Those parents, their kids, and our kids, and we all enjoyed it very much.

IP Logged

"Lord, please make me the person my dog thinks I am."

Rhune
ForumsNet Administrator

Gender:

Posts: 292

Re: Review: 'Incredibles' lives up to billing
« Reply #2 on: Nov 12^th, 2004, 9:44pm »

Quote

Modify

My 2 1/2 year old paid about as much attention to it as he normally does any film, which is not much.. lol. My 5 1/2 year old loved it and watched the whole thing.

IP Logged

Rupey
ForumsNet Member

Can't top Pearl Islands!

Posts: 2147

Re: Review: 'Incredibles' lives up to billing
« Reply #3 on: Nov 15^th, 2004, 3:10pm »

Quote

Modify

Rhune, when our first child was under two years of age, we'd take her to movies during her regular naptime, then we wouldn't have to hire a sitter.

We took her with us to "Jurassic Park" when she was just under two years old. She slept through the whole thing--until the part where the T-Rex breaks into the main building and fights with the velociraptors. She looked at the screen, then looked at me and said, "Mommy? Is that Barney?"

I swear, that's true! :laff:

IP Logged

"Lord, please make me the person my dog thinks I am."

Rhune
ForumsNet Administrator

Gender:

Posts: 292

Re: Review: 'Incredibles' lives up to billing
« Reply #4 on: Nov 15^th, 2004, 6:31pm »

Quote

Modify

hehe!

Until he was about a year and a half we took our oldest son to everything and he just slept through it, but my youngest is a whole nother story. He is just not capable of sleeping through a film, even when he was an infant, plus now the oldest is not capable of sleeping through (or keeping quiet) either.

IP Logged

lakelady
Moderator
ForumsNet Member

Posts: 11251

Re: Review: 'Incredibles' lives up to billing
« Reply #5 on: Nov 30^th, 2004, 7:15pm »

Quote

Modify

I just have to say that I heard my boss describing this movie yesterday. A grown man and the VP of Marketing for my company. And I thought he was gonna come out of his pants with excitement. I've never seen anything quite like it.

It came and went at my little theatre. But I can assure you I will go all out to rent the video when it comes out.

IP Logged

Rhune
ForumsNet Administrator

Gender:

Posts: 292

Re: Review: 'Incredibles' lives up to billing
« Reply #6 on: Nov 30^th, 2004, 7:57pm »

Quote

Modify

It was really very good, in my opinion.

IP Logged

Boradamer
ForumsNet Member

"I wonder if I should do a comb over?"

Gender:

Posts: 936

Re: Review: 'Incredibles' lives up to billing
« Reply #7 on: Jan 4^th, 2005, 8:27am »

Quote

Modify

Just saw this over the weekend. We took our kids and each got to bring a guest. All of us loved it. My wife and I laughed so hard in many places and the kids loved the action.

We have a new place here in town that renovated an old theatre and put in lots of big comfy couches to watch the movies in. Let me tell you this is the way to go. Grin

The kids each had their own couch and the wife and I had these huge comfy chairs. Add to that they serve alcohol so we plopped down with a nice tall cool one and a bag of popcorn and enjoyed a good movie.

This will be one for the ole DVD collection when it comes out for sure.

IP Logged

Rhune
ForumsNet Administrator

Gender:

Posts: 292

Re: Review: 'Incredibles' lives up to billing
« Reply #8 on: Jan 4^th, 2005, 8:57am »

Quote

Modify

Wow, that's some theatre...

I will definitely be adding this one to my dvd collection as well, once it's available.

IP Logged

JP
Moderator
ForumsNet Member

Ditch IE. Use Firefox.

Gender:

Posts: 14706

Re: Review: 'Incredibles' lives up to billing
« Reply #9 on: Jan 19^th, 2005, 2:02pm »

Quote

Modify

I just saw this and I must say it's a very wonderful movie! I haven't seen a very good computer-animated movie since Toy Story 2, which was my favorite. I think if I watch this movie over and over, I will have to pick this one as my new favorite animated movie. Cool

IP Logged

Pau
ForumsNet Member

Proud to be Filipino!

Gender:

Posts: 3042

Re: Review: 'Incredibles' lives up to billing
« Reply #10 on: Jan 19^th, 2005, 7:35pm »

Quote

Modify

ohh.. i have also just watched this last night after watching TAR6... and it was great!... I loved it..... it got a great story, a animation, and a life-like graphics....wow!

IP Logged

Check out my travel blogs at http://www.pautravels.com

Pages: 1

Add Poll

Notify of replies

Send Topic


Previous topic \| New Topic \| Next topic »