Reviewed by John Barker © 2005
- Who said they don't make 'em like they used to?

Pixar Pictures has an impressive back-catalogue of features including the audience friendly Toy Story series and last years biggest box-office hit, Finding Nemo. The ever improving financial success of the company’s output, and the fact that they are yet to suffer a box-office flop, meant that some members of the L.A community were sharpening their knives in anticipation of the first slip-up, but it is my pleasure to report that The Incredibles is one superhero movie that really earns it’s lyrca costume.

 Flapping it’s cape in the face of the X-Men, Hulk and even Spiderman is no easy task, but Brad Bird’s film accomplishes this feat with style and wit to spare. The time honoured Pixar trend of jokes for the kids and pastiche for the parents is aired. However the darker social-commentary, in the same vein as The Simpsons, may not hit home with some of the younger members of the audience.

  Centring the film on a dysfunctional family gives this ‘kidult’ film a great connection with middle-class America. Bob Parr (a.k.a Mr. Incredible) is stuck in a dead-end job at an insurance company, and so is pitifully unhappy. This is exacerbated by losing his heroic alter-ego, thanks to the growing number of lawsuits filed against the government by people saved by Mr. Incredible.

   Home-life is also depressing for Bob, as his wife and children come to terms with living in normal society, whilst failing to understand his need for costumed crusading. In fact, Bob and his super-cool friend Frozone (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) hanker after their forgotten lives so much that they stop the odd catastrophe while they are supposed to be bowling. These dramatic exploits garner the attention of an evil corporation who hire Mr. Incredible to field test some of their equipment. This is where the film descends into 007 heaven in the action filled denouement.

   The homage-ridden script owes a lot to James Bond and provides a utility belt full of comic book references; the most obvious being The Fantastic Four and Superman, and it doesn’t take a Professor Xavier to figure out where the idea for Gazerman (think an inferior version of Cyclops) comes from. 

   However, every superhero film has its kryptonite and The Incredibles are no exception. In this case, I feel that some of the secondary characters have been neglected; Frozone is restricted to just a couple of scenes and the Incredible children barely make an impact on the audience until the final third of the film.

   Still, I’m sure these deficiencies will be ironed out in the sequel ( which the final scene of the film sets up) and I recommend this film whole heartedly, as it packs more of a punch than Superman and the Hulk put together.