The Incredibles

by Christopher Kirkman · Published March 15, 2005 · Updated

The talented artist, animators, writers and indeed their entire staff
got their chance to shine at the 77th annual Academy Awards by
accepting 2 of the coveted Oscars for best animated feature and best
sound editing. The film itself became what Disney often refers to as an
instant classic, grossing more than it’s sister films from the company,
Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo.
Today began Incredibly when we got (Disney presents a Pixar film) The
Incredibles on DVD.

Packed full of entertainment for the whole family, the 2 Disc
collector’s edition provides several evenings worth of viewing into a
shiny red package. Disc one contains the original digital presentation
of the film, directly translated from the big screen to the small. To
make sure you get the best picture and sound, director Brad Bird even
provides a short introduction on how to best fine-tune your particular
system using the included THX optimizer track. In addition, disc one
has a few sneak peek teasers including Pixar’s next feature under the
Disney Umbrella, Cars, coming summer 2006. The feature presentation has
a beautiful picture, as you can expect from a digital source,
accompanied by a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround EX audio track. Especially
effective are scenes in which enemy henchmen chase our heros down in
flying buzz-saw transports called Vipers. The lush green tropical
vistas are sliced open all around your head. Two seperate audio
commentary tracks provide some replay value, one with director Brad
Bird and producer John Walker. The second featuring a myriad of
animators that worked on the film. The animator commentary tends to be
a bit dryer and certainly more technical, but from a unique perspective
not found in other movies.

Disc 2 has a literal menagerie of
bonus features. Not the least of which is Jack-Jack Attack, an animated
short created specifically for the DVD release that chronicles a night
of babysitting the Incredible baby Jack-Jack. Several behind the scenes
featurettes, deleted scenes, animation tests and bloopers and enough
hidden bonuses to keep the FBI busy looking. Also included is the
Bounding animated short that appeared before the film in theatres with
an accompanying behind the scenes featurette on its creator, veteran
animator Bud Luckey.

You’ll find a mini-database of hero
characters of the day, complete with abilities, team affiliations and a
sound clip. A though to be “long lost” animated pilot using the
likenesses of Mr Incredible and Frozone is included, a farce of the
cartoons of the 50’s with the option of hearing the two hero’s thoughts
as they “watch” it.

Add to that nearly a dozen hidden
bonuses, accessed by clicking an icon that appears only after lingering
on root menus briefly. From office gags, to a homage to buttons and
doors, to a sock puppet version of the film, the hidden features are
easily worth searching out. Take a look at our screenshots to get a
glimpse of where to locate them.

The Incredibles as a stand
alone feature is certainly enough to make just about anyone want to pay
to have it in their home, so the slew of additional features just adds
a shiny new costume to the bulging mucles of the film.

The Incredibles

by Christopher Kirkman · Published November 11, 2004 · Updated

As it turns out, Disney / Pixar’s newest animated feature is very
aptly named, but so that I don’t sound redundant, I’ll sum up The
Inredibles in another single word….Awesome.

Who ever doubted
it? Since their first foray in the feature film arena, Pixar’s efforts
to create fun and poignant stories seems to have come naturally.
They’ve never had an unsuccesful movie. Their last 5 films have grossed
a minimum of $150 million in ticket sales and The Incredibles is well
on it’s way, clearing 71 million it’s first weekend. That’s primarily
because in a sea of celluloid crap, The Incredibles is good. Really
good. Here’s why.

Comic book super heroes are nothing new to
film. Hollywood has seen a slew of ‘supers’ come and go, mostly go and
despite the overwhelming lack of success they’ve had, they just keep
coming. Pixar created a hype for this film at the height of publicity
for movies like The Hulk, Daredevil and rumors of new Superman and
Batman flics. Their trailer however failed to show an angst ridden,
dark character, fighting inner demons while trying to juggle a public
life and take down criminals as a masked wonder. Instead, we get a
balding man in his 40’s wearing tight spandex and attempting, despite
clear super strength, to buckle a belt around the spare tire that hero
retirement has earned him. That’s comedy.

The story starts us
in a 50’s era metropolis with plenty of super villians and heroes
flying, leaping and generally swooshing about saving the town. Two such
heroes enter into a bond to fight by each other’s side, but not
necessarily against crime. Mr. Incredible (super strength) and
Elastigirl (super stretchy body) tie the knot in a little super
ceremony before hitting the streets again to take down the latest arch
enemy of truth and justice. All is well until lawsuits start popping
up. People who don’t want to be saved, collateral damage and
disgruntled cops lash out against the city’s heroes forcing them into a
super hero relocation program. They must assume their secret
identities, for good, and try to live normal lives with limited
government protection.

Flash forward to present day. Bob (Craig
T. Nelson) and Helen Parr (Holly Hunter) go about their lives with 3
children under tow. Bob is an insurance policy reviewer who barely fits
into his cubicle and towers over his miniscule boss, even when getting
chewed out. Helen stays at home cooking, cleaning and taking care of
Violet, Dash and baby Jack Jack. Bob not so secretly longs for the old
days when he and his best friend Lucius (Sam Jackson) fought side by
side as Mr Incredible and Frozone. They head out weekly to listen to
the police scanner in hopes that they can, at least secretly, save the
day one last time. Of course, they tell their wives they’ve gone
bowling. In the meantime, Helen struggles with teaching their super
fast son Dash why they must keep their super powers secret. Violet on
the other hand exudes teen angst, but she can hide her feelings, not to
mention everything else, by turning invisible. She can create force
fields as well, but has problems getting a handle on them. Finally baby
Jack Jack is the most unusual of them all. He’s normal, no powers.

So
there you go. Not so typical suburban family, just trying to get by,
same as everyone. When a face from the past shows up though, things are
turned upside down and our faithful couple must once again don the
spandex in order to save the city, and really, who didn’t see that
coming? Normally, I would say predictability kills a movie faster than
movie theatre chili, but The Incredibles is so full of character and
genuine wit that it tends to be over way too quickly. The movie is
riotously funny at times all the while keeping the action in the
leagues of a Die Hard movie. Audiences are fed a moral, but in small
bites you don’t notice that emphasize family togetherness. From a
technical standpoint, human facial animation is top notch, though still
cartoony which suits the film well. Special effects, for example wet
hair and bodies, explosions and some of the lush jungle sets are
spectacular.

I can’t recommend The Incredibles enough. It has
more than enough entertainment packed into it’s 2 hours, the longest
animated feature to date, and easily appeals to every age. I have no
doubt that this will be a serious contender come Oscar time for Best
Animated Feature. Here at Media Geeks, we are, for the first time in a
long time, looking forward to a sequel. Director Brad Bird could very
well have the beginnings to his own Toy Story franchise.

Christopher Kirkman

Christopher is an old school nerd: designer, animator, code monkey, writer, gamer and Star Wars geek. As owner and Editor-In-Chief of Media Geeks, he takes playing games and watching movies very seriously. You know, in between naps.