In his glory days, Bob Parr (Craig T. Nelson) was known to the world as Mr. Incredible, a superhero capable of foiling a bank robbery, stopping a runaway locomotive and coaxing a kitten down from a tree all on the way to his wedding.

Segue to 15 years later and Mr. Incredible and his wife Helen, formerly known as Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), and their three children are attempting to live a normal suburban life under the Witness Protection Program. Bob juggles a potbelly and a mind-numbing job as an insurance claims specialist while longing for the old days; Helen is not willing to give up the peaceful life they have earned. Everything changes when Bob receives a communiqué calling for Mr. Incredible’s help in a top-secret mission on a mysterious island. The mission eventually pulls the entire Incredibles family into a battle to save the world from their nemesis, Syndrome (Jason Lee).

Writer-director Brad Bird (Iron Giant, The Simpsons), who serves triple duty as the voice of the temperamental superhero fashion designer Edna Mode, has created a film that skillfully blends the excitement of a superhero movie with a carefully-measured dose of family film sensitivity. Stereotypes of superhero movies abound—the thick-accented foreign goon (named Bomb Voyage), the high-speed chases between soaring skyscrapers, and Mr. Incredible parting his shirt to reveal his icon emblazoned upon his chest—which are tempered by a good-natured self mockery.

In one particularly memorable sequence, Edna Mode flies into a fury over Mr. Incredible’s request for a cape to go with his supersuit. “No capes!” the diminutive woman shrieks, her oversized spectacles filling the screen as she recounts the obviously often retold stories of heroes who had their capes sucked into jet engines and caught upon rockets blasting off into space.

Coupled with the comic-book action is the presentation of the Incredible family as a typical, if unique, American family. Elastigirl berates her husband for taking the wrong highway exit as the family careens through the city in a rocket. Mr. Incredible loses his potbelly by bench pressing boxcars. His daughter Violet turns herself invisible when her school crush looks her way.

The film’s slick action and outreach to all audiences sets it apart from regular Disney fare. The Incredibles was conceived during the acrimonious splintering of the Disney/Pixar distribution relationship. A subtle hint of this conflict reveals itself when Syndrome, Mr. Incredible’s nemesis, reflects upon his humble origins and proclaims, “You respect me now because I’m a threat.”

There are also remnants of the competition between Pixar and Dreamworks, the creator of the wildly successful Shrek animated series. The Shrek series made the talking donkey voiced by Eddie Murphy into a main character and was rewarded with favorable publicity. The Incredibles feebly attempts to expand the racial horizon of its previous films by giving a bit role to superhero Frozone—celebrity voiced by Samuel L. Jackson—who gets approximately 15 minutes of screen time. More successful is Pixar’s attempt to challenge Dreamworks on the belly-laugh front: when Jack Jack, the Incredibles’ baby reveals his unique powers, a roar of laughter went up that rivaled or exceeded anything the Shrek series produced.

However, where Shrek 2 earned its PG rating from its crude humor and suggestive content, The Incredibles is PG for action violence keeping the movie true to Pixar’s tradition of witty and clean entertainment. The audience is treated to explosive battle sequences shot amidst the breath-taking cinematography of the exotic island.

Although The Incredibles’ elaborate action sequences can sometimes overwhelm an at-best weak storyline, it is well enough presented that the audience never loses interest. The creators of Finding Nemo don’t live up to the glory of their previous work, but The Incredibles is an enjoyable romp with a contagious sense of fun.

—Julie Zhou

L'Age D'Or

Directed by Luis Buñel

Harvard Film Archive