To infinity and beyond

Review by Vives Anunciacion

The Incredibles
Written and Directed by Brad Bird
Featuring the voices of Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Samuel L. Jackson
GP / 115 minutes
Pixar Animations/ Walt Disney Pictures

“It’s incredible, unbelievable. But it’s wonderful to believe.”
- Incredible, Joseph the Dreamer

At a time when the public demands for the superlative in practically everything around it, here is a family punished for being so. The Incredibles is subversion against uniformity and forced grandeur.

The Incredibles is about a family of superheroes chained to middle-class suburban living by an ungrateful public. Angered by a series of accidents and burdened with the costs of maintaining them, the world’s citizens turn against the superheroes and strip them of their right to exercise their superpowers. Mr. Incredible (voiced by Craig T. Nelson) is reduced to Mr. Bob Parr the insurance agent. Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) becomes Mrs. Helen Parr, ordinary housewife. The superchildren Dash and Violet, like their parents, are forced to live normal lives even if they are dying not to.

Enter super villain Syndrome (Jason Lee) and his plan to rid the world of its superheroes by making everyone super. Syndrome is actually Buddy Pine, an ordinary guy with an extraordinary gift of invention, who in his earlier years worships his idol Mr. Incredible. Disappointed with his hero, he reappears one day as Syndrome, intending to supply every person on the planet with his gizmos that will make everyone super. And “when everyone is super, no one is.”

Director Brad Bird (The Iron Giant) and Pixar elevate the animation bar to unbelievable heights, quite like the way Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away did to popular animation. Buried within the simple story of superheroes and super villains and the jaw dropping computer effects is a quiet rage against the culture of conformity and the platitude of pragmatism. This isn’t your typical animation comedy, nor does this have your ultra electromagnetic, super-sayan superheroes. It is the story of a typical family torn apart because society forces them to live normal lives, even if they obviously, irrepressibly, aren’t. The Incredibles is a diatribe and almost not animation at all. Not conventionally, that is.

Just see how lifeless Bob Parr is as he works aimlessly inside his cubicle. How every atom in his body aches to be outside of his office doing good things and protecting people. He isn’t Mr. Ordinary Guy, he’s Mr. Incredible. He is idealism personified. And it is painful to see those ideals go away because society simply has lost its need for them. This is about the unfulfilled dreams of the working-class (because superheroes are workers for the world) as much as it is a rebellion against realism – hardly usual topics for family entertainment.

The Incredibles is about being great, and feeling great about it – no matter if the norm resists. Aim high, and let ideals soar.