Ralph's Movie Reviews: THE INCREDIBLES

Saturday, November 6, 2004

THE INCREDIBLES

Animation

BACKGROUND
Pixar Animation Studios are well known in the industry having already produced both loveable “Toy Story I and II ” movies, the clever “A Bugs Life”, the adorable “Monster’s Inc” and most recently the funny “Finding Nemo”.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Craig T. Nelson: Bob Paar, a.k.a. the superhero Mr. Incredible
Holly Hunter: Helen, a.k.a. the superhero Elastigirl
Sarah Vowell: their daughter Violet
Spencer Fox: their oldest son Dash
Samuel L. Jackson: Frozone, Mr. Incredible’s long time pal
Brad Bird: Edna, the costume designer

REVIEW
This movie does not even come close to the previous efforts of the Pixar Studios. Although the level of computer animation is as good as the others, the story is not. It suffers from a slow period midway through as well as a protracted series of battles with a monster machine that looks like the brother to Dr. Octopus in the movie Spiderman 2. So much for creativity. The laughs (or even smiles) are few and it’s far too long (over 2 hours).

The tension between Bob and his wife due to his curious outings/unusual trips and lying about it takes away from the fun; sure it’s real but who needs it in a kid’s movie?

CLASSIFICATION

for action violence.

P.S.
Although it’s geared to children, there are many scary moments and lots of cartoon violence that would be unsettling for small kids (under 6?).

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.