Truly good films cast a spell on me that can last several days, so I can’t be trusted to make qualitative statements about such films until I’ve cooled off for awhile. Had you caught me walking out of the theater after seeing the Incredibles for the first time, I would have said something like: "That movie totally ROCKED! It’s the best film EVER!!!
At the moment I would say it’s definitely among the finest animated films I’ve seen, and perhaps in my top ten list of all-time favorite movies. There isn’t much else I can say without repeating what’s already been said, but I will tell you what I think is one of the movie’s few flaws:
The film has some problems setting up the tone near the beginning – as many have said, it’s not a “cartoony” movie in the least, despite the stylized character design. It could have played very well as a big-budget, live-action superhero feature (although that version would have been a lesser film, simply because the computer-animation was such tremendous eye candy [my god! Their HAIR! You can see every strand!]). Dash’s teacher and Mr. Incredible’s boss were a bit to “caricaturey” for the film. They didn’t fit in with the rest of the characters, most of which were very well-developed and believable.
Also regarding the boss, I don’t like the scene where Mr. Incredible loses his temper and throws him through a couple of walls. Yeah, the boss had it coming, and yeah, I get the point that Mr. Incredible isn’t perfect and is fed up with his crappy job, but I think this was one scene where the laws of physics are stretched a bit too far for the boundaries set by the film. These boundaries are important, because in order to become emotionally involved with a character in peril, we must really believe that, unlike Wile E. Coyote, they won’t survive that thousand-foot fall (or being hurled 1000 MPH though several walls of an office building).
In all rights, the boss should have splattered like a bug, and that would have made Mr. Incredible a murderer. At least the boss was shown in traction after the incident – that definitely made the scene more believable for me. But why wasn’t Mr. Incredible charged with assault and battery?
I would have liked to have seen the same point made in a less cartoonishly violent way. Perhaps Mr. Incredible could have heaved his boss’s desk through the wall, instead of the boss himself.
I’m proud to say that I was among a few hundred people at the San-Diego Comic-con last summer who got treated to a special sneak peak at the film before anybody else (outside of Disney and Pixar) got to see it. I also got a chance to hear Brad Bird talk about the movie, which was a treat for a film buff and animation lover such as myself.
I had a feeling the film would be a classic then, not because I was impressed with the preview (which was basically the first battle sequence between Mr. Incredible and the omnidroid on the tropical island), but because Bird struck me as a very smart and creative guy with a clear vision and some really strong opinions about the artform of animation.
One of the subjects he discussed was the Uncanny Valley, although he didn’t mention it by name. He was well aware of the creepiness of CGI people when animators try to make them too realistic (ala Polar Express), so he intentionally designed the characters to be as stylistic as possible (while still being recognizably human) to avoid the creepiness trap. He thought it foolish to even attempt to make CGI characters photorealistic, because not only is it nearly impossible to pull off, but it can be done much more realistically (and for a fraction of the cost) with… real humans. The beauty of animation is that it doesn’t mimic reality, rather it distills it.
I’m anxiously awaiting Brad Bird’s next project, especially if he decides to team up with Pixar again.
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I’d expect the next Brad-Bird-produced-Pixar-movie sometime in 2009.