Guilty Pleasure: The Incredibles

I am not a fan of the superhero genre, but I do make an exception for The Incredibles. They have hooked me, and I am addicted.

I suspect that this might lose me some subscribers. C’est la vie.

I am a big fan of the two The Incredibles movies. The irony is that in general I am NOT a fan of superhero movies. The MCU is not something that I have ever gotten into. I wasn't a reader of comic books growing up¹, so I never got indoctrinated in the genre.

But when I was cleaning out my stepfather’s house as my duties as the executor of his estate, there was a DVD of the original The Incredibles movie in the detritus².

At the time I grabbed it (and a few others,) and ripped them for my Plex server. A year later (or so) I fired it up, and was just entranced.

(sidebar: I will admit that I have a bit of a fanboy thing going for Sarah Vowell. I just enjoy reading her historical books, and she is the voice of Violet Parr in the movie.)

I was hooked. The writing is great, the story hangs together, and I suspect that the voice actors really enjoyed the work. The chemistry feels really strong.

The visuals are the typical kick-ass Pixar animation, so top notch. Details on the DVD were good, but when I bought the Blu-ray of the second installment, the detail of the rendering is most excellent. The usual touches that you expect from Pixar are all there (as a wee bit of a shutterbug, I am attentive to things like lens artifacts, depth of focus and bokeh.) These are all employed to great effect. The casual watcher may not cotton on to it, but those of us who are aficionados nod and smile.

The story moves well. My wife, a graduate of the USC School of Film and Television Arts tells me that the story structure is tight, well crafted, and without obvious holes.

Cool. I just know that I love it.

The scenery is a mix of modern and retro 50’s. Look at the televisions, cars, houses, appliances, and you see mid-century modern. But the tech is closer to current state of the art. In a way it is idealized, a mashup of the past and present, but fun and light-hearted.

And the choices for the voice actors is just epic. Craig T Nelson (of Coach fame) as Mr. Incredible, Holly Hunter for his wife, Elastigirl, is a good balance. The family friend, Frozone is voiced by the incomparable Samuel T. Jackson³.

And I mentioned in the sidebar my fanboy crush on Sarah Vowell⁴. Her character, Violet Parr, is your classic teen girl, shy, unsure of herself, and who desires the affection of a similar aged male (Tony Ridinger). Her awkwardness, her uncertainty, resonates with my own awkwardness from when I was in high school. I know that sounds weird, but I was a nerd, nervous around the fair sex, and pretty much lonely throughout my mid teens.

The piece d’ resistance is the creator (and producer) Brad Bird who voices Edna Mode, the artisan who crafts their “super” suits. Hell, Disney has some shorts of those parts, and they are just epic.

Brad, you go man!

In summary, I have one exception to my dislike of superhero movies, and both installments are just amazing. One of the critical reviews states that it may be difficult for them to have a third installment. I don’t care. The endless pablum dripping out of the Marvel movies has turned into sludge. Two of these movies are enough.

And I watch them fairly frequently.

1. Instead, my father got me into reading Doc Savage books at an early age, and by the time I was in high school, I was a heavy consumer of science fiction novels

2. Alas, my shitbird stepbrother who had lived there for 11 years rent free took all the items with any value that could be realized, so what was left was largely junk and things that would be difficult to sell. Alas, my stepfathers’ 1940’s vintage Lionel Trains were long gone, probably converted to (lots of) cash that was smoked or injected. Yeah, I am still fucking torqued by that.

3. To be honest, this is probably the only movie I have heard him in that wasn’t a stream of consciousness series of F-bombs. I was impressed!

4. I first heard her voice when she narrated an audiobook she wrote on Hawaii. I highly recommend reading that, if you are interested in how the US has annexed territory to support a company. Yeah, American exceptionalism my ass.

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