The Incredibles

I'm simultaneously excited, and yet kind of bitter it took them 14 years to finally make a sequel to The Incredibles. I'll talk more about that later after the review.

The Incredibles, Pixar's superhero movie is a cut above the rest. Not only because of the great animation, but the story and characters. The interesting thing I noticed is the current story takes place in the early 60s, which is interesting enough but that also means the opening scene takes place a bit past 1945. So it simultaneously is a superhero movie, and yet an alternate reality movie. Hell the only other movie I know off the top of my head that does such a thing is Watchmen, so already I was digging this movie and appreciated it more than when I was a kid. Alright, in a reality of multiple superheroes that have yet again like Watchmen, been retired and are living normal lives after the glory days we meet Bob Parr, Mr. Incredible living a suburban life with his family. And he is going through the always fun time of a mid-life crisis, trying to relive the days of being a hero while trying to maintain his job and be a part of his family. And I am certain this is easily the best Fantastic Four movie ever to be made in history, with Helen Parr as Elastigirl having two children Dash who has super speed, and Violet who can create force fields and turn invisible. This family is awesome, because they act and feel like a real family that just so happens to have superpowers. The dynamic and characters are wonderful to say the least, and I have to give a special shout out to Brad Bird for creating these wonderful designs for each character. Back to story, so Mr. Incredible is contacted and sent to a island where I swear to God seeing it now is so clearly a villain's lair it is almost absurd. A plot is discovered that entails the deaths of all supers, leading The Incredibles to save the day. One glorious aspect is that a lot of love went to Ken Adam's designs in the early James Bond films, because honestly if I did not know the S in that board room meant Syndrome, at my age right now, I would say it's SPECTRE. Like it's amazing how much material they give homages to and it works. The characters are essentially The Fantastic Four, the plot is a combination of silver age adventures mixed with modern introspection of our characters, the set design is Ken Adams down to the letter, and the music is entirely done in this jazz/swing band with a lot of brass and soul straight from the 40s. I also love how the technology is so high tech that surprisingly the film is timeless. Animation can become timeless regardless of setting or story, and this is a prime example of that. People can watch this movie even 50 years down the line and still enjoy it as much as when it first came out. With that said, *BRIEF TANGENT INCOMING* this is going to sound really weird but hear me out. The Incredibles 2 is my Phantom Menace. Now what do I mean by that? Well, seeing as how I was born in 1995 I didn't have to wait that long for the prequels. Hell by the time I got into Star Wars, The Phantom Menace was in theaters if not almost out on video. The Incredibles 2 took 14 years to hit, about 3 years shy from the time it took from Return Of The Jedi to The Phantom Menace, I was 9 or 10 when I first saw The Incredibles. I...really, really do not want The Incredibles 2 to fall on it's face for me. I never experienced The Phantom Menace as a grown up and witnessed the betrayal of Star Wars. This could be a Phantom Menace situation, a continuation of a story that took over 10 long years to get here, with a loving and devoted fanbase, and the wait better have been worth it. The only thing left I have to say is, if you really make me wait about 20 years for a Monsters Inc. sequel, I will be severely disappointed in you Pixar.