Pixar Bound n' Determined to Soar With Brad Bird & Co.'s New Movie, The Incredibles
I'd never been to a movie where the audience applauded three times.
Last night was a first.
I looked down at my ticket to The Incredibles before I handed it to the ticket taker, and said, "10? It's gone up to $10 a ticket?"
At least that's the cost these days here in San Francisco.
 After Pixar's intro piece called Boundin' about a singing bouncing lamb, many may say (writer/director) Bud Luckey's little Oscar-nominated, inspirational piece of entertainment was worth the ten bucks alone.
After the feature movie is over, you still wish the cost wasn't ten dollars.
Not because it wasn't worth it, but because you know how many more $10 tickets you're going to want to spend to see Boundin' and The Incredibles again and again before they go to DVD, along with Pixar's next feature animation film Cars (scheduled for a December 2005 release and expected to include the voices of legendary actor, Paul Newman and 214-time NASCAR race car champion, Richard Petty).
In fact, a high definition tv is now on my Christmas wish list, in anticipation of adding The Incredibles to the dozen other DVDs currently in our home-owned collection (the Academy-award-winning, Toy Story ('95), Monster's Inc. ('01), and Finding Nemo ('03), the Golden-Globe winning, Toy Story 2 ('99) and It's A Bug's Life ('98) -- all of Pixar's other films to-date.
In the theater, I've never seen a movie more than twice, except for George Lucas and Steven Spielberg's Raiders of The Lost Ark, which I saw on the big screen seven times.
The Incredibles deserves at least a twice over before it comes out on DVD. You could see this film ten times and still not pick up on all the nuances of creativity and humor.
One Family's Film Review
"Did you see how real even the hair looked?" was one of the many comments made from our "peanut gallery" after the film.
 "Wasn't Edna Mode, the Fashion Designer superhero hilarious?!" my nine year-old daughter proclaimed afterwards.
She added, "Did you know her voice was played by the creator of the film, Brad Bird?" (For more on Bird, see USA Today article called "Bird masks his secret identity")
When you see the 3' 8" Edna 'E' Mode in action, you can't help but think of Mindy Sterling as Frau Farbissina in Austin Powers.
You also can't help but think of all the other action movies The Incredibles reminds you of -- from Raider of the Lost Ark, to Mission Impossible, to James Bond, to Austin Powers.
For parents who would rather take their kids to the movies than get a sitter on a Saturday night, The Incredibles offers as much entertainment for the adults as it does for your children.
Director, Brad Bird said, "At its heart, I saw The Incredibles as a story about a family learning to balance their individual lives with their love for one another."
Some of the highlights that make this movie an animation, a comedy, an action-adventure and a story with a lesson:
- Bob in "training"
- Mr. Parr's frustration with the world always celebrating "mediocrity"
- Mr. Incredible's Quick Changin' Incredobile
- Violet's invisible shield and force field
- Jack-Jack's suit which is fireproof and machine washable
- Elastigirl's boat float and parachute
- Dash's motor feet and other amazing feats on water
- Frozone's ski jumping antics
- Baby Jack-Jack and his cameleon ways
- Bob's statement to his family: "You are my greatest adventure, and I almost missed it."
- Elastigirl's proclamation to her daughter, Violet: "You have more power than you think."
A Caveat for Those with Young Children
We have to admit we were glad that our friend's two-year-old was not brought along to The Incredibles.
Despite it being animated and much easier than real blood, guts and violence, the evil personified is sometimes intense and not for a kid who could have nightmares about being squashed by a house-sized metal spider robot called an Omnidorid, or seeing a "terminated" superhero turned skeleton in a cave on the island of Nomanisan.
Inspiring The Next Generation of Moviemakers
In The Incredibles sequel, they should create "Birdman" as one of the super heroes, in honor of the creator and director of the movie, Brad Bird.
My six year-old asked ten minutes after the movie was over, "Mommy, how old do you have to be to be able to create an animated movie like that? I know I said I wanted to be a chef, but I'm now rethinking that."
What Others Are Saying
Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal had one of the best reviews of the film. Among other brilliant insights, in Friday's (11/5/04) edition he said:
Mr. Bird's daring, bedazzling creation is, before anything else, a comic action-adventure about a former superhero forced to live a life of not-so-quiet desperation in suburbia.
The comedy is irresistible, and the action sequences, exceptionally intense with spasms of violence, take the animator's art to -- if I may borrow a phrase from an earlier Pixar superhero -- infinity and beyond. You almost forget that you're watching animation, let alone computer animation, as you're swept up by the astounding graphics. But "The Incredibles," which carries a PG rating, is also a work of huge, if unobtrusive, ambition -- a vision of modern life, appropriate for sophisticated adults as well as for kids, that is both satirical and, of all things, inspirational.
It's a great film about the possibility of greatness.
How They Do It
On the big screen, it's fun to see and hear all that went into this crime-fighting movie which blends its own unique style of futuristic visuals with a 1950s look.
To learn how these creative geniuses do it, go to:
Pixar.com
Here you will get a snapshot of the multi-stage animated film-making process:
1) pitching a story idea
2) writing the text treatment
3) drawing the storyboards
4) recording the voice talents
5) making reels of the editorial
6) creating the look & feel in the art department
7) sculpting and articulating the multi-"avar" models
8) dressing the sets
9) laying out the shots
10) animating the shots
11) shading the sets and characters
12) completing the look with "digital" lighting
13) rendering the computer data
14) and finally, adding the final touches
Phew! No wonder, The Incredibles took four years to complete!
For The Incredibles trailer, go to:
Apple.com
From there, you can jump off to Disney's site for games, downloads and photos:
TheIncredibles.com
A National Treasure
Pixar has an unprecedented streak of creating Blockbuster movies ($2.6 billion worth to-date). Moreover, as time goes by, the creative genius of Pixar is becoming increasingly evident. As residents of the San Francisco Bay Area, we're especially proud that Pixar calls Emeryville California home. As Americans, it's clear that Pixar is a national treasure.
After applauding for the second time (once after Boundin' and again after the end of The Incredibles), as you watch the credits roll by, you get a sense of what a truly collaborative endeavor this is.
Of course, all films are collaborative in nature, but typically the focus is on the stars of the film.
In a film like this, there is much less emphasis on the stars and more on the team that makes it happen.
In your usual feature film, it's expected for fans to say "I just saw the new Tom Cruise movie, or the latest Nicole Kidman film."
In this movie, even Pixar's building security people are credited.
Just as The Incredibles demonstrates one superhero is often not sufficient, more than most films, this one succeeds, in part, by illustrating that it takes a team of superheroes to create a truly "incredible" film.
You get the sense that every voice and every one of the 730 employees at Pixar's Animation Studio adds to both the film's and the company's greatness.
That must be why the packed theater stayed to applaud for a third time.
Congratulations and thank you to writer/director/voice of "E", Brad Bird; producer, John Walker; Pixar Animation Studios' CEO, Steve Jobs, Creative EVP, John Lasseter, other execs and their entire team of "incredibly" talented men and women; Walt Disney Pictures; Buena Vista Entertainment; the actors who made The Incredibles incredible:
"Coach" Craig T. Nelson .... Bob Parr aka Mr. Incredible (voice)
Holly Hunter .... Helen Parr aka Elastigirl
Samuel L. Jackson .... Lucius Best aka Frozone
Jason Lee .... the voice of Buddy Pine aka Syndrome
Dominique Louis .... the voice of Bomb Voyage
Teddy Newton .... the voice of the Newsreel Narrator
Jean Sincere .... the voice of Mrs. Hogenson
Wallace Shawn .... the voice of Gilbert Huph
Spencer Fox .... the voice of Dash Parr
Lou Romano .... the voice of Bernie Kropp
Sarah Vowell .... the voice of Violet Parr
Michael Bird .... the voice of Tony Rydinger
Elizabeth Pena .... the voice of Mirage
Bud Luckey .... the voice of Rick Dicker
Brad Bird .... the voice of Edna 'E' Mode
... all the other voices who contributed to this release together with the people who supported the voices, the supervising editors, "sculptors," set dressers, animators, filmmakers, and security people (those at Pixar and on the Raider-like island of Nomanisan who helped bring The Incredibles to life!
Inspire & Be Inspired (R).
Here's to healthy, adventuresome, soulful and Pixar-perfect living!
~ Jennifer Carolyn King
P.S. I couldn't help but notice that two guys wearing red won this week -- one with an "i" on his suit, the other with a "w". Incredible! ...
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