THE INCREDIBLES

 

 

The Incredibles is one of my favorite "animated" films of all-time. The movie centers around the lives of a group of former superheroes who are forced to go into "retirement" when the public finally turns on them. Now they live like "normal" people. Or at least they try to. One of the top superheroes, a Superman-type named Mr. Incredible, detests his humdrum life living as a suburban father and husband--he married another superhero named Elastigirl (picture a female Plastic Man)--working as an insurance adjuster. As it turns out, his children all have superpowers of their own, his son has superhuman speed (ala the Flash) and his daughter has multiple powers including being able to turn invisible (ala Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four) and being able to erect forcefields and his baby doesn't have superpowers. Or so everyone believes. Anyway, in a desperate attempt to relive his glory days, Mr. Incredible tries to stop crime incognito with the aid of his superhero pal Ozone--who has the power to freeze things--and by listening to a police scanner. This attracts the attention of a mysterious woman who contacts him and invites him to her private island to take care of a problem with a renegade robot. Mr. Incredible eagerly accepts her invitation and, of course, destroys the renegade robot. This leads him to take even more trips to said private island--all behind his wife's back, of course, who thinks he's going on "business" trips--where he eventually learns of what's really going on as he's confronted by the true owner of the island, a supervillain named Syndrome who, as it turns out, was once a boy whom Mr. Incredible had shunned when he tried to become his "sidekick" ala Robin. It turns out that Mr. Incredible isn't the first former superhero who's been "invited" to the island as each one had been killed by Syndrome and his robots. Meanwhile, Elastigirl finally finds out that her husband hasn't been going on "business" trips as she initially believed and goes out to find him with her superpowered kids in tow. I, of course, won't tell you how it all turns out in case you're one of the few people who hasn't seen this flick yet. But, even if you're not a big fan of superhero flicks, I believe you'll more than likely be a fan of this one! A sidenote: My favorite scene in this flick is when Elastigirl tells her children when they wind up on the island that the "bad guys" they're confronting won't show them "mercy" like the bad guys they watched on their Saturday morning cartoons because they're children and that they will kill them if they get the chance. She then tells me to not give said bad guys that chance before she goes off in search of their father who's being held hostage by Syndrome. I thought that was a pretty hardcore scene for an "animated" flick like this. I'm also kind of surprised, given how popularity of this film, that they've never made a sequel to this film, although I can't see them topping the original!