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Prior to this afternoon, I'd always been tempted -- perhaps being just a little perverse -- to rate Unbreakable as the best superhero film yet. Now its crown is challenged.
As today's comic fans would hope, The Incredibles pays loving, knowing homage not so much to the tired, layman's tropes of Mad Magazine jokes -- lame gags about changing in phone boxes, ladders in tights, camp secrets in caves -- but to more recent, revisionist superhero narrative.
Bound up in the plot are ideas from Watchmen -- the Keene Act forcing masks into retirement -- Dark Knight -- one of those vigilantes coming back out of retirement over a decade later -- The Nail -- in which ginger kid sidekick Jimmy Olsen gets revenge for always being an also-ran -- Kingdom Come -- next-gen heroes grow up to bail out their elderly parents -- The Kingdom -- based around the kidnap of Superman and Wonder Woman's baby -- and Watchmen again -- the everyday hassles of paunches in spandex. The main characters are rejigs of classic 1950s and 60s types (Mr Fantastic, Invisible Girl, Kid Flash, Mr Freeze) but the overall tone is surprisingly true to the "adult", revisionist titles of 1986 onwards.
And it continues to surprise. Rather than aiming for and failing at photorealism, The Incredibles opts for cartoon stylisation in its characters, but the landscapes and architecture are jaw-droppingly stunning: the supervillain's base is like the original design for Disneyland, set on Tracy Island, a utopia of sleek tunnels and contoured viewing platforms emerging from gorgeous forest slopes, where cocktail-bar jazz swoops alongside the pod-cars and monorails. Apart from a playful swipe from 1983 in a Return of the Jedi chase, it's 1950s space-age perfection executed with 21st century nostalgia. It might be a deathtrap, but it's still beautiful -- and again, there's a flawless balance struck between the revisionist, knowing tone associated with stories about ageing heroes and the sheer joy of Silver-Age pseudo-science superpower adventure. The film's first family, once they're up to speed, get a lot of kicks from relearning, or getting to grips with, their abilities and potential.
Most surprising of all is that this manages to be not just startlingly "realistic" in its visualisation of superpowers -- you get the feeling you're seeing for the first time how Plastic Man would actually look as he moves from building to building, or how Iceman would logically throw a freeze-track in front of him in bursts as he skates -- but more intelligent, mature and moving than most every "adult" superhero movie of the last decade. (Case in point, the absurd Punisher, shot full of violence but bearing no relationship to the way human beings behave, speak or interrelate.) As a bonus, it's also sexier than most every other superhero movie of the last decade: anyone over the age of 15 should be ashamed of getting a crush on Violet, but Holly Hunter as "Elashtigirl" -- sounding a lot like Clarish Shtarling -- is the hottest cartoon chick since I don't know who... the only close contender may be Judy Jetson.
This movie whacked me with a whole bunch of lumps to the throat, and also performed the implausible feat not just of making marriage seem raunchy, but of making me quite want to have kids...it may sound like a hunk of cheese with baloney on the side, but the flick hits home hard with its message that the best way most normal men and women can be superheroes is to channel all their intelligence, strength, warmth and wit into being good parents.
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In fact, the very fact of Jackson's casting could be seen as a nod to Unbreakable. Other potential cross-references -- and I'm sure there are tons of in-jokes I didn't notice -- would include the fact that the danger of wearing a cape (integral to The Incredibles) is brought up in the Hollis Mason chapters of early Watchmen.
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Thanks very much, I trust you will be seeing this film. I neglected to do more than mention the soundtrack, which is 1960s Batman squared with the Pink Panther theme and accompanied, on the end credits, with fantastic blocky colour art like the retro cartooning on the titles of Monsters Inc.
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The audience was half to two-thirds kids and I would say they loved it... I am only recording my old-man reading of it, but it wasn't just adults giving the movie an ovation at the end.
I think it's out in the US on the 6th and not sure about the UK -- this was my one trip to the London Film Festival.
It is very funny, and on so many levels, from the purely slapstick, through features of character, genre references galore, to tiny and beautiful incidental detail. The action is wickedly put together, the pleasure that the characters get from discovering/rediscovering their powers that Kovacs touched on, is palpable, and feeds your own at witnessing them. The love that exists between the family is beautifully pitched on the right side of soppy. And the structure is such that the film builds constantly towards a truly satisfying conclusion that could teach most (live) action directors a thing or two.
Want to see it again! Again!
It is also worth observing again that whilst other digital animation companies continue to pointlessly pursue realism in their character modelling, with limited success, Pixar have brilliantly chosen to go the route of stylisation for the Incredibles, if only to add that this stylisation belies the advances Pixar have made in hair and skin modelling for the human characters.
[ 22.11.2004, 05:19: Message edited by: Boy Racer ]
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Just saw this today with the Masketeers. The Incredibles may be the best film I've ever seen... EVER!!! It scores bullseyes on so many levels. It's an action-packed animated adventure, it's a hymn to the power of love, it's a clarion call to remember lost virtues, it's a direct attack on the military-industrial complex and the NWO's posturing expansionism, it's funny, it's moving, it's eye-candy, it satisfies the nerdy comic afficionado and it has fabulous explosions. I haven't been this excited upon leaving a cinema in a long time. Not since I was a kid. Not since Star Wars, or Superman, or Raiders. The Incredibles is better than all three of those movies, put together.
Saw the Incredibles over the weekend with my niece and nephew and have to confess to being ever-so-slightly disappointed. Perhaps it's a victim of overhype, perhaps I wasn't in the right mood... whatever - I found it enjoyable enough and spectacular from a production perspective, but somehow lacking a bit of zip.
Difficult to pin it down, but the problem is in the script, I think. The film looks stunning, the plot canters along nicely and there's a few clever little twists and turns, but I found some of the dialogue a bit clunky. It was almost as if the point of it was to illustrate how clever the writers are rather than produce genuine spark between the characters.
As I say, I did think it was a good film - a very good film even, but not a great film. If I had gone in expecting less, perhaps I would have enjoyed it more.
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mini gree went out to see this movie a few weekends ago she now serenades me with quotes every phone conversation it must be good, given her distaste for (i'll quote) 'wayyy computer animated kiddie stuff'
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mini gree meant that she doesn't like films that rely heavily on computer animation in place of a developed script. she did like 'the incredibles' though. very much so.
examples of childrens films she doesn't care for - the Barbie movies, a few of the disney 'only released on video' cartoons... Ants, Toy Story, A Bugs Life or Ice Age.
her favourites are 'spirit' 'balto' 'brother bear' 'fantasia' 'monsters inc' 'yu-gi-oh' the movie (i don't getyugioh, pokemon was so much easier
and a load of japanese anime that i am too ignorant on the subject to spell or pronounce (mart might be able to provide this info)
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quote:Originally posted by kovacs: You should tell mini Gree that Toy Story did have a developed script and that Monsters Inc was way CGI. Otherwise, tell her she is correct.
A new low: Kovacs argues (by proxy) with a child, over the quality of cartoon films.
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I'm not arguing, I'm agreeing. I said mini-Gree is "otherwise" right: ie. she is right about Barbie features, Disney straight to video "sequels", Ice Age, Antz and A Bug's Life. I also admire her for liking the old-school animation of Fantasia. The other films I'm afraid I haven't seen.
quote:Originally posted by kovacs: You should tell mini Gree that Toy Story did have a developed script and that Monsters Inc was way CGI. Otherwise, tell her she is correct.
she is nine in her mind she is always correct
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I saw this last night and thought it was enjoyable, well made and clever. I'm slightly surprised at the level of love expressed here, though, as I wasn't much more than pleasantly diverted by it. I definitely laughed more at Shrek 2 and left the cinema feeling in a better mood.
Is it because I've only been reading comics (traditional and revisionist) for about 18 months or so? Maybe my geek-level isn't stoked enough to appreciate it fully.
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(a bit off subject) mini gree has a strange fascination with the 'batman returns' cartoon so much so that she had her father burn a cd of the soundtrack as it helps her 'concentrate' oh, and little batman action figures
for a child that prefers to read non-fiction books and develop business plans, this is odd behaviour, isn't it?
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quote:Originally posted by Grianagh: (a bit off subject) mini gree has a strange fascination with the 'batman returns' cartoon so much so that she had her father burn a cd of the soundtrack as it helps her 'concentrate' oh, and little batman action figures
for a child that prefers to read non-fiction books and develop business plans, this is odd behaviour, isn't it?
not so much
Bruce Wayne is a corporate genius and head of waynecorp, waynetech etc
the only books we have a record of him enjoying as a child are Sherlock Holmes, Alice in Wonderland...
and Zorro films
your child needs training, a mentor... a six-month sojourn with a siberian master of the ninja arts... a few weeks acing the FBI's exams... then
quote: for a child that prefers to read non-fiction books and develop business plans, this is odd behaviour, isn't it?
One might say that developing busines plans is odd behaviour for a nine year old? Though in the hopes of a luxurious retirement one to be encouraged.
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quote:Originally posted by kovacs: your child needs training, a mentor... a six-month sojourn with a siberian master of the ninja arts... a few weeks acing the FBI's exams... then
it will be time
unfortunately she agrees with you she already takes long hikes in the woods pretending to be on a 'survival mission' has a keen upward jab (martial arts) and is ready to begin fencing lessons this fall
she said a few years ago 'laura croft is a wuss. i want to be jackie chan'.
quote:Originally posted by Abby: One might say that developing busines plans is odd behaviour for a nine year old?
that's my fault. i told her she could have anything in the world if she came up with a 'complete proposal' outlining how, when, cost, care (etc etc) my thought was - this will give her internet/library research skills develop her logical thought process make my life a helluva lot easier when she asks for something
yeah - it seemed like a good idea. it's not. she is currently researching why she should be given a tiger for her next birthday.
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In the days running up to our wedding, TheGree, TheMiniGree and TheMart ran round the shops in Leeds looking for anything cheapish to wear that would look suitable to get married in.
I found a pair of boots on sale for five pounds which, if carefully modified by someone with a deft hand at scissorwork, would look like perfectly acceptable normal black shoes.
The operation was carried out succesfully, leaving two spare bits of leather with the eyeholes for laces intact.
TheMiniGree took one look at them and said something like "Cor! Leather powerbands! Tie them round my wrists! I'll look really hard and can do energy-deflecting stuff!" She looked like a cross between Yu-Gi-Oh! and Xena.
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evil? thats not evil. evil is being picked for the football team and not being allowed to play. because the match was on the morning of your birthday. even though nothing was planned for that day. Posts: 999
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