Ticket Stubs #58: The Incredibles
Article by Sean Wilkinson,
a.k.a. the Ticketmaster,
Hoping you had an Incredible Valentine's Day!
So, I think this is the first time I've ever done this for a Ticket Stubs post (I've done it for Welcome To the Dead Parade before, when a new entry in a franchise comes out), but I started watching The Incredibles 2 for Friday's Just the Ticket, and I couldn't remember any details of the original that the sequel was referencing (specifically, at which point and for what reason the "Supers" were outlawed), so I re-watched it for the first time in a Stephen King number of years. Most of what you'll read below, I still agree with, but I will have some comparative analysis when we get back from 2005.
But first, please share the love by remembering to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, comment your true feelings at the bottom of this post, help out my ad revenue as you read, and choo-choo-choose me on Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest heart-shaped boxes of news on my content.
Craig T Nelson is the super-strong, uncreatively named Mr. Incredible, Holly Hunter is Elastigirl (cheesy superhero name, and a bit too sexy for a kids' movie), and Samuel L Jackson is and Iceman clone named Frozone. Every superhero gimmick imaginable is exploited here. Mr. Incredible is so strong that he wrecks his own car; Elastigirl can transform into anything from a parachute to a life raft; the villain (predictably, Mr. Incredible's biggest fan) lives in a volcano; a short, gay Spider-Man designs superhero costumes and lectures his (or her, I don't know) customers on the lethal consequences of wearing a cape--which, in an attempt to introduce irony into a Disney cartoon, is also the villain's undoing. A fairly good movie for what it was (and creative by the same standards), funny and action packed when it needed to be, and well-rendered (as far as volcanic islands and hair go, but obvious plastic everywhere else). On the negative side, The Incredibles was too long at almost three hours, and with some of the redundant scriptwriting, might have gone on longer if the animators weren't knocked unconscious with their empty wallets.
2005 Grade: C
Okay; we're back to 2024 now, and I'll start with the runtime error near the end because it's the most recent and negative thing in the review. I don't know if I was impatient at the time or what, but The Incredibles is just under two hours long, not three, and it doesn't feel like three, either. Then there's the off-hand homophobic characterization of Edna (who might actually be the best character in the movie) that I definitely apologize for. They are awesome and funny and more-than-a-little-scary-intelligent, and if I was a Pixar character in need of a superhero costume, I would go further into debt for the rest of my life to have them make it for me.
I still stand by the ending feeling like the cast and crew stopped at a cliffhanger because they ran out of money (even though the box office was quintuple its budget), the characters and inorganic elements looking flat compared to the lava, jungle, and water textures, the villain (Jason Lee playing against type as a wannabe sidekick-turned-criminal mastermind with a Misery complex) being too obvious, Elastigirl being "please turn me into DeviantArt porn!" sexualized for a movie targeted at children, and the genre cliches being too blatant.
But The Incredibles beat the Watchmen movie, The Boys, and My Hero Academia to the screen when it came to addressing the collateral consequences of super-powered heroics, handles infidelity in a relatable but kid-friendly context, and pokes as much fun at spy movies as it does superheroes. The music even feels like it's channeling James Bond by way of Adam West Batman. And unlike when I watched it the first (and only other) time, I was not bored because I also stand by the action sequences being impressive, exciting, and fun.
2024 Grade: B+
Like with the Mr. & Mrs. Smith review I posted at the beginning of this month, the original Yahoo! Groups post ended with some Coming Distractions of movies I intended to review later. While I did end up reviewing Be Cool and Aliens Vs. Predator, there were three others that I either decided I didn't have enough to say about them, or I was unable to find copies of them for rent at Blockbuster because that was still a thing in 2005. The three I never got to are:
Like with the Mr. & Mrs. Smith review I posted at the beginning of this month, the original Yahoo! Groups post ended with some Coming Distractions of movies I intended to review later. While I did end up reviewing Be Cool and Aliens Vs. Predator, there were three others that I either decided I didn't have enough to say about them, or I was unable to find copies of them for rent at Blockbuster because that was still a thing in 2005. The three I never got to are:
Stay Tuned, stay Incredible, and please share the love by remembering to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, comment your true feelings at the bottom of this post, help out my ad revenue as you read, and choo-choo-choose me on Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest heart-shaped boxes of news on my content.
Ticketmaster,
Out.
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