Movies: The Incredibles

Usually, when the Peach and I try and go see a movie in the theaters, we have a problem. Peach views movies as eye candy; she goes to be entertained, not to discuss and debate the movies afterwards, and she hates anything that's dark. I need something to keep my intellect interested, and my tastes typically run to the shadier side of the scale. So imagine my surprise when we found three movies that we were both interested in seeing. This has never happened in the past two and a half years. It probably will never happen again. We had to choose between Finding Neverland, Ocean's Twelve, and The Incredibles, and we both quickly decided on the latter. Really, being the giant comic book geek that I am, it should have been a no-brainer..

And now: what I thought of the movie. Okay. I could write out a really long review; a list of how much The Incredibles is a freaking AMAZING achievement in cinema, and how everyone should see it. But that's pretty much what everyone's been saying about the movie, and that's not going to add much to the debate. So I'm not going to do that.

Don't get me wrong, I did think that The Incredibles was (must . . . resist . . . obvious . . . joke) really, really good. Fantastic, Amazing, Spectacular, and other adjectives worthy of superheroics. I just don't think we need a long writeup about the movie's greatness. My concise, three point analysis of the movie: 1) Holly Hunter is unbelievable as ElastiGirl; 2) the animation of the heroes' movements and powers - and here again I am thinking of ElastiGirl - blew my tiny mind, and 3) Samuel L. Jackson has the funniest line in the movie. "You tell me where my suit is, woman!" Priceless. (Peach really enjoyed it too, but for other reasons.)

I would like to conclude this short essay inspired by The Incredibles with this: at some point this Christmas season, everyone should go see The Incredibles with someone they love - child, spouse, girl/boyfriend, parent, friend, whomever - and then go home and watch The Iron Giant. Both films were directed by Brad Bird, who is obviously overflowing with emotion. The two of you may suffer a love overdose, but it will have been worth it.