Bob Parr has given up his superhero days to log in time as an insurance adjuster and raise his three children with his formerly heroic wife in suburbia. But when he receives a mysterious assignment...
”Animation isn't a genre. It's a medium” is a quote that I find really interesting. On the surface level, it's just a juxtaposition contrasting the use of animation for different genres. But, on a deeper level, this is an idea that rings doubly true for superhero films in general. Thanks to the Marvel cinematic universe and the ever-growing Warner Bros DC lineup, audiences have come to accept the fact that superhero films are all the same. Sure, they may have different characters, but how often do you see a film that is truly different? Very rarely. And this is why "The Incredibles" (2004) fared so well with audiences. Arriving at the beginning of the superhero movie craze, Brad Bird paints a picture of a typical family that happens to be superheroes, which was something they didn't really happen at the time. Many films then (and even now) have characters that do things (or are) extraordinary outside of their crime fighting romps. They generally don't feel normal in a way that the audience can relate, which is likely why a character such as Spider-Man is so popular. This archetype has been the demise of many of our comic-book films recently.
Thanks to stellar writing on Bird’s end, "The Incredibles" (2004) manages to create an almost perfect culmination of over 50 years (at the time of its release) of superhero stories. In the various comic books that brought super humans to the forefront, a multitude of themes have been explored: racism, democracy, and family values have all oozed into the various superheroes stories. But, until this film, none of these themes had been explicitly explored on screen. And not only does ‘Incredibles’ play the proverbial role of the parent of thought-provoking superhero films, but it does a fantastic job at it.
Unfortunately, revisiting the film as a much older individual is accompanied by the critical eye. It would be very easy to shut my mind off and enjoy one of the monumental films that launched my love for film, but I decided to go in as if I was watching a new film. It is still wholly solid film in the long run, but it’s the poster child for why “a movie is only as good as its villain” is completely incorrect. It is a otherwise solid film (and easily the best animated film ever) that does get weighed down by a less than stellar villain. I like the idea of Syndrome/Buddy Pine: he is a living embodiment of a crazy fan, or more specifically a metaphor for toxic fanbases, but his motivations lack the punch needed to have a truly incredible villain. His reign of terror could have easily been prevented if he would have just genuinely thought about his actions, and why they only hurt his long term goal.
For all of its merits, "The Incredibles" (2004) is still the best animated film to ever grace the screens, and further pushes the idea that superheroes are everything but boring when they are portrayed as humans.
