Monday, November 08, 2004
Incredible! It's not that great! (7/10)
So I checked out The Incredibles on Saturday. I'll say this about it: for a Pixar production, it was quite violent.
(spoiler warning!)
I mean, they didn't show it on screen, but the "villain" gets sucked into a jet plane's turbine by his cape! Compare that to the previous Pixar villains: Sid (TS) got scared into looking after his toys, Al (TS2) went bankrupt ... I forget what happened in A Bug's Life - didn't the grasshopper get buried under the model bird? ... Waternoose (M,Inc.) got arrested ... and Darla (FN) had a fish flap about on her head. 1 out of 5 was "violent" ... but not as much as The Incredibles. You have bullets being fired, the hero undergoing shock torture (close ups of brightly lit/flashing/ contorted-with-agony face).
Now I realize I can wave my hand, say "this is not meant for core Pixar tots, but a more grown up audience", and make the whole thing go away. But that doesn't sit too well with me. I strongly believe that Pixar is Disney's heir. Disney kinda lost its way, IMO, and Pixar was there to show them how to recapture the lost magic. Sure older cartoons were violent (ever see a Tom & Jerry? - there's a commentary on this in an early episodes of The Simpsons, were Maggie almost kills Homer trying to imitate what she sees on TV; the whole "The Itchy & Scratchy Show" was a parody of Tom & Jerry!) ... er, where was I? Oh yes! ... sure, old cartoons were violent, but Pixar showed the world how to make non-violent and funny movies ... and have a small moral lesson too!
OK, back to The Incredibles!
The animation was amazing - Pixar has certainly raised the bar, yet again (IMO, the last time they did this was in Monsters, Inc.). The story, as I mentioned earlier, was more "adult" than the norm, but it was certainly funny. Plenty of James Bond references ... which I thought as odd. I was expecting more superhero references, but I guess copyright restrictions might have prevented them from being made. The score/music didn't particularly leap out - not that an OST is a feature of Pixar productions.
Oh, the short at the beginning of the movie was a big disappointment. For The Birds was the best I've seen, followed by that globe snowman short that accompanied Finding Nemo (I forget what it was called). Here's an interesting thing - the short .. about a rhyming song dancing sheep was designed for the little kiddies, but the main movie was for grown up kids. Go figure with the inconsistency!
(spoiler warning!)
I mean, they didn't show it on screen, but the "villain" gets sucked into a jet plane's turbine by his cape! Compare that to the previous Pixar villains: Sid (TS) got scared into looking after his toys, Al (TS2) went bankrupt ... I forget what happened in A Bug's Life - didn't the grasshopper get buried under the model bird? ... Waternoose (M,Inc.) got arrested ... and Darla (FN) had a fish flap about on her head. 1 out of 5 was "violent" ... but not as much as The Incredibles. You have bullets being fired, the hero undergoing shock torture (close ups of brightly lit/flashing/ contorted-with-agony face).
Now I realize I can wave my hand, say "this is not meant for core Pixar tots, but a more grown up audience", and make the whole thing go away. But that doesn't sit too well with me. I strongly believe that Pixar is Disney's heir. Disney kinda lost its way, IMO, and Pixar was there to show them how to recapture the lost magic. Sure older cartoons were violent (ever see a Tom & Jerry? - there's a commentary on this in an early episodes of The Simpsons, were Maggie almost kills Homer trying to imitate what she sees on TV; the whole "The Itchy & Scratchy Show" was a parody of Tom & Jerry!) ... er, where was I? Oh yes! ... sure, old cartoons were violent, but Pixar showed the world how to make non-violent and funny movies ... and have a small moral lesson too!
OK, back to The Incredibles!
The animation was amazing - Pixar has certainly raised the bar, yet again (IMO, the last time they did this was in Monsters, Inc.). The story, as I mentioned earlier, was more "adult" than the norm, but it was certainly funny. Plenty of James Bond references ... which I thought as odd. I was expecting more superhero references, but I guess copyright restrictions might have prevented them from being made. The score/music didn't particularly leap out - not that an OST is a feature of Pixar productions.
Oh, the short at the beginning of the movie was a big disappointment. For The Birds was the best I've seen, followed by that globe snowman short that accompanied Finding Nemo (I forget what it was called). Here's an interesting thing - the short .. about a rhyming song dancing sheep was designed for the little kiddies, but the main movie was for grown up kids. Go figure with the inconsistency!
