"The Incredibles"

Directed by:  Brad Bird

Written by: Brad Bird

Starring:  Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Samuel L. Jackson, and Jason Lee

Rated:  PG (Action Violence)

Length:  112 Minutes

 Parody is hard.  To work, it requires a very real understanding of the source material; so much so that the genre is simultaneously mocked and dignified through farcical representation.  When Pixar set out to put its spin on 1950's sterility/James Bond escapism, it came up with "The Incredibles," a fun yet biting commentary on American standards.

When Brad Bird, director of "Iron Giant" fame, came to helm Pixar's newest digital venture, he set out to forge a film "that took its young and old audiences alike very seriously."  Much in the same vein as the latest "Harry Potter" adventures, "The Incredibles" sets a strong balance between the fantastical and the bitterly realistic. 

Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson), a superhero dominant in a literal golden-age of superheroes, starts us off with an average "day-in-the-life-of" where cats need saving from trees, Irish cops need help from their own bumbling, and super side-kicks need to feel loved by their grander counterparts.  It's the renaissance of cultural naiveté - soon to be crushed by the likes of a new American trend as Mr. Incredible spurs a series of lawsuits after botching an attempted suicide.  And so, those more than ordinary are forced into hiding as society decides to exploit its heroes rather than laud them.

Now, 15 years later, the dismally suburban Bob Parr (a.k.a. Mr. Incredible), gets the chance to once again save the day when an invitation to a remote island ala James Bond proves that villainy is alive and well. 

On the home front, Bob's family, led by Helen Parr - formerly Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), is a strangely natural combination of various domestic archetypes with gene-shattering super-abilities.  Dash (Spencer Fox) is your average annoying little brother fused with leg muscles that can break the sound barrier.  Oldest sister Violet (Sarah Vowell) is a brooding teenager able to do what many teenagers pray they could do: be invisible.  And baby Jack Jack is…well…a baby.   

"The Incredibles" spends much of its early minutes satirizing middle-class America.  Bob lumbers his hulking frame through an insurance agency for which he works; a place where helping people is very much not on the agenda.  The superhero relocation program has placed Bob and his family in more than one Frank Lloyd Wright knock-off home and he, like many 40-hour desk jockeys, feels trapped between supporting a family and offering his everlasting soul to the gods of office life.  When asked about his reluctance to attend Dash's fifth grade graduation, Bob suggests that such practices are "psychotic.  They keep coming up with new ways of celebrating mediocrity."  And with statements such as these, "The Incredibles" develops its dominant themes which preside over the remainder of the movie:  that one's potential should be completely validated.  That weirdness is a good thing.  That accepting a life of boredom and general malaise is not okay.

Pixar has once again nailed its target.  The most heartening change present in "The Incredibles" is a new-found willingness to take on more mature themes and situations while still providing a healthy forum for kids.  In the current climate of so-so films, a movie of this caliber is…incredible.

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