The Incredibles DVD Review:

After lawsuits are brought against superheroes by the disgruntled people they have saved, the government decides to outlaw them from performing heroic deeds. Now they have to live out their lives in the witness protection programme as their normal, everyday alter egos. For Bob Parr (Nelson), formally known as Mr Incredible, life had become far too mundane for him and hiding his abilities is becoming more and more difficult as he wilds away his time at his dull insurance job. His family are also finding it difficult, especially his kids Dash (Fox) and Violet (Vowell) but when Bob gets the call to do some freelance hero work, he jumps at the chance. All he has to do is keep it from his wife Helen (Hunter).

With an impeccable record so far, can Pixar deliver another super movie with The Incredibles? The answer is a resounding yes!

Pixar continue their remit of producing movies that are filled with memorable characters and stories that both kids and adults can enjoy, as well as pushing the technological envelope. Their films are the epitome of family entertainment that appeals to every age level. Kids will revel at the superhero characters and the action. Adults will marvel at the dark underpinnings of the story, the development of the characters and the abundance of references to comic book lore that are scattered throughout the movie. The Incredibles is as super as the heroes that populate it.

Bringing these characters to life are some superb vocal performances from the cast. They actually create a character and are not just a caricature of the person providing the voice. This is what Pixar do extremely well, by selecting a person to fit the character not designing a character to fit the vocal artist. This is why their characters are so memorable and that is why you think of Woody, Marlin, Dory, Mike and Buzz and not the stars that provided the voices. For The Incredibles we have more classic characters to add to that list. Craig T. Nelson voices Bob Parr/Mr Incredible brilliantly. The character is an extraordinary man shackled by the law from expressing his true potential. Nelson’s performance makes the character instantly accessible and likeable, making him the hero we can all get behind. Holly Hunter brings Helen/Elastigirl to life and makes her the perfect mother and a formidable superhero. The character is the one coping best with giving up her superhero lifestyle but any mother would struggle to control two children with superpowers and a baby at the same time. Jason Lee almost steals the show as Syndrome, the megalomaniac villain with plans for world domination and revenge. The character gives Lee real scope to explore his comedic skills and he creates quite a nasty villain for a family movie. Samuel L. Jackson is his usual cool self as Lucius Best/Frozone, Bob’s best friend and another superhero struggling to give up the pursuit of daring-do. He has one of the funniest scenes in the movie, as he argues with his wife while the city is in peril. Spencer Fox and Sarah Vowell are also good as Dash and Violet, the Parr children who are discovering what their powers can really do.

The animation bar is raised again, as Pixar keep surpassing themselves with every picture. For the first time the company has human characters as their protagonists but instead of going for the photo-realistic look that many productions have tried to do, The Incredibles takes a stylised view of the human form, giving them a real comic book appearance. This means Mr Incredible is huge man to reflect his strength, Elastigirl is thin but a little mumsy, Dash is compact and made for speed and Violet is a quiet, nervous type who looks a bit like a Goth. Pixar then throws the characters into a glorious 1960s version of the future where everyone travels on monorails, drive two-seater sports cars and live in one story condos with all the latest modern appliances. This captures the golden age of comics perfectly with all the grandiose splendour of what they thought the future was going to be like.

Many of the plaudits have to go to writer/director Brad Bird. As well as providing the voice for Edna Mode, the superhero fashion designer, Bird follows on from the potential he showed with the marvellous and very underrated ‘The Iron Giant’. It is his writing and attention to detail that makes the film so special for both the family and comic book fans alike.

The Incredibles is another triumph for Pixar. Capturing everything that is super about the comic book genre and throwing in the alter egos of character development and story, Pixar shows again that they are the superheroes of animation.

Star Rating = * * * * *

PICTURE & SOUND

Presented in Widescreen 2.35:1 Anamorphic with Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, the transfer is extremely good. As this is a direct digital transfer, the picture quality is actually better than it was at the cinema. The world of the Incredibles has never looked so good, as the bold 60s style settings come vividly to life. The THX enhanced sound is also first rate, emphasising dialogue but coming into its own during the brilliant action sequences.

BONUS FEATURES

Disc 1

Commentaries

Commentary by writer/director Brad Bird and producer John Walker
This informative, fun and chatty commentary track offers a fascinating insight into the four-year process of bringing ‘The Incredibles’ to the silver screen. The pair highlights the differences between this and other Pixar productions, as the film moves away from animal/toy/insect/monster driven story that the company has become famous for. They reveal secrets about the design and look of the movie, with Bird revealing his influences behind the project and the evolution of the characters and setting. This is a really good commentary track that is both funny and informative. Both director and producer adore the project and this is reflected in this enthusiastic track.

Commentary by the Animators
This track sees almost all of the animators that worked on the main elements of the movie come together to talk about their contribution to ‘The Incredibles’. With a technical and informative approach, the track covers how some had to make the transformation from traditional 2D animation to 3D computer generated techniques. They talk about the design process, revealing secrets about set and character design, as well as some juicy gossip about which actors actually auditioned for the role of ‘Mr. Incredible’. This is a very informative and chatty commentary that reveals many of the techniques and problems that come to bear on a huge animated project.

Cars (1.54 mins)
Watch the preview trailer to the next Pixar animated movie, ‘Cars’.

Trailers
Previews of Cinderella, Tarzan, Pooh’s Huffalump Movie and Chicken Little

Disc 2

Intro (0.51 mins)

Writer/director Brad Bird introduces the DVD and highlights the features that are on this special edition 2-disc set.

Jack-Jack Attack! (4.38 mins)

Have you ever wondered what happened to Jack-Jack while his family were off saving the world from Syndrome? Well this new animated short shows you exactly that as you see the poor babysitter Kari try and cope with a baby ‘Incredible’.

Deleted Scenes (34.50 mins)

Entitled ‘Alternative Opening’, ‘Snug’, ‘Vipers’, ‘Bob in traffic’, ‘Helen confronts Bob’ and ‘Helen’s nightmare’, these six deleted or alternative scenes are presented as animated storyboards. Writer/director Brad Bird and story supervisor Mark Andrews explain why each of these scenes were cut from or altered in the finished film.

Behind the Scenes

Making of ‘The Incredibles’ (27.24 mins)

Writer/director Brad Bird, executive producer John Lasseter, producer John Walker, editor Stephen Schoffer, director of photography Andrew Jimenez, production designer Lou Romano, composer Michael Giacchino, character designer Teddy Newton and the rest of the crew come together to talk about ‘The Incredibles’. From Brad Bird’s 1st day at Pixar, through the design process and onto to actual computer design, this featurette takes you behind the scenes for a no hold bars look at the making of a huge budget animated feature. This isn’t your normal ‘Making of…’ fluff that accompanies most film releases on DVD but an honest, insider look at the gargantuan task of bringing computer animated movie to the silver screen.

More making of ‘The Incredibles’ (41.02 mins)

The behind the scenes featurette continues with a more in-depth look at ‘Story’, ‘Character Design’, ‘E-Volution’, ‘Building Humans’, ‘Building Extras’, ‘Set Design’, ‘Sound’, ‘Music’, ‘Lighting’ and ‘Tools’. Each mini featurette reveals the secrets behind the design of the film, looking at the characters and sets but also revealing the more technical aspects behind them such as creating, hair, muscle structure and facial expressions to bring the characters to life. Again this isn’t your normal, fluffy featurette but one that reveals problems that the animators faced with such a technically difficult project.

Incredi-blunders (1.44 mins)

A collection of computer generated mistakes that occurred during the production of ‘The Incredibles’. Here we see the problems they had getting hair and clothing right and what happens when code goes very wrong.

Art Gallery
Here you can look the original art for the ‘Storyboards’, ‘Character Design’, ‘Set Design’, ‘Colour Scripts’, ‘Lighting’ and ‘Collages’.

Publicity (6.32 mins)

Watch the two main trailers for ‘The Incredibles’ and the fantastically funny teaser trailer.

Top Secret

Mr Incredible and Pals (4.02 mins)

In the style of 1960s animated serials such as ‘Spider-Man’, ‘Mr Incredible and Pals’ is the adventures of our hero, Frozone and Mr. Skipperdo as they try and save the world once more. The cartoon itself is funny and extremely basic, which is the point but it comes into its own when you switch on the audio commentary by ‘Mr. Incredible’ and ‘Frozone’.

NSA Files
Read the National Supers Agency (NSA) files and listen to the audio interviews on ‘Apogee’, ‘Blazestone’, ‘Downburst’, ‘Dynaguy’, ‘Elastigirl’, ‘Everseer’, ‘Frozone’, ‘Gamma Jack’, ‘Gazerbeam’, ‘Hypershock’, ‘Macroburst’, ‘Meta Man’, ‘Mr. Incredible’, ‘The Phylange’, ‘Plasmabolt’, ‘Psycwave’, ‘Splashdown’, ‘Stormicide’, ‘Stratogale’, ‘Thunderhead’ and ‘Universal Man’. You can also read the files on the superhero teams ‘The Thrilling Three’, ‘Phantasmics’ and ‘Beta Force’. These files are really fun to read and some of the audio interviews are hysterical.

Boundin’

Boundin’ (4.30)

With optional commentary by director Bud Luckey, you can watch the Oscar nominated animated short from Pixar about a sheep that loses its confidence and can’t dance anymore.

Who is Bud Luckey? (3.56 mins)

Executive producer John Lasseter, ‘Monsters, Inc’ director Pete Docter, Pixar president Ed Catmill and ‘The Incredibles’ director Brad Bird talk about the career of character designer turned director Bud Luckey.

OVERALL

Disney/Pixar have put together an exceptional DVD to accompany a fantastic movie. Moving away from the usual ‘Kiddie’ approach, this is a DVD made for movie fans with featurettes that cover the ins and outs of the production and audio commentaries that fill in the bits these miss out. Add to this the brilliant ‘Jack-Jack Attack!’ and ‘Mr. Incredible and Pals’ and you have an outstanding package that will delight fans. ‘The Incredibles’ DVD is just ‘Super’.

DVD Star Rating = * * * * *

Jamie Kelwick

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