If you only see one more computer-animated film this year, it should be Disney and Pixar’s “The Incredibles.” I cannot remember the last time I so thoroughly enjoyed a film. The best way for me to express my feelings for “The Incredibles” is to say if the film was a woman I would ask her to marry me not because of her huge box office gross, but because I truly love her. You may be thinking, “Is it wrong for a semi-grown man to fawn over a children’s cartoon?” The answer is no. It may be weird, but it is certainly not wrong to love a movie this completely. Writer-director Brad Bird, the cast of voices and the animators deserve a lot of credit.   

The incredible family.

The story begins in a world where superheroes are so accepted and commonplace (as much as a superhero can be) that they are taken for granted. When a series of frivolous lawsuits over the ethics of egalitarian work go against the superheroes, the pedestal that holds them up quickly implodes. Despised by the public, they must go into hiding, give up their powers and attempt to lead a normal life. Bob Parr, a.k.a. Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson), is one such hero who finds the monotony of his daily life suffocating as he longs to get back into the superhero business. When a mysterious benefactor recruits him for some hero work on a volcanic island, Mr. Incredible leaps at the chance to get back in the game, even though it means misleading his superhero wife Helen, a.k.a. Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), and their three kids.

As the film progresses, so do the characters' depths.  Even though they are superheroes, they aren’t perfect.  The best example of this is the relationship between Bob and Helen as parents with their two adolescent kids -- Violet, the shy, introspective teenager who has some paranormal powers, and Dash, the hyper ten year old who runs so fast he can at times seem invisible. The film does a great job of portraying a family that could be near its breaking point, which increases the drama without making it too heavy for the younger audience.

Since society has mandated that superpowers are a liability, these characters must suppress and ignore traits that are central to their nature. Because of Bob Parr's secret re-transformation into Mr. Incredible, the family is forced to face its past and embrace their uniqueness if they want to have any chance of surviving the manipulations of the film’s villain, Syndrome (Jason Lee). 

Syndrome’s volcano liar was another highlight of the film. This is where the action really begins, and the creators of the film obviously took their time in creating the ultimate villain’s lair. It’s not just a terrible re-hashing of another movie villain’s hideaway -- rather, it’s a wonderful tribute to the volcano-inhabiting, monorail-connected, military-industrial complex hideout that have graced so many James Bond films. Since Pixar’s medium is essentially one extended special effect, they are able to create landscapes and characters that are both realistic and fantastic. Yet it’s the storytelling that’s responsible for making the two worlds co-exist. While any animator can use the genre to fill cells with random flights of fancy, it’s exceptional when a mechanical process captures and conveys a human story so well. The only possible flaw I could find with "The Incredibles” was its plot’s predictability, which is more my fault for being slightly more astute than your average 10 year old, than any mistake by the filmmakers. Even this couldn’t detract from my interest or enjoyment of this wonderful film. With so much humanity in this film I can’t help but wonder if studios like Pixar will ditch the premise of talking toys or over-the-hill superheroes to focus their computer animation techniques on more realistic and mature topics. Because in “The Incredibles,” the characters' superpowers certainly take a backseat to their human side.