The Incredibles (2004)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

The Incredibles (2004) – B. Bird

I skipped this back in the day (no kids, no interest in animation beyond Miyazaki) but decided to give it a shot with the boys.  I didn’t realise until now that the same director (Brad Bird) made The Iron Giant (1999) which we watched a couple of years ago and really liked.  However, the kids only rated this one as fair – methinks too much went over their heads.  Although we start with superhero fight scenes, soon lawsuits put the superheroes into government protection and hiding – Mr Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) has to resort to processing claims for a dodgy insurance company to make ends meet.  His wife, the former Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), is a stereotypic homemaker raising two children and waiting for her husband to come home from work (although occasionally he sneaks out to listen to the police scanner with old friend, Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson)).  It’s all a bit dull – until Mr Incredible is lured to a tropical island to help an unknown figure fight a menacing robot war machine. Things go bad from there and soon the whole family is helping out.  Then there is action galore (and perhaps even too much violence for an 8 year old – who says that’s not true). There are so many adult themes and references here, it is hard to imagine that kids would get it all – a few too many references to potential divorce perhaps, a lot of nods to James Bond (including an echo of the theme music). To sum up:  I enjoyed it.