I just saw The Incredibles and it was very good!

But this is the first Pixar movie I've actually wanted to see in the theaters, which is actually a great leap forward in expectation right there. Intellectually I understand the regard for Pixar but in terms of entertainment I've rarely felt a 'must see' urge about them, though when I've caught things here and there later they do always seem good fun (I mean, aside from casting Billy Fucking Crystal as a lead once, but oh well). Then again I'm not an Iron Giant cultist either, maybe this is a case where Bird and Pixar and all that combines perfectly for me!

It has to do with the wishes of the author of the story, who when he sold it, stipulated that it not be animated. Zemekis and pals got around this with a flimsy loophole -- it's not "animated," it's live-acted! Look! See?!

It really does look terrible, though. Unspeakably bad. I have played video games that look *way* better than that preview.

The best thing about it: In-jokes for East Bay folk!

YES! The design was astounding, and confirmed for me in the most positive possible way that modernism is back, and not as kitsch. The fonts! OMG the fonts!

xpost: Elastigirl looked like Earl Campbell from the waist down.

Did anyone else get that Winnie the Pooh preview? I'm still laughing that they're using that Spin Doctors song in it .. I guess that's to attract the soccer moms & dads - because they kind of remember that song back from before their lives were ruined by having kids.

So yeah, The Incredibles was indeed pretty incredible. It had some of the best action sequences I've seen all year. I loved Samuel Jackson as FROZONE. Also, I took my son who now claims he IS Dash, and has been running ridiculously fast ever since we left the theater.

I haven't seen this movie yet (and I want to), but, in A.O. Scott's defense, I think that when Scott's working one of his riffs, he's better than most other movie reviewers. Even when he's "wrong" (and I do think he can be wrong, sometimes very wrong), he's wrong in a way that has a really compelling and sympathetic thought process and point of view behind it, if that makes sense.

photo realistic computer animation is a long ways off, as underlined by that repellent 'Polar Express' trailer. but this movie points towards an amazing hyper-realism that I haven't seen in a pixar film yet. characters that are markedly different sizes, convincingly moving around in the same space -- it gets to your head, it involves you.

the one mom/daughter moment outside the cave was nice and I felt a little heart tug, then realized I'm staring at a 'character' whose eyes occupy almost the entire top half of her head and her nose is the size of a pea, and I FLIPPED OUT

the link to the NYT article has expired, couldn't read it, but it is there a little bit... a few lines transparently nailing in some stockpile family values lines, but it's not The Lion King or anything

Fellow superheroes Elastigirl (L), Frozone (R) and Mr. Incredible strike crimefighting poses at the Disney-MGM Studios in Lake Buena Vista, Florida November 1, 2004. The characters greeted guests inside the newly reopened attraction 'The Magic of Disney Animation.'

The big-band music was a little distracting to me, but at least it was "different." Pixar is so much a cut above; there was a trailer for some DreamWorks movie about zoo animals that looked just awful.

I didn't see how the "reactionary" agenda was applicable to the real world at all, except for a few gentle little things like the remark about "rewarding mediocrity" with fourth-grade graduations, and Violet poking fun at her dad's therapy language as she takes action. The "keep the supers down" theme seemed very specific to the superhero world itself (and also to "Watchmen" and "The Dark Knight Returns" and the X-Men and a bunch of other comics from the '80s [I have an issue of "Action Comics" that follows around Superman's lawyer as he tails Superman on a standard day of heroics, documenting the appropriate use of force, etc.]). Maybe I just lack the imagination to complete some icky metaphor, but I didn't see the movie as being anti-affirmative action or anything. (If anything, it seemed to reign itself in at the end - it was interesting how the family was content with Dash coming in second place, and suppressing his greatness. I thought he was going to run 23 times around the track or something.)

Plus, the supers hardly seemed like Ayn Rand types, considering that helping the weak and innocent (for Mr. Incredible and Frozone, at least) was so much in their blood, they couldn't give it up.

Couple of things:

the "oh crap" moment when the car is emerging from out of its vanishing point at escape velocity

Completely blanking on this moment for some reason -- which car where now?

Edna = my favorite character hands down. Ridiculously great.

The Watchmen observations are spot on, I suspect this is as close as we'll ever get to a Watchmen film.

I might have missed it, but no comparisons to James Bond yet on this thread? The film *screamed* Bond homage after a certain point, invoking a ton of the tropes -- the (ha-hem) 'cartoonish' death of various evil underlings, the design of the base (very VERY You Only Live Twice), the elegant dining room-in-impossible-setting, the 'female henchwoman who goes over to the good side' (though not in traditional Bond fashion, of course), the ending that's not quite THE ending, and absolutely the music. To be sure a lot of Bond-in-film's approach is a realization of comic hyperdrama so it's not a real surprise, but I think it's clearly a thread throughout.

Did anyone else like the slightly bizarre but fun Jack Lemmon/Walter Matthau 'Odd Couple' cameo at the end? Really didn't expect it and I don't think it had any context but it was sure fun.

The movie is definitely an indictment of evil fanboy obsessiveness more than anything else. ;-)

You will cry tears of laughter.

Tears of indifference.

Tears of remonstration.

At least Toy story had a shining reference

Does the first movie have as many obvious '60s signifiers as the sequel does? My memory of it placed it as contemporary.

Yeah, a slew of 'em.

So this was the Cineworld's secret screening number 8 (most of the theatre cheered, I was just happy as it could have been a lot worse) and ya silby the nominative determinism ruined this a little on watching. Still I laughed a fair few times.

Didn't really think anyone needed the Guy Fierri biog that was Bao.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/voyd-from-incredibles-2-looks-like-kristen-stewart-2018-6

Man! I thought this to the point where I convinced myself she was actually the model for the character. Even the mannerisms seemed v awkward Stewart-esque.

Voyd's a good character with a good haircut

she didn't look or act anything like kristen stewart, people just make shit up

just like how anthony lane’s review of this sounds like he woke up from a sex nightmare

this is off topic but how the hell did Anthony Lane get his job

That makes me want to read his review (and then hate myself for doing so). xp

prescient post

OTM. Has Anthony Lane weighted in yet?
― Remy (x Jeremy), Wednesday, November 10, 2004

I think Lane is funny, though I frequently get the sense that the jokes come before the review.

there's a whole separate department in the New Yorker for jokes

That review is just Lane being Lane - I don't get the tizz at all. It's just basic seaside smut.

true i guess he is always exactly that bad

i've read worse erotic incredibles fanfiction, but i'm not sure the new yorker is the proper venue for it

Finally looked up the hubbub, and ... don't care. But it did ring a bell that Lane sexualized her in his review of the first movie as well:

Years ago, Bob and Helen Parr were superheroes—Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl. He was mostly knuckles and chin, whereas she was as limber as it is possible to be without consulting the Kama Sutra.

Wow the Kama Sutra what a quip “Anthony Lane”

Loved this: http://joshholtsclaw.com/blog/2018/3/5/the-graphic-art-of-incredibles-2

when Screen Slaver had their jump scare reveal, someone in the theatre got so scared they ripped a fart and the entire audience started laughing. ruined the moment a lil.

something something fascism Rand

that’s what happens when you eat beans

everybody farts, which is just another way of saying nobody does