I just saw The Incredibles and it was very good!

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. ;-)

I liked this a lot, especially once the action got going. It was thrilling when Violet and Dash figured out how to use their powers together. And Frozone skating through the city was just beautiful.

It did take a little while, I think, to fully fire on all fours -- that said the script and plot tended to demand slow going up for a bit. Seeing more of Frozone would have been fantastic, he was almost shoehorned into the end there but at least it happened.

And now that I think about it, while I wouldn't say you *couldn't* hide being fired from one job and then getting recruited for another one from your spouse, in a plot with a huge amount of clearly unrealistic elements *that* actually stood out as a bit grating!

Violet and the Bitchy Girls in Homeroom

Jack-Jack Discovers Poops

guess they had to go with another This American Life commentator.

TELL ME.

Watchmen comparison OTM, but it also reminded me of a comic called

Watchmen comparison OTM, but it also reminded me of a comic called Marvels that had a similar theme of exceptionalism versus the ingratitude (jadedness?) of the general populace (as manipulated by the ruling classes). The edges in this case were much more smoothed, though, making some of the faint Randism arguably more palatable. The four members of the nuclear family could be roughly comparable to the Fantastic Four, too (and how close to Silver Surfer was Frozone when he was snowboarding and speedskating around those city streets?).

Violet was indeed adorable, but the hint of creepiness was definitely of a bulimic nature, given that she could actually become invisible. I mean, how much more anorexic could she be? Likewise, Dash was quintessentially ADD/ADHD. All of which helped give it that postmodern or just simply contemporary appeal.

Yeah, this movie's a blast.

(Sorry, HTML problems)

It can. But the modernist aesthetic the movie makes use of (both in terms of visuals and in its good-thing-writ-large-equals-great-thing approach to animation and writing) is pretty soulless and I didn't find anything in the characters or plot to counteract that. So on balance it comes off as a soulless movie.

It kind of felt like I was watching an afternoon talk show filmed on a freeway overpass.

Oh, those National Review guys are so cute. I wonder what they thought of the movie's depiction of the insurance industry as corporate bloodsuckers? I mean, there's some cartoonish (ha) Objectivism there, along with the jabs at trial lawyers, but the attacks on public education seem as much in line with '60s anti-conformism as '90s Gingrichism. And the government itself is embodied by the sympathetic agent who keeps on bailing Bob out and reminds him tiredly that taxpayers are footing the bill for his outbursts. And Bob's character arc is all about him learning that he can't do things on his own, he needs other people. Politically, the movie's a nigh-on incoherent mishmash. Which is fine with me. I had a good time.

Yeah, I loved those -- made perfect sense that they didn't show them until the end of the movie, as otherwise they would have given it away. ;-)

Frozone was more a straight crib of Iceman.

Violet was indeed adorable, but the hint of creepiness was definitely of a bulimic nature, given that she could actually become invisible. I mean, how much more anorexic could she be?

Interesting take, but to be pedantic, anorexia and bulimia are separate disorders.

http://www.risingsun.net/cosplayers/elastigirl

muhfuggin' FREAK, yo!

Also, I don't think I mentioned this elsewhere, but I am sorta slightly convinced the bit where Violet and...argh, the older son's name, who I'm blanking on...run out from the tunnel and jump away towards the camera, followed by lava suddenly flooding out, is a *very* quick but specific homage to the scene in Return of the King where Frodo and Sam do the same while fleeing from Mt. Doom. Then again I could be on crack.

Just saw this on blu-ray and while it was pretty good after a while I couldn't stand Holly Hunter's shpeech impediment anymore. (not the drawl, her s that shoundsh like sh all the time - hash she ever been in a movie with Sean Connery?)

mum is HOT in this

Mirage is pretty hottt as well

can i have some simpsons porn

So anyway.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/we-ve-seen-the-power-packed-first-footage-from-the-incr-1796939620

Talks one isolated scene shown in particular but the key points:

* Starts immediately where the first film left off with the Underminer.

* "will largely focus on Elastigirl, leaving Mr. Incredible at home to watch Jack-Jack."

Updates updates updates:

https://io9.gizmodo.com/one-of-these-new-incredibles-2-characters-is-totally-th-1822303947

New characters per Disney PR stuff and who plays them:

WINSTON DEAVOR (voice of Bob Odenkirk) leads a world-class telecommunications company alongside his genius sister, Evelyn. Ultra-wealthy, savvy and suave, Winston goes big in everything he does—including his infatuation with Supers. He has been a supporter of Supers returning—all he needs is a hero (or three) to help him change public perception and bring them back into the sunlight.

EVELYN DEAVOR (voice of Catherine Keener), the brilliant brainchild behind her brother Winston’s telecommunications company, knows her way around tech. She loves tinkering with tech, and has never met a problem she can’t solve.

VOYD (voice of Sophia Bush) is a young, overeager “wannabe” Super and a mega-fan of Elastigirl. Her superpower is the ability to divert and manipulate objects around her by creating voids that allow the objects to appear and disappear, and shift in space.

The Supers find an advocate in a dignified foreign AMBASSADOR (voice of Isabella Rossellini) who is committed to the support and legalization of Superheroes.

And tickets for II on sale etc.

Dear critics who are chagrinned by the upcoming Pixar film The Incredibles 2, may I suggest using one of the following in your review:

The Uncredibles
The Inedibles
The In-crud-ibles
The Incredibles...At Actually Being Terrible

And sequel seen. Totally great, unsurprisingly. Plays around with a slew of the same themes but feels like a natural progression nonetheless, and otherwise you got your perfect 60s/Bond/Mission Impossible/etc pastiche on lock once again, set pieces galore, Edna Mode rules all.

Ned what was the last major sequel you thought sucked, just so I can calibrate expectations here

I saw The Incredibles and Incredibles 2 in a double feature last night. Incredibles 2 is much better.