100 Movies Every Catholic Should See #89: The Incredibles (2004)
Written & Directed by Brad Bird
It would be negligent of us here at 100 Movies if we were not to include a Pixar movie on our list: along with Disney animation and Studio Ghibli, Pixar Animation Studios has made some of the best animated films of all time. Their films have influenced an entire generation (in particular, the generation of this writer) of young filmgoers and raised the bar for what animated movies can be. If you had asked me as a 10 year old what my dream job would be, it would have been to work alongside John Lasseter and co. over at Pixar.
The films of Pixar are so beloved that the question of which of them has been the best is a subject of much controversy at times: films like Ratatouille, Toy Story 3, and WALL-E oftentimes top “best of” lists you find online. So do not take the fact that The Incredibles being the only Pixar film to grace this list to be an indicator that I believe it to be the best, but it is certainly up there.
The Incredibles was the second film from Iron Giant helmer Brad Bird to hit the big screen and the most ambitious project the studio had ever tackled, as Bird explained in a 2008 interview:
The Incredibles was everything that computer-generated animation had trouble doing. It had human characters, it had hair, it had water, it had fire, it had a massive number of sets. The creative heads were excited about the idea of the film, but once I showed story reels of exactly what I wanted, the technical teams turned white. They took one look and thought, “This will take ten years and cost $500 million. How are we possibly going to do this?"
Bird is famous for approaching his animated films like live-action films: sweeping shots, dolly zooms and different “digital lenses” are peppered throughout his films and oftentimes push his animation and tech teams to achieve what was previously thought to be impossible within the field of animation. The Incredibles in particular would go on to not only change what was possible for Pixar films going forward but also computer animation as a whole.
Despite all of its technical achievements, what The Incredibles is remembered for aside from the gorgeous visuals is its story and characters. The story follows Bob Parr (Craig T. Nelson), formerly the superhero “Mr. Incredible” and his wife Helen (Holly Hunter), also formerly known as “Elastigirl”. Together they have a family of three kids including Dash (Spencer Fox), who has super speed, Violet (Sarah Vowell), who can turn invisible, and Jack-Jack, who hasn’t yet shown any powers. Bird explains:
The dad is always expected in the family to be strong, so I made him strong. The moms are always pulled in a million different directions, so I made her stretch like taffy. Teenagers, particularly teenage girls, are insecure and defensive, so I made her turn invisible and turn on shields. And ten-year-old boys are hyperactive energy balls. Babies are unrealized potential.1
In a world where superheroes have long ago been made illegal (due to many instances of collateral damage, lawsuits), the government has given them a home and new identities, and Bob and Helen have had to move around many times, due to accidental slip-ups with their superpowers.
Bob- who has gone from essentially being Superman to working a menial job at an insurance company- yearns for the glory days, often performing secret superhero work late at night with his best friend Lucius (Samuel L. Jackson), who was formerly known as Frozone. This was a very personal film for Bird- after The Iron Giant didn’t do as well at the box office as Warner Bros. had hoped- the director and his family faced a lot of uncertainty, and even the move to Pixar was no sure thing. Much like Bob, Bird was facing middle age and had pretty high aspirations for what he still wanted to accomplish in filmmaking, and he was beginning to ponder whether or not his responsibilities as a father and husband were compatible with his directing dreams.
The story really kicks off when Bob gets a top-secret message from the mysterious Mirage (Elizabeth Peña) inviting him for an opportunity for paid superhero work on a remote island. Having just been fired from his job and feeling more frustrated than ever with his life, he takes the job on the sneak, and begins to work out again and spends more time with his family- all the while lying about what he’s really doing. Once the true intentions of Mirage and her mysterious boss are revealed and Bob ends up in danger, it becomes up to Helen and the kids to save him.
More than any other Pixar film, The Incredibles is a film about the importance of family, as Bob begins to realize that the family he thought was getting in the way of true happiness is actually what has been giving him his strength and joy all along. Despite those who see the film as emblematic of the philosophy of Ayn Rand (yes, they exist), the film is about as far as you can get from promoting the radical individualism that is to be found in Rand’s ideas about objectivism. Instead the film is a conscious warning against acting out on only our selfish wants and desires and an uplifting of the duties of family life. The members of the family all have superpowers and use them when they need to, but the source of their happiness come more from family dinners, track meets, and doing normal, everyday things than saving people in burning buildings.
Lately I have been reading Josef Pieper’s Happiness and Contemplation (which I highly recommend) and in it Pieper makes the differentiation between “thinking” and “seeing”, contending that happiness can only truly stem from the latter. “Thinking” usually dwells in a focus on an improper obsession with the future and usually is an implanting of our own selfish, imperfect desires onto our current situation. Bob thinks that if only he could be a superhero again, then he would be truly happy. However, Pieper (in conjunction with Augustine and Aquinas) states that- only through proper contemplation- happiness is achieved by seeing, that is, by proper sight and understanding of our current lives and how God is working in the present. It is only in this way that we can truly see our lives for what they are and understand what God wills for us to do, and a lot of times he places people in our lives- our own Helen Parrs, Dash’s, and Violets- to help us to achieve that perfect sight.
To finish with a quote from Jacques Phillipe from his book, Called to Life:
I believe human life is a marvelous adventure. Despite the burden of sufferings and disappointments, it offers us means to grow in humanity, freedom, and interior peace, while exercising our entire capacity for love and joy. There is, however, one condition. We must give up our own agendas and allow ourselves to be led by life, in happy events and difficult ones, while learning to recognize and accept the calls addressed to us day by day.
http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Interviews/Bird/Bird_Interview.htm
Best family Pixar movie hands down
This is one of the best animated films, period! Thanks for your thoughtfully crafted review.