Who wants the pressure of being super all the time?
When The Incredibles was released in 2004 (ten years ago this week, incidentally), it was a revelation. Here was a Pixar film that was centered on an all-human (and superhuman) cast, dealt directly with adult themes, was rated PG, and had a story that featured dozens of implied deaths. Even if many of those casualties were the interchangeable henchmen of the film's main supervillain and none are shown in close-up or otherwise lingered over, that's still a lot of death for a film aimed at a family audience. The other thing that set The Incredibles apart was that it was unmistakably the work of a single voice -- in this case, writer/director Brad Bird, whose previous feature The Iron Giant must have impressed the higher-ups at Pixar as much as it impressed me when I was one of the few who saw it in the summer of 1999.
Taking a page or two out of Watchmen's book and applying it to a story about forcibly retired superheroes who have taken off their costumes and settled into a life of ill-fitting domesticity, The Incredibles is funniest in the early going, when it shows the humbled Mr. Incredible (grumpily voiced by Craig T. Nelson) working in the claims department at a profit-driven insurance company (where his boss is voiced by the reliably strident Wallace Shawn). Even putting aside the fact that he's put on weight since his superheroic heyday, he literally doesn't fit into his environment, especially his cramped cubicle and compact car. He also has issues with controlling his super-strength, a trait he's passed along to his super-fast son Dash (Spencer Fox), much to the irritation of his wife Helen, formerly Elastigirl (Holly Hunter). Rounding out the family is teenage wallflower Violet (Sarah Vowell), who's able to turn invisible, and toddler Jack-Jack, who has yet to manifest any superpowers. Then Mr. Incredible (or Bob as he's known to the outside world) begins living a double life once again, having been recruited by the secretive Mirage (the late Elizabeth Peña) for a job that's significantly more dangerous and ultimately a threat to both himself and his family.
One of the greatest pleasures of revisiting The Incredibles is being to pick up on all the half-muttered asides and background details that Bird and Pixar's army of animators cram into the margins of the story. And the supporting cast is terrific, too, with Samuel L. Jackson as Mr. Incredible's super-buddy Frozone and Jason Lee as his number-one-fan-turned-nemesis Syndrome, but Bird steals the show as domineering super-suit maker Edna Mode, modeled after Hitchcock's go-to costume designer, Edith Head. And would it be a proper Pixar movie without a role for John Ratzenberger? No, it would not, which is why it's borderline-perverse that Bird saves his cameo as the Underminer for the film's closing moments. I must admit, though, I'm anxious about the prospect of next summer's The Incredibles 2 as this film closes on such a pitch-perfect note. It would be a shame to spoil it.