The Incredibles has humor, thrills, and adventure, but most of all it has heart.
Audio:
You'll get no complaints from me about the Dolby Digital 5.1 EX audio, either. It displays a wide front-channel stereo spread; strong dynamic contrasts; high impact; a few hefty bass thumps; some room rattling lows when needed; and effective surround effects, with pinpoint directionality. This is good, modern, well-defined, wide-ranging multichannel audio that is worthy of its Oscar for Sound Editing.
Extras:
As befits a film of such distinguished credentials, "The Incredibles" is offered in a two-disc, special-edition set. Disc one contains the feature film, with English, French, and Spanish spoken languages and subtitles. It is introduced by writer-director Brad Bird, who tells us the movie is presented on this DVD in "the highest image quality possible." He suggests we use the THX Optimizer before beginning and reminds us to visit some of the stuff on disc two. Thanks, Brad.
Then, because this film is aimed at adults as well as children, there are two separate audio commentaries. The first is with writer-director Bird and producer John Walker; the second is with Pixar supervising animators Tony Fucile, Steven Hunter, and Alan Barillaro, plus about ten other Pixar animators who worked on the film. Needless to say, the two commentaries provide a boatload of information, more than I could handle in the fifteen or twenty minutes I had available to listen to them. The first disc concludes with a THX Optimizer set of audiovisual calibration tests; Sneak Peeks at seven other BV products, including "Chicken Little" and "Cars"; thirty-two animated scene selections; and an index of contents for both discs in the set.
Disc two is where all the rest of the bonuses are found. Typical of Disney, you need a road map to navigate it all. In the first group of extras, there's a short introduction to the disc by Brad Bird. Next, there's a five-minute animated feature created especially for the DVD called "Jack-Jack Attack." In it, Kari the baby-sitter is having a devil of a time with baby Jack-Jack. It's cute. Later on the disc, we find "Boundin,'" Pixar's delightful, 2003 Oscar-nominated animated short subject that preceded "The Incredibles" in motion-picture theaters; it comes with an optional commentary. And there is a biographical piece, "Who Is Bud Luckey?" So, who IS Bud Luckey? He's a pretty amazing guy, that's who he is--a Pixar animator, writer, producer, director, designer, and voice actor who is responsible for many of the Pixar cartoon characters, going all the way back to Woody in "Toy Story."
The second group of extras contains the deleted scenes, including an alternate opening. There are thirty-four minutes' worth of them, all of them in storyboard presentations, mostly in black-and-white, and accompanied by a good deal of talk from the filmmakers.
The third group of extras is called "Behind the Scenes." It includes the twenty-seven minute feature "The Making of The Incredibles," which seems to me like the same "making-of" documentary I've seen on every Pixar DVD I own; followed by "More Making of The Incredibles," forty more minutes of information on character design, set design, sound, music, lighting, etc. Then, there's "Incredi-Blunders," the Pixar animators goofing off with bloopers and outtakes; and an off-the-wall vocal essay, "Vowellet: An Essay by Sarah Vowell," about, er, uh, assassinated Presidents and action figures and I'm not sure what all. This section ends with an art gallery full of pictures and a publicity gallery with sly character interviews, a teaser trailer, and two widescreen theatrical trailers.
The final group of extras is called "Top Secret." It includes a purported fifties' cartoon, "Mr. Incredible and Pals," that can be played with or without commentary by Craig T. Nelson as Mr. Incredible and Samuel L. Jackson as Frozone. The extras conclude with "NSA Files," National Superhero Agency text files on twenty-one different superheros that can be played with or without audio comments from the superheroes themselves.
The two DVDs are housed in a slim-line keep case, further enclosed in a colorful cardboard slipcover. An insert provides a chapter listing and a guide to the various materials found on the discs.
Parting Thoughts:
"The Incredibles" was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Animated Feature Film of the Year (Brad Bird), Best Achievement in Sound (Randy Thom, Gary Rizzo, and Doc Kane), Best Achievement in Sound Editing (Michael Silvers and Randy Thom), and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Brad Bird). As I've said, it won for Best Animated Feature and Best Sound Editing. In addition, it was nominated for and won a ton of awards from other organizations, including the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, the American Cinema Editors, the Art Directors Guild, the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Cinema Writers Circle, the Golden Globes, the Online Film Critics Society, the National Board of Review, the Annies, and many more.
It's seldom we get such an adult-oriented animated feature from Disney or Pixar, which helps to explain the movie's PG rating. But it's not just the cartoon violence that enables "The Incredibles" to appeal to adults as well as children; it's the cleverness, the wit, the relative sophistication of the project. Perhaps the best comparison I can make is with the original "Spy Kids" movie. Both stories involve love, humor, warmth, and excitement as a family unites in a joint adventure.
"The Incredibles" may be a bit overlong and sag slightly in the middle, but that pretty much matches its main character, doesn't it? "The Incredibles" deserves its Oscar nominations and its wins.
You'll get no complaints from me about the Dolby Digital 5.1 EX audio, either. It displays a wide front-channel stereo spread; strong dynamic contrasts; high impact; a few hefty bass thumps; some room rattling lows when needed; and effective surround effects, with pinpoint directionality. This is good, modern, well-defined, wide-ranging multichannel audio that is worthy of its Oscar for Sound Editing.
Extras:
As befits a film of such distinguished credentials, "The Incredibles" is offered in a two-disc, special-edition set. Disc one contains the feature film, with English, French, and Spanish spoken languages and subtitles. It is introduced by writer-director Brad Bird, who tells us the movie is presented on this DVD in "the highest image quality possible." He suggests we use the THX Optimizer before beginning and reminds us to visit some of the stuff on disc two. Thanks, Brad.
Then, because this film is aimed at adults as well as children, there are two separate audio commentaries. The first is with writer-director Bird and producer John Walker; the second is with Pixar supervising animators Tony Fucile, Steven Hunter, and Alan Barillaro, plus about ten other Pixar animators who worked on the film. Needless to say, the two commentaries provide a boatload of information, more than I could handle in the fifteen or twenty minutes I had available to listen to them. The first disc concludes with a THX Optimizer set of audiovisual calibration tests; Sneak Peeks at seven other BV products, including "Chicken Little" and "Cars"; thirty-two animated scene selections; and an index of contents for both discs in the set.
Disc two is where all the rest of the bonuses are found. Typical of Disney, you need a road map to navigate it all. In the first group of extras, there's a short introduction to the disc by Brad Bird. Next, there's a five-minute animated feature created especially for the DVD called "Jack-Jack Attack." In it, Kari the baby-sitter is having a devil of a time with baby Jack-Jack. It's cute. Later on the disc, we find "Boundin,'" Pixar's delightful, 2003 Oscar-nominated animated short subject that preceded "The Incredibles" in motion-picture theaters; it comes with an optional commentary. And there is a biographical piece, "Who Is Bud Luckey?" So, who IS Bud Luckey? He's a pretty amazing guy, that's who he is--a Pixar animator, writer, producer, director, designer, and voice actor who is responsible for many of the Pixar cartoon characters, going all the way back to Woody in "Toy Story."
The second group of extras contains the deleted scenes, including an alternate opening. There are thirty-four minutes' worth of them, all of them in storyboard presentations, mostly in black-and-white, and accompanied by a good deal of talk from the filmmakers.
The third group of extras is called "Behind the Scenes." It includes the twenty-seven minute feature "The Making of The Incredibles," which seems to me like the same "making-of" documentary I've seen on every Pixar DVD I own; followed by "More Making of The Incredibles," forty more minutes of information on character design, set design, sound, music, lighting, etc. Then, there's "Incredi-Blunders," the Pixar animators goofing off with bloopers and outtakes; and an off-the-wall vocal essay, "Vowellet: An Essay by Sarah Vowell," about, er, uh, assassinated Presidents and action figures and I'm not sure what all. This section ends with an art gallery full of pictures and a publicity gallery with sly character interviews, a teaser trailer, and two widescreen theatrical trailers.
The final group of extras is called "Top Secret." It includes a purported fifties' cartoon, "Mr. Incredible and Pals," that can be played with or without commentary by Craig T. Nelson as Mr. Incredible and Samuel L. Jackson as Frozone. The extras conclude with "NSA Files," National Superhero Agency text files on twenty-one different superheros that can be played with or without audio comments from the superheroes themselves.
The two DVDs are housed in a slim-line keep case, further enclosed in a colorful cardboard slipcover. An insert provides a chapter listing and a guide to the various materials found on the discs.
Parting Thoughts:
"The Incredibles" was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Animated Feature Film of the Year (Brad Bird), Best Achievement in Sound (Randy Thom, Gary Rizzo, and Doc Kane), Best Achievement in Sound Editing (Michael Silvers and Randy Thom), and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Brad Bird). As I've said, it won for Best Animated Feature and Best Sound Editing. In addition, it was nominated for and won a ton of awards from other organizations, including the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, the American Cinema Editors, the Art Directors Guild, the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Cinema Writers Circle, the Golden Globes, the Online Film Critics Society, the National Board of Review, the Annies, and many more.
It's seldom we get such an adult-oriented animated feature from Disney or Pixar, which helps to explain the movie's PG rating. But it's not just the cartoon violence that enables "The Incredibles" to appeal to adults as well as children; it's the cleverness, the wit, the relative sophistication of the project. Perhaps the best comparison I can make is with the original "Spy Kids" movie. Both stories involve love, humor, warmth, and excitement as a family unites in a joint adventure.
"The Incredibles" may be a bit overlong and sag slightly in the middle, but that pretty much matches its main character, doesn't it? "The Incredibles" deserves its Oscar nominations and its wins.
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