Imagine back to when you were around seven or eight years old. You are rushing to the movie theater with excitement and your family to see the newest movie. All of the kids have been talking about it in school, and you even collected some of the promotional toys that McDonald’s produced for the movie. I know you have.
The movie rolls and the stars are about to make their appearance. They are "The Incredibles." The animations were out of this world, still to this day, and the story was heartfelt and genuine so you felt satisfied, but were left wanting more. But recently I watched some scenes from the movie, and as I was re-watching the film now, I was able to deeply see some of the themes and topics being addressed in "The Incredibles" which would have otherwise escaped my seven-year-old brain when I first watched it.
In the beginning of the movie, we see Frozone and Mr. Incredible saving people from a burning building and Mr. Incredible sneaking around his wife trying to hold on to the past glory he had when he was a superhero. Mr. Incredible was really having a mid-life crisis in the scenes where we were up to date where the Incredibles were at that present time.
He did not get pleasure from his job at all. He even punched his boss through the wall, even though he really did deserve it, because he was helping clients get around the corrupt insurance company he was working for. Mr. Incredible then accepts a mysterious business offer from Mirage to defeat a robot, lies to his wife, and goes on with the assignment.
He was struggling to accept a normal life for his family and giving up his superhero glory days. It is kind of depressing seeing a once larger than life figure try to hold on to the past, then seeing the joy and hope in the things he has already (but he luckily learns this lesson in the end!)
Another underlying theme I caught this time around is infidelity. Now, Mr. Incredible never cheated, but when we have that scene where Mrs. Incredible is asked by Edna if she knows where her husband is, there is a strong undertone that she probably thinks he cheated.
For a children’s movie, they could not outright say that, but if you listen to the tone of Edna’s voice, the music, and the expressions, you could understand what she was really asking. It was also just another example of great directing on this amazing animation.
One of the other observations of "The Incredibles" is that it was a really dark film, considering what Pixar had produced before. A few instances of this dark tone was the character Buddy, or later known as Syndrome. He was Mr. Incredible’s number one fan, and after he shrugged Buddy off saying the famous lines, “Fly home Buddy, I work alone,” Buddy felt betrayed by the one person who he truly looked up to, and then vowed to virtually kill all the superheroes. That is pretty dark revenge.
He wanted to break down and destroy his only idol. You cannot help but feel sympathy for Buddy and the deep hurt he had, but you can also fear him because of the drastic actions he took torture Mr. Incredible.
But after all of those observations, the film is still one of the most shining accomplishments of Pixar studios. I am also really excited for the sequel.
