To close out the my final blog post (and college semester, too), I am so happy to talk about one of my all-time favorite Disney films:
The Incredibles.
The number of times I have seen this movie: unimaginable. The plot = exhilarating. The comedy = hilarious. Just everything about this film = perfect. If you haven't seen The Incredibles, then I honestly feel sorry for you and immediately urge you to watch it, no matter what. I believe this film is one of the best animated movies of all-time, so please, take the time to watch or reminisce it!
In fact, if you weren't aware, this film was such a trademark in the animation industry that the animation team responsible for the movie was tasked with animating an all-human cast, which required creating brand new technology to animate detailed human anatomy, clothing, and realistic skin and hair.
Just to persuade you even more to watch this movie, The Incredibles received acclaim from critics and audiences, and is frequently considered to be one of the greatest superhero movies of all time (just like I said).
Let's dive right in for the last time... Set in a fictitious version of the 1960s, public opinion turns against superheroes due to the collateral damage caused by their crime-fighting. After several lawsuits, the government initiates the Superhero Relocation Program, which forces "supers" to permanently adhere to their secret identities and abandon their exploits.
Fifteen years later, Bob and Helen Parr—formerly known as Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl (power coupleee)—and their children, Violet, Dash, and baby Jack-Jack, are a suburban family living in Metroville. Although he loves his family, Bob resents the mundanity of his suburban lifestyle and white-collar job as an insurance adjuster (which is understandable). Together with his best friend, Lucius Best, formerly known as Frozone, Bob occasionally relives "the glory days" by moonlighting as a vigilante.
One day, after his supervisor, Gilbert Huph, prevents him from stopping a mugging, Bob loses his temper and injures him, resulting in Bob's dismissal. I meannn, it kind of makes sense because of his superhero instincts and the urge to help others, but the violence is a little much, even for a kids movie.
Regardless, returning home, Bob receives a message from a woman called Mirage, who gives him a paying mission to destroy a savage, tripod-like robot, the Omnidroid, on the remote island of Nomanisan. After (somewhat) fitting into his old superhero suit, Bob battles and disables the robot by tricking it into ripping out its own power source.
Bob finds the action and higher pay rejuvenating - definitely not like his old job as an insurance adjuster. He improves his relationship with his family and begins rigorous physical training to get back in shape while awaiting another assignment from Mirage over the next two months. However, finding a tear in his super suit, he visits superhero costume designer, Edna Mode (an ICON), to have it mended. Assuming that Helen knows what Bob is doing, Edna also makes suits for the rest of the family, much to Helen's surprise.
Setting out for Nomanisan once again, Bob discovers Mirage is working for Buddy Pine, a disaffected former fan whom he had rejected years ago as his aspiring sidekick, "Incrediboy." Buddy has now become a ruthless inventor and wealthy arms dealer. Having adopted the alias Syndrome, he has been perfecting the Omnidroid by hiring different superheroes to fight it, killing them in the process. Syndrome intends to send the perfected Omnidroid to Metroville, where he will secretly manipulate its controls to defeat it in public, becoming a "hero" himself. He then plans to sell his inventions, intent on having countless individuals with technology-based superpowers. Yikes. Talk about someone who can't handle rejection.
On the other hand, Helen visits Edna and learns what Bob has been up to. She activates a beacon Edna built into the suits to find Bob, inadvertently causing him to be captured while infiltrating Syndrome's base. Oops!
To save Bob and force him to come home, Helen borrows a private plane to travel to Nomanisan. And THIS scene is probably one of my favorites in the entire movie. She then finds out that Violet and Dash have snuck onto the plane, leaving Jack-Jack with babysitter, Kari. Helen's radio transmissions are picked up by Syndrome without her acknowledgement, who sends anti-aircraft missiles to shoot her down. The plane is destroyed, and Bob believes they were killed but in reality, Helen and the kids survive and use their powers to reach the island
Diving back into her superhero tendencies, Helen infiltrates the base and discovers Syndrome's plan. While Bob is visibly upset about his believed death of Helen and the kids, Syndrome shows disinterest when Bob captures Mirage and threatens her life, but Syndrome doesn't care about that either. Discontented, Mirage releases Bob as a result and informs him of his family's survival. Helen arrives, finds Bob, and they race off to find their children, who ran away from their hiding spot. Syndrome's guards chase Dash and Violet, who fend them off with their powers before reuniting with their parents. Syndrome captures them all, leaving the family imprisoned while he follows the rocket transporting the Omnidroid to Metroville.
The Parrs escape to Metroville in another rocket with Mirage's help. Due to its advanced artificial intelligence, the Omnidroid recognizes Syndrome as a threat to itself, believing him to be a real superhero, and shoots off the remote control on Syndrome's wrist, making him incapable of controlling it and knocking him unconscious. The Parrs and Lucius as Frozone fight the Omnidroid together. Helen acquires the remote control, allowing Bob to use one of the robot's claws to destroy its power source, just like the first time.
After their victory and returning home, the Parrs find Syndrome again, but who plans to kidnap Jack-Jack and raise him as his own sidekick out of revenge. That's just messed up, honestly. As Syndrome flies up toward his jet, Jack-Jack's own shapeshifting superpowers manifest, which were undiscovered before, and he escapes Syndrome in midair. In a sudden thought, Bob throws Helen into the air to catch Jack-Jack as she parachutes down, and Bob also throws his car at Syndrome's plane as he boards it. Unfortunately, Syndrome is then sucked into the jet's turbine by his own cape and the plane explodes, the wreckage destroying the Parrs house. But, the family is safe and together once again.
And as one of the biggest cliff-hangers in cinematic history, the Parrs witness the arrival of another supervillain called the Underminer three months later. They don their superhero masks, ready to face the new threat together as a family... and the film ends, only to return to theaters right where it left off in
The Incredibles 2, which was released 14 years after the original.
Again, please go out and see this movie if you haven't. And if you are just as much of a fan as I am, then watch this movie again (and the sequel, if you want - it's also pretty good).
Thanks again for reading my blogs, and I hope to see you all at some point in the future!
- Mya Trager
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