The Incredibles
Friday night, we took the kids to see the new Pixar movie, The Incredibles. What can I say? Another home-run for Pixar. Brett and Grace charged out of the theatre imitating Dash’s incredible speed and speculating about which super powers they wish they could have.
Like each of the previous Pixar films, The Incredibles was absolutely dripping with the lore of its theme: super heros. The story moved in and out of classic super hero staples form the serials of the 1950’s to modern hero and action flicks with equal grace. A particularly fun moment had the villain catching himself as the hero escapes while he is “monologuing”. I find it truly remarkable that Pixar takes so much pride in really getting into the theme for each film. They handled the insect world in A Bug’s Life; the world of toys in the Toy Story films; a world of childhood monsters in Monsters, Inc.; and marine life in Finding Nemo. Each film is an example of Pixar’s ability to completely understand the theme of each film and then to weave a story that is alive with mild satire, humor, and great characters. Not to mention the amazing technical achievements like Sully’s perfectly rendered fur in Monsters, Inc. or the accurately sterile plastic featured in Toy Story. The Incredibles had me marveling at the amazing rendered sheen of the red nylon super suits and the perfectly rendered hair effects.
To me it feels like Pixar’s approach is to choose a subject matter to act as the theme of every film. Then everything else is created to support that theme. The story, characters, art and design, and sound all act to really describe the world of this subject from top to bottom. I think that is a big part of my interest in these film because it is an approach that is very familiar to me as a graphic designer. In my work, I am constantly immersing myself in the world of my clients and their audiences seeking to support a message that is equally strong both visually and textually. As designers, we are taught to create designs were every element is carefully considered work as a whole in communicating the message of the piece. I think Pixar approaches their films in a similar manner.
One more point I’d like to make about Pixar’s films is the superb visual design of the characters. In their first attempt at a film featuring primarily “human” characters, Pixar avoided the pitfall of other studios that have sought to create realistic looking human models and instead has left in just enough style to keep them fun and cute. I don’t think anything that Dreamworks pictures (creators of Shrek) has ever looked at good as the work of Pixar. Their characters tend to be creepy. The characters in The Incredibles are human cartoons that are realistic enough to fit into their environment, but have enough cartoon elements to allow them to really be attractive and emotive. This is a huge factor for me. Compare the characters in The Incredibles to the creepy 3D Tom Hanks in the trailer to the animated The Polar Express. Yikes!