See the Incredibles or Die

Yes, it's been almost two weeks since it came out, but I spend much of my day reading about the sorry state of studio the studio film system and The Incredibles is one of those rare occasions where the goods are delivered.

Imagine back to your Saturday mornings, tuning in to your favorite serial cartoon that was like world unto its own -- something you felt that only you could understand completely. Now imagine that cartoon being blown up into a full-scale movie with all your favorite elements there. This is the Incredibles.

The movie is near perfect from start to finish and I dare you to say you were at all bored while watching.

Brad Bird is a genius and Pixar is where geniuses work. If you haven't seen the Incredibles yet, first go to your video store and rent The Iron Giant (or borrow it from me). Then, a day or two after that work of art has sat in your brain, making you dream of fantastic feelings from your imagination, go see the Incredibles.

It' s pretty amazing how live-action movies with budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars (with probably a third of that budget going to the live talent) fail to capture whatever the director is striving for when putting the screenwriter's words on film. It's also pretty amazing, but oh so simple that an animated film can accomplish all this and speak to pretty much anybody older than the age of 4.

You can sneer and say it's just a dumb cartoon for kids, but then again, you can be a real dick too.