 If movie audiences react to The Incredibles the way critics have, Pixar's unbroken string of hits will remain intact. "They could've called it The Amazings. The Terrifics. or The Unbelievables and still not have been guilty of exaggeration," Joel Siegel remarked on ABC's Good Morning America. Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal elevates that praise, writing that "The Incredibles is the year's best movie so far, and by far; it's hard to see what might still come along to surpass it. Pixar's latest animated feature ... heaps delight on delight until you think you can't take any more without a pleasure break." But A.O. Scott in the New York Times argues that the movie ought to evoke more than hyperbole. "At last, a computer-animated family picture worth arguing with, and about!" he remarks at one point, then, after extolling the film for 90 percent of his review, concludes on a negative note by remarking: "The climax is loud and unimaginative -- a situation cribbed from Spy Kids 2 tricked out with noise and fireballs. This, of course, is what the public demands, and while it may help the movie succeed as large-scale entertainment, it does so at the expense of some of its daring idiosyncrasy. The lesson is sobering, and a little dispiriting. If every movie is required to be spectacular, then no movie really can be." Most of the reviews, however, present undiminished praise for the film. Chris Kaltenbach in the Baltimore Sun writes that director Brad Bird "channels so much creativity, heart and sense of wonder into The Incredibles, it's impossible not to like it, admire it and want to urge everyone to go see it, maybe two or three times." And Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times suggests that the film is likely to become a classic. "Some 60 years ago, the Walt Disney Co., Pixar's current partner, made Pinocchio, still considered a pinnacle of hand-drawn animation," Turan writes. "The Incredibles, a pinnacle of computer art, wants to be a real story in just the same way as that celebrated puppet wanted to be a real boy. The torch between art forms and between generations couldn't be passed in a more fitting, satisfying way." |
