The Incredibles: my original review, annotated

Still warm from the Thanksgiving dinner I enjoyed at my brother’s home just outside of Portland, Oregon yesterday, I’m thinking a lot about family.

In particular, I’m thinking a lot about my father, who passed away this week after grueling struggle with brain cancer. Over the past 48 hours, I’ve been browsing through photographs of his life, amazed again by his faithfulness to his family for more than half a century. If he had super-powers, they would have something to do with his devotion to the concept of Christian education, or his love of woodworking. (My home in Seattle is full of beautiful bookshelves and writing desks that he built.) But he struggled to find long-term jobs that were related to his passions, and he worked year after year at jobs that were not his ideal kinds of work just to go on providing for his family.

So, when I realized today that I missed the 20th anniversary of The Incredibles earlier this month, I immediately thought of Bob Parr sitting hunched over his desk at an insurance company, wishing he could be back out saving the world as a superhero.

Looking back at my original review of The Incredibles. I can say with confidence that it’s one of my ten favorite family films of the last 20 years. In November 2004, Pixar filmmakers were at the peak of their super-powers, and the prospect of a collaboration with Brad Bird, the master of The Iron Giant seemed almost too good to be true. I was headed into my third year as a film columnist and critic for Christianity Today, and I was delighted to get the assignment to review the film.

Here, in its entirety, is my original review (first published at Christianity Today) on November 5, 2004. Since a lot has happened since then, and I’d like to believe I’ve become a better writer, I’m reposting it here with a few small revisions and annotations.

This one’s for you, Dad. You may not have felt like it, but those of us paying attention could see the superhero in you.