Incredibly Long
Movie: The Incredibles
Year: 2004
Director: Brad Bird
Writer: Brad Bird
My Take: Let me start by saying I'm a sucker for Pixar entertainment. Monsters, Inc. may be my favorite animated feature of all time. I thoroughly enjoyed A Bug's Life, Toy Story, and Finding Nemo. Even the shorts can be really good. I've been looking forward to The Incredibles since I first saw a teaser trailer late last year.
That's why I was so disappointed when I left the theater and did not feel the magic I'd felt with several earlier Pixar films. I think a big part of this was that the film felt overly long (1 hr, 55 minutes). That's a long run-time for an animated feature. The kids around me in the 1,000 seat theater got antsy several times. It was obvious which parts were not holding the children, because they were the parts that weren't holding me either.
The premise was great, the characters were a lot of fun, the dialogue was witty, and the theme was spot on. But there was something missing. I think that something was the sharpness of previous Pixar efforts when it comes to story telling. In the other films I've seen from Pixar there has always been an ever escalating risk in the threat to the character achieving their goals. Nowhere is this better exemplified than in Nemo and Monsters Inc. Things don't get easier for Nemo, they get harder. It doesn't get easier for Mike and Sully to return the little girl, it gets harder.
It's not exactly that things get easier for the Incredible family over the course of the film, but their efforts seem episodic - in and out of the bad guy's lair, eventually returning (without much effort) to civilization for the final showdown. Here in the final showdown a supporting character who hasn't been seen in over an hour, shows up to play a critical role in their battle. To me this film could have been so much better with some judicious revising of the story. Perhaps they'll get the sequel right. Afterall, Toy Story 2 was arguably better than the original.
The Verdict: This film was incredibly entertaining, but ultimately disappointing. If that makes any sense at all.
Year: 2004
Director: Brad Bird
Writer: Brad Bird
My Take: Let me start by saying I'm a sucker for Pixar entertainment. Monsters, Inc. may be my favorite animated feature of all time. I thoroughly enjoyed A Bug's Life, Toy Story, and Finding Nemo. Even the shorts can be really good. I've been looking forward to The Incredibles since I first saw a teaser trailer late last year.
That's why I was so disappointed when I left the theater and did not feel the magic I'd felt with several earlier Pixar films. I think a big part of this was that the film felt overly long (1 hr, 55 minutes). That's a long run-time for an animated feature. The kids around me in the 1,000 seat theater got antsy several times. It was obvious which parts were not holding the children, because they were the parts that weren't holding me either.
The premise was great, the characters were a lot of fun, the dialogue was witty, and the theme was spot on. But there was something missing. I think that something was the sharpness of previous Pixar efforts when it comes to story telling. In the other films I've seen from Pixar there has always been an ever escalating risk in the threat to the character achieving their goals. Nowhere is this better exemplified than in Nemo and Monsters Inc. Things don't get easier for Nemo, they get harder. It doesn't get easier for Mike and Sully to return the little girl, it gets harder.
It's not exactly that things get easier for the Incredible family over the course of the film, but their efforts seem episodic - in and out of the bad guy's lair, eventually returning (without much effort) to civilization for the final showdown. Here in the final showdown a supporting character who hasn't been seen in over an hour, shows up to play a critical role in their battle. To me this film could have been so much better with some judicious revising of the story. Perhaps they'll get the sequel right. Afterall, Toy Story 2 was arguably better than the original.
The Verdict: This film was incredibly entertaining, but ultimately disappointing. If that makes any sense at all.
posted by Hairy Lime at 5:15 PM
1 Comments:
I thought it could have been shorter as well and still had the same content. Maybe by about a half hour. But I absolutely loved it!
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