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“No matter how many times you save the world, it always manages to get back in jeopardy again! I feel like the maid; ‘I just cleaned up this place! Can’t you keep it clean for ten minutes!’”

-Mr. Incredible

What is the word I am looking for here. The Incredibles is…fantastic superb as yes, incredible! To be honest, I was a little bit apprehensive about this latest installment from Pixar. I have loved all the others so much that I was afraid they wouldn’t be able to sustain this string of hits for much longer. Needless to say, my worries were groundless and The Incredibles does not fail to entertain.

The movie, in case you live in a cave and have not heard what the basic premise is about, is about a family of superheroes. They, as well as all superheroes, have been forced to hide themselves and give up heroing after a string of lawsuits turned the public against them. Mr. Incredible now has a job as an insurance claims adjuster. Stuck in his tiny (and compared to him, it is really tiny) cubicle at a job that he despises with a diminutive boss who makes life miserable for him. Elastigirl, Mr. Incredible’s wife, is now a homemaker raising their three children.

Mr. Incredible, or Bob as he is known now, longs to relive his glory days as a super hero. He gets this chance when a mysterious organization calls upon him to help them out. Now he’s once again leading a double life, hiding his super-life from his family this time. But the mysterious organization is run by Syndrome, once a fan of Mr. Incredible, he now wants to destroy him. Once he gets into trouble it is up to his family to help him out and to foil the plans of the evil Syndrome.

The film offers just about anything you would want from a Pixar classic. The dialogue is witty and often hilarious. The characters are memorable and well “acted.” You will laugh at Dash and his boundless energy, sympathize with Violet and her teenage angst and soul searching, empathize with Bob and Helen (Elastigirl) as they adjust to mundane suburbia and living normal lives, and you will root for the good guys to triumph over evil. The effects are spectacular, from explosions to water/lava and even the dust from impacts and Dashes lightning feet, they all seem so perfect. And the story is simply great. Like Finding Nemo, the overall story is fairly predictable: retired superhero relives glory days, gets trapped by evil genius, family of superheroes goes to save him, then they must save the world. The real joy comes in seeing how this all fits together and how they deal with the situations they encounter.

One of the smarter things that Pixar was to use human character but still maintain a cartoon style. I never really liked the way that movies like Shrek tried to do humans. Fiona was great and they did a really good job with here, but all the other human characters didn’t really work for me (unless they were somewhat cartoonish like Lord Farquad). There was something missing that made them seem too fake, the movements never seemed quite right, sort of unnatural. The cartoonish look of The Incredibles was perfect because I was able to accept that this was a cartoon and just enjoy the picture.

That doesn’t mean that they didn’t do a great job on these characters. I was blown away by the detail of these characters. The hair was realistic, very detailed and well done. The fabrics were great, right down to the Lycra? sheen of the fabrics as the characters would walk around in their super-suits. And the movements were perfect, not odd and jittery, but very fluid and natural. Everything seemed so natural and realistic, yet perfectly blended with the cartoonish nature of the film.

This is definitely a must see for everyone with kids or those that are just a kid at heart.