Skip to content
Helen M Jerome reviews
Superhero-Sized 2-Disc Collector’s Edition
- Cert:
- Cat.no: D881558
- Running time: 115 minutes
- Year: 2004
- Pressing: 2005
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 20 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 EX
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English, English for the hearing impaired, Hindi
- Widescreen: 2.39:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £22.99
- Extras: Making-Of, Commentaries, Featurettes and Shorts, Jack-Jack Attack exclusive short film, deleted scenes, alternate opening, character interviews, Incredi-blunders outtakes, Top Secret files on Superheroes.
Director:
- Brad Bird
(The Incredibles, Iron Giant, TV: Amazing Stories, The Simpsons)
The Incredibles: 
Ultimate Pixar Collection:
Cast:
- Bob Parr/Mr. Incredible: Craig T. Nelson
Helen Parr/Elastigirl: Holly Hunter
Lucius Best/Frozone: Samuel L. Jackson
Buddy Pine/Syndrome: Jason Lee
Violet Parr: Sarah Vowell
Dashiell ‘Dash’ Parr: Spencer Fox
Jack Jack Parr: Eli Fucile, Maeve Andrews
Mirage: Elizabeth Pena
Gilbert Huph: Wallace Shawn
Edna Mode: Brad Bird
Underminer: John Ratzenberger
When you take a director like Brad Bird, whose CV includes The Iron Giant and The Simpsons, you know that The Incredibles is going to be a bit different from most of its Pixar predecessors.
You can, however, relax in the knowledge that the visuals are as gorgeous as ever and the quality of animation unsurpassed. These are givens – it even won the Oscar for Best Animated Film. But Bird’s quirky, dark worldview also brings something new to the franchise, a touch of Cold War paranoia, breathtaking action set-pieces, genuine jeopardy and of course, he makes this Pixar¹s first computer-generated animation with all human characters.
Viewers and critics no longer dismiss these animated features as mere cartoons, but this truly is a dramatic and comic treat from prologue and “Marvel”-ous first act to final, destructive denouement.
Okay, so what’s the story? Basically, it’s the rise and fall and rise – and potential end of a crime-fighting superhero and his family. Mr Incredible (Craig T Nelson) and his unfeasibly-longlimbed fiance Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), along with the likes of Frozone (Samuel L Jackson) once ruled the roost and were feted as superheroes in their post-war urban environment. But when the people they save turn against them, they are forced into permanent hiding in a witness protection programme. In other words, they must act normally and become known as Mr and Mrs Bob and Helen Parr, and they throw themselves into family life, bringing up three children, Violet, Dash and baby Jack Jack in suburbia.
Meanwhile Bob clock-watches and feels morally compromised in his deadly dull job as an insurance salesman until he’s (wait for it!) lured out of his enforced retirement one last time and – with the help of his family – ends up facing his nemesis, the fantastically vengeful villain Syndrome. And this is where the bulk of the incredible action occurs, taking in his foe¹s futuristic island hideaway, some peril in the jungle and underwater, ending up in a terrorised cityscape.
The only cautionary note for families is that tiny tots might find the tone a tad grown-up and occasionally scary but everyone else will have a ball.
And the extras on this two-disc set are also extraordinarily good – throwing more light on the feature itself, adding insight into the characters’ back stories and presenting exclusive shorts. Incredibly highly recommended.
PICTURE
SOUND
EXTRAS
OVERALL 
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.