(by Cholan Raje)
I feel like I’m a film buff. I like thinking about films, talking about films, and above all, I frequent this blog– full of men and women at least 20 years older than me, with eloquent English that sounds like the result of them probably reading way more books than I do. Telling my friends I read this blog for fun makes me feel like Francis Ford Coppola– I have no idea who Francis is, but I’ve heard his name come up in discussions, and he sounds like a smart guy who likes movies. Like me, hopefully.
But the embarrassing secret that stops me from calling myself a “film buff” in public is my disdain for art films. I tried to get through The Godfather, but everything after the opening monologue felt like it was stretched to torture me. I finished watching Moonlight, only to feel that the movie was too ambiguous to justify its existence.
I consider the products of Pixar’s glory days (Toy Story to Toy Story 3) to have the status most would assign to art films. Yes, the fact that I grew up with Pixar does make me biased, but even looking at their films now, one can see how they manage to pack in intelligent, open-to-interpretation stories without, unlike art films, wasting time (probably because wasting time would piss off the animators). And I can’t explain this to adults because of course, Pixar films are animated, which means they must be FOR KIDS. The most open-minded adults I know are willing to grant that there’s stuff within them for adults to chew on too, but they still can’t agree that these aren’t mainly for 10-year-olds.
And this stigma is what renders films like The Incredibles unnoticed.
A film’s audience, in my opinion, is determined not by who the film marketed to, but what the film’s messages are. And The Incredibles has two messages, beautifully summarized by the argument scene between its protagonists, Bob and Helen Parr (known by the superhero identities of Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl, respectively).
After superheroes are outlawed in response to the anti-superhero sentiment of an ungrateful public, Bob and Helen are forced to live as mere civilians, suppressing every desire of theirs’ and their kids to use their powers. Helen, despite faintly missing her superhero days, adjusts. She displays an overall willingness to stop herself and her family from using their powers because she believes that keeping her family unified, and thus hiding from the law, matters above all.
But Bob can’t get on board with her. “Hiding from the law” requires him to play bystander to people he could’ve saved, and the trauma entailing that recedes his hairline and bestows him with a gut. His voice diminishes from one of confidence to one that comes out in mere mumbles. Bob devotes every slit of free time he gets to saving the few he can. The argument scene begins when he comes home after lying to Helen that he was going out bowling, when he was really saving people from a burning building. Helen discovers the lie, leading to a verbal clash between their ideologies.
At a first glance, Helen appears to be the one in the right. It’s easy to buy the idea that the Parrs should just get over the fact that they can’t use their powers and hide from the law, because going that route is what’s safest for them. When we’re confronted with a trade-off between safety and liberty, most of us tend to maximize safety because we’re short-term thinkers, and compromising liberty for safety doesn’t seem like a big deal in the short term. But it’s only when you think about the movie that you realize Bob has a point too. In the long term, being deprived of the liberty to be yourself may render you too unhappy to appreciate maximized safety. And The Incredibles shows us this. While the Parrs spend the first half of the film together, as per Helen’s wishes, they never appear happy to be together because they lack the liberty to express themselves, i.e., use their powers. Dash always appears mildly depressed because he can’t show off his super speed to his schoolmates. Violet bursts out “We act normal, Mom, I wanna be normal!” Bob constantly zones out from his family (mentally, if not always physically), and Helen herself, despite appearing the most content out of all of them, looks exhausted when her children remind her of the liberty they lack.
So who wins the argument? Bob? Helen? The Incredibles revolves around this seemingly insignificant argument scene to conclude that both of them are right. Bob’s character arc revolves around him realizing that Helen is right when she says he can’t use his desire to save people as an excuse to distance himself from his family– the film makes this arc pretty clear, so I don’t think I need to explain it here.
But Helen’s character arc is far less visible, and it revolves around her realizing that Bob is right when he states that the Parrs can’t deny who they are. After working so long and so hard to pretend her family is “normal,” Helen is forced to tell Violet and Dash to use their powers to survive on Syndrome’s island. She’s forced to use her own powers to find her husband. And it’s only when the Parr family reunites on the island after running on water, turning invisible, breaking through walls and stretching through doors– that Helen sees her family express happiness. She realizes that to live, rather than merely survive, she can’t force her family to be “normal,” and she allows her children and herself to fight crime with Bob by the end of the film.
The film’s reliance on the argument scene is what makes it a film for teenagers and adults. Young children are simply too young to understand what the argument scene’s about. When I watched this film at the age of 7, I thought Helen was yelling at Bob for taking a slice of cake from their kitchen counter– according to YouTube comment sections, most kids who watched the film thought the same. The themes of the argument scene– about sticking with your family and not feeling discouraged to express your talents– are aimed at teenagers and adults. Young children lack the freedom and knowledge of the outside world that could cause them to distance themselves from their family, and they lack the sense of concern that would cause them to hide their talents to please a uniformitarian society.
People praise The Incredibles for its “cool action scenes,” but these scenes are merely icing on the cake. The cake, i.e., what lifts up the icing and stops the dish from merely being empty, forgettable-by-itself icing, is the themes of the argument scene.
Take the “cool action scene” where Mr. Incredible gets captured by Syndrome. A bunch of objects that look like tapioca balls are shot onto Mr. Incredible until he ends up stuck on the floor, despite his best attempts to escape. The cake lifting up this icing is the fact that Mr. Incredible got captured because Helen wasn’t able to find him, and activated a homing device to decipher his location. In other words, after being off the job for 17 years, Mr. Incredible ended up failing in his duties as a superhero not because his superhero abilities have diminished, but because he’s a lousy family man. Because he’s failed, as Helen has warned him, to keep the family united. By serving as the driver of the action-packed second half and the drama-based first half (which mainly revolves around Bob struggling with civilian life to keep his family united), the argument scene is what defines The Incredibles. Young children are too young to understand the argument scene, and by missing out on it, they make it very clear that the film is not for them.
Despite having a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, this film still feels grossly underrated. When people see Pixar as a “kids studio” and watch Pixar films to “awaken their inner child,” it’s understandable that they feel the need to place this movie behind Up and Finding Nemo when it is the only Pixar film (I haven’t watched Soul, so correct me if I’m wrong) that refuses to awaken anyone’s inner child and instead treats its entire audience like adults.
brangan
May 2, 2021
Thank you for this piece, Cholan Raje. Two things I want to say here.
It’s perfectly okay NOT to like certain films that are considered “great” (whether they are art films or mainstream films or whatever). And vice versa. If you love a film — even if the world hates it — shout it out from the rooftops.
After all, it is YOUR inner consciousness that is processing the film. No one has any right to argue with your like/dislike.
But I would disagree about what you call the “stigma” around the INCREDIBLES. For me, it is a truly great film (in terms of writing, I far prefer it to WALL-E) — and I think it is rated very highly by many adults, even critics.
Not sure where you got this idea people “looked down” on this particular film!
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anonymousviolin20
May 2, 2021
Great piece!
I have also noticed the stigma against the animation medium in general, at least with Indian adults/parents, and the immediate equation of animation with children.
Personally, I think the way to help people realize that animation doesn’t mean “for kids” is just to create Indian animated TV shows that deal with more adult themes. There’s a plethora of American content like this, including the Simpsons, Family Guy, and Bojack Horseman. I don’t see why something like this can’t be made in Hindi/Tamil/Telugu/etc.
P. S.
The Incredibles is also one of my top 5 Pixar films.
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Cholan Raje
May 2, 2021
@brangan Thanks for posting my piece. When I talk about the “stigma” against The Incredibles, I’m not talking about people viewing the film as bad. I’m really talking about people refusing to see the film as one that isn’t aimed for kids solely because it’s a Pixar product.
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Satya
May 2, 2021
I tried to get through The Godfather, but everything after the opening monologue felt like it was stretched to torture me.
I have been there too. But it became better towards the end, esp. the garroting scene. And I am still in my 20s 🙂
But I don’t think Incredibles is underrated. And if you think about it, movies written for kids can be enjoyed by adults too equally. Like the Harry Potter films and the MCU’s Spider Man: Homecoming.
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Cholan Raje
May 2, 2021
@Satya True that. When I say the Incredibles is underrated, though, what I really mean is that it’d be rated even higher by the general population if its themes and the drama of the first half earned more recognition. As things stand, a fair amount of people who see this film as one that only gets “fun” towards its second half. Most recognitions of the film’s subtext typically go as far as Bob realizing the worth of his family, when there’s so much more to the film– Elastigirl’s arc, how Bob’s inability to set priorities is shown for mild laughs but slowly takes center stage– when one examines the film in depth, every part of its story clicks within its themes so beautifully that I’m confident it’d be more acclaimed if people got over the fact that its from Pixar.
I’d argue that The Incredibles isn’t a kids movie. Once again, that argument scene is what the entire film lies on. You also wouldn’t expect a kid to understand the significance of or be entertained by the first half’s many adult-oriented scenes, like the ones with Bob at work.
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KayKay
May 2, 2021
My counter argument to any snide put down of animated movies as juvenile:
One of the most searing indictments of Celebrity Culture and Sexual Harassment and poignant examinations of Addiction, Mental Health and Depression is a 6 season animated show where humans co-exist with anthropomorphic animals and stars a sardonic talking horse.
BoJack Horseman is magnificent. It’s on Netflix and I urge everyone to see it. Don’t let the description above put you off. It is also very funny.
And The Incredibles is all kinds of awesome! The only PIXAR movie I have re-watched more times than I care to remember.
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Madan
May 3, 2021
While I haven’t watched Incredibles and generally never got into the Toy Story/Pixar style of drawing cartoons (which is a purely taste oriented thing and nothing to do with the quality of movies), I too wasn’t aware that there exists a contingent that disdains animated films.
The original Jungle Book movie had simply delightful wit with a nice Fab Four reference via the vultures (which has deeper cultural implications that the movie avoided elaborating on). That the vultures empathize with Mowgli, befriend him but end up alerting Shere Khan to his presence and almost completely abandon Mowgli to his fate until Baloo’s valour shames them into helping their ‘friend’.
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Spandana Vaidyula
May 3, 2021
+1 for BoJack Horseman. I’m glad this show exists. It is hilarious and depressing and I can’t stop thinking about it. Grossly underrated. The writing and performances would have been awards favorites if it wasn’t animation, but we would have missed out on the strikingly rich visuals. It makes best use of animated medium, while telling an incredibly profound story. Highly recommended.
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Rahini David
June 11, 2021
I kept away from this thread assuming there would be spoilers for Incredibles 2.
I guess I need not have bothered.
Is there a certain amount of disdain for animation? Well yes, there is. And that is Ok.
In the Booktube channels I watch, many complain that there is purportedly a disdain towards fantasy genre. Or towards Young Adult fiction. Or towards Romance novels. Or non-fiction. Or Classics. Depends on whom you ask.
I have certainly faced this and have certainly done this myself.
When I was in college, I saw a lecturer reading Huckleberry Finn and as an 18 year old thought, “Isn’t that Tom Sawyer’s sequel? When is she going to grow up?”. Now Huck Finn is in my TBR list for the apparent critical reception it seems to have even now.
Once a 20+ girl asked why I read P.G.Wodehouse still. Am I a Kutty baby? I asked her if she had read the author. “Oh, of course.” She had read all of this type books when she was so kutty. She is now a big girl. I certainly didn’t waste any breath defending Plum. Those who adore Plum can adore him and the others can wallow in ignorance. Not at all my problem.
Amar Chitra Katha still does a spectacular job telling stories. Those who think they have outgrown ACK should absolutely give it another shot.
But then again, can we sample everything that we have not sampled? I have heard high praise for Avatar the last air-bender. I do not have the time to consume all media that I hear high praise for. So I decide to let go of any desire to watch Avatar or read Cosmere.
BTW, “Soul” was spectacular and I have high hopes for “Luca”.
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Venky Ramachandran
June 14, 2021
If there is one master’s work that will change the way you see animation forever, it has to be Hayao Miyazaki. I watched all of his movies in Netflix during the pandemic. Literally everything. In my gravest times, his work was the balm of the soul. Someday, I hope to write a long essay here about his sheer genius work.
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krishikari
June 14, 2021
There is a Japanese anime I really enjoyed even though animation and anime is not my go-to form of entertainment. It’s called Arrgretsuko and it’s about office workers who are represented by various animals. The protagonist is mild mannered red panda who indulges in occasional feminist rages in karaoke bars. It’s wild.
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krishikari
June 14, 2021
*Aggretsuko!
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Venky Ramachandran
June 15, 2021
@Krishikari I haven’t made up my mind to watch anything other than Hayao Miyazaki. Will check this sometime. Miyazaki also uses a lot of animals as spirits of humans. He loves pigs, and brings a fascinating Shintoism angle to it.
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Rahini David
June 19, 2021
SPOILERS FOR PIXAR’s LUCA ( in second para )
I am glad I watched Luca without waiting for reviews. At first it seemed that it was a kind of a cross-between Little Mermaid and Finding Nemo. Not that there is nothing wrong with it but it did not seem so magical as Coco’s afterlife land or Riley’s brain’s mission-control room in Inside Out or the in-the-zone world in Soul. I was certainly not disappointed. But I felt it missed something. I then realized that I was the one missing something. It took me some 12 hours to figure it out. But now it is clear
Luca is a very gay story. It is gay in that sweet way that people who are not opposed to it will see it as the relationship of a gay boy and a bi-sexual boy and those who do have a problem with it can just see a regular story. After I cottoned on, I searched Google and it turns out that I was right. This is splendid. It was like unearthing some precious gem. They have hidden it below layers but that is to be expected. And it is a June release.
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Cholan Raje
July 8, 2021
Rahini David: You’re comparing disdain for genres and series (fantasy, Huckleberry Finn, etc.), with disdain for animation, which is a medium. We can’t and shouldn’t expect everyone to sample something, but I think the only thing you require to understand that a medium isn’t restricted to a certain audience is (not trying to sound condescending) common sense.
I liked certain parts of Soul and thought it was easily Pixar’s best looking film to date, but my big problem was that they spent so much time on the film’s concepts that they left little time for its actual story. All Pixar films have surreal premises, but those tend to take little time to explain (toys can talk, superheroes banned, Riley’s emotions as people, etc.), allowing us to still spend the bulk of our time seeing how the characters develop and face conflict. Soul’s concepts are so bulky and raise so many questions (lost souls, people getting their personalities before birth) that they overshadow and take time from the legitimately interesting plots revolving around Joe’s life.
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rsylviana
August 19, 2021
@KayKay: I’ve started binging BoJack Horseman based on your recommendation and its been an absolute delight ! Supremely funny with the right mix of philosophy, sarcasm and cynicism. Thanks much !
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Rahini David
August 20, 2021
Cholan: Sorry, I had missed the comment.
Well, yes I can see that it is common sense to understand that a medium isn’t restricted to a certain audience. But they are the ones missing out. People are not going to keep someone else from sampling a medium like animation. They would only refuse to participate themselves. That can make us somewhat lonely. mmm. But so what?
Would that not apply even to, say, television soap operas. Most of us avoid them like a scalded cat. But there are probably some wonderful tv serial that you and I are avoiding like the plague. People who don’t watch serials are probably misjudging the taste of those who do watch it. Same with web series.
I am a staunch animation lover. I would ALWAYS prioritize an animated movie over a live-action movie. That is also bias in a way.
Also bias against animation seems like a very middle-aged thing. Do young people have this bias?
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