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The
Incredibles
The Polar Express
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The
Incredibles (2004). Starring Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter,
Jason Lee. Directed and written by Brad Bird.
This Pixar CGI
film is a huge amount of fun. Of course, “Pixar” and
“huge amount of fun” are pretty much the same thing,
right?
In the Spider-Man films, Peter Parker doesn't want his
superpowers, but he's been placed in a world that forces him to use
them. He doesn't want to be outside the normal life he sees others
enjoy, but situations arise where he, and only he, can affect the
necessary redress.
The Incredibles have the opposite problem.
They love having super-powers, and they love using them, but
the government (for a variety of reasons) has made it necessary for
them to live in hiding, as ordinary non-super people. Some, like
Elasti-Girl have adapted quite well to the situation and she teaches
her super children Violet and Dash to keep their powers hidden. Both
of them are envious of the baby, Jack-Jack, who (appears) completely
powerless.
Other heroes, like Elasti-Girl's husband, Mr.
Incredible, have a harder time keeping up appearances. Forced to work
in a demeaning job, with a demeaning boss, his efforts to keep his
super strength hidden go to (if you'll pardon the phrase) heroic
levels. Every now and then, he loses his cool, and the family has to
relocate. While he truly loves his wife and children (this cinematic
family is very nuclear, no pun intended), his great secret pleasure
is to listen in on police band radio with one of his ex-super
buddies, and help out the needy in secret. (Both this film and
Spider-Man 2 have a burning building scene.)
Fortunately,
Spider-Man 2 already did the “trying my best to be normal”
and did it very well, so with this film, it shifts to becomes
necessary for the super-heroes to save the world again, as it has
been necessary throughout history. Fortunately, also, the Incredible
family has the power and will to do what they do best. And they go
for it with enthusiasm.
A nice aspect of the title is that it
not only refers to people with extraordinary abilities, but it's also
the “family name” of the main group of superheroes. And,
as noted, these characters have a very strong grasp of family, coming
to each other's aid in a pinch and diverting danger toward themselves
rather than see a family member in peril. It's a very touching
devotion and it's nice to see a family in an animated film (ever
notice how many animated families are missing one parent?) that are
so well behaved toward each other. Even the expected fighting between
Dash and Violet is very brief and serves to make their bonding all
the more touching.
While there are a number of stand-out
scenes, of action, comedy and family togetherness, one of my
favorites combines them all, when Dash (who has super-speed) is
running a race at school. His family encourages him to press on, and
he rockets into the lead, only to hear their alarm as they call to
him to scale back, asking for “a respectable second!”
Well,
the entertainment in this one is second to none (how about that
for a seque?).
I'd say this is one of the very best of 2004,
though of course I only saw a handful of films, so my vote should be
looked at in that regard. If you haven't seen the film (and you
probably have) you should hunt it down like a super-villain, and
prepared to have entertainment
served!
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The Polar Express (2004) Starring Tom
Hanks several times, Mandark. Written by Robert Zemekis and William Broyles, Jr, from
the book by Chris van Allesburg. Directed by Robert Zemekis.
Well,
when I went to see this I had no idea that I was going to see some of
the most spectacular, kinetic action sequences I've ever
encountered.
If you read that and think, In the Polar
Express? Based on the Chris Van Allesburg book?, you'll be having
the same reaction I had.
The book is only a few pages long,
and it's a quiet, wee-hours tale of faith rewarded. Doing a simple
adaptation might, might have yielded a movie twenty minutes
long.
Obviously, we can't have a feature film twenty minutes
long, can we?
So, as an adaptation of the book it's pretty
much a failure (they even change the “hero boy's” Holiday
beliefs just to have some kind of story conflicts). As a
super-powered action ride, it succeeds splendidly.
The design
work is very faithful to the book; some of the scenes look like they
were taken right out of the pages. It's all the chases and runaway
trains and such that really don't belong. Everything has been jacked
up past eleven. There's a page in the book where the kids on the
train are served hot chocolate. That's all it is—a guy in a
chef's hat wheeling a cart through the car. Here, it's been turned
into a singing, dancing, Busby Berkeley spectacular; it's kind of
cool in a way, but it sure isn't The Polar Express.
While I
had fun, it sure makes me wonder what the adapters saw in the
original book that made them want to make it into a movie, and why
they then made this movie. It almost seems as if they were
thinking, say, the drawings in this are cool, let's make a movie
of this before someone else does, but they got bored and started
doodling, and trying to top each other with “Hey, what if--”
scenarios. And all they could come up with were runaway trains.
In
fact, in the book, the journey itself isn't really dwelled on much,
as the book is more illustrated in the boy's simple faith in
Christmas. Here, there are at least three spectacular action scenes,
with the train careening down mountains and slashing across a frozen
lake that's shattering underneath it. They really don't belong in an
adaptation of the book.
Except for the fact that they're
really, really cool. I'd love to see the various
roller-coaster ride sequences spliced together in one big action
reel. I'd probably play that thing for hours. It would make a great
exercise tape. Even now, I can imagine running on the treadmill while
watching that. All the way to the North Pole.
Recommending
this is way, way iffy. On the one hand, it was fun, on the other, it
sure wasn't The Polar Express. If you can forget the latter and
concentrate on the former, you'll probably have as good a time as I
had. If you're more of a purist about these things, I'd recommend
that you go to the bookstore instead and replace your worn-out copy
of the book.