Heh. I saw it last night, too, and you beat me to posting about it. Damn you Europeans and your five hours aheadedness.

The parsing for political or social meaning imputed to the movie has already been done by others, and he even got a response from someone at Pixar who has let it all go to his head:

I actually work for Pixar, and worked on the movie. Regarding the recent mail you received as to whether The Incredibles is an attack on affirmative action, I can tell you that, for most of us here at Pixar, we are all rather amused at the various political readings given to the film by various critics. Paging through the reviews on rottentomatoes.com, we were quite surprised to find out that the film we all worked on was pro-Bush, anti-Bush, post-9/11, pre-9/11, making a case for tort reform, indicting corporate war profiteering, and almost every other conceivable political stance.

Maybe this was inevitable, opening, as it did, just after an election of unprecedented emotional involvement. But the truth of it is, anyone at all who sees some grand political message in this film is saying much more about their viewpoint than the intent of a film that, at its heart, is really about familial relationships, and the constant clamor of work and life that pulls us away from them. I suppose we should be grateful. I remember one of my college literature professors telling me that great art allows viewers or readers to interpret it in a way that suits them, regardless of the intent of the artist. These wide and wildly varying interpretations of a cartoon just point out what a complex, compelling piece of storytelling it is. And to us, the filmmakers, that's really the ultimate compliment.

What I find more interesting in the movie is a trend that it picked up from another favorite of mine, Robert Rodriguez's Spy Kids: superhero families. As these films aren't aimed just at children, could part of their popularity be that boomers (that glorious "me generation" the world revolves around) identify with the pressures of raising a family while still trying to be the coolest ever (while the rest of us are a bunch of squares)?

If so, does this mean after they start retiring, we'll see incredibly animated movies about superheroes in retirment homes? Will the Flash use his speed to get a good table at the 3pm early bird special at the Del Boca Vista? Will Superman use his X-Ray vision to cheat at canasta? Will Lex Luthor become Condo Association president by banishing the current one to another dimention? The mind truly boggles.

Give up the crush, Stefan. She's married and she's evil, too.

Who, Elastigirl? My mother? Wonkette is not evil, she's naughty.

Choire is naughty. Ana Marie is demon spawn.

She's got red hair. That clinches it right there: red headed women are hellions, red headed men are nancy boys.

(If you have to ask your mother is probably evil, too. but at least she doesn't rat you out on video for what you did when you were 16. Though in your case it would probably something normal, like masturbation.)

I saw the incredibles a few hours ago. I loved it! The humor is great (I and the whole audience laughed a lot). The tale has a number of unexpected turns, so it was interesting to the end. I recommend it as excellent entertainment. Note: It might scare children not mature enough to follow the story.

Moreover, I did not feel manipulated leftward by it, as is the case for many Hollywood productions.

There is lots of violence, but it is of the kind that does not make you, or your children, feel less safe when you go home after the movie.

The only really critical social message I got was its negative portrayal of Insurance companies, which completely resonates with my personal experience with them.

Sage1

Not Randian at all - almost the opposite of Randian, because it indicates that service to the common man is a prerequisite for the gifted to find happiness and fulfillment. Ayn Rand would have coughed up her remaining lung if she'd been forced to watch The Incredibles. The movie is more a Kantian/Maslowian fusion cookie (fulfill yourself through self-sacrifice) with a Nietzschean/Spencerian crunchy coating (the best rise to the top) and an Emersonian transcendentalist chewy middle.

Rand is to some extent derivative of Nietzsche but her ethics are meant to be universal - her novels include lesser mortals, mere mechanics, railroad workers, electricians and even hanger-ons who willingly take their place in a Randian meritocratic hierarchy. Nietzsche, on the other hand, holds that the superman transcends common morality. It is in true Nietzschean fashion, then, that Mr. Incredible kills numerous people in the film who are "bad" within Incredible's system of ethics. Syndrome, on the other hand, farms out his killings to third parties, indicative of a squeamishness that is perhaps the shameful remnant of bourgeois morality. Nietzsche would consider it inevitable that Syndrome would eventually fall to Mr. Incredible, who embraces his role as the superman and is consistent in his striving.

I would also note that whomever designed Elasti-Girl is definitely an ass man. Seriously - if you could take any shape you wanted, would you make your ass twice as wide as your shoulders?

So is it Sage1 or Sage7, or do you go both ways?

Sage1 == Sage7
Sorry for the confusion. Sage7 from now on.

Finally -- finally -- saw it last night. Sterling, that's not Elastigirl's ass, it's Helen Parr's. Check out Elastigirl's ass in the flashback scenes, or the point where the now middle-aged Elastiwoman is running through Syndrome's lair (wonderfully James Bondy throughout) and stops to bemoan the size of her bottom...

I know I'm really late to the game here but these movies don't come out for a long time in Germany (because of their refusal to watch movies in OV). So, I'm in Seattle now and I watched this movie w/my 10 year-old nephew and mom after too much turkey. We all loved it. Reading back to this entry about its social messages, I'm not surprised that none of you dudes commented on the message it sends about women and their role in society.

Elasti-girl starts out as an independent woman who won't leave saving the world to men in order to raise families. Fast forward 15 years later and most of the shots show her in friggin' houserobe caring for her defunct family while her husband seems aloof to the household chaos.

Of course, at the end of the day, she needs to bail his sorry ass out of trouble. I like how they finally show her strength at the end but I was antagonized by how they had belittled her character. Clearly, a dude wrote her character into a housewife. Rip off.

What's wrong with big, round booties? More to love and hold on to.

I saw the Incredibles and man Elastigirl has an ass to die for! Matter of fact, in that scene where's stuck in the doors, I soo would like to fuck her in the ass!!! Anyone notice the pantylines when she's in her Helen Parr alter ego?

What an interesting and inspiring observation on this bright Sunday morning.