THE INCREDIBLES (2004, Blu-ray released April 12, 2011 – MSRP $45.99)
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What do you say when one of the best animated films of the last decade makes its way to Blu-ray in a near perfect presentation with a ton of special features? How do you describe a disc of this variety? What words can one possibly use outside of amazing, wonderful, marvelous, spectacular, remarkable, phenomenal, prodigious, breathtaking, extraordinary, unbelievable… All right, there are a lot of synonym’s for incredible. You get where I’m going with this. The Incredibles was incredible in the theatres back in 2004 and now it’s incredible on Blu!
- “Known to the world as superheroes, Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl, Bob Parr and his wife Helen were among the world’s greatest crime fighters, saving lives and battling evil on a daily basis. Fifteen years later, they have been forced to adopt civilian identities and retreat to the suburbs to live “normal” lives with their three kids, Violet, Dash, and Jack-Jack. Itching to get back into action, Bob gets his chance when a mysterious communication summons him to a remote island for a top secret assignment. He soon discovers that it will take a super family effort to rescue the world from total destruction. “
The Incredibles is my favourite Pixar film to date. As classic as Toy Story and Finding Nemo are, as wonderful as Up is, The Incredibles just manages to get everything that much more right, in my book. Studio head John Lasseter was wise to woo his college pal, writer/director Brad Bird over to write and direct this film, after Warner failed miserably to market his brilliant The Iron Giant in 1999. Bird might be a taskmaster to work for (as you can see and hear all about in many of the special features on the disc) but clearly his high energy and drive amount to brilliant results. The Incredibles is full of personality, from the wonderful, groundbreaking animation to the tightly crafted script. Every viewing of the film is a sheer pleasure and this brilliant new Blu-ray elevated that experience even further.
The Incredibles makes its long-awaited high-def debut in a near perfect digital-to-digital transfer. Did you expect anything less than perfection from Disney and Pixar? Aside from a hint of source-related aliasing there’s absolutely nothing to complain about here. Nor can I find anything negative to say about the powerful, dynamic DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 ES track. This is one hell-of-an-active sound-field, with all audio perfectly placed and rendered, and a generous, rich representation of Michael Giacchino‘s heroic score.
The special features on the Blu-ray fall just short of the ideal for me without a picture-in-picture track or Disney Second Screen app (my newest Blu-ray supplement obsession.) But that’s just picking nits. This is a great collection of extras that carries over all the features from the previously available DVD edition, including both of the exceptional and detailed commentary tracks – one from Bird and producer John Walker, the other from a variety of the production crew. The highlight of the extras is, without question, the newly produced ‘The Incredibles Revisited‘ roundtable chat (watch a short clip embedded above) – a 22-minute, no-holds-barred look back at the making of the film with Bird, Walker and others. Additional new features include short pieces on the story artists, a group birthday party for the crew, “Making the End Credits” and an interactive look at the villain Syndrome’s former island lair in “The New Nomanisan: A Top Secret Redevelopment Plan“.
Highly recommended!
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