Brad Bird is the Steven Spielberg of Animation

I missed The Incredibles in the theater. However, I saw it for the first and second time last night on DVD. Yes, I liked it so much I watched it twice in the same evening. The movie was so damn fun. It transcends it's genre. I'm not just talking about animation. I'm refering to the action/adventure flick, the type of movie that provides the escapism we look for in our entertainment.

Movie studios promise this every summer with their effects-laden extravaganzas, and every year we end up with mediocre crap like Armageddon, The Mummy and National Treasure. Well, The Incredibles truely delivers. It can entertain all ages; NOT in the Shrek way where there are separate jokes for the kids and adults implanted in the same film. Instead, it has the "wow" factor. It truly can mesmerize a viewer of any age. It also makes its characters so real (despite obvious physical impossibilities).

I realized, after watching it, that I have not seen a movie this fun and this engaging in many years. The first Matrix movie came close, but it took itself too seriously. Then I remembered Raiders of the Lost Ark. I remembered how fun that movie was; how I was totally engrossed in the action, the drama, the mystery, the humor... everything. Like that first Indiana Jones movie The Incredibles really is epitome of everything we love about these escapist flicks. It's been a long time since studios could deliver on the promise they make us every summer.

A lot of credit goes to Brad Bird; his writing, his attention to detail. His previous movie The Iron Giant has frequently been compared to E. T. , and The Incredibles does measure up to Raiders of the Lost Ark. Well, I am certainly looking foward to seeing his equivalent to Schlinder's List.