But this is what I saw:
The three definite Jewish characters were either lawyers or a bumbling teacher. The money grubbing insurance boss might or might not be Jewish so I'll give the movie a pass on that one.
The dad Incredible has been emasculated and is rudderless. The damn society has cut off his balls and now he is miserable and doesn't know what to do with his life. His wife is all too happy to send him off to his soul crushing office job everyday in a quest to keep him in line. He wants to do something that matters, she wants him to be part of the system that makes him miserable.
All wives are doubting nags. Mrs. Incredible nags her husband the entire movie and picks on his life goals. Sam Jackson's wife is too busy nagging him about a ruined dinner to notice that their city is being attacked and he needs to help.
Even when Mrs. Incredible is running around and beating up bad guys in the second half of the movie, she momentarily stops to look at how big her ass has gotten in a mirror. What is that all about?
At the end, when the kids are finally allowed to excel amongst their peers and not hide their special abilities anymore, the boy becomes a track star. The girl? For all of her new found confidence, what do the writers reward her with? A boyfriend! Hooray!
And, of course, screw those damn mediocre kids who are ruining it for the smart, athletic kids.
The whole thing felt like a conservative's wet dream. Woe is the privileged white male. What victims they are. Boo hoo.
A scene from The Incredibles.
11 comments:
Dan, I have yet to see The Incredibles but your review has the depressing ring of solid gold truth about it. I have long held to the view that most of the output of the major animation studios has been dedicated to fairly obvious conservative social engineering for a while now. I ranted about the fascist overtones in The Lion King on Weasel a few weeks back and I bet your other readers could each come up with at least one example of this kind of thing that stood out like a sore thumb to them....
From Jim
I totally agree with you on the disturbing conservative subtext of The
Incredibles. I'm glad that I procrastinated on writing my review. I was
only going to point out the weirdness of the emphasis on "everyone is
special, so no one is" but you noticed other things I didn't. I got
caught up in the story and didn't analyze some of those things deeply
enough. I don't know why I am more lenient with animated films. If it had
been a live=action film with the same problems I would have hated it.
In the review in The Nation, they postulate that the reason Frozone can
make ice is because, in this stereotypical universe, "black people are
cool."
Besides the troubling social messages, I liked the animation and the
way some parts of the story were developed. And I thought the costume
designer was very funny.
Weasel,
I agree with your point about Disney flicks but the Pixar folks have been much better with their movies. Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc. in particular blew me away with their philosophical bent for kids. And I expected more from Brad Bird who did The Iron Giant. I recall that film was a pretty interesting take on the Cold War. The Incredibles had its moments but a lot of felt completely ripped off from other films like Spy Kids 2.
is that a henry darger painting?
As a follow-up, I wanted to say that although I do agree with most of your points, I think maybe you should give some leeway to the part where Elastigirl checks out her ass in the mirror. Making her, to an extent, this '50s stereotype wife who's worried about her husband cheating on her and who nags a lot was unnecessarily retro in a bad way, but insecurity/self-consciousness about your body when you're middle-aged is pretty par for the course. And understandable, as she hadn't worn such a tight outfit in several years. (So says the guy with the gut who keeps putting off going to the gym.)
good point jim, but mr. incredible is a fat lardass and he could care less. the only reason he gets in shape is so he can be the best superhero he can be. whereas she looks great except for a little extra weight on her ass and she stops to check it out to feel bad about it. the message- men are valued for more things than their looks- women aren't. i say bah!
i'm still surprised that on one has pointed out that this particular bumbling jewish teacher shouldn't be so upset to see one on the big screen.
I wish the French had made the Incredibles- then to regain his powers he would have had to have gotten off Atkins, taken up smoking again, sworn off merlot and found a real red wine, and started shagging the arch villain's wife on the side.
Dan, you said: "mr. incredible is a fat lardass and he could care less...the message - men are valued for more things than their looks - women aren't."
I believe there's actually a scene where Mr. Incredible also looks at his gut and appears self-conscious about it. And then, yes, he does get in shape. I don't think this part of the movie has anything insidious to say about male-female parity. Mrs. Incredible does many things besides looking good. Her heroic shenanigans in the family's battle against the bad guys help to save the world. So clearly she is valued for a lot more than her looks.
I had a lively discussion at dinner tonight with two defenders of the movie who did not interpret its messages as conservative in nature. Being cynical (and currently hypersensitive to Republican propaganda), I still suspect that there was an agenda behind it that I do not agree with in principle, but I've decided to step back a bit and say hey, it was thoroughly entertaining, it did not brainwash kids to hate liberals or minorities or poor people, and while it had elements I wish weren't there, I would encourage anyone to see it as a thrilling moviegoing experience.
As for the teenage girl, if the message that comes out is "the best thing you should hope for in life is a boyfriend," then that's bad. But what if the son had been a teenager and the daughter a younger kid--if the boy had a crush on a girl that ended up being requited, I don't think you'd see that as a negative message. Girls do want boyfriends (and guys do too sometimes!), so that is a legitimate aspiration and reward.
I agree with you that it's highly possible that the people making the movie wrongly thought, "a teenage girl wants nothing in the world more than a popular boy to like her so she can feel validated," but then again, maybe that was not their train of thought.
In the movie's favor, consider that it portrayed the big corporation Mr. I worked for as greedy, heartless and evil, while he, the good guy, cared about people in need.
I do think it's high time for big-budget family-entertainment movies to move beyond the "white people are central, minorities are peripheral; men are the main characters, women support them" dynamic, and obviously this movie did not do that. I would love to see an animated film about a family of Asian superheroes, for example. Maybe they could have a white chauffeur or butler.
>I believe there's actually a scene where Mr. Incredible also looks at his gut and appears self-conscious about it.
Looks at his gut and appears self-conscious? Hmmm... not quite as in your face as checking your ass in the heat of a battle.
> I still suspect that there was an agenda behind it that I do not agree with in principle,
I'm not even sure if there was an agenda, I just think these are things that aren't even really thought about as a big deal.
>but I've decided to step back a bit and say hey, it was thoroughly entertaining,
Yes, it was entertaining.
> it did not brainwash kids to hate liberals or minorities or poor people,
You are right but there are some strange messages in there that aren't good to send.
>and while it had elements I wish weren't there, I would encourage anyone to see it as a thrilling moviegoing experience.
Elements that weren't there- my points exactly!
>But what if the son had been a teenager and the daughter a younger kid--if the boy had a crush on a girl that ended up being requited, I don't think you'd see that as a negative message. Girls do want boyfriends (and guys do too sometimes!), so that is a legitimate aspiration and reward.
Why not have the girl be a kid who wants to run around and be younger and have the boy be the sullen teenager? That could have been done. I suspect that if the ages had been switched, the boy would have still been an athlete and the girl still would have been shy and seeking attention.
>In the movie's favor, consider that it portrayed the big corporation Mr. I worked for as greedy, heartless and evil, while he, the good guy, cared about people in need.
True and at least they didn't make the character obviously Jewish.
>I do think it's high time for big-budget family-entertainment movies to move beyond the "white people are central, minorities are peripheral; men are the main characters, women support them" dynamic, and obviously this movie did not do that. I would love to see an animated film about a family of Asian superheroes, for example. Maybe they could have a white chauffeur or butler.
This is what I'd really like to see. Why not make the family anything else other than so damn Waspy with the man as the leader of the famiy? Yes, he's bumbling and his family saves him so that is good. There are many mixed messages in this film.
it's surprising you have this to say about the incredibles after watching spy kids 2 the other night and finding out how much you loved it. there are tons of parallels between the two movies as you suggested so why don't slag spy kids 2, too? i would say the older sister in spy kids 2 is actually worse than the older sister in the incredibles - she actually compomises her relationship with younger brother juni because she has a crush on gary giggles. that's a far more antiquated protrayal of a typical teenage girl. also in spy kids 2, the grandparents are introduced. while they both have issues with antonio bandares' character, it's the grandmother who's portrayed as the nag, not the grandfather.
good points about spy kids 2. to be honest, i don't remember much about that movie. and i didn't love it- i just found it strange and bizarre. jeremy is the one who loved it. i don't hate the incredibles. i'm not even that disturbed by it. i just feel like pixar has taken a step backward with this movie after the highs of toy story 2 and monsters, inc. why not send positive messages to kids about gender, religion, and ethnicity rather than wallow in the same stereotypes?
i listed spy kids 2 at 82 out of 106 in 2002.
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