Bob Parr (a.k.a. Mr. Incredible) - "Well, what are you waiting for, kid?"

Little boy on big wheel - "I don't know. A miracle, I guess."

Bob - "Yeah, kid. Me too."
Well, for me, this piece of dialogue hit home VERY HARD. Don't we all wish that there REALLY WERE super heroes in the world? Don't we all wish that either we, or someone, had the abilities to stop criminals and save the world?

Folks, Brad Bird gets it. He got it the first time around with the BRILLIANT "The Iron Giant", and he gets it even further with "The Incredibles", the newest film from the hit factory of Pixar Animation.

For me, THIS is what the Fantastic Four film should be like! Hell! It IS the Fantastic Four (and baby Jack-Jack makes it five), and is perhaps the most fully realized, true, honest-to-God superhero movie since Christopher Reeve suited up as Superman and Bryan Singer did the impossible of bringing X2: X-Men United to the screen.

This film is so full of wonder, derring-do, and most importantly - REAL CHARACTERS. You totally forget you're watching a cartoon! They have real human emotions and you can read their faces - even their eyes - and know exactly what they are feeling!

The story begins with superheroes being sent away from the populace they've always protected after frivolous law suits threaten to bankrupt the government. It's funny, but they were revered as GODS at one point, with Mr. Incredible having a wannabe sidekick named Buddy (voiced by an great, yet unrecognizable, Jason Lee). Now, these Supers are in court for saving suicide victims and people on trains that were given whiplash when stopped from falling to their sure doom!

So, Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson - who is simply BRILLIANT in his voice acting here), his wife ElastiGirl (Holly Hunter - who brings an honest fire and love to her character), his son Dashiel "Dash" (Spencer Fox - who is the best child voice actor I've heard since Eli Marianthal as Hogarth in The Iron Giant), his daughter Violet (who has invisibility powers and is remarkably voiced by NPR's Sarah Vowell), and baby Jack-Jack (who doesn't have any super powers) move to the suburbs and a life of mediocrity.

Bob Parr now works in a too-small cubicle for a nasty insurance company and even there tries to help people by helping them find loopholes in company policy. He and his buddy Lucious, who used to be the icy hero known as Frozone (voiced by none other than Sam "The Man" L. Jackson) go out for "bowling night," where they secretly listen to the police scanner for possible problems they might be able to secretly help out with and not give up their identities.

Little does Bob know, but he's being watched by a secretive blonde chick known only as "Mirage", voiced by Elizabeth Pena of "Jacob's Ladder" fame. Bob is asked to don the tights once again to help a company destroy its rogue robot, the Omnidroid 9.0.

Pretending to go off to a "convention", Bob becomes someone again, and Mr. Incredible is back, if only for a short time. He defeats the droid and is given hope again in his superhero self!

From here, Bob begins to get back into shape and even gets a new costume from his personal seamstress to the superheroes, the hillarious Edna Mode (voiced to perfection by the writer / director himself, Brad Bird).

ElastiGirl begins to get suspicious of Bob's actions, suspecting he's possibly cheating on her, so she goes to Edna to find out the scoop, only to learn that Edna's already created matching costumes for the rest of the family.

From here, the story takes off at breakneck pace!
There are SOOOOO MANY great things that happen that I can't dare spoil them for you!

But there are so many great HUMAN moments that come out of this film. Seeing Mr. Incredible when he believes he's lost everything is just heartbreaking. Seeing Violet struggle with using her powers when she's always been told not to is so personal that you gain real insight to her character (She is an awkward