ANI-MOVIES, *The Incredibles

As its first set into doing an action/adventure film, Pixar created this superhero comedy prior to their complete acquisition by Disney. Director Brad Bird took his Silver Age of Comics style that he used in The Iron Giant, and brought them into this "super hero-meets-super spies" story slightly inspired by the family dynamic used in Fantastic Four.

Set in a world where superheroes are referred to as Supers, super-strong Mr. Incredible marries the stretchy Elastigirl(no relation to the Doom Patrol character!)just as the public opinion toward heroes starts to turn forcing them all to retire into their secret identities. Fast forward 15 years, and the Incredible family has 3 kids, only two of which apparently have powers, super-fast Dash and Violet with invisibility. After loosing his job, Bob(Mr.)gets an offer from a mysterious organization to use his powers to help test their robots, but its revealed that the company is run by Bob's old scorned fan-turned-villain, Syndrome, who spent the last few years killing off most of the worlds Supers to build the ultimate weapon to finish Mr. Incredible. Helen(Elasti)visits her old eccentric supersuit designer, Edna Mode, to discover she made him a new uniform, plus a tracking beacon which leads her to Syndrome's island headquarters. But Dash and Violet tag along, and the family reunites to stop Syndrome from terrorizing their hometown with a giant robot attack.

The Incredibles was a groundbreaking hit, with excellent performances by Jason Lee, Samuel Jackson, and oddly Brad Bird as Edna. The film brought a more lighthearted approach to superhero flicks, which inspired the production of an actual Fantastic Four movie franchise(ugh!). It did take several years for them to finally make a definitive sequel, even though there was a video game and comic book follow-up that are probably considered "expanded universe"(or "Legends")by now. This works as both a family adventure, and a serious homage to comic book lore.