Movie ‘The Incredibles’ really is

In theaters

THE INCREDIBLES, written and directed by Brad Bird, 115 minutes, rated PG.

In “The Incredibles,” the bright, bold new blockbuster from Pixar Studios, writer and director Brad Bird takes aim at “Shrek 2” and bags an ogre.

The film is far and away the best computer-animated tale so far this year, written and directed with such wit, insight and style that the folks at DreamWorks are likely pixilating their pants over this one. Awards season is, after all, just around the corner, and what Pixar has cooked up with “The Incredibles” is something to behold.

In the movie, big, hulking superhero Mr. Incredible (voice of Craig T. Nelson) is sidelined from the job he loves when superheroes everywhere start becoming targets for major lawsuits.

Turns out it’s no longer safe to leap over tall buildings and save the day. In this crazed, litigious culture of ours, superheroes are increasingly getting hauled into court for either interfering with the law or accidentally hurting innocent bystanders while trying to protect them from harm.

It all becomes too much for Mr. Incredible, who is swept into a government-run Superhero Protection Program that demands he change his name to Bob Parr and relocate to the suburbs with his wife, Elastigirl (Holly Hunter).

There, they try to be ordinary citizens raising a family – sons Dash (Spencer Fox) and Jack Jack (Eli Fucile, Maeve Andrews) and teenage daughter Violet (Sarah Vowell). The problem? All have superpowers that are difficult to suppress.

Elastigirl, for instance, can stretch her body parts to infinity and beyond; Dash is so fast he can outrun any old speeding bullet; and shy Violet can either disappear on cue or create a protective force field that’s almost impossible to penetrate.

Whether infant Jack Jack has superpowers is irrelevant – even if he did, in his new life as an ordinary person, he’d have to join the rest of the Incredibles in quashing the very qualities that make him special. And what kind of message is that to send to a kid?

It all leaves Bob in a slump. After 15 years in the ‘burbs, he’s become fat, bored and middle-aged. He has run out of steam, he’s down on his luck. Instead of enjoying the macho glamour of fending off foes, he toils daily at a corrupt insurance agency he doesn’t trust and for a boss he doesn’t like.

Meanwhile, Elastigirl tries to rear the children to be something less than who they are so they don’t draw attention to themselves at school.

Since no facade like this can last, it doesn’t. Soon, crime comes knocking again and Bob, longing for the call, secretly decides to answer. Apparently one nasty little zealot named Syndrome (Jason Lee) – a former Mr. Incredible fan who looks like Edward Gorey’s version of the Heat Miser from “The Year Without a Santa Clause” – plans to destroy the world from his private island in the Pacific. He’ll do so with his vast army of spiderlike robots, and he’ll show no mercy.

Enter Mr. Incredible – a little stiff with the extra weight, but still just as strong as ever — who eventually gets himself in so far over his head, only his incredible family with its incredible gifts can help him save the day.

With its brisk pace, punchy humor, terrific animation and voice work, “The Incredibles” is a blast that boils onscreen in ways that are unabashedly crowd-pleasing but never slight.

Bird directed 1999’s “The Iron Giant,” a small, beautiful film that also tackled issues of tolerance and acceptance, but in ways that were either too subtle or too retro to connect with the masses. This time out, Bird skewers subtlety to deliver a movie whose sly, perceptive comments on society, youth culture, middle age and the importance of family are tucked within the exhilarating action. The flashy result doesn’t cheapen those messages. It’s just a more entertaining way to hear them.

Grade: A-

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, 5:30 p.m. Thursdays on WLBZ 2 Bangor and WCSH 6 Portland, and are archived at RottenTomatoes.com. He may be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.