Sightlines · reception

How The Incredibles was received

2004 · Brad Bird · The Incredibles on Sightlines

The arc

An instant hit in 2004 — huge box office, Best Animated Feature Oscar, hailed as Pixar at its peak. Two decades of superhero saturation later, it's only risen: routinely called one of the genre's best films, full stop, and half-jokingly 'the best Fantastic Four movie ever made.'

What’s debated

The evergreen debate: is 'when everyone's super, no one will be' a secretly Objectivist/Randian message about exceptional people being held back, or are fans reading way too much into a family movie?

Its footprint

Frozone's 'WHERE IS MY SUPER SUIT?' exchange with Honey is one of the internet's most durable memes, and Edna Mode's 'NO CAPES!' is quoted anytime a superhero costume appears onscreen — she's a fashion-world icon in her own right.

Where it stands

Top-shelf Pixar canon and a Letterboxd staple — the millennial-childhood favorite that cinephiles defend as a genuinely great superhero film, not just a great animated one.

Did you know? Edna Mode is voiced by director Brad Bird himself — he recorded the part as a temp track, and after names like Lily Tomlin were floated, everyone agreed nobody could top his version.