A feminist review of 'The Incredibles'

[Dusty Ayres]

I just came across this a few minutes ago:

OK, I admit it: I went to the cinema with my mind already made up about this film. I was not initially excited by the reports of the new cartoon with the amazing special effects, as you’d expect from a childless twentysomething. What drew my attention was a Times feature (my dad reads it) on the director, Brad Bird, which read as follows:

“a smart, knowing and funny parody of the superhero genre that contains a strong family message… perhaps Bird’s most inspired decision was to give his superheroes powers that reflect their place in the family unit. So Mr. Incredible is your traditional strong dad, except that he can lift cars with one hand; while his wife is the former Elastigirl… because, notes Bird, ‘moms have to stretch in 100 different ways each day’.

Oh god, here we go: “the family unit”. Not even “their family unit”, which might involve admitting that gay, single-parent and extended families exist, but THE family unit, i.e. the heterosexual nuclear family. Since few things rankle more with dykes than the reminder that for over 15 years our family units were officially “pretend”, I set off for the cinema faster than a speeding bullet and roughly as agreeable. I had decided in advance that the film would be sexist (which it was) and overtly right-wing (which it sort of was) and would have no Black characters (I was wrong, there were four). I eat my words. Not.

Wow! Reaching much, Ms. Razorblade?

A feminist review of 'The Incredibles'

 

[God Magnus]

Fun reading reviews of movies when the reviewer completely misses the point of the flick eh? And you can tell from her writing that she is already predisposed to be against the general nuclear family (though I'm sure she'd deny it). It's a sad review that just speaks of bitterness with something in her own personal worldview.

 

[Meredith]

I am a lesbian and I think she is way the hell overboard on this review.

 

[TremblingBluStar]

Well, I did think the overall message of the film (that if everybody is equal, nobody is special) was rather pointless and spoke to really nobody in particular (except people who are really against superheroes). But I didn't think the film was sexist in particular.

The reviewer should have noted that the film is obviously modeled after 60's spy and family films - thus the traditional portrayal of families and husband/wife roles.

 

[Jack Bauer]

What a lunatic.

 

[Awesome Possum]

I read some feminist review of Firefly once, funniest thing I ever read.

 

[wamdue]

I read some feminist review of Firefly once, funniest thing I ever read.

what on earth could they have against firefly?

 

[Small White Car]

I tried.

Really, I did. I'm all for understanding the viewpoints of others. I like this kind of stuff if there's any thought process behind it.

But there just isn't any logic in this case. She picks at the parts that show weakness in men and declares them anti-feminist. She also picks at the parts that show weakness in women and declares THEM anti-feminist. One would think that if something was the opposite of something else they wouldn't be the same, but she seems to think otherwise.

I guess that when you spend your whole life complaining that the world is against you, you eventually run out of things to complain about and have to turn to, well, nothing.

 

[God Magnus]

Really, I did. I'm all for understanding the viewpoints of others. I like this kind of stuff if there's any thought process behind it.

Sure, but doing so is difficult if you can't twist your brain to match the logic behind the thought process. And understanding doesn't necesarily make any sense of it. Her review was already off to a bad start when she somehow comments that the nuclear family is a bad thing. What did she want? A broken, disjointed family where one of the kids was a crack addict? It's a really sad commentary on just how extreme human beings are able to complain about things that aren't there.

 

[zenophite]

Some people are just bitter about everything. Using the sort of pop-psychology logic that many such people use I'd say she just secretly wishes that she was part of a cohesive nuclear family unit like the one she takes great pains to deride via her review.

The ironic thing is that in one of the special features Brad Bird talks about his wife being partially the inspiration for at least one scene with elastigirl that dealt with how his wife seemed to be looked down upon for being a stay-at-home mom by many of the professional women she knew.

 

[firehawk12]

There's no doubt that Pixar films are conservative by nature though, is there?
I mean, they're children's films after all.

 

[Christopher]

This is the sort of nonsense that gives feminism a bad name (along with those infamous "feminist" reviews of Firefly). Helen/Elastigirl was by far the most awesome, smart, and capable character in the whole movie.

 

[Ovation]

I don't think I've read a review of any film that so missed the point as to not even be in the same hemisphere. The whole point of a parody/satire (and as enjoyable as I find The Incredibles, it is parody/satire nevertheless) is to play straight the elements you wish to mock (either affectionately, as in this case, or not, as in others). Ah well, when you've already decided what you will think of something before you experience it (as the reviewer admits quite frankly), it rarely leads to anything of value in terms of commentary.

The review was entertaining it its presentation (and now I want to read the Vonnegut book--largely because she does NOT recommend it) but as analysis or criticism--to borrow an overused expression from TNZ--FAIL!!!!!

 

[Awesome Possum]

I read some feminist review of Firefly once, funniest thing I ever read.

what on earth could they have against firefly?

I think she stopped watching after the pilot because most of the review was about Mal's line about Kaylee being so cheerful that he wished he could tie her up and toss her in the hold. The reviewer thought that Mal really would do this and spent most of his time raping Kaylee or something. It's really worth looking up.

 

[CaptainCanada]

There's no doubt that Pixar films are conservative by nature though, is there?
I mean, they're children's films after all.

I don't see how children's films are inherently conservative (depends on what you mean by conservative, too).

You can read pretty much any paragraph in the review and find something to take issue with, but here's just a couple:

Oh god, here we go: “the family unit”. Not even “their family unit”, which might involve admitting that gay, single-parent and extended families exist, but THE family unit, i.e. the heterosexual nuclear family.

Okay, terminal over-reading-into, for starters, but as a point of grammar, the sentence is "Bird’s most inspired decision was to give his superheroes powers that reflect their place in the family unit." To me, that would suggest the reviewer is talking about their ("his superheroes"') family, ie, mom, dad, two kids.

Edna Mode, who designs suits for superheroes, was a send-up of Anna Wintour and got by far the biggest laughs; the discovery that she was voiced by Brad Bird himself, however, had me thinking less “amusing parody” and more “misogynist parody”. And why wasn’t she a gay man… actually, scratch that, the French guy was bad enough.

Okay, that's factually incorrect, she's a parody of Edith Head, and Bird did the voice because Lily Tomlin suggested he do it.

At this point, ridiculously, his family life improves enormously: he is happy! He acts decorously! He feeds the baby, talks to the kids and pinches his wife’s bum! The message at this point appears to be that the secret to happy family life is for men to get more fulfilling jobs. There is only one huge hole in this hypothesis, which is that men know damn well that fulfilling jobs would make their lives better, and so do women; if you went up to women in the street and offered them a highly-paid job on a beautiful tropical island you would have to be a superhero yourself just to cope with the number of applications. Everyone would like a glamorous high-flying job. The problem is getting one.

So? At what point does Bird say it's easy to get a fulfilling job; moreover, the later part of the article is premised on this being true, why is it "ridiculous" at the start?

And then...ah, forget it, it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

This is a great example of a person reading into a text what they want to see.

 

[USS Kongo]

I read some feminist review of Firefly once, funniest thing I ever read.

what on earth could they have against firefly?

I think she stopped watching after the pilot because most of the review was about Mal's line about Kaylee being so cheerful that he wished he could tie her up and toss her in the hold. The reviewer thought that Mal really would do this and spent most of his time raping Kaylee or something. It's really worth looking up.

I Googled it and found it here:

http://users.livejournal.com/_allecto_/34718.html

She's indeed way off the mark--not only on that scene you mentioned, but on the show overall.

Sean

 

[JonathonWally]

rankle more with dykes

Sig worthy

 

[MANT!]

Sorry but anything written by the extreme feminist movement over the past 30 years has been very much off the mark,most of these folks show exactly how little a sense of humor most of them seem to have. EVERYTHING is taken literally, without thought to context nor standard social mores and most have never experienced the types of roles they criticize. ( I was in the military and often still call officers [even retired ones] sir)..


But both these reviewers simply seem to be angry and unhappy and it shows..

 

[firehawk12]

There's no doubt that Pixar films are conservative by nature though, is there?
I mean, they're children's films after all.

I don't see how children's films are inherently conservative (depends on what you mean by conservative, too).

Financially, it just makes sense.
As liberal as most parents claim to be, I'm sure the most liberal straight parents would at the very least feel uncomfortable with a major cartoon that showed gay/lesbian parents.
Hell, I think that the Rugrats movie, where there was an interracial marriage, was probably the most "edgy" a family cartoon can get without drawing offence.
The closest Pixar has come to this is with Nemo, when at the end two different species of "fish" get together to form a family unit.

You look at Cars, where they even gendered the cars... because, you know, only boys race in NASCAR and girls have to be the backup/supporting character. And then there's the whole "let's go back to the 50s when everything was simpler" theme... except, of course, the 50s weren't a great time for everyone - depending on your race/gender.

I mean, I enjoy Pixar movies. Hell, I own all the Pixar Blu-Ray movies. They're fun, simple movies for children and have enough "adult" comedy for the parents/adults who watch them. But I don't think they aren't problematic. But then again, nothing isn't problematic - and that's the point.

 

[wamdue]

wow, they is some crazy stuff in that review