Not So Amazing

The first several times I watched it, The Incredibles was easily my favorite Pixar movie. I was anxiously awaiting its blu-ray release, and it was only the second one that I bought on the day of release (well, I preordered it on Amazon). So last Tuesday it showed up on my doorstep.

Maybe it was just that I've seen it too many times, but while I still enjoyed it, it wasn't as amazing as previously. Before this, I was greatly hoping for a sequel (frankly, I'm pretty disappointed that they're doing a Cars sequel this year), but now I'm not so sure about whether it would be worth it.

Part of it was the whole "super vs ordinary" subplot. I'd pretty much ignored that part previously, but I paid more attention to it this time, and it bugged me. It especially bugged me in the "Dash athletics" scenes. Athletics is about competition, and if someone is so much better than everyone else, it isn't a competition. Nobody involved will learn anything, or become better people because of it.

Someone might be tempted to bring up how much better some people are than others in certain fields and that's true, but the difference between Dash and his classmates is bigger than the difference between Wayne Gretzky and myself in hockey (and I haven't been on the ice with a hockey stick since I was seven). No amount of luck (short of a meteor hitting Dash) would allow those kids to beat him.

For a kid with arrogance issues to begin with, this would not help. If anything, it would just reinforce those issues, as he sees himself as so much better than them.

And the line about "Everybody's special, Dash" "Which means no one is" also bugs me. Yes, everyone is special. But not all in the same way, which rather negates the part about nobody being so.

Anyway, the whole thing is disturbingly Rand-ian. And she might well have been the most self-centered person ever. Or, at least, she's managed to make complete selfishness socially acceptable, which is sad. Frankly, without her, the current political debates would be much more heavily influenced by reality. And that would certainly be a good thing.