The Incredibles (2-Disc Collector's Edition) (DVD)

Personally I did not enjoy The Incredibles when I saw it in the theater, I thought it was slow and boring for about the first hour or so, but now that I have seen it again on DVD I was far more entertained than I was the first go around. While I don't necessarily consider this to be as good as Brad Bird's earlier effort The Iron Giant it still proves that Bird has a knack for adding the human element to his animated features along with a kick-ass final 30 minutes, which if the whole movie had been this good my first impressions would have been far different.

The Incredibles follows a storyline in which superheroes have become a part of mainstream society, unfortunately this idealistic existence hits a snag as numerous lawsuits begin popping up sending the one time supers into a modified version of a governmental witness protection program.

Now firmly planted in society, the supers are not allowed to use their special powers, which doesn't exactly settle well with Bob Parr, a.k.a Mr. Incredible. Parr is married to one-time Elastigirl and the two have three kids, one of which can make herself invisible and produce force-fields, another can run like The Flash and the baby, Jack-Jack, is yet to realize his potential.

While Bob has a loving family the satisfaction from saving people is something he misses dearly so when a mysterious woman approaches him with an opportunity to do some secret "super" work, he jumps at the chance, but what exactly is he getting himself, and the world, into?

The Incredibles was much better on the small screen for me than it was on the big screen, in the theaters I found it disinteresting and was ready to leave as it continually felt like something I had seen before, that was until the final 30 minutes, which I have already said were amazing.

However, Disney has done their best to turn this into one of their best DVDs ever as they not only offer up the film in its entirety along with two commentaries, one with writer/director Brad Bird and producer John Walker, and another with a group of animators, but disc two is packed with so much goodness that any animation fan is sure to get their fill.

Disc two consists of two animated shorts, the first is the Academy Award nominated feature Boundin' about the Jackalope and his life lesson, which was shown before the film in theaters, and the second, Jack-Jack Attack fills the audience in on just what was going on between the little tyke and his babysitter while the Parrs were out to get the evil Syndrome.

The animated shorts don't stop there as there is also an extremely corny "animated" feature that stars Mr. Incredible, Frozone and a little bunny named Mr. Skipperdoo. The cartoon is stupid, but there is a commentary with Frozone and Mr. Incredible, each voiced by Sam Jackson and Craig T. Nelson, that is quite funny. Also, in the same section is an area called "NSA Files" which features info on all of the superheroes referred to in the movie.

Next you have a group of deleted scenes, which include an alternate opening, all of which are primarily storyboards, but are animated as best as they can be. Each is much more entertaining than your normal deleted scenes as Brad Bird gives you his opinion on each and just why exactly they didn't make the final cut. The scenes not only introduce scenarios that were abandoned, but some characters that didn't make the film as well. On top of that, there is also a group of "Incredi-blunders," which are outtakes and goofs from the creating of The Incredibles. You can check this feature out at the links to the right.

Finally you can delve further into the film than you ever could have imagined as the making-of featurettes start with Brad Bird's first day at Pixar and take you throughout the entire production. This section is made up of two separate featurettes that are as good as any making-of features you will find on any DVD.

The first part is a 30-minute documentary that traces the production from start to finish, then the second part is approximately 40 minutes or so of footage broken out into several different pieces, each of which can be viewed independently. The sections vary from character design, set design, story, sound, music and so much more. Overall it is a fabulous bunch of features that are very well produced.

There's also a group of trailers, some character interviews, an art gallery and a boring essay by Sarah Vowell, the voice of Violet Parr, but there is one little thing you shouldn't forget to look out for, the Easter Eggs.

Yup, to check out the Easter Eggs on this DVD just keep your eye on the upper right hand corner of any menu screen and wait until one of Syndrome's mechanical beasts appears, when it does just highlight it and hit Enter on your remote to check out the hidden feature. I didn't count how many of these there were, but I believe I found one on just about every menu screen on disc two.

Overall, this DVD improved my opinion of the film 100 percent. The movie combined with the features are more than enough to provide entertainment for an entire afternoon if not more. I only hope Brad Bird continues along his track of wonderful animated stories and now that the melancholy part of The Incredibles is out of the way I hope the second film will offer up much more action from start to finish.