It didn’t take long for Pixar to become one of the pillars of modern filmmaking. The American animation studio has produced less than 30 films in nearly as many years, but its legacy seemed assured from the word “go.” Its first handful of films were towering explorations in empathy, each breathing life into anthropomorphized creatures like childhood toys, salt-water fish, or the proverbial monster under your bed. That affinity for non-human characters has become Pixar’s calling card ever since — but it also presented a major challenge to the studio when it was time to tell a truly human story.
The Incredibles was Pixar’s first film with an all-human cast, and it may also be its most underrated. Whether its subjects have anything to do with that oversight is a mystery that’s yet to be solved, but it’s hard to stand out in a subgenre that’s since become hypersaturated. The story of a superhero family trying to survive in a retrofuturist world is one that’s been done time and again; not even The Incredibles was the first to play in this particular sandbox. Competition aside, it might actually be the most efficient story ever told. Twenty years later, it represents a true peak for superhero stories across the board... and for Pixar itself.
