I’m Catching Up 2015: Tomorrowland

I was pretty excited to see Tomorrowland. I’ve loved everything Brad Bird has done, especially The Iron Giant and The Incredibles. Both show amazing heart and infectious nostalgia in ways that no other film or filmmaker has done. Tomorrowland, from the outside looking in, seemed to be another one of these stories. In several ways, it was.

  
Sadly, though, it’s a movie about ideas and hope. I say sadly because I don’t think today’s moviegoer cares a bit for these things. If they do, they don’t care enough to get invested in a movie that has some commentary about how dark we have become as a society. We used to thrill to hearing stories of astronaut missions and space stations. Now we are so self-absorbed that we can’t be bothered to look up. Tomorrowland wants to remind us of the dreams we used to dare to dream, and how imagining such grand concepts can make us feel.

  
Frank Walker is a boy with a beautiful dream. He brings his dream – a rocket pack he built – to the 1964 World’s Fair. You history buffs would know that this is where Walt Disney himself debuted the It’s A Small World attraction. There’s a science fair of sorts going on, and the judge is David Nix (Hugh Laurie), a somewhat bitter man. He criticizes aspects of Frank’s invention and dismisses him. Outside of the main building, a young girl approaches Frank. She gives him a pin with a T logo. He gets on the It’s A Small World attraction, and partway through, his pin is scanned and he finds himself in Tomorrowland, a vision of the future through the eyes of the past. Bird’s whimsical brand of yesteryear is on full display at this point.

  
Cut to 40 years later. Casey (Britt Robertson) has dreams, but doesn’t express them in healthy ways. She tends to get arrested from time to time, usually for trespassing or breaking and entering. After being released following her last eat arrest, Casey finds an unusual pin among her possessions. It has that familiar T logo. When Casey touches it, she seems to disappear into a world of beauty and fantasy. No one else can see what Casey sees, so she decides to go off on her own to find out the mystery behind the pin.

  
Tomorrowland isn’t going to be renembered by many people. The action is fairly tame, and there’s a lot of talking. But the ideas contained within are worth pondering, in my very humble opinion. The story suffers from pacing problems on occasion, and there isn’t as much magic as Bird has infused into his prior work. It’s still a visually beautiful, bright little film that tries to channel Capra in an age where Capra is nearly forgotten. In the end, it haunted me for a day or so, and it make me think. I’m glad I saw it. Look for it on BluRay and digital soon.

  

From the Geek-Vault: A Whole Family of Supers! (“The Incredibles” Review)

Elastigirl: Settle down, are you kidding? I’m at the top of my game! I’m right up there with the big dogs! Girls, come on. Leave the saving of the world to the men? I don’t think so.

The superhero movie has been re-examined frequently in the last quarter century, and even more so in the last decade. The success of the X-Men and Spider-Man franchises helped to open the minds of filmmakers and film executives to other ways of telling stories that contain people or beings with unusual abilities. Writers and directors began to break away from any assumed template, and a new wave of creativity became present in the genre. Brad Bird’s “The Incredibles” is a fine example of such creativity.

The first thing we are shown is a collection of what appears to be vintage TV news interviews with “supers” (that’s how they’re known) Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson), Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) and Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson). Each super relates, in their own perception, the stresses of being a hero and of trying to hold onto their secret identity. This show of the characters’ humanity is at the very heart of “The Incredibles,” and it makes the movie that much more tangible.

After wedding Elastigirl, better known as Helen, Mr. Incredible is sued by a man whom he saved from a suicide attempt. While the public opinion of supers previous to this incident was highly favorable, the lawsuit sets off a firestorm of anti-super sentiment, the results of which remind me of the HUAC committee and Senator McCarthy. All supers are forced to retire and are relocated via a witness protection type of program that moves them to a place where they won’t be known for their heroic accomplishments, but rather will blend in to “ordinary” life. When we see Mr. Incredible, now just Bob Parr, 15 years later, he’s still struggling with this adjustment. He works for an insurance company, and an overly crooked one at that. He has put on a substantial amount of weight. He seems to be doing the bare minimum to get through each day. At home, he combs the newspaper for news of his old hero colleagues from what the supers now refer to as “the Glory Days.” One night a week, he slips out with his best friend Frozone (now just Lucius), and they listen to a police scanner in order to find crime to fight or people to save. Two of his three children, Violet (as in shrinking – she disappears) and Dashiell (Dash for short – guess why?) are blessed with powers but have no outlet to use them, and therefore feel frustrated. Helen is adamant about keeping the family below the super radar and maintaining their normal existence. But when, in the course of a single day, Bob loses his job and Mr. Incredible is offered paid hero work, things begin to look up for the once and future champion. Bob weaves a web of lies for Helen – he claims that he’s being sent to conferences by the insurance company – and finds a newfound, or perhaps rekindled, sense of purpose and importance. All is not as it seems, however, and when Bob runs into serious trouble at the hands of the villain Syndrome (Jason Lee), the rest of the family is forced into action in order to save their beloved patriarch.

Brad Bird has a way with characters, as evidenced by 1999’s “The Iron Giant.” In that movie he made a 50-foot tall robot from space as endearing as a small puppy. Here he has very specific ideas about who each member of the Parr clan is and what dynamic they bring to the family. Bob is a man in the throes of mid-life crisis; Helen is responsible for keeping the family running, both domestically and in making sure that Violet and Dash don’t kill each other. Violet is an indie-teen-angst type; Dash is an excitable kid whose love of sports has to be repressed to keep his powers, and the family’s cover, safe. Even baby Jack-Jack is full of personality. He’s a happy and well-behaved infant, although it would seem that he doesn’t have a power…

Bird has an affinity for 1950’s style nostalgia. While “The Incredibles” doesn’t have a defined era, a sense of late 50’s/early 60’s “mod” style is present in the designs of buildings, cars, wardrobes, hairstyles, and more. The color palette is fairly bright, which helps keep the mood a bit lighter when appropriate. The animation really pops in some of the action sequences and in certain effects. One of the remarkable things about this movie is Michael Giacchino’s stereotype-defying score. It’s the least likely superhero music, but the jazz-laden, squeal-trumpet-infested score is one of the best I have heard. It moves when it should, and it lightens up and steps aside when appropriate. It also makes the film feel like it belongs to a bygone time.

The core of this movie is really the notion of family and of coming together as a family in the face of a crisis. As clichéd as that might sound, it’s a skill that we all need at some point. The scenes of The Incredibles working together as a team hits my emotional soft spot every time. I really think that the idea of family being bigger than anything is the best thing that anyone – child or adult – can take away from this movie. It’s also a movie about admitting when you need help rather than taking on all of your burdens alone. When Bob realizes that he can’t do what he has to do alone and must rely on Helen and the kids, his vulnerability shines through, and therefore so does his humanity.

If you’ve been avoiding this movie, I encourage you to rent it. If you’re self-conscious about watching what you assume is a “kids’ movie” without a kid, I’ll rent one of my nephews out to you for a fee. In my estimation, this is the best superhero film that is not adapted from previously existing characters. I might even say it’s super.