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Material isn't that incredible

The new animated film The Incredibles starts out well but overestimates moviegoers' interest as the director stretches the story much too thin.

The Incredibles accomplishes what no animated film ever did before but live action movies have done forever: driving a good idea into the ground by hanging around on the screen too long.

With its whopping running time of 115 minutes, the latest collaboration between Disney and Pixar Animation Studios is about a half-hour lengthier than any cartoon has a right to be. The magic simply can't be sustained. The beauty of modern classics such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo is their brisk simplicity. Brad Bird directs The Incredibles as if he's Kevin Costner, stretching material too thin, believing the word "epic" is earned on the clock.

The premise is solid: Superheroes like Mr. Incredible (voice of Craig T. Nelson) are revered until a rescue mission accident sparks a lawsuit that ruins the profession. They stop using their powers, enter relocation programs and try to live normal lives until a world menace calls them back into action.

Bird gets things started well, with faux interviews of superheroes discussing their careers, some nifty action and social commentary, and an uneasy transition into suburban life. Mr. Incredible is now Bob Parr, a flabby paper pusher longing for the good old days. His wife, Elastigirl - excuse me, Helen Parr (Holly Hunter) - feels stifled as a homemaker. Their son, Dash (Spencer Fox), can't show off his extraordinary speed playing sports, and daughter Violet (Sarah Vowell) relies upon her invisibility power to dodge a crush on a cute classmate.

The Incredibles is a lot of fun until Bob gets back into shape and starts working undercover as a superhero again. A sequence when he visits Edna Mode (voiced by Bird), a superhero fashion designer modeled after the late Hollywood costumer Edith Head, is funny only if you know who Edith Head was. Bob's nemesis, Syndrome (Jason Lee), isn't interesting, and keeping the Parr family on the sidelines so long is a mistake.

Bird's worst miscalculation is an extended visit to an exotic island where Syndrome's lair is guarded by creatures and contraptions making The Incredibles a test run for the video game version. This entire sequence could be dropped and nothing would be missed. Cutting to the chase in this instance would require cutting out the chase. The climactic showdown in New York is cooler, anyway, with the help of another resurrected superhero, Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson).

Still, The Incredibles manages a few hearty laughs and technical marvels along the way. What Bird sorely lacks is a theme that can reach our hearts, like Buzz Lightyear wanting to fly and Nemo looking for his father. That, and a stopwatch.

Grade: B-

Director: Brad Bird

Cast: voices of Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Jason Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, Sarah Vowell, Spencer Fox, Elizabeth Pena

Screenplay: Brad Bird

Rating: PG; cartoon sci-fi violence

Running time: 115 min.