The Incredibles is essentially the cinematic equivalent of Watchmen. Yes, there was an actual adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's seminal comic book a few years later, but there's been no film that better dissected the genre within the medium while still delivering a worthy story than Brad Bird's animation. There's the obvious direct parallels - the issue with capes; a villain staging a city attack to further his own cause - but it's how it tackles monologuing and deals with "Supers" in the everyday world (and not the heightened "real" world the likes of Kick-Ass inhabit) that make The Incredibles such a potent superhero flick. But while it fully shows how a super-movie should work (even if many films to this day repeat the tropes it criticises), it's also a fully developed relationship drama, exploring the dynamic of an idealised nuclear family. There's not even a balancing act between these two threads - they're interlinked in their entirety, meaning whether you're watching Mr. Incredible fight an Omnidroid or Bob Parr struggle through dinner it all feels purposeful. Through all that, The Incredibles also happens to be Pixar's least Pixar movie. There's the usual heartfelt development, but the level of realism and story structure is wholly unique in their filmography. Heck, the Pizza Planet Truck (which has appeared in every other movie since Toy Story) is absent. Far from being a slight against it, that's actually one of the film's biggest strengths, making it wholly unique within their filmography (and animation as a whole).
