The Incredibles makes it six in a row for those masters over at Pixar. This is a wonderfully glorious adventure that benefits from the outstanding visual splendor that we've come to expect from a Pixar film. It's also smartly written, offering up a wide range of gags and storyline elements that will appeal to nearly every demographic in the audience including the almighty movie geek.

The Incredibles is a super hero movie of sorts and introduces us to Mr. Incredible, a mighty crime fighter who always works alone. When a crime bust goes slightly awry, our fearless hero (as well as a handful of others in the business) is forced to hang-up his super suit after a victim - who sustains minor injuries - decides to sue for damages. Thus, Bob Parr (Mr. Incredible's alter ego) is forced into early retirement, but thankfully he has the love of his life to grow old with. As the years pass by, however, Bob continues to get itchy for the old days and secretly sneaks out with his buddy Lucius Best (aka Frozone) to foil crimes. Ultimately, he's called back into duty by an anonymous source and agrees to spring back into action. However he does opt to keep the mission a secret from his wife Helen (who also happened to be a super hero back in the day - Elastigirl) and their three children, who may or may not possess powers of their own.

What I really enjoyed about The Incredibles was it's ability to be both a send up and a homage to super-hero tales at the same time. It's playful with it's winks to the likes of Superman, Fantastic Four, and X-Men etc., but it also offers up plenty of furious action and characters worth caring about.

The Incredibles is also wickedly funny - poking fun at a mid-life crisis and it's an enormously entertaining view at super-hero suburban life. The Incredibles also comes with a diabolically hilarious villain in the form of Syndrome (voiced by the gifted Jason Lee). One of the best running jokes in the movie is simply the origin of this character. How he comes to be is sort of a sly jab at fan boys everywhere, but again, it's all presented in a playful manner. Finally, this movie manages to display the importance of family without beating us over the head with it. In this respect, The Incredibles reminded me of Robert Rodriguez's creative Spy Kids films.

What's more, Pixar reaches new heights in the quality of computer generated animation, delivering a tale that revolves around human characters. Since the release of Toy Story, we've seen toys, bugs, monsters, and fish come to awe-inspiring life, but this is Pixar's first feature length tale to really put humans at the forefront, and they've done so in impressive fashion.

Once again, the vocal talent that's been rounded up to bring these characters to life is picture perfect. Craig T. Nelson has the voice of a super-hero and his droll delivery is right on the money. Samuel L. Jackson does his best Samuel L. Jackson impersonation as Frozone, and listening to him utter the line; "Where's my Super Hero suit woman?" is an absolute hoot - even if it is a tad obvious. Holly Hunter offers up the strongest vocal performance. Her comic timing made me forget I was watching a cartoon.

The Incredibles was directed by the amazing Brad Bird, who did plenty of work on The Simpsons before delivering the terrific Iron Giant. With this creative fantasy tale, he once again proves that animation is not a genre - it's a medium. And he's found an innovative way to say thank you to all the characters who have inspired him through the years (i.e. James Bond, Indiana Jones). But mostly, I admire that this guy never dumbs down the proceedings. Sure, The Incredibles is funny and adventurous, but it's intelligent in ways that many other animated features aren't (the recent Shark Tale, is the perfect example).

If I have any gripe with this picture at all, it's the length. I did find it a tad long (although it should be noted that it is preceded by a terrific Pixar short called Boundin'), and towards the end, my little ones did get a little antsy, but a big bucket of popcorn took care of that. Where do I rank The Incredibles among Pixar's other releases. Well, personally, I didn't find it as funny as the Toy Story pictures or as moving as Finding Nemo, but it's still a stunning achievement and for my money, it was more entertaining than A Bug's Life and Monster's Inc. It's always tough to find the perfect family film, and this is definitely one of them.

SPECIAL SIDE NOTE!

Yes, I did see the Episode III trailer, and yes, it is pretty darned exciting, even if nearly half of it consisted of footage from the other films. Still, the minute the Lucasfilm logo appeared, the packed theater went absolutely nuts. I was surprised that they actually showed the Darth Vader suit in the trailer. I figured that would have been one of the big money shots that Lucas would want to withhold. There are also some great shots of Yoda prepping for battle and a brief, but kick-ass glimpse of Anakin and Obi -Wan fighting atop what looked to be an active volcano with lava flowing in the background. For whatever reason, there are several theaters nationwide that didn't get the trailer. Don't worry. On Monday Nov. 7th you'll be able to check it out on line. And in fact, I understand there are plenty of sites that already have it for viewing. Check it out in the theater if you have the opportunity though. It's much cooler.