The Amazings

:) Yes, that's what The Incredibles(2004) are. I saw it last night and it was thoroughly enjoyable. The movie felt like a Simpsons-episode on steroids. The correspondence between the two families and the setting is absolutely uncanny.

The "social statement" that the film makes is highly deceptive. On the face of it, the statement is about mediocrity and how such an incredible family has to act normal and mediocre to fit in. This is the low-fat, vanilla, feel-good statement that everybody wants to hear about how "society" does not allow them "to be who they really are". But, the film is way smarter than that, because this very message is also thoroughly mocked taking the form of the characters Buddy and the baby Jack Jack.

Buddy is not a superhuman by birth, but wants to be one. His way of overcoming this congenital fact of having been born "normal", is to use invention, ingenuity and prosthetics to be able to do what a "superhuman" does. His source of acute chagrin is that his ability to do things that superhumans do is still not accepted because he wasnt born as a superhuman. Well, this is not an acceptable result so he proceeds to change the world...with the ultimate vision that every normal person could have access to these prosthetics so that nobody could claim to be more super than anybody else. While mediocrity is frowned on and everybody (i.e. the mediocre) loves somebody who is outstanding, the character Buddy mocks the mediocre for being satisfied with their mediocrity and stands out as the rare person who expresses open rebellion against the membership of the elite club of superheros being decided on by birthright rather than capability.

Jack Jack again is the only "normal" (well atleast for most of the movie) human in the Incredibles family. While all the others are having difficulties dealing with having to act dumb in order to fit in, clearly Jack Jack would not. I shudder to imagine what a tortured and conflicted life it would be for him to grow up in this family, which is also evident in the movie, where the Incredibles treat him as not really being one of them. Guess that's why he's conveniently a baby who is oblivious to all these undercurrents.

Both of these characters significantly tie in with the earlier discussion about the film Gattaca and my belief that as a society we havent yet found a way to dealing with inter-human differences in a satisfactory way, and due to the deep conflicts in values involved, I don't see this being resolved anytime soon.