The Incredibles (2004)

I think The Incredibles would have marked a departure for any animation studio, let alone Pixar. Because it was really an action film that wanted you to worry about the health of its main characters, and animation doesn’t do that very well – the very medium encourages people to imagine that no actual harm is happening to anybody. We’re all conditioned that coyote falls off the cliff and dusts himself off and he’s fine within three seconds.

This was a movie that did a whole bunch of things that animated movies weren’t suppose to do : It relied on jeopardy, and it dealt with genuine grown-up problems, getting older, gaining weight, losing vitality and being stuck in a crappy job instead of being king of the world.

It’s a midlife crisis movie, wrapped up in superhero clothing.