Okay, I admit it. I have a special place in my heart for The Incredibles. It was my first opportunity to work for Brad Bird. I worked with a lot of really great people, many of whom I went on to work with again during Ratatouille, and let’s face it: I just love the whole comic book/superhero genre.
It’s hard to describe what I spend a lot of my time doing during movie production, but I’m often working in the rendering department. It’s our responsibility to make sure that each and every frame of each and every shot meets with the directors approval. We fix all sorts of minor technical issues, and even the occasional odd bit of animation or lighting. When the shot clears out department, the director has basically said that he’s approved the look of the film (minor changes can be made in image mastering, but hopefully they are minor).
That’s why it’s so painful to watch The Incredibles on the ABC Family Channel on Comcast.
To be honest, I don’t know whether it’s the Family Channel’s fault or Comcast fault, but sweet spirit of camphor, are they sending the movie down the pipe at 500kbps or something? The transfer is simply awful. Dreadful. Unwatchable. Words escape me how terrible it is. Pixelation. Colors are crushed. Mosquito noise. It’s just pathetic.
Please, please, please. Watch the DVD. It’s really quite good. Don’t judge it by the youtube experience you see on the Family Channel. I’ve seen better from pirate DVDs from Singapore.
Sorry, just had to get that off my chest.
Although it’s hard to pick, I think The Incredibles may still be my fave from Pixar. I remember walking away from it feeling I’d seen a masterpiece, the same sort of feeling one gets from seeing the greatest Disney classics for the first time. A lot of films can get it right on two or three counts, but everything was spot on in terms of writing, characters, voice, art. It was clearly the work of a really talented group of people. Well done!
One of the greatest things about The Incredibles is all of the beautiful color dynamics and artistic detail that was put into just about everything. I spent half of the movie simply admiring the backgrounds and the mid-century interiors and thinking, “Look at that wall-art above the bedside table. I want that!” But to the layman eye, I’m not so sure if people would notice the details lost in translation from hi-def to tube, so you might not have to worry too much, but I can certainly understand your distress. Those little nuances are what made me love The Incredibles and respect the Pixar team even more, after all, and to lose any of it is shaming a brilliant piece of storytelling.