How others will see it. The action is a little intense for the mothers of small kids. Older kids might be able to handle it, however. For everyone else, this is a film to savor, and it's difficult to understand any other mentality that would actively dislike this entertaining feature.
How I felt about it. This adult-oriented animated action film is both a parody and a celebration of superhero derring-do. The good news is that it is better than most of the American cultural artifacts that inspired it. Superman and Spiderman, at least in their cinematic versions, aren't particularly funny, and this is a problem since they originated as cartoons.
One can nitpick that Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) wants to have it both ways. She is wed to strongman Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson), has three children, and is eager to live an obscure and ordinary family life. Yet, she switches to Plan B (Meet the Incredibles!) readily. True, she is defending her family, but doesn't seem to be overly concerned that their new lifestyle may not be compatible with their lives.
Also, the mad genius Syndrome (Jason Lee) keeps making the Bond villain mistake of not killing his heroic adversary. He is obnoxiously overconfident, and cannot separate his former role as number one fan from his current role as, um, a lunatic inventor of war machines and cool special effects gadgets.
The Pixar animation style (real-like but unreal, and usually limited in shades of color) continues to impress relative to the old-school Disney lush tapestry of colors and backgrounds. The advantages of the computer-generated virtual reality animation is that provides good depth perception and shading.
The major difference between Pixar and Disney, however, is the target audience. Disney has catered to kids since The Sword in the Stone led the firm astray down the wrong path. Pixar aims to win the adults, knowing that the kids will embrace it too, if the quality is there.
Thus, the characters are more intriguing than the typical Bond vehicle, which is its live-action counterpart. My favorite is super-suit designer Edna (voiced by writer/director Brad Bird). She is an affected and opinionated artist whose take on supermodels is "Nothing super about them. Spoiled, stupid little stick figures with poofy lips who think only about themselves." The only problem is that she is not only aware of Elastigirl's children, but she knows about their powers. But perhaps she pried it from one of the parents in a prior conversation.
The action is also more exciting, because cartoons do not need to follow the laws of physics, time, or gravity. Sets of enormous scale and versatility have impractical cost in live-action. In the world of animation, however, they are simply another background to be drawn.
The excitement of early action scenes does create a problem for The Incredibles. The next action sequence has to be even better, or it will be a letdown. Improvement is made possible by bringing in the kids, which include the often invisible teenager Violet (Sarah Vowell) and irrepressible speedster Dash (Spencer Fox).
The good news is that a sequel is inevitable, one with the fire baby now old enough to participate in family battles. All that's missing, really, is the warmth that the Toy Story films had. Humor and thrills aren't everything after all.