So, how are 'The Incredibles' like your family?

Boston Globe ^ | 11/25/04 | Barbara F. Meltz

[Pikamax]

So, how are 'The Incredibles' like your family? By Barbara F. Meltz, Globe Staff | November 25, 2004

Walking to and from school after she saw the movie ''The Incredibles," 11-year-old Sarah Wanger of Newton decided to try walking fast. Really fast. Sometimes she even ran.

''I was surprised," she says. ''I can run faster than I think."

Sarah wasn't pretending to be Dash, the son in the animated Pixar movie whose superpower enables him to run super fast, but he certainly was her inspiration. ''The movie made me think not to be down on yourself. Real kids don't have superpowers, but if you believe in yourself you might be able to do things you didn't think you could do," she says.

That's not the only message Sarah took from the movie. She and her friends have been talking about Violet, Dash's teenage sister, whose ability to make herself invisible protects not only her brother, but even super strong dad, Bob Parr, aka Mr. Incredible, and mom, Helen, who has magical elastic limbs.

''Violet was more self-confident after she saw how important she could be to her family," Sarah says. ''We've been talking about how we could be sort of like that."

[js1138]

This is kind of a silly argument, but Miyazaki has parentless children because that is a element that people have liked in stories for thousands of years. How many famous stories can you name where an intact nuclear family was featured throughout?

Most of the examples I think of first -- Cheaper by the Dozen (original), The Waltons, October Sky -- are based on true stories.

[GOP Jedi]

"Famous story" is kinda broad. Most stories, famous or otherwise, aren't about children, so the issue of parental status doesn't enter in. Do you mean fairy and folk tales? Since happy and well-cared-for children have little motivation to seek out giants, dark woods, and far-away castles, it is hardly surprising that many have less than perfect home lives.

What motivates Miyazaki is something neither you or I know. I do know what motivates the bean counters at Disney. It isn't famous stories, nuclear or otherwise.

[TASMANIANRED]

Betty Jane, If you look at when those books were written, most of them were at a time when things were radically different. ( Harry Potter aside)

The life expectancy in the US at the turn of the century was 49 and 3/4 of children died. Many of them in infancy but lost a lot to childhood illnesses.

Tom Sawyer has a small pox case in it. Small pox wasn't eliminated world wide till the 1970's.

The flu epidemic of 1918 killed millions, Polio was a feature of life in the United States up until the 1960's.

The number of families with intact/origional mother and father with their children during colonial times was rare. Many women died during childbirth and many men lost to accidents. They blended families.

Life used to be a lot more fragile. The US took 500,000 casualties during WWII and there were a lot of widowed women and fatherless children.

The till death do us part in the marriage vows was literal.

My own grandmother was a widow at 29 with 4 children.

In modern times, we have forgotten how fragile our grip on life is. Now it is common for divorce rather than death to end a marriage.

These books reflected real life.