Seeing hordes of parents bringing their preschoolers to The Incredibles always amazed me. Not because the movie was bad. On the contrary — it was one of the most inventive, exciting films of the year (hence the Animated Feature Oscar). But it was full of guns, fistfights, explosions, and suspicions of marital infidelity. That's a bit heavy for a 3-year-old. Maybe parents didn't notice the PG rating. Or maybe they assumed anything from Pixar was appropriate for all ages. Or maybe I've just been unmasked as a major-league prude. (Probably all three.)
Thankfully for us older fans, the extras on this two-disc set don't cater to the pre-K crowd. Unlike the games and karaoke features that populate most kids' DVDs, The Incredibles offers over an hour of making-of footage, deleted scenes — including a hilarious alternate-opening BBQ scene in which Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) must fake an injury in order to maintain his secret identity — two short films (Jack-Jack Attack shows exactly what happened to Kari the babysitter), and ''secret'' files on all 21 superheroes (plus amusing audio snippets).
But the coolest extra by far has to be the cheesy, purposely poorly animated Mr. Incredible & Pals cartoon. (Imagine those inept Saturday-morning Beatles 'toons from the 1960s.) The accompanying commentary by Mr. Incredible and Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson) is the funniest thing in the entire package — and that includes the movie. ''They made me a white guy!'' complains Frozone upon seeing his lightened likeness. ''Are you kidding me?'' Now, try explaining that one to the tots.
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