On Incredible Spy Kids

If you ever want your brain to implode, or, you want to give yourself a great deal of impetus to be a good parent, I suggest you watch The Incredibles and Spy Kids back to back. It was quite the contrast. First, you have the fathers. Mr. Incredible is a smart, talented, and compassionate man who in his good moments is a dedicated family man, and in his bad moments seeks to re-live the glory days. He is blessed, his life clearly loves him, his children respect and obey him, and like all good American heroes, his boss despises him. Through the film he is refined and his selfishness is shown as such, and his love for his family is shown as good. He learns to serve and allow himself to be served, and in such, he becomes a man. Compare this to Gregorio Cortez. Gregorio Cortez is a smart and successful former spy, who makes it plain that "he is a consultant, not a spy" entirely, of course, for the sake of the children. Yet, as soon as a chance to dive back into the action is offered, he throws caution, parental responsibility, and sense to the winds in the chance to go "be a man!"

In even greater contrast, stands the ladies of the house. Ingrid Cortez' maternal affection is confined to the rose-tinted realm of telling her romance to her daughter and worrying incessently about them when she thoughtlessly abadons them to go be the sexy, secret agent. In contrast, there is Elastigirl, who moves rapidly from insisting she is at the top of her game and she will never give that up to have a family, to marriage, to suburban house-wife. She vacuums, she births mutliple children, she cares for and instructs her children, and when she thinks her husband is unfaithful and in danger, she considers the matter, and rushes to his rescue. He may be a creep, but he is her husband, and she loves him.

Finally, there are the kids. The spy kids start the movie as infernal brats. Not so surprising, every movie needs drama, the trouble arises when you realize that they end the movie, not grown, but vindicated. They begin the movie as bratty children--left home while their parents go off to war, and only begin their career as spies to save their parents when kidnappers come to call. They end the movie as the adults. They are asked to go on adventures it is is they who take dominance and set the moral of the story as they insist that "no, we will not go unless you let our parents come along too." Essentially, "family is important, so we insist you acknowledge our parents at our level." Violet and Dash of the Incredibles also start the movie as your typical bratty children. Violet has a temper and a crush on the local teen-age hottie, and Dash is a prankster with a taste for tormenting his sister. But, even at the beginning their is a depth to their relationship with each other and their parents that is totally absent in Spy Kids. For one thing, the kids respect their parents authority. Not perfectly, but they obey and honor them. To the Spy Kids, learning of their parent's achievements as spies earned their professional, if not personal respect. To the Incredible children, seeing their parents in action impresses them far less than watching their father confess that he did wrong and go forth and do rightly. For another thing, the kids love and affirm each other. Dash mocks his sister's crush, and Violet thinks her brother is an annoying creep, but there is no evidence of the constant belittling that is the sound track of Spy Kids, and the children work well in partnership when the pressure is on. Indicating that they have a trusting and stable relationship the rest of the time. In Spy Kids, the children bungle and funble their way to survival because they have no basis of trust, affection, or mutual competance on which to build.

Spy Kids shows that everyone should have the freedom to do what they think right, the result is the family is upside down with the parents are the bottom. The Incredibles insists that everyone has the duty to do the right thing, both to the family and to the community, and the movie ends with a bond of love, respect and authority. Spy Kids confirms my idiot notion that only the insane bear children, and The Incredibles makes me believe that "children are a blessing, he who has a quiver full of them is fortunate."