Some people are better than others

The Incredibles was airing on the flight from Boston to San Francisco on Tuesday. I’d seen it before, in the theaters when it came out, but I liked it so much I watched it again on the tiny monitor four rows in front of me. And it’s just as good the second time.

What’s fascinating about the movie is that it’s based on this powerfully undemocratic, unegalitarian message.

In the conversation below Helen is the (superhero-in-hiding) mother and Dash is her son.

DASH	You always say, ”Do your best.” But you don’t really mean it. Why can’t I do the best that I can do?
HELEN	Right now, honey, the world just wants us to fit in, and to fit in, we just gotta be like everybody else.
DASH	Dad always said our powers were nothing to be ashamed of. Our powers made us special.
HELEN	Everyone’s special, Dash.
DASH	Which is another way of saying no one is.

The protagonists (Mr Incredible and his family) have super powers. The villain (Syndrome) doesn’t have any powers, but he’s really smart and so he invents weapons and jet-boots and other things so that he can act like a super hero. His vile scheme is to give his inventions away to everyone so that being super won’t matter anymore.

He must be stopped.

There are a few choice bits of dialog in the plot (Bob is Mr Incredible, and Helen is his wife):

BOB	Reliving the glory days is better than acting like they didn’t happen!
HELEN	Yes! They happened! But this, our family, is what’s happening now, Bob. And you are missing this! I can’t believe you don’t want to go to your own son’s graduation.
BOB	It’s not a graduation. He’s moving from the fourth grade to the fifth grade.
HELEN	It’s a ceremony!
BOB	It’s psychotic! They keep creating new ways to celebrate mediocrity but if someone is genuinely exceptional…

A great movie.

The Mozilla TAG meeting was pretty great yesterday; maybe I’ll post some thoughts here later. I’m in Utah today, and going back to Boston tomorrow.