The Incredibles

I picked this movie up late last week and watched it over the weekend. I recommend it as a demo disk. The sound mix was great and it will really works your sub also. If I am not mistaken, Skywalker Sound was mentioned in the credits. Don't hold me to that though. Of course Pixar did a great job on the animation side of it too.
Did it win any awards for sound or sound editing? If it did not, it should have.

It won best animated feature.

I'm waiting to get this......don't know if my wife is going to pick it up as an Easter present for the kids, but I will definitely be getting it. We saw it in the theater and we all loved it!

I'm sure it will show up in one of the easter baskets. What's your system like?
My wife's 3 little cousins came over and watched it Sat. night and loved it. So did the adults. A guy I work with said he thought it won either best sound or best sound editing. I would not be surprised.
I thought it was odd that the dvd did not give any sound options like dts, or an EX/ES option. All you could select was the language.

I have a 1050 running a pair of Ascend Acoustics CBM-170's, a B&W center channel, RA Labs Micro-monitor surrounds and a PSB Subsonic III 12", 180w sub. My TV(for the meantime) is a JVC 20" job(not even flat-screen).

I think the EX option is strictly handled at the processor end.....either you engage it or you don't. With some titles, the "flag" for EX triggers 6.1 automatically no matter what.

I'll check the flag this evening when I get home to see if it was true 6.1 or if it would just have to be matrixed. You are going to love the way this sounds on your HT.

The only option for audio is language because all three languages (English, French, and Spanish) are Dolby EX soundtracks - standard Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks with some additional encoding to provide a surround back channel for receivers that support EX decoding.

All Dolby EX tracks are matrixed - the Dolby Digital format is limited to 5.1, so the surround back has to be matrixed into the surrounds. DTS ES is somewhat different (you can poke through this PDF file if you want - I only had a chance to skim it, so didn't get much out of it except to say that DTS ES has the capability of a truly discrete 6.1 signal).

thanks gonk,i too,only got to skim that,when time allows i'll read a bit more in depth.i would guess that the matrix portion would explain what the "zoran" is doing to get 6.1 in the 1050,correct??

btw,after my(our) recent setup of DTS from my dvd,and being so head over heals for it,i bought a GODSMACK concert because it was DTS.

sounds better in 5.1!(i checked settings twice)

killer though,awesome sound,band is tight,their infamous drum duet...i had goosebumps the first 2 times i watched it.VERY intense!

It's also what happens with Dolby EX processing.

ok, so that "IS" what ES is, i'm not getting "jipped" because i don't have that printed on my receiver.

basically a matrixed channel?(i've never actually used 6.1 myself,have the channels,wire,speakers(2 paralleled),just never have messed with it(or played with it,i should say!))

The basic concept behind Dolby EX (and THX EX, which uses the same core algorithms), the 950's Cirrus Extra Surround, the 1050's 6.1 Surround, and Dolby Pro Logic is matrixing one signal into two other signals. Different implementations will produce different results, but the underlying principle is the same.

The Incredibles sounds great in Prologic IIx!

I check last night and Gonk is right. It is an EX soundtrack. I had not noticed. My receiver recognized the the signal immediately. I also looked and Skywalker Sound LLC did the post production sound editing.

On most of the soundtracks that include DD-EX that I've played, the flag triggers the 6.1 processing automatically at the beginning of the movie. I don't have a 6.1 setup, but tell my 1050 that I do. This way the sound will not drop out as the flag keeps trying to activate the processing.

I've only had one case where I could deactivate the 6.1 after being activated by the DVD, and have it remain off.

This is due to the latest iteration of the Dolby EX flag. Early EX soundtracks (Phantom Menace comes to mind, but there are quite a few others) lacked any flag at all to identify themselves. In fact, many EX soundtracks were released without any indication that they including the EX data - they were listed simply as Dolby 5.1 due to fear of confusing consumers. A couple years after Dolby EX soundtracks started appearing on DVD's, Dolby added a new flag to EX encoding on new discs that would identify them to EX processors. The first batch of discs like this were Jurassic Park III, Pearl Harbor, and Atlantis. This flag did not necessarily force the EX processing to turn on. The current form of the EX flag has been around for probably two years now - that version of the flag does enable EX processing, and with at least some receivers (including the 1050) will not allow EX to be turned off.

Hey, Cargo. Glad to see a fellow Magic City resident on here!! My wife and I are going to watch The Incredibles this weekend after hearing many great things about it.

Thanks Eddie. The movie itself had a good story. I would have liked to see a little more humor in it. For example, the scene from the preview where his suit wouldn't fit because he had gotten too fat, was not in the movie. Overall a good flick for the whole family though.

Let me know what you think after you see it.

The Incredibles is my new demo disc. Deep bass all over the place. I'm totally in love with the soundtrack. I guess it's my high school trumpet playing days coming back.

For some fun, load the second disc. Wait for the menus to run their course and you'll see an "Omnidroid" symbol show up in the upper right hand corner. When it appears, press up and enter. This works on a few different menu screens. Enjoy!

Jason, I'll try the tip out on the 2nd disc. Did you find that it did not have as much humor as you expected?

It has been said in a few reviews that this is an adult oriented movie that is suited for family type viewing. My kids enjoyed it on a different level than my wife and I.

I was initially surprised by the scene from the trailer not being featured in the movie. Over watching the film, however, I found that the film didn't need that kind of "slapstick" type humor and I'm kinda glad the director, Brad Bird, left it out. Actually, now that I think about it, Pixar films in general favor more involved humor than many, silly slapstick moments. It's also one of the main reasons that I think their movies are so successful. That and that the movies are story driven rather than dependent on different scenes. It all adds up to an intensity that drives the films beyond the pure technical achievements they represent.

Here's my own little thought about what Pixar represents as presenters of fantasy family entertainment with an adult touch. In the beginning, there was Disney. For the next generation of kids, they were followed by Warner Bros Cartoons. The next generation, including myself, got the Muppets. Now, there's Pixar. In all of those companies, as Cadboy correctly stated, they produce films that are enjoyable on both the kid and adult level. Basically, it's family enterntainment without the need for bathroom humor. (Although, when they do decide to throw it in, you laugh your socks off)

Two quick questions:

1) Is this your first Pixar DVD? I say this because if you watch the behind the scenes on all of their DVD releases, you really get a feel for the company behind the movies and the way they make them. They're all made story first and then they work out the technical challenges. It really changes the perspective of what an animated film should feel like.

2) Have you watched Brad Bird's other film, "The Iron Giant." It's a great animated film that sort of gives a little bit of perspective of where "The Incredibles" came from.

To finally answer the original question: Yes, I thought the movie had the perfect amount of humor.

If you remember the initial teasers for Pixar's previous two films (Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc), they were both like the Incredibles trailer: i.e., character introduction in a scene that wasn't part of the film.

Incredibles was not my first pixar movie. I have Nemo and have seen the toy stories and monsters inc. Now that I think about it you are right. Pixar goes heavier on the story and Dreamworks leans a little more toward the slap stick and one liners like in shrek or shark tale.
I have not seen Iron Giant though.

We got this for the kids on Easter. They wanted to watch it after breakfast.....love them kids!

Awesome movie, picture-Q and sound! My only gripe with Disney/Pixar DVD's is the EX encoding not being able to be deactivated. It automatically triggers the 1050 into 6.1 mode, even though I only run 5.1!

This may not be limited to the Disney/Pixar discs, however my LOTR DVDs offer DD-EX, yet do not force my system to decode it.

This may only be a decoder issue, as many have stated that the 950 does not share this issue.

A recent movie we watched, I think it was "Sky Captain" or something, triggered the 6.1 decoding in the 1050, yet I was able to switch it off and not have it try to reactivate.

It's a combination of a newer EX flag format and the 1050's proprietary 6.1 processing (which was designed before Dolby established the format for these flags). Some of the early flags can be overridden, but the newest version of the flags cannot.

I count myself lucky, then. I actually use the 6.1.

watched it last night/this morning and was not overly impressed with the audio. the movie was pretty good with a few funny moments. i would say it is pretty average.