Elastigirl from ‘The Incredibles’ Is a Thicc Superhero Queen–but One Review Went Too Far

Pixar’s The Incredibles 2, the action-packed and family-friendly follow-up to the 2004 animated superhero blockbuster, can teach audiences a lesson or two. How to balance a relationship, how to become less addicted to screens, how to properly fight off a rascally raccoon. Turns out another lesson it can teach all of us is how and when to playfully ogle animated characters.

Okay okay okay–yes, it sounds a little creepy for adults to objectify cartoon characters created for children’s entertainment. But all of us, at one point or another, has admitted–either seriously or jokingly–that a cartoon possesses a certain hotness. Maybe it’s Nala in The Lion King’s come hither stare, or the carefree charisma of Disney’s foxy Robin Hood, the alternative cool of Daria’s Jane Lane and her brother Trent, or any number of 2-D comic book superheroes. The internet just went through a whole thing regarding whether or not Avengers: Infinity War’s Grimace-hued computer-generated prune-chinned bad guy Thanos was a total daddy, so, you know, this happens.

Enter: Elastigirl, the matriarch badass of the Incredibles franchise, voiced by Holly Hunter. When The Incredibles first arrived in 2004, the internet did not yet have the language to describe the hero’s physicality, nor did it have the platform with which to do it. In 2018, there’s a whole thing happening on Twitter about how totally thicc Elastigirl is. Hilariously, Know Your Meme dates “thicc’s” first usage as November 4, 2004, and Incredibles opened on November 5, 2004. Mind=blown, right?! In the 14 years since Incredibles opened, thicc entered into popular usage, and Twitter emerged. The time was right for Incredibles 2 to get all thicc…

Objectifying a cartoon character can be dicey, but Twitter is the perfect place to do it. These tweets are fun, and they’re playing with a pairing of slang and Disney cartoon that you don’t often see. This is all good (although, be warned, there is also some NSFW stuff on Twitter that I wish I could unsee).

What’s the wrong way to objectify a cartoon? Anthony Lane of The New Yorker sure figured it out! Here’s a paragraph from his review that is making the rounds on Twitter:

That alarmingly prurient passage is just… it’s a lot, and it’s… you want to take a shower afterwards. Mainly because in what world does Elastigirl look even remotely like Dakota Johnson? And how in the world do you think it’s appropriate to conjure up an image of a father getting an unexpected boner over two cartoon characters just talking while he sits in a theater, surrounded by children? Also, who in the world watches Incredibles 2 and then assumes that everyone else is going to respond to it like an incredible thirst trap? Mr. Lane, you are so completely alone in this! Incredibles 2 is not so erotic that parents need to be warned!

But that ain’t it! The first paragraph of his review dissects the Incredible couple’s “trampoline” move that they bust out during battle. Mr. Lane writes:

“I’m disappointed to report that the action in question is merely the manic pursuit of a gigantic drill that is whirring through a crowded city and demolishing everything in its path, rather than a lazy afternoon in the marital boudoir with the door discreetly shut.”

The thing is, if these are all jokes, they belong on Twitter, a platform that’s built for the sharing of irreverent thoughts and wacky ideas. These thoughts do not play the same in a serious review written by a 56-year-old man in a prestigious publication like The New Yorker! If you’re joking, read the room! If you’re not, then take your thirst tweets to Twitter where they belong and leave them out of your review of a children’s movie.

Now that that’s out of the way, can we talk about Mr. Incredible??

Where to stream The Incredibles