Don’t go anywhere — The Incredibles will return after this commercial break
Brad Bird remembers Saturday mornings for the action but all I remember is the adverts for Sunny D
A boy, he could be an older version of eight-year-old me, creeps into a kitchen through the back door. At the fridge, he takes a long gulp from a bottle of Sunny D as his fingers frame the logo. Refreshed, he leaves — only to enter again a second later. “Mom, I’m home,” he calls.* “Can I have a glass of Sunny D?” Homework first, she says. “Oh, alright,” he replies, giving me a sly wink.
With commercials like that, it’s no wonder I don’t remember the cartoons. Because surely it would only be a matter of time before this kid was caught in his lie and I, his reluctant co-conspirator, received a share of the punishment. What would my Saturday morning heroes say?
Actually, they had their own problems.
While ethical dilemmas were bleeding into my weekend, the lives of the Incredibles also went beyond what you saw on screen. Saturday mornings were only safe for twenty minutes at a time. Outside that slot, they would lie and argue and worry like the rest of us. I felt so much better about the Sunny D thing.
I was an anxious kid. So, I’m grateful for The Incredibles. Not because, as for Brad Bird, it reminds me of something I miss but because it reminds me of something I missed: the actual cartoons.
*The commercials shown in British households were, like the cartoons they nestled between, always American. I’d say it didn’t affect me — except here I am calling them commercials.
