Director: Brad Bird
Starring: Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Catherine Keener
Year: 2018
For some reason they dropped the “the” from the title of the sequel; you really don’t notice how often you use the word “the” until it talk about it, apparently it’s pretty important. Why is the first called The Incredibles while the second is called Incredibles 2? Just like how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop, the world may never know. But I found it odd enough to mention, now I’m finding it odd that mentioned it at all, so let’s move on. Whatever it’s called, we finally got the followup to the Disney/Pixar film we all enjoyed, it only took 14 years to make it. At least at the theatre I was in, there was a little apology at the beginning from the actors, with an assurance that it would all be worth the wait. Spoiler Alert (not really); it was.
The Incredible Family saved the day, but that didn’t change the law; Supers are still illegal. This time, it’s Mrs. Incredible (aka Elastigirl) who will wear the supersuit in the family, as she heads off to fight crime even though she’s not supposed to, while Mr. Incredible stays home with the kids. Neither job is easy; Elastigirl is the face of the sweeping movement to bring back Supers, but there’s something fishy about the villain, Screenslaver, she’s trying to catch, and Mr. Incredible has to deal with Dash’s desire to be a Super, Violet’s recent interest in dating, and Jack-Jack’s newfound powers, 17 of them to be exact. It’s a wild time for Earth’s favorite fam, but once again they’ll need to work together to save the world from the evil geniuses who want it all for themselves.
It took long enough, but the sequel is here, and it’s a winner. The smartest thing the filmmakers could do was to follow in the footsteps of the original, and they did that perfectly, not copying too much but also not veering off in a completely different direction. Frozone was back, Edna (voiced by Brad Bird himself, if you can believe it), even Tony Rydinger, not that we were losing sleep over not having him around recently. Point is, fans get what they waited and paid for, and that’s more of the same from an awesome world that was created a while ago and which we haven’t seen nearly enough of. This franchise is pure fun, and while it’ll never surpass the Pixar greats at the top of my personal list, it’s too enjoyable to be ignored. Great animation, cool music, kick-ass characters; what more do you want? And I can’t forget to mention Jack-Jack, who completely stole the show with his abilities, the comedy surrounding him, and the way he played off Mr. Incredible. It was all good, all pleasing, all exactly what we wanted; just don’t make us wait so long next time, guys.
My rating: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆