Incredibles 2
A blast from the Parrs…
The Parrs are back in action after 14 long years.
The world has changed a lot since The Incredibles. Not the world shown in Incredibles 2 – set directly after the first movie, this sees our spandex-suited super-family still foiling bad guys and still frowned on by government and public alike – but, y’know, the real world: superhero movies have now monopolised the multiplex and a cartoon villain has made the White House his lair.
Both of these developments, each bigger than Giant-Man, impact returning writer/director Brad Bird’s belated sequel to his 2004 original. So while the set-pieces really are incredible, as effervescent as anything over in the MCU, watching a runaway hover train brought spectacularly to heel just isn’t fresh in the way that superheroes saving a city from a giant robot was before Iron Man landed. And, as for the Trump influence, Bird strains a little too hard to make the franchise great again with regular nods to real-world politics: banished ‘Supers’ treated as second-class citizens and termed “illegals”; talk of media being used to feed lies to the duped masses; and such on-the-nose dialogue as, “People have more faith in a monkey throwing darts than Congress.”
Yet despite the first Incredibles feeling newer and, ideas-wise, more focused in its tale of dreary domesticity rubbing up against wacky world-saving, the sequel is terrific. For starters, who wouldn’t want to share in the further adventures of the Parr family – Bob/ Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson), Helen/ Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), teen daughter Violet (Sarah Vowell), young son Dash (Huck Milner) and baby Jack-Jack (Eli Fucile)? What’s more, the soap-opera nature of their day-to-day tasks invites serialisation. Spider-Man certainly didn’t mean changing nappies, separating reds from whites and buying triple-A batteries when he spoke of great responsibilities, but these guys know what it truly takes to keep the world on its axis.
ENEMY MINER
It kicks off with a thrilling set-piece as the heroic clan take on the Underminer (Pixar stalwart John Ratzenberger) and his gigantic corkscrew drill. We soon see that little has changed: no one appreciates the intervention, the bank that was being robbed was insured anyway, and the programme keeping our Supers suited is closed down. Deliverance arrives in the form of telecommunications company DevTech, with CEO Winston Deavor (Bob Odenkirk) and his sister Evelyn (Catherine Keener) convincing the Parrs they just need a little PR spin.
But having analysed the numbers, DevTech only wants Elastigirl (Mr. Incredible is “too messy”), furnishing her with a sleek grey-and-black suit, a sleeker motorbike that splits apart so she can stretch her torso and pull off corners that London’s bendy buses could only dream of, and in-suit cameras to show the public the whole story. While Elastigirl’s off fighting
‘A GENUINE BLAST, BRILLIANTLY ANIMATED AND FURIOUS FUN’
Screenslaver (Bill Wise), a foe who controls people’s minds via, you guessed it, screens, Bob becomes a stay-at-home dad charged with coaching Violet through boy troubles, relearning maths for Dash’s homework and training Jack-Jack to control his polymorphous superpowers.
SNEEZY DOES IT
A glimpse of said powers was provided at the end of The Incredibles (and in 2005 short Jack-Jack Attack), but the full range won’t be spoilered here. Suffice to say they lend Incredibles 2 many of its best gags – an unexpected sneeze can bring explosive results – and its standout set-piece: Jack-Jack discovering his abilities while tussling with a trespassing raccoon. It’s a right rollicking ruckus, like Tom and Jerry leaving it all out on the floor of
Q’s workshop. The visual wit and invention are signature Bird – see also Elastigirl on her motorbike speeding under a monorail, a pursuit that recalls The French Connection, though Popeye Doyle never ploughed his vehicle through buildings, over rooftops and onto the top of the thundering train.
Incredibles 2 is not the Godfather: Part II, The Empire Strikes Back or Terminator 2: Judgment Day of animated sequels. Neither is it, in fact, the Toy Story 2 or Toy Story 3 of animated sequels. Its adult messages are laboured, and it lacks that allimportant emotional undertow (odd given that Bird made the heartbreaking The Iron Giant). The gender-swap career/parent dynamic feels a little obvious, Screenslaver is no match for the original’s oh-so-prescient toxic fanboy Syndrome, and there’s a twist you can see coming from outer space.
But it is a genuine blast, brilliantly animated and furious fun from first frame to last. And we haven’t even mentioned Bird’s movie-stealing cameo as everyone’s favourite fashionista Edna Mode… Jamie Graham
The VERDICT
Be sure to make family time for Bird’s flawed but dazzling sequel. “Superheroes suck,” says Violet. No, they most certainly don’t.