A FUN FAMILY REUNION
Incredible brood is back and turns in a solid outing of superhero flyin’ and fightin’
INCREDIBLES 2
★★★ out of 5
Cast: Holly Hunter,
Craig T. Nelson, Catherine Keener Director: Brad Bird
Duration: 1h58m When we last left the Incredibles, 14 years ago, the 1960s superhero family was about to do battle with a villain called the Underminer. Incredibles 2 picks up at precisely the same point, with the wife and husband team of Helen and Bob (voiced by Holly Hunter and Craig T. Nelson) joined by daughter Violet (Sarah Vowell), son Dash (Huck Milner) and infant Jack-Jack to battle the Pixar lucky charm that is John Ratzenberger.
The melee has as little to do with the larger plot as one of those old Bond movies that found him wrapping up an assignment before the opening credits. But it illustrates the fact that fighting crime is a messy business, one those in power (regular, not super) don’t like cleaning up. Or as the film posits, in a mild bit of modern posturing: “Politicians don’t understand people who do good just because it’s right. Makes ’em nervous.”
It’s an issue the Marvel movies have dealt with — hmm, almost like they’re owned by the same corporate overlord — but, this being a children’s film, the solution is simpler. With superherodom still illegal, the Incredibles find a patron in genial tech baron Winston Deavor (Bob Odenkirk), aided by his in-the-shadows inventor sister Evelyn (Catherine Keener). His plan is to spin their crime-fighting exploits so that people realize how valuable they are.
Since Elastigirl tends to leave less rubble in her wake, she’s chosen as the face of the new superhero movement. And as luck (if you want to call it that) would have it, a new villain named Screenslaver arises, apparently inspired by TV’s The Outer Limits.
You could launch into some Augustinian theodicy at this point as to whether goodness creates its own evil, but again — kids’ movie!
It is quite a long kids’ movie, mind you. Add in the adorable eight-minute short Bao by Canadian animator Domee Shi and you’re already well over the twohour mark. But it isn’t all one headlong rush — there are some nice distractions, like a tour of the Incredibles’ new house, which looks like a Frank SinatraHugh Hefner co-production. Or the introduction of a bunch of new superheroes with unusual powers, though sadly none of them registers as more than comic relief — don’t expect any Marvel-style backstory prequels to follow.
There’s also a nice bit when Jack-Jack is babysat by “Auntie” Edna Mode, who’s a cross between fashion designer Edith Head and writer-director Brad Bird, who voices her. This is to give Bob a break — with Elastigirl out fighting the Screenslaver, Mr. Incredible has to stay home and look after the kids. It’s a rolereversal gag that Bird thankfully doesn’t play too broadly. In fact, by the end of the film the lesson learned by all the Incredibles is that it takes a family to raise a family.
So, not unlike the Fast and Furious franchise there.
The film features a few easy twists and roads-most-taken, including the old villain-inplain-site cliché that won’t fool any but the youngest or leastattentive viewers. And this is probably just me, but I yearn to see the outtake where Samuel L. Jackson’s Frozone character is allowed to go full Jackson with his dialogue.
But it’s still a solid Pixar outing. The studio has been relying more and more on sequels of late — the 2000s saw a string of seven original releases, but in this decade sequels have outnumbered them six-to-four. Incredibles 2 surpasses the Cars follow-ups and Finding Dory, but it’s not up there with Coco or Inside Out.
It is, however, the family-friendliest superhero movie of the year — or at least until Teen Titans Go! opens in six weeks. Summer is always super-crowded.
Pixar has produced 20 original shorts to date, of which 17 have premièred attached to feature films, from the sentient desk lamp in Luxo Jr. (with Toy Story 2) to the sentient lost-and-found pile in Lou (alongside Cars 3).
Not one has been directed by a woman. Until now.
Domee Shi is the 28-year-old director of Bao, which screens ahead of Pixar’s Incredibles 2. It’s the story of an empty-nest mother who is startled one morning when one of her homemade dumplings comes to life. Think Gingerbread Man, but with a Chinese bun.
The wordless short sees mother and bun bonding and having fun together, until she realizes that this ersatz child will also leave her one day, and makes a desperate attempt to keep him close.
“I always wanted to tell the story of this lonely empty-nester mom going through this crazy dumpling fantasy,” says Shi, sitting in a Toronto Chinese restaurant in front of (naturally) a plate of dumplings. “I was inspired by my own life growing up as an only child, and I wanted to use a dumpling as a kind of metaphor to tell that story of a parent learning to let go of her child.”
Shi was born in Chongqing, China, but moved to Toronto with her parents when she was two years old. After graduating from Sheridan College’s animation program, she left the city in 2011 for Pixar and has since worked on several films there, including 2015’s Inside Out and Incredibles 2.
“It was awesome being able to work with (director) Brad Bird on Incredibles 2,” she says.
“He’s been like an animation hero of mine.”
And for the past four years, the story of Bao (the Chinese word for a steamed bun) was taking shape in her head.
“That’s when I first started sketching dumplings with faces on my computer.” She got the green light in 2015, and gathered a producer and crew in 2016. In all, more than 100 people worked on the short, though they would often be pulled off the project to help with a feature film.
“Animation is filmmaking in slow motion,” says Shi philosophically. “You learn to love the process and the path, and not so much the final destination.”
Bao is the second Pixar short to be directed by a Canadian, after Alan Barillaro’s Piper, which was nominated for an Oscar in 2016. But Torontonians in particular will feel a sense of kinship with Bao, which features the CN Tower in the background, and scenes of characters riding TTC streetcars.
“The house design is based on my parents’ bungalow in Scarborough,” says Shi. “And I have a Vince Carter jersey shout-out in one shot. Hopefully not stepping on any NBA copyrights there.”
Don’t try looking for Lucy Street, however, which is where one character goes shopping. Toronto doesn’t have one. “Lucy is the name of our production manager,” says Shi. “Also the name of our producer’s baby.”
Shi’s mom also had a role to play. “She’s like the cultural consultant for our short,” says the director. “We officially credited her as that. She came to the studio twice to do dumpling-making classes for the whole crew. We filmed her making dumplings from start to finish, and we used the footage as reference for the animators. I thought that would be such a cool detail to see animated ... to share that with the world.”
So is the character her mom? “I like to say that the mom character is a combination of her, my grandma, my aunt — all the strong Chinese women in my life.”
Shi is now at work on a feature film at Pixar, an achievement that put her on a recent Variety list of 10 animators to watch. It might also make her the first female director of a Pixar feature. Brenda Chapman is credited as a co-director on 2012’s Brave, but left midway through production.
“I definitely felt super supported,” Shi says of her time spent on Bao. “And it kind of only hit me after I finished the short — ‘You’re going to be the first female director directing a short film!’ Holy crap! But I feel super honoured, super humbled. But I’m also like, ‘Yeah! It’s about time!’ And I hope I’m the first of many female directors to come.”
Bao screens ahead of Incredibles 2, which is in theatres now.