Reliably fun, if not incredible
Pixar picks an interesting time to reacquaint us with the Parrs
Incredibles 2 picks an interesting time to reacquaint us with the Parrs, its family of suburbanized, Spandexed and superpowered do-gooders.
In a year that has already seen the urban majesty of Black Panther, the nihilist mischief of Deadpool 2 and the what-just-happened? freakout of
Avengers: Infinity War, it would take a lot to make this long-gestating Disney/Pixar sequel live up to its name.
So returning writer/director Brad Bird doesn’t really try to do so, instead hoping that familiarity with the retro-1960s story and affection for the characters will carry the day, as they agreeably do.
Incredibles 2 proceeds from precisely where The Incredibles left off in 2004. Mr. Incredible/Bob Parr (voiced by Craig T. Nelson), his wife Elastigirl/ Helen Parr (Holly Hunter), teen daughter Violet (Sarah Vowell), preteen son Dash (Huck Milner) and baby Jack-Jack (Eli Fucile) are seeking to stop a drillcrazy supervillain called the Underminer (John Ratzenberger), who does to their hometown Municiberg what the Caddyshack gopher does to golf courses.
They’re assisted by their icecool buddy Frozone/Lucius Best (Samuel L. Jackson) and still mostly in the dark about Jack-Jack’s amusingly fearsome superpowers, although they’ll soon learn — and the audience already knows. Superheroes are still illegal in this quaintly fascist version of the 1960s, so everybody is still officially in hiding until duty calls.
Bird changes the perspective slightly by having the Underminer strike just as Violet is being asked out on a first date by her shy male admirer Tony (Michael Bird, Brad’s son).
Our heroes have important new fans: billionaire communications entrepreneur Winston Deavor (Bob Odenkirk) and his tech-minded sister Evelyn (Catherine Keener), who want to not only shelter the Parrs — they get a fancy new domicile, replacing the one destroyed in the first film — but also to fight for the anti-superheroes law to be repealed.
These are handy allies to have. But there’s a catch: Winston wants Elastigirl to be frontand-centre as a crime-buster, which he judges will be better for public relations. This obliges Bob Parr to play the doofus stay-at-home dad, a trope of sitcoms since long before the approximately 1964 time frame of this one (a time estimated from the Jonny Quest and Outer Limits shows seen on the Parr family TV).
Less familiar, and certainly appropriate to the era, is the large amount of screen time and character development allotted to female characters, especially Elastigirl/Helen, Violet, Evelyn and the endearingly caustic designer Edna Mode (who maybe doesn’t count since she’s voiced once again by Brad Bird).
Things get generously goosed with the introduction of a group of new wannabe superheroes, who range from the useful (Sophia Bush’s Voyd can make things appear and disappear) to the risible (Paul Eiding’s senior citizen Reflux uses indigestion to smite foes).
Municiberg also gets a mindaltering new supervillain called Screenslaver, voiced by Bill Wise, who is almost too scary for a Pixar movie — hence the PG (parental guidance) rating. He’d be right at home in a Marvel or DC superhero film, and his particular weapon serves as a cautionary tale for the perils of zombie-like devotion to digital screens.
Incredibles 2 is done up in brightly coloured animation that is as impressive as before, set to a score composed by Michael Giacchino that is easy on the ears and also suitable for the most heroic of cocktail parties.
No longer so incredible — and in truth, they never really were — Brad Bird and the Parrs are now happy just to be thought of as reliably entertaining.