Fun follow-up a family affair
Not many sequels are 14 years in the making – and even fewer pick up just minutes from where their predecessor left off.
But both of those unusual occurrences apply to Pixar’s long-awaited follow-up to one of the animation studio’s biggest critical and commercial hits.
The family dynamic remains but this time around the main super-heroics are performed by Elastigirl (voiced by Holly Hunter) as her husband Mr Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) is left at home to care for the couple’s three kids while she is out saving the world.
It’s an interesting role-reversal which ties into the current widespread mission for gender equality, although apparently this was always the plan for this sequel’s storyline.
Brad Bird returns to write and direct and his fantastic family still feel hugely relevant in a cinematic world home to a much grander array of superheroes than that found back in 2004 when the original was released.
Ironically, though, within the Incredibles’ landscape superheroes remain an antiquated species that the public are more likely to fear or greet with a shrug of the shoulders rather than fan worship.
The lack of any great time jump leaves this sequel – which admittedly has no specified era – lacking in any great ability to tap into real world events and sensitivities that have taken place over the last decade-and-a-half.
Incredibles 2 is shorn of some of its predecessor’s freshness, originality and emotional warmth as a result.
What it isn’t shy of, however, is a sense of fun, top drawer set pieces and more realistic family escapades playing out within super-powered circumstances.
Seeing Elastigirl take up the heroic mantle is a joy to behold and Mr Incredible’s stay-athome-dad struggles lead to most of the film’s biggest laughs.
The entire Incredible family once again get their bad guy-bashing moments in the spotlight, though, with baby Jack-Jack gleefully utilising a variety of previously unseen powers.
In a welcome move, Samuel L. Jackson’s cool customer Frozone is given additional screen time and Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul fans will get a kick out of hearing – and seeing given his animated character’s similarities to his real-life appearance – Bob Odenkirk (Winston Deavor).
Bird and the Pixar team fill every frame with detailed, lived-in environments and the relentless pace means the movie breezes by with high-powered energy.
The animation trappings allow Bird a free hand to throw his heroes and heroines into bewildering action sequences crammed with spectacle which live-action comic book adaptations would struggle to match – no matter how much CGI gets thrown at them.
While not as incredible as the original, this is a worthy follow-up bristling with fun and frolics for the whole family.