Superhero family zoom back
In 2004 ‘The Incredibles’ opened to rapturous reviews. After such a long wait, expectations for ‘Incredibles 2’ are super-sized
Brad Bird stood in front of a full orchestra on the Barbra Streisand Scoring Stage on the Sony Pictures lot, his leg bouncing to the beat, a big grin on his face.
At a recent scoring session for Pixar Animation Studios’ superhero sequel Incredibles 2, the film’s writer-director watched as dozens of musicians brought composer Michael Giacchino’s jazzy, ‘60sinflected score to life. For a die-hard cinephile like Bird, the hallowed history of this particular scoring stage — which had been used to record the music for films like The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind and Lawrence of Arabia not to mention the first
Incredibles — only added to his delight. “The ghosts in the room are the highest-quality film ghosts you can get,” he said.
When Incredibles 2 arrives in theatres today, the action will pick up immediately after the events of the first film, with the superhero Parr family — parents Bob/ Mr. Incredible and Helen/ Elastigirl and kids Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack — ready to battle evil as if not a minute had passed. For the film’s cast and crew and the audience, it’s been 14 long years since the original. And for much of that time, it wasn’t clear this moment would ever come. In November 2004, The
Incredibles — the story of a family of superheroes forced to hide their powers and try to blend into suburbia — opened to rapturous reviews, going on to earn $633 million (Dh2.3 billion) in global box office receipts. Critics and audiences alike fell in love with the film’s all-too-human do-gooders — including Mr. Incredible (voiced by Craig T. Nelson), Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) and Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson) — who struggle to balance the mundane problems of marriage and child-rearing with saving the world.
Bird, who’d been inspired to conceive The
Incredibles out of his own boyhood love of spy films and comic books, capped the film’s success by taking the Oscar for animated feature. But rather than dive straight into a sequel, as many filmmakers would have, he moved on to other projects, directing 2007’s
Ratatouille, 2011’s Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and 2015’s sci-fi adventure Tomorrowland.
Still, for Bird, The Incredibles has always held a special place in his heart. “The most fun experience I’ve had yet making a movie was the first Incredibles,” he said. “It seems on the outside like a really hypercommercial movie, but it’s strangely personal to me. It’s all the stuff I liked blended in with my own family, who I love. It’s got its own flavour.”
Incredibles had seemed tailor-made for a sequel, ending on a cliffhanger in which the Parrs, having vanquished Syndrome, prepare to do battle with a new baddie called the Underminer. As the years went on and no followup seemed to be on the horizon, many fans were perplexed.
But while Bird was aware that executives at Pixar and its corporate parent, the Walt Disney Co., were eager for him to make a follow-up, for years the project remained only half-formed.
In a world now awash in ever-splashier comicbook movies, Bird knew that trying to compete in that arms race would be folly. Rather than stuff the sequel with more eye-popping spectacles in an effort to top the original, he thought, it was better to keep the focus squarely on the core strength of the franchise: its characters.
After such a long wait, expectations for the film, both critically and commercially, are undeniably super-sized.
Bird won’t divulge much about the plot. “Wackiness ensues,” he said with a wry smile. “It’s going to be big. Popcorn will be munched.”