Incredibles 2 (2D)

Review

Runtime: 1 hour, 58 minutes
Rating: PG
Director: Brad Bird

Quick Impressions:
If you have epilepsy triggered by flashing lights, this movie will probably give you a seizure. A notice posted at the entrance of the auditorium did mention this, but that notice was printed on a standard 8.5 by 11 sheet of white printer paper, largely obscured by the opening door. All seven people in my family went to see Incredibles 2, and I was the only one who noticed this non-descript sheet of paper. So I just wanted to mention the strobe light effect right up front because this is a fantastic movie, and I absolute loved it, but having a seizure would have dampened my enthusiasm, I’m sure.

I also feel compelled to mention that I am weird. The Incredibles (2004) was a great film, undeniably good work, but I’ve never really liked it. Don’t take that to mean I hate it. For whatever reason, I’ve just never connected with it emotionally. When I saw it in the theater with my family (i.e. my parents and my college aged sister), I liked it well enough, just not as much as the rest of them. It didn’t resonate with me in the way that many Pixar films had. (I’m a huge fan of Finding Nemo, Wall-E, Monsters Inc., the beginning of Up, the end of Ratatouille.) And I’ve never really had the desire to watch The Incredibles again. I have watched it again, of course, because I live with a bunch of other people, and every once in a while, somebody says, “Hey, let’s watch The Incredibles.” It’s a well made film, just not one that excites me.  I know I’m in the minority there (and deservedly).

The point is, I went into this movie not expecting too much. To be honest, I was expecting my almost three-year-old to follow his usual pattern and make his exit mid-film around the time the popcorn ran out. I mean, we were giving him another chance and everything, but nobody actually expected his behavior to improve much.

Before we left the house, I said to my husband, “You know, I’ll take him out this time. It’s not fair that you always have to do it, and I don’t even care about this movie.”

“No, you stay,” he insisted, “because then you can write a review.”

To our delighted astonishment, we both got to stay. My son was so good. He watched the whole movie and never bolted off down the aisle even once.

To my even greater astonishment, I loved Incredibles 2. It resonated with me in a way that the original never did. Pixar always makes quality films, so I expected the movie to be good. I just never expected to like it so much. For me, this was unquestionably one of Pixar’s finest efforts, much better than all other (non-Toy Story) sequels.

The Good:
From the moment the Incredibles design style took over the Disney studio logo at the beginning of the feature, I was hooked.

I kept thinking, “I wish I could go to Disneyland this summer.”

I was at Disneyland last year when they released the news about Pixar Pier. We were all slightly skeptical to hear that California Screamin’ (one of our favorite rides) was being (very speedily) transformed into some kind of Incredicoaster. But now in the excitement of this year’s movie release, it all suddenly seems perfect.

To be honest, I love the entire visual aesthetic of this film. The drawing itself has such energy, such character. I love the whole future-seeking 1960s vibe of the art and architecture. (The way they’re always watching stuff like The Outer Limits or Johnny Quest reinforces the general look of the buildings, the cars, the costumes.)

Watching, I thought, “This is exciting just to look at. Even the inanimate objects have energy. Forget Pixar Pier. This is how they need to re-invent Tomorrowland.”

Everybody who has been to Disneyland in recent years knows Tomorrowland is in dire need of a makeover. It’s a big, vague disaster over there right now, just a maze of lines. Bringing this kind of energy and vision to the area could really revitalize that part of the park. (Disney, take note, and please put Brad Bird and his design team in charge of a Tomorrowland overhaul immediately.)

Maybe it seems odd to be daydreaming about Disneyland during a movie but a) I really love Disneyland and b) Disney stuff is all designed to be cross promotional. I would not be surprised if the Screen Slaver and all those strobe lights show up as part of the park’s night time revelry in the tradition of ElecTRONica and the Mad T Party. For all I know, something like that is already in the works.

I don’t remember feeling the same energy from the first film. I mean, of course, The Incredibles looked good, but Incredibles 2 looks kinetic. There’s an excitement about every line, a honed focus for every motion. The animation is simultaneously highly stylized and hyper-realistic. (Our fifteen-year-old was impressed by the lifelike motion of the characters’ hair.)

While I watched, I thought, “This does very much have the look of the past imagining the future.” I tried to decide exactly which decade it reminded me of most. Then I thought in excitement, “Maybe it looks like now. Maybe in the future, we’ll look back and remember 2018 as a time nostalgic about a past that used to (naively) imagine a better future.” That idea excited me beyond words. So much was happening on the screen, and it was all so stylized, and I started to think, “This is now. This is the style of now. One day, the future is going to look back and remember the aesthetic of this film as the epitome of our present moment.” I can’t put into words how much this idea excited me.

Incredibles 2 also sold me on the character of Elastigirl. Obviously marketing ploys (even metamarketing ploys) work really well on me, but she does look pretty amazing zooming around town on that motorcycle just like she does on the toy my son got in his Happy Meal on our recent trip to New Orleans.

When we play Incredibles at home (which is a lot lately), the kids always make me be Elastigirl. No offense to Holly Hunter or Craig T. Nelson, but I didn’t find either of the adult Parrs particularly captivating the first time around. My favorite was always Frozone (partially because Samuel L. Jackson gets the funniest scene in the movie and partially because he has the coolest powers, riding around on that ice like Ice Man in the Spiderman cartoon I watched as a five-year-old). But my kids won’t let me be Frozone because they insist I must be an Incredible (by which they mean a Parr).

But while watching Incredibles 2, I suddenly realized, “Yes! I do want to be Elastigirl, after all! She is awesome.” (My nine-year-old daughter insists on being Jack-Jack, if you’re wondering, and her little brother is Dash, which suits his lifestyle choices.)

I also love Bob Parr’s part in this film. I can relate to his character here so much. What parent can’t relate to the beleaguered and exhausted caregiver to a tricky infant, the adult who in a dazed stupor accidentally bought the wrong kind of batteries?  (That batteries joke isn’t particularly clever, but it’s so true.  It really made me laugh.)

In fact, all of these jokes about his struggles as a stay-at-home dad seem kind of obvious and should feel stale. But they don’t. For some reason (maybe Nelson’s performance) all of this material is incredibly relatable and hilarious.

I can really sympathize with his inability to get Jack-Jack to stay asleep, especially when he laments that the other kids weren’t like Jack-Jack. It’s just so sadly true that every kid is different. You might have two already, but that’s irrelevant. The behavior of that third one might still really surprise (and fatigue) you.

Every parent knows that well meaning people give advice about how children are supposed to work, and how you should just tuck them in and let them cry it out, and meanwhile, you’re like, “Thanks. Cool. Well, my kid’s fighting a raccoon right now, so…”

My husband really related to Mr. Incredible’s character, too, especially in the moment when he sighs that he’s just trying to be a good dad.

Violet Parr (still voiced by Sarah Vowell) is incredibly funny in this movie, too. Her various dramatic expressions of exasperation or other outpourings of moodiness reminded me so much of my daughter.  (Jack-Jack fits her pretty well, too.  She’s like the Jack-Jack who’s growing into a Violet.)

Jack-Jack really is the funniest in the film this time around. My two-year-old told me later that his favorite part was when “that baby sneezed himself through the ceiling.”

Jack-Jack honestly is hilarious. What’s even funnier to me than his own bewildering (sometimes slapstick) antics is the way the others around him react to what he’s doing.


The new supporting characters are pretty good, too.  Bob Odenkirk and Catherine Keener give good performances as Winston and Evelyn Deavor.  And my mother and I were delighted to discover that Isabella Rossellini voices the ambassador.

Best Scene:

Three scenes in the film stood apart to me, and they all involve Jack-Jack.  My favorite scene was the raccoon battle, but it quickly got some stiff competition.  I equally love the scene at E’s (writer/director Brad Bird practically steals the whole film as Edna Mode, just as he did the first time around.  Edna Mode is the one element of the original Incredibles that I did adore.)

But possibly even better still is the scene of Bob and Frozone trying to lure Jack-Jack out of hiding with the num-num cookie.  This scene is heavily featured in the trailers, but the trailer music covers the scoring of the actual moment.  From watching it in the trailer, I had never realized how much this scene pays homage to Poltergeist.  (All the num-num cookie business cracks me up, anyway.  Before you’re a parent, you would never feed your children any of that garbage, and after you have the screaming toddler, you’re suddenly yelling, “Yes, of course I’ll open that bulk box of pixie sticks.  Anything for a break from this noise!”  And then it devolves into a vicious, sugar-crazed circle.   I love Edna’s num-num cookie line, too.  It absolutely killed me.  It’s my favorite line in the film.  Her delivery is killer, and what she is saying applies to anyone, really.)

Best Scene Visually:

As I’ve mentioned, I love the entire visual aesthetic in the movie.  The whole thing looks good to me.  (And their new house reminds me so much of Tony Stark’s first house in Iron Man, though my kids were getting more of a Batman vibe.)

If you’re not having a seizure, you’re bound to appreciate the trippy goodness of the Screen Slaver’s pulsing, sinister strobe attack.  If you are having a seizure, I’m so sorry.  The look of this moment is excellent, but probably someone should have thought it through a little more before putting into a movie that parents feel safe taking their kids to see.  I loved it, though.

The Screen Slaver is a cool concept for a villain.  His manifesto made me think, “Hmm…This is actually not unlike one point Mr. Rogers made.”  It’s always kind of fun when the film’s villain speaks ironic truth to the movie goers.  (Something similar happens in Wall-E as we watch the fat people sit and eat snacks, never looking up from their screens.)  The Screen Slaver makes a solid point.  (My mom is making a similar argument to my sister on the phone just now.)

And like I said, all those strobe lights make us feel like we’re at a night time street party at a Disney park.

Best Action Sequence:

Elastigirl gets some exhilarating moments on her bike and in the air, but I think the best action sequence belongs to Frozone, when he shows up at the Parr’s house late in the film.  I love the way he handles that situation.  He’s so cool.

The Negatives: 

As we left the theater, my mom said, “Well, that had a few good moments, I guess.”  My stepson also agreed that it didn’t live up to the original (though he qualified his statement by saying, “for nostalgia reasons.”)

I was stunned.  To me, Incredibles 2 was ten thousand times better than the original.  In the original, you get the contrast between the dreary suburban life and the wildness of an action-packed island.  In this one, ordinary life is being made extraordinary again (through the willfulness of a wealthy man obsessed with superheroes and technology who keeps dumping money everywhere to revitalize things).  So to me, Incredibles 2 looks much more exciting.  (And actually, my stepson also loved the look of this.  He praised the animation multiple times.)

Beyond the art, Incredibles 2 just resonated with me more.  I know most people loved the original, so I didn’t expect it to surpass that for them.  But I did expect them to share my belief that this was a far, far, better than average Pixar sequel.

My own mother, however, thought it was only so-so.  My dad, on the other hand, who is notoriously disappointed (or maybe underwhelmed) by films thought it was excellent in every aspect.  

My husband, my nine-year-old, and I loved it without reservations.  In fact, my husband also preferred it to the original.  Apparently, the sleep-deprived, well-meaning parent appealed to him, too.  Go figure.

My kids and my mom did keep saying that the villain was too easy to call, which is true.  From moment one, you realize that the answer to the mystery of the bad guy must be one of two choices.  It seems more likely to be choice B because the dialogue keeps giving us not-at-all subtle reasons that such a thing would make sense.  But it could be A.  The further we go into the story, the more and more A would seem to be a mildly surprising choice.  (So I was hoping for that, for the little twist.)

For a moment, I even hoped, “What if it’s not A or B, and the point is to teach us not to jump to conclusions?”

But no, yeah, it’s B, and figuring that out takes zero effort.

Personally, I don’t think that matters.  I mean, so what?  This is not supposed to be a mystery.  In fact, if we’re sure we know who the villain is, we can savor the dramatic irony because the characters have no idea for some reason.

What’s important here are the emotional arcs of the family members on their separate, intertwined journeys of personal growth.  We don’t really want to get a nasty surprise.  I mean, what if Frozone were the villain?  That would really be a huge plot twist.  No one would see it coming, but nobody would like it when it came, either.

Choice B feels a bit obvious, but it also feels true.  And it creates an interesting wrinkle in what might otherwise be too heavy handed a message.

The greater problem for me was, “How are they going to undo the damage this final conflict is doing, the damage to the average person’s opinion of superheros?”  I mean, it seems to me, the Screen Slaver is going to get his way simply by undermining public confidence, whether or not the full force of his scheme is ultimately thwarted.  I thought, “How are they going to unravel all of this to the public’s satisfaction?”  Well, problem solved!  The movie just jumps straight to the happy ending without addressing any of that messy nonsense.  I found that move a little sketchy, even if (for obvious reasons) sensible.
I’ve also heard some general grumblings about mild profanity in the movie.  (Isn’t it funny that our society considers “bad” words relating to the body worse than “bad” words relating to the soul?)  I didn’t notice any, but I’m sure it’s there.  (Well, I did hear Mr. Incredible say, “My God,” once, which surprised me since cartoon characters usually soften that with a euphemism.) Mild profanity in PG rated animated films is nothing new.  I remember when I was three or four and heard Justin say, “Damn,” in The Secret of NIMH.  That did shock me.  I thought, “This movie must be about very dark and serious things,” and it is.  Lab experiments on animals, dying children, magic amulets, murder…that’s serious stuff.  I think the rare instances of mild profanity in this movie signal that we’re watching a story meant to appeal to parents, who are grown-ups trying to protect their children.  I think a “damn” or a “hell” probably lets the audience know that these aren’t Disney fantasy people.  These are real adults who have to keep their children safe in the real world.  I don’t find it any cause for concern.  I’m sure your kid probably heard worse in the ticket line at the theater.

Also, I should mention that I liked the short before the feature, but not all of us did.  My stepson thought it was bizarre, but my mother absolutely loved it.  As I watched, at one moment, I thought, “Wow!  This is going to a strange place!  How can they come back from that?”  But then I saw what was really going on, and I thought it was well done.

Overall:

I loved Incredibles 2.  Unlike most people in the world, I didn’t have particular expectations for this film, yet I had a fabulous time watching it, start to finish.  And now I’m kind of hoping for an Incredibles 3.  The audience is definitely there.  I’m sure a third installment is on its way.

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