I have fond memories of The Incredibles. I mean, who doesn't? The movie was a masterpiece of storytelling, expectation subversion, character development, and superhero action that should be included in any discussion of "the best superhero movies of all time". I was a teenager when it came out, and it was instantly my favorite Pixar film, a record that still hasn't quite been topped.
So, 14 years later, here comes the sequel. You'd be forgiven for thinking this feels a bit... Disney. That Disney bought Pixar, saw some real success with sequels (I'm blaming all of you who went crazy over Finding Dory), and said "okay guys, now go make a sequel to that one movie with all the red tights." The no-longer-teenaged cynic in me was extremely skeptical going into this movie. The odds of this ever living up to my diabetes-inducing sugar-coated memories of the first movie seemed... well, incredi-bly unlikely.
And so, it gives me great pleasure to say that The Incredibles 2 is in every way a worthy successor, and I actually can buy that it took 14 years for Brad Bird to come up with a good story and Disney didn't actually push him at all.
Is... is this what respect for Disney feels like? Feels... feels like I want to go to Disneyland and spend money...
I'm not going to go into great detail here, because you really should just go see the movie. Perhaps my biggest worry going into this movie was that the characters would just re-tread the ground they did in the first one. The trailers kinda made it look like we'd see the same character motivations and arcs with nothing more original happening than Bob and Helen switching places. That was probably unintentional misdirection on the part of the trailers, thankfully. The character development of the whole family (as well as the key side-characters) was consistent with the first film and took them all to new-yet-convincing places. I thought it was very well handled.
The performances and mechanics of the art direction and animation were also, not surprisingly, absolutely on point. Everything looked, felt, and sounded just like it should in the universe of The Incredibles, and that extends to the music. The first movie's score (by Michael Giacchino) stood out for its clever blend of superhero movie with spy movie, and his efforts on the sequel were just as good. I don't recall any moment of music that stood out quite like Dash's chase through the jungle in the first movie, but the musical cues I did notice were all very well done, and I'll never complain about hearing this theme at the beginning of a movie.
Probably my favorite part of the movie was the plot twist. Frankly, it was telegraphed pretty early on in the story, through several key moments of foreshadowing. In fact, the foreshadowing was so clear... I may have kinda overthought it. See, generic tropes for superhero movies, dating back to the earliest incarnations of Superman and Batman in cinema, had me convinced that the bad guy was going to turn out to be someone I wasn't expecting. That meant I was expecting it. The foreshadowing supported my suspicions, but redirected slightly to another character other than or in addition to the one I initially assumed. But it was almost too perfect, too clean, and so I figured that foreshadowing was in fact a slight misdirection intended to make the twist just that much more unexpected! Such great writing!
Of course... I was totally wrong. My logic circled past the villain to land on the wrong character.
Either Brad Bird was trying to keep his foreshadowing nice and easy to parse for the kiddos, or he was using existing tropes and common expectations to meta-game the everlovin' crap out of me. Either way, I was surprised, and happy to be surprised, when the twist finally happened at the end of the second act.
So the verdict is clear. This is a great Pixar movie and the sequel The Incredibles deserved. I recommend you go see it in a crowded theater if at all possible.
So, 14 years later, here comes the sequel. You'd be forgiven for thinking this feels a bit... Disney. That Disney bought Pixar, saw some real success with sequels (I'm blaming all of you who went crazy over Finding Dory), and said "okay guys, now go make a sequel to that one movie with all the red tights." The no-longer-teenaged cynic in me was extremely skeptical going into this movie. The odds of this ever living up to my diabetes-inducing sugar-coated memories of the first movie seemed... well, incredi-bly unlikely.
And so, it gives me great pleasure to say that The Incredibles 2 is in every way a worthy successor, and I actually can buy that it took 14 years for Brad Bird to come up with a good story and Disney didn't actually push him at all.
Is... is this what respect for Disney feels like? Feels... feels like I want to go to Disneyland and spend money...
I'm not going to go into great detail here, because you really should just go see the movie. Perhaps my biggest worry going into this movie was that the characters would just re-tread the ground they did in the first one. The trailers kinda made it look like we'd see the same character motivations and arcs with nothing more original happening than Bob and Helen switching places. That was probably unintentional misdirection on the part of the trailers, thankfully. The character development of the whole family (as well as the key side-characters) was consistent with the first film and took them all to new-yet-convincing places. I thought it was very well handled.
The performances and mechanics of the art direction and animation were also, not surprisingly, absolutely on point. Everything looked, felt, and sounded just like it should in the universe of The Incredibles, and that extends to the music. The first movie's score (by Michael Giacchino) stood out for its clever blend of superhero movie with spy movie, and his efforts on the sequel were just as good. I don't recall any moment of music that stood out quite like Dash's chase through the jungle in the first movie, but the musical cues I did notice were all very well done, and I'll never complain about hearing this theme at the beginning of a movie.
Probably my favorite part of the movie was the plot twist. Frankly, it was telegraphed pretty early on in the story, through several key moments of foreshadowing. In fact, the foreshadowing was so clear... I may have kinda overthought it. See, generic tropes for superhero movies, dating back to the earliest incarnations of Superman and Batman in cinema, had me convinced that the bad guy was going to turn out to be someone I wasn't expecting. That meant I was expecting it. The foreshadowing supported my suspicions, but redirected slightly to another character other than or in addition to the one I initially assumed. But it was almost too perfect, too clean, and so I figured that foreshadowing was in fact a slight misdirection intended to make the twist just that much more unexpected! Such great writing!
Of course... I was totally wrong. My logic circled past the villain to land on the wrong character.
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| Oops, spoilers? |
Either Brad Bird was trying to keep his foreshadowing nice and easy to parse for the kiddos, or he was using existing tropes and common expectations to meta-game the everlovin' crap out of me. Either way, I was surprised, and happy to be surprised, when the twist finally happened at the end of the second act.
So the verdict is clear. This is a great Pixar movie and the sequel The Incredibles deserved. I recommend you go see it in a crowded theater if at all possible.
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