Incredibles 2 (2018)

Directed by: Brad Bird | 125 minutes | animation, action, family | Original voice cast: Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell, Huck Milner, Catherine Keener, Eli Fucile, Bob Odenkirk, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Bird, Sophia Bush, Brad Bird, Phil LaMarr, Isabella Rossellini, Adam Gates, Jonathan Banks, John Ratzenberger, Bill Wise, Nicholas Bird, Paul Eiding, Barry Bostwick | Dutch voice cast: Paul Haenen, Anne-Marie Jung, Bo Beljaars, Tommie Christiaan, Isa Hoes, Kai Merckx

Hollywood can’t get enough of superheroes. One Marvel Comics film adaptation after another is hitting theaters. Animation studio Pixar was far ahead of the boom in Marvel violence with ‘The Incredibles’ (2004), which started in 2008 with the first ‘Iron Man’ film. But for writer and director Brad Bird, it was a hell of a job to find the right story for a possible sequel. Already with the release of ‘Ratatouille’ (2007) he announced that he was open to a sequel to ‘The Incredibles’, but only if he could come up with something better than the original. “I love those characters, and that world. I’m drowsy. I have a lot of elements that would fit perfectly in a second ‘Incredibles’ movie, and if I can make them all fit together, then I want to go for it,” Bird said in a 2013 interview. endless stream of superhero movies, he decided to keep focusing on the family dynamics between Bob and Helen Parr and their children Violet, Dash and baby Jack-Jack: what if we could turn the tables, he thought. Mother as breadwinner, father stays at home with the children. And to top it all off, it’s the children who have to rescue the parents from a dire situation!

‘Incredibles 2’ (2018) continues right after the first part ended. The Parr family – Bob (Craig T. Nelson), Helen (Holly Hunter), Violet (Sarah Vowell), Dash (Huck Milner), and Jack-Jack (Eli Fucile) – continue to operate undercover as the superhero family ‘The Incredibles’. But when they fail to stop the villainous The Underminer (John Ratzenberger) from robbing the Metroville Bank, they come under fire: the entire city is in ruins, but the criminals are not caught. And so the government pulls the plug on the special ‘Super Relocation’ program and superheroes around the world are forced to hang up their suits and masks for good. Not long after, Bob, Helen and their good friend Lucius Best aka Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson) are invited by the wealthy Winston Deavor (Bob Odenkirk), a self-proclaimed superhero fan and telecommunications tycoon. With the help of his genius whiz kid sister Evelyn (Catherine Keener), he sets out to pull off a publicity stunt to reinstate the superheroes and get the public to get behind the superheroes again.

Helen is chosen to fight crime under her secret alter ego Elastigirl as a media stunt. This logically means that Bob has to stay at home with the children. And that turns out to be no mean feat. Violet is well into puberty and tries to arrange a date with a boy from school. Dash struggles with his math homework and the fact that he’s not old enough to fight crime on his own. And then there’s little Jack-Jack, who turns out to have more superpowers than all the other Incredibles combined. Bob struggles to control the baby. Meanwhile, Helen clashes with the Screenslaver, a mysterious supervillain who hijacks screens and brainwashes people and superheroes by hypnotizing them.

A lot can happen in fourteen years – the time between the release of ‘The Incredibles’ and its sequel. By simply picking up where the first movie ended, Brad Bird avoids a lot of pitfalls. He doesn’t necessarily have to make his character older, for example. He can also simply ignore the gigantic development that has been in the superhero genre in the meantime. On the other hand, ‘The Incredibles 2’ has really moved with the times. For example, the fact that Elastigirl is being made breadwinner fits perfectly in the context of gender equality, which is currently such a hot item in Hollywood. And the danger of staring too much at screens is exploited here in an interesting way. But above all, ‘The Incredibles 2’ is, just like its predecessor, a dynamic animated film in which superhero magic and the predictable life of an – otherwise – average family are ingeniously intertwined. The family scenes are very recognisable: Mom and Dad express their concerns to each other while brushing their teeth, the teenage daughter who goes from one mood to another and the sheer despair that can be read on father’s face as he struggles with how he is to handle his children.

‘The Incredibles 2’ treats us to some tight and energetic action sequences, culminating in an exciting supersonic subway train that must be stopped by Elastigirl. But as impressive as those scenes are, it is precisely the family scenes that appeal most to the imagination. Those scenes breathe the emotion where (the best) animation films from Pixar stand out from the rest. The same goes for the great jazzy score by Michael Giacchino. The animations are top notch as usual, with the nostalgic production design (including matching Disney logo) as a stylish highlight. Of course there are also (small) caveats. For example, experienced film viewers can see from miles away who the mysterious villain is who is hiding under the pseudonym Screenslaver, and this person has only moderately elaborated motives. But in general we can say that ‘The Incredibles 2’ builds successfully and satisfactorily on the success formula that it launched in 2004.