14 years ago, Pixar released The Incredibles, an animated classic that was about a family that had superpowers. I saw this at the cinema and I absolutely loved it….Pixar did what they did best. For me it was the second best Pixar movie (Toy Story being my favourite…and I was kind of disappointed that Toy Story 4 not being released before Incredibles 2 as announced. It’s not coming out next year as the work on Toy Story 4 fell behind.) and loved the game that followed it (Rise of the Underminer). When it was announced that there was a sequel to be released I was really excited… The whole family fighting crime! All the family saves the day!! And their buddy Frozone tagging along and helping!!! Well..not quite.
The Incredibles 2 picks up pretty much right at the end of the previous movie and Supers are still illegal and hated….however, a millionaire wants to change the way people think about these powered heroes and get global acceptance by the World’s superpowers. It is decided that Helen Parr aka Elastigirl should spearhead this campaign, so Bob Parr aka Mr Incredible becomes a stay at home dad looking after the Incredible kids Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack.
Of course, things don’t exactly go to plan as an evil villain comes to cause chaos… The evil and mysterious SCREENSLAYER. The SCREENSLAYER wants to plays games and always seems to be one step ahead, can Elastigirl save the day? Will Bob be able to take on the role of family man? Will Lucius Best aka Frozone stop arguing with Honey?
I really enjoyed this movie! It was a great piece of animation (and the short beforehand, Bao, was an odd sweet piece too) and was a great watch. It was good to see Bob attempt “real life”. It was great to see Elastigirl be the heroine. And it was great to see the kids becoming more, and finding their place in the World. And of course it was good to see more Edna, darling!
I did, however, find that that it did seem a little dated. Sure, I get this was supposed to be set around about the 1960s and as I stated earlier the movie follows directly after the first one, but I feel there was supposed to be more to this. I wanted the Incredibles to have grown a little more, maybe done other crime busting (after all The Underminer was addressed in the aforementioned game). I really wanted to see more of Lucius Best (instead of making him feel like the token black guy again) and really wanted to see Honey (who apparently was going to be in the movie but scrapped when it was decided it was funnier having her as just a voice). The Screenslayer was a fun character but I felt was rather predictable (my wife and 2 boys called it within the first 30 minutes.) but they had clever twists to try throw you (which they didn’t for me) . But even when you take this into account it’s still good, and there’s humour there for young and old alike.
So….60s style universe, cheesy action flick music, each of the main supers has a theme song, stereotypes used and also attempted to be turned on their head….its great!
The Incredibles 2 is a great piece of summer fun, paying homage or the 1960s superhero serials. Pixar have done a great great job and it’s….super. Go watch it with your kids, your friends….just go watch it!
The Incredibles 2 is rated PG and can be seen in 2D and 3D in cinemas now.