The Incredibles premiered in 2004, when most of us were little kids, and obviously I wanted to know what had happened in the past 14 years with the characters. If you had the same thought when you first heard about the sequel, it’s good for you to know that even years after the first movie, Incredibles 2 starts off exactly where its predecessor ended, with the family fighting the Underminer.
Since we started hearing about this sequel way back in 2014, the questions may have bubbled for a while, not to mention the synopsis that made it quite easy to interpret this movie as a change in the way society sees women and their designated roles. To quiet down those questions, it’s important to know that both movies are situated somewhere around the 1960s, so, as a representation of the US back then, the discussions surrounding women’s roles are not as big as they are today, but they definitely exist on the sequel.
Image Credit: IMDb
Yes, the movie talks about women together, helping each other and not standing behind a man. But, in my opinion, the most important factor this movie brings up is being close to your family and not forgetting who you are or where you came from.
Besides having superpowers, they still are a somewhat normal family, with their problems and discussions. Helen is scared of leaving her kids and husband without supervision. Bob is trying his hardest to take care of everything and swallow his pride and ego. Violet and Dash have problems that may be similar to some of ours, with crushes and math homework, respectively. And Jack-Jack is a cute and innocent little baby, that or a superhero that has multiple – 17 to be exact – powers that he can’t quite control.
Image Credit: IMDb
Another thing that stood out for me was how much the animation and graphics did not change much since the first movie.Thinking back at it, and if you’ve watched The Incredibles you may be able to relate to this: I realized how difficult it must have been to create such intricate animations at a time when technology wasn’t so advanced or worked on as it is today. But the team of animators did a fantastic job and 14 years later, even with a new team, new technology and re-created characters, the sequel has the same look and aesthetic than its precursor, just a bit more developed maybe. And since we’re at it, let’s not forget to mention Michael Giacchino, the responsible for the soundtrack, whether it was grand or subtle, did a fantastic job giving the scenes much more emotion.
Of course we need to talk about the voice actors. Samuel L. Jackson (Lucius/Frozone), Holly Hunter (Helen/Elastigirl), Craig T. Nelson (Bob/Mr. Incredible), Sarah Vowell (Violet) and Brad Bird (Edna Mode) come back as some of the lead roles. They are also joined by Huck Milner replacing Spencer Fox as Dash, Jonathan Banks lending his voice to Rick Dicker after Bud Luckey retired in 2014 and, to accompany the already known characters, we have Bob Odenkirk (Winston), Catherine Keener (Evelyn), Sophia Bush (Voyd) and Isabella Rossellini (The Ambassador). If you’ve watched ‘till the end you may have seen a “In loving memory of Bud Luckey” on the credits as the movie was dedicated to Luckey after he passed away in 2018.
The movie also approches a very important matter: we can all find at least someone that we can relate to in some level and understand that we are not alone in this world. In a way this is very close to society nowadays, because with social media and the internet in general you can find people that are just like you, it doesn’t matter where they live or the language they speak, you are able to have a conversation with a person that you can feel connected to, that will understand you, and this ability is crucial so you don’t feel alone, so you have someone to talk to on the bad and good days, and vice-versa.
Image Credit: IMDb
I have to quickly mention the short film that appeared before the film started on the cinema. Bao was directed by Domee Shi, the first woman to direct a short for Pixar, which is a fantastic thing. Other than that, it really makes you go through a rollercoaster of emotions during the eight minutes it goes on for, it was very touching in a way that many people may not really understand, because Shi focuses on bringing the Asian culture to life through a very different perspective than the one Hollywood and the entertainment industry in general are used to.
The movie was a critical and box office success, receiving a 8,3 from IMDb and a 93% from Rotten Tomatoes. Brad Bird, who comes back as not only the voice of Edna, but also as director and writer, said he’d been working on the idea behind the movie pretty much ever since the first one came out, with various elements that just needed to be put together. Now that Incredibles 2 finally came to life and it’s out to (most of) the public, you may think the story could be summarized by a quote said by one of the new characters: “Help me bring supers back into the sunlight”. But as said before, the movie has a lot more depth to be generalized in one single quote.
It’s very important to note that some scenes show flashing lights for quite a while, so please be aware of that while watching it, specially kids and people who are susceptible to epilepsy or similar problems. I know I said there were no spoilers, but this one is just to explain the flashing lights and it’s not that big, also, you’ve reached the final paragraph so If you want you can just stop here. Spoiler ahead!!! The movie has a couple of parts where the villain, Screenslaver, projects hypnotic images on screens, and If you’ve seen any hypnotic image you may already know how much of a headache they can cause. So If you really want to watch it, be careful.