A sequel among equals, it’s been worth the fourteen years wait for THE INCREDIBLES 2.
Still outlawed by the authorities to practice their super hero skills, the Parr family are trying to live a normal suburban life.
A run away train, however, is too much temptation for pater Parr, aka Mr. Incredible, and he swoops into action. He saves the day, thanks largely to the ministrations of his wife, Elastgirl. But as with most superhero interventions, the carnage and destruction caused by their actions leave the authorities to continue their sanctions.
It occurs to Telco and IT magnate, Winston Deaver and his tech savvy sister, Evelyn, that the way to get superheroes back on socially accepted status is to run a positive campaign with Elastigirl as their poster girl.
This despite the menace and threat of a villain known as The Screen Slaver, able to capitalise on modern man’s slavish adherence to all things screen, turning them into compliant zombies.
The voice work is exemplary – with Craig T. Nelson and Holly Hunter reprising heir roles as Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl, Samuel L. Jackson as family friend, Frozone, director Brad Bird hilarious as fashion guru, Edna Mode, Christine Keener vocalising the steel coated silk of Evelyn, and Isabella Rosellini sounding more like her mother Ingrid Bergman as a UN type ambassador.
THE INCREDIBLES 2 looks and sounds fantastic, pulsating with a killer score by Michael Giacchino.
More marvellous than the marvel universe and more consistently funny, THE INCREDIBLES 2 is incredible too for its balancing of the subversive and the suburban, and the ambiguity of it’s villain. The Screen Slaver has a point about society succumbing to the enslavement of their screens and the zombiefication of individuals.
THE INCREDIBLES 2 is an animation but has more real humanity in it than Avengers and Justice League. And the Parrs are working people not millionaires like Bruce Wayne’s Batman and Tony Stark’s Ironman.
They struggle with work/home situations, of being laid off, going to school and feeling the first flush of a crush, and dealing with a little demon in diapers.
THE INCREDIBLES 2 is a joyous film, and like its predecessor, deserves to do big box office and bring home a swag of awards.