THE LONGEST WAIT FOR A SEQUEL EVER
14 years, people. FOURTEEN.
That's the amount of time this movie took to get back on the big screen.
So much has happened since 2004 - the world has gotten even more chaotic, there still isn't a cure for cancer and oh, the kids who loved the first movie back then have all grown up.
Let me verify that claim to the longest wait for a sequel title. I've done a spot of research on the topic to find that stuff like Blade Runner 2049 (35 years) and the upcoming Mary Poppins Returns (54 years) make the 14 year wait appear quite laughable in comparison.
However, those movies work the considerable time gap into the stories, with the same characters getting older, etc (although I'm not sure how Mary Poppins Returns will be told). Disney/Pixar's Incredibles 2 continues from right where we were left off in 2004, with our favourite superhero family facing off against The Underminer (John Ratzenberger) before the credits rolled.
Not gonna lie, it was absolutely surreal to see these characters back after such a long wait. The first movie was my personal favourite animated movie of all-time, and to see them back just put a permanent smile on my face.
I liked how the animation is updated in a way that it looks slightly dated to match the original animations and yet looks super modern in terms of effects, such as Frozone's (Samuel L. Jackson) ice sculptures and stuff like concrete breaking.
On top of the animation, the music is also updated from the super memorable and iconic original score by Michael Giacchino. He's back in this one it was great to hear the themes again in all their glory.
One issue I had with his score, however, was his overuse of the trumpet wail. Basically, when there's this really loud and screechy "BLEHHHHHHHHH" noise made by the trumpet or cornet.
Throughout the movie, I couldn't help but wonder why he couldn't chill with the score. It even gets annoying after a while. Check out the track "Consider Yourselves Undermined!" and fast forward it to 2:10 onwards for an idea of what I'm getting at.
Some of the voices have aged considerably (but who could blame them), especially Bob/Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) and Helen/Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), but apart from them, everyone sounded great.
The voice actor for Dash (Huck Milner), who replaced the original voice actor (Spencer Fox) because the latter had experienced puberty did an exceptional job. He sounds the same and that's just some fantastic voice casting.
I thoroughly enjoyed the story which successfully builds upon the world created in the original and added a lot more to it with some interesting new characters and new potential opportunities and directions to take these characters in any future sequel(s).
Hopefully those sequels won't take anywhere near as long to get made as this one.
Perhaps the one thing that I liked the most about the original movie was how it wasn't just a kids' movie. It had pretty grown-up themes of maturity, family, being confident about who you are and not what society wants you to be like, etc. That made the movie extra special and I'm glad they built on that too in the sequel, although those themes aren't as much of a focus in this one.
Let's talk pacing, and unfortunately, this movie does suffer from pretty poor pacing towards the end of the film.
At 125 minutes, it is by no means a short movie. However, the cutting to and from Elastigirl's missions and Bob's parenting struggles at home do stretch the runtime to feel longer than it actually is.
It is helped by some absolutely hysterical moments that genuinely left me and the entire theatre crying with laughter.
The real pacing issues become more evident in the final act, where some of the cuts didn't make any chronological sense. For example, in one scene a character appears in one place and when cutting back to them after a cutaway, that character is in a completely different environment with absolutely no indicator of how they got there.
It makes for a rather jarring 5 minutes of movie, and it leads me to suspect there may have been some enforced studio edits in play when the movie was in production which is a bummer.
Hopefully we'll be able to see what ended up on the cutting room floor in the Blu-ray release.
Writer and director Brad Bird returned in the same roles (including the wonderful Edna Mode) and had stated in the media that he would only make a sequel if he knew it would be as good as the original.
For that thought, I think it's extremely responsible of Bird to stand by that claim, and by taking his time to come up with a good story, I'd say that he has successfully made a movie on the same level as the first.
On to the movie's antagonist, and I feel that the saying "a movie is only as good as its villain" has once again proven to be inaccurate.
With multiple movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe having extremely weak villains and yet being quality movies in their own right, the same can be said about Incredibles 2.
If anything, I felt the villainous plot was extremely predictable and it didn't feel as personal and/or deeply-rooted as Syndrome's villainous plot was in the original.
All in all, Incredibles 2 was an absolute joy to behold in the cinema.
Whereas other Disney/Pixar sequels/prequels like Finding Dory (2016) or Monsters University (2013) missed the mark in terms of completing one's childhood (well, mine in this case), Incredibles 2 puts a giant smile on my face as it brought closure to such a long-awaited follow-up.
All nostalgia aside, it is a thoroughly entertaining sequel which ticks all the boxes of what one looks for in a good sequel except for that of the good and compelling villain, and in many ways matches the brilliance which made the original so well-loved by fans worldwide.
If you didn't walk out of the cinema with a smile on your face while humming the theme tune, either you're one of the wailing little kids who should be letting the kids of 2004 watch the movie in peace or you're just a hater.
However, the OG still prevails, and still is my favourite animated movie of all-time.
8/10.
However, those movies work the considerable time gap into the stories, with the same characters getting older, etc (although I'm not sure how Mary Poppins Returns will be told). Disney/Pixar's Incredibles 2 continues from right where we were left off in 2004, with our favourite superhero family facing off against The Underminer (John Ratzenberger) before the credits rolled.
Not gonna lie, it was absolutely surreal to see these characters back after such a long wait. The first movie was my personal favourite animated movie of all-time, and to see them back just put a permanent smile on my face.
I liked how the animation is updated in a way that it looks slightly dated to match the original animations and yet looks super modern in terms of effects, such as Frozone's (Samuel L. Jackson) ice sculptures and stuff like concrete breaking.
On top of the animation, the music is also updated from the super memorable and iconic original score by Michael Giacchino. He's back in this one it was great to hear the themes again in all their glory.
One issue I had with his score, however, was his overuse of the trumpet wail. Basically, when there's this really loud and screechy "BLEHHHHHHHHH" noise made by the trumpet or cornet.
Throughout the movie, I couldn't help but wonder why he couldn't chill with the score. It even gets annoying after a while. Check out the track "Consider Yourselves Undermined!" and fast forward it to 2:10 onwards for an idea of what I'm getting at.
Some of the voices have aged considerably (but who could blame them), especially Bob/Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) and Helen/Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), but apart from them, everyone sounded great.
The voice actor for Dash (Huck Milner), who replaced the original voice actor (Spencer Fox) because the latter had experienced puberty did an exceptional job. He sounds the same and that's just some fantastic voice casting.
I thoroughly enjoyed the story which successfully builds upon the world created in the original and added a lot more to it with some interesting new characters and new potential opportunities and directions to take these characters in any future sequel(s).
Hopefully those sequels won't take anywhere near as long to get made as this one.
Perhaps the one thing that I liked the most about the original movie was how it wasn't just a kids' movie. It had pretty grown-up themes of maturity, family, being confident about who you are and not what society wants you to be like, etc. That made the movie extra special and I'm glad they built on that too in the sequel, although those themes aren't as much of a focus in this one.
Let's talk pacing, and unfortunately, this movie does suffer from pretty poor pacing towards the end of the film.
At 125 minutes, it is by no means a short movie. However, the cutting to and from Elastigirl's missions and Bob's parenting struggles at home do stretch the runtime to feel longer than it actually is.
It is helped by some absolutely hysterical moments that genuinely left me and the entire theatre crying with laughter.
The real pacing issues become more evident in the final act, where some of the cuts didn't make any chronological sense. For example, in one scene a character appears in one place and when cutting back to them after a cutaway, that character is in a completely different environment with absolutely no indicator of how they got there.
It makes for a rather jarring 5 minutes of movie, and it leads me to suspect there may have been some enforced studio edits in play when the movie was in production which is a bummer.
Hopefully we'll be able to see what ended up on the cutting room floor in the Blu-ray release.
Writer and director Brad Bird returned in the same roles (including the wonderful Edna Mode) and had stated in the media that he would only make a sequel if he knew it would be as good as the original.
For that thought, I think it's extremely responsible of Bird to stand by that claim, and by taking his time to come up with a good story, I'd say that he has successfully made a movie on the same level as the first.
On to the movie's antagonist, and I feel that the saying "a movie is only as good as its villain" has once again proven to be inaccurate.
With multiple movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe having extremely weak villains and yet being quality movies in their own right, the same can be said about Incredibles 2.
If anything, I felt the villainous plot was extremely predictable and it didn't feel as personal and/or deeply-rooted as Syndrome's villainous plot was in the original.
All in all, Incredibles 2 was an absolute joy to behold in the cinema.
Whereas other Disney/Pixar sequels/prequels like Finding Dory (2016) or Monsters University (2013) missed the mark in terms of completing one's childhood (well, mine in this case), Incredibles 2 puts a giant smile on my face as it brought closure to such a long-awaited follow-up.
All nostalgia aside, it is a thoroughly entertaining sequel which ticks all the boxes of what one looks for in a good sequel except for that of the good and compelling villain, and in many ways matches the brilliance which made the original so well-loved by fans worldwide.
If you didn't walk out of the cinema with a smile on your face while humming the theme tune, either you're one of the wailing little kids who should be letting the kids of 2004 watch the movie in peace or you're just a hater.
However, the OG still prevails, and still is my favourite animated movie of all-time.
8/10.
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