Review: Incredibles 2

The moment we’ve waited 14 long years for is here; Disney fans: The Incredibles are finally back, and boy was it worth the wait. Our favourite family of supers return to screens with a bang, in what is one of the best Disney Pixar films in recent years (and trust me, that bar has been set very high).

We return to the Parr family at the exact moment the first film left off, with a villain known as The Underminer appearing out of the ground in his tunnelling machine of destruction. However, he proves to be a minor threat, and the film takes its focus elsewhere fairly swiftly. In a time when superheroes are deemed illegal, Helen/Elastigirl (voiced by Holly Hunter) is enlisted by a company called DevTech, who are keen on helping supers become legal again. While reinstating the reputation of supers as heroes, she soon comes up against tech-savvy supervillain Screenslaver (Bill Wise). In her absence, Bob/Mr Incredible (voiced by Craig T. Nelson) is left to look after their kids, Violet (Sarah Vowell), Dash (Huckleberry Milner) and baby Jack-Jack (Eli Fucile). Young Jack-Jack, who steals the entire show, is beginning to display his vast abundance of superpowers, including but not limited to shooting laser beams from his eyes and setting himself on fire. Of course, this being an Incredibles film, we also see the return of Lucius Best/Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson), having finally found his Super Suit, and the ever-fabulous Edna Mode (Brad Bird), who takes on a hilarious new role as Aunty Edna to Jack-Jack.

A big part of the film’s charm lies in the timeline. Seeing the characters just as we remember them after all this time not only oozes nostalgia, but is also why the film is so successful; after all, there is something about a teenage Jack-Jack that just doesn’t appeal quite as much. This is not to say the film doesn’t feel fresh, though, and the story is a joy to watch unfold. The introduction of new characters, siblings Winston and Evelyn Deavor (voiced by Bob Odenkirk and Catherine Keener, respectively), who run DevTech together, add a welcome element of mystery to the proceedings: what is their real motivation behind returning supers to legal status? And whilst the plot’s big twist is relatively easy to figure out shortly before its reveal, this by no means detracts from the enjoyability of the film, nor does it make it seem overly predictable.

It is impossible to review a Pixar film without discussing their state-of-the-art animation, and Incredibles 2 is no exception. We see stunning visuals throughout, and even the short film Bao, which precedes the main feature (as we have come to expect from all Pixar films), displays technique which most filmmakers could only dream of.

Incredibles 2 provides just as much fun as the first time The Parr family hit our screens all those years ago. With such hype surrounding its release, this sequel had a lot to live up to, and it really is as much for the adults as the kids. Bob’s struggles with parenting, especially, are particularly entertaining. Helping Dash with his maths homework, his cry of desperation, ‘Why would they change math? Math is math!’, is highly relatable for parents and teachers alike under our increasingly-bewildering national curriculum. Ultimately, I suppose the question to ask of this film is was it worth the wait? The answer is a resolute yes.

Incredibles 2 (2018), directed by Brad Bird, is distributed in the UK by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Certificate PG.