I've taken a long time to see the Incredibles 2, but it was worth finally getting to. Sequels are always a touchy subject in the entertainment industry. On one hand, they're practically impossible to live without for both fans and content creators. Sequels are guaranteed good experiences most of the time, but the dark side of sequels is that they often get noticeably worse than their predecessors because of time limitations, mismatched expectations, and brain drain to other projects.
Today I'm going to look at how the second Incredibles movie got around that. There won't be any spoilers in this, so feel free to read on even if you haven't seen the film.
Incredibles 2 Trailer courtesy of Disney and Pixar
One of the things that marks a good sequel is that it returns to a known universe and tells a solid story using the characters or conventions of its predecessor.
This means that it still has to be, well, good.
Ah, yes, the secret to a perfect sequel! We can go home now.
Or, since sequels still trend toward being a menace to society, we can look with more nuance at the things that the Incredibles 2 does well.
Meeting the Audience's Needs
I was a child when I first saw the Incredibles. I am now an adult, and the Incredibles 2 had to grow with me.
Dealing with this in a movie is difficult, especially one that bills itself as a family film. After all, at least some of the original audience has to return for a sequel to such a successful and high-budget movie to work, and those audiences may have gotten a lot more critical when they went from single to double digit ages (or, like me, a double digit age to a significantly more double digit age).
Despite this, Incredibles 2 manages to pull off a deep, nuanced story with the quality we should be able to expect from Pixar.
Many of us in the audience now identify very differently with the characters; while we may have seen ourselves in Dash or Violet, the children, many of us now find ourselves in the shoes of Bob or Helen Parr, and that's a different experience to face.
No longer being a child, I can't speak to how well the movie appeals to children (I tend to stay away from reviews, though one child in the theater was vocally responding to the movie at several points, so I'll take it that at least he was enthused), but the story told from the perspective of the adults is one that shows a refreshing point: It's okay to be flawed.
In storytelling, the Hero's Journey is often used as a "golden formula" to print money, but Incredibles 2 elevates it to an art form. The reason why the Hero's Journey is so powerful is that it teaches us a lesson, and in many cases the lesson taught in modern fiction is of little more use than random trivia, being either so trite or so timid to be worthless.
In this film, however, the lessons come fast and hard; each character has their own arc of development involving their conflict with the world around them, and each reflects a lesson that we can learn about our own world.
The reason the movie manages to fit in so much good stuff is its perfect pacing. There is never a dull moment (though there are occasional reprieves) and even the comic relief sections often come with some important realization about life: Bob Parr's efforts to figure out how to be a stay-at-home father are a great example of this.
They're not mean-spirited, portraying him in a positive light as well-intentioned but out of his league, and they tie into the development of his relationship with his wife and his growth as a father who knows how to meet the emotional and developmental needs of his children.
The best part about this is that this teaches both the adults and the children of the audience; it reminds the adults what their children are going through, but it also serves as a way for children to see an example of a sometimes flawed, but loving and developing, family.
Perhaps most importantly, though, the film's message is an antidote to a prevailing darkness in our culture. There are times when it's important to confront that, but the old Nietzschean notion of avoiding becoming a monster while fighting monsters is important. When the prevailing thrust of culture has become so dark that it is essentially perpetuating darkness, it is nice to see a story where simple universal themes–the importance of family and the process of growing together–are shown in a way devoid of the negative underpinnings that seem to lurk behind every door.
Masterful Craftsmanship
The world of the Incredibles is beautiful, with conscious use of color, camera framing, and narrative that is just fantastic.
Every scene in the film feels like it belongs; it can be a little formulaic (I guessed the main villain's secret identity about thirty minutes into the movie), but it's got a logical development that doesn't insult the audience's intelligence by telling them too much or confuse them by skipping over key points.
The characters are tremendously developed; each has a fantastic visual identity that makes them immediately recognizable, but the use of colors draws out their personalities, but they also have deep personalities. While they may be predictable at times, they also have the ability to change at key points to build dramatic tension and conquer challenges they couldn't deal with previously.
There's a real sense of stakes that you don't always get from other works. Despite being nominally a children's movie series, both Incredibles movies have thrived on drama and plot lines that involve real peril and deep development as well as a thorough understanding of the human psyche. We can care about each of the character's own internal struggles just as much as we care about the external struggles of the cast. They experience rejection, jealousy, and fear, and they have to figure out how to deal with it–and they do so by using the resources at their disposal and coming together stronger at the end.
The visual design helps with this too. Pixar is masterful at doing this in a way that no other studio really seems to master. Each scene tells you how you're supposed to feel with a thousand subtle clues. The use of color, lighting, motion, framing, and even little things like how things are set up in an environment to build feelings of stasis and claustrophobia or freedom and openness rival if not exceed what any other film, animated or not, can be expected to do.
There's also a tremendous soundtrack, replete with superhero scores for the main cast (Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, and Frozone). This goes a long way to drawing the audience in, and it's a fantastic ride.
It would be really difficult to sit in the theater and zone out while watching Incredibles 2, which is a refreshing experience after many recent movies have felt quite the opposite to me. A lot of this can be attributed to the raw cohesiveness of the work. Everything fits together perfectly in this retro-60s aesthetic that goes exactly as far as it needs to and doesn't draw too much attention to itself. The animation is impeccable, the voice acting unparalleled, and the plot masterfully executed.
Wrapping Up
The thing that really brings Incredibles 2 to life is its plot. It's got enough intelligence to it to carry its plot forward in innovative ways, but it doesn't ever relish its own intelligence so much that it gets in the way of a humble acceptance of principles.
It's powerful, intense, and a learning experience, and that can't be said of every movie out there. With such a positive message and so much talented art coming together in one place, it's probably my must-see movie of 2018 so far.
More importantly, however, it's a model for how to tell stories right. Sticking to the fundamental necessities of a story, it elevates them in distinctive ways without tripping over itself trying to be unique, something that gives it the space to really find itself.