Ranking Pixar: Number 12

Oh boy, I get the feeling that this is going to ruffle some feathers.

This is the movie that so many people were waiting for. There aren’t many Pixar movies that people really beg for a sequel for, but if there was one, it was The Incredibles, Pixar’s shining beacon of Superhero comedy at the time. Infinitely quotable and just a blast from start to finish, many people find it worth returning to even today in our market overflowing with quality super hero movies. So, does the sequel manage to live up to the original? Well, given its place on the list, obviously I don’t think so, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t make a damn good attempt at living up to the hype.

Incredibles 2 picks up immediately after the original, right back in our super-heroed timeline of the 1960s. Our super powered family suits up just as The Underminer (John Ratzenberger) continues his attack on the city. Originally, only Bob (Craig T. Nelson) and Helen (Holly Hunter) set out after him, tasking Dash (Huck Milner) and Violet (Sarah Vowell) to watch Jack-Jack (Eli Fucile). That goes about as well as expected, and the kids quickly follow their parents to assist. They manage to mostly thwart the robbery and save city hall from being destroyed, but they’re swiftly arrested afterwards for unlicensed superhero activity. They’re bailed out by their special agent contact, Rick Dicker (Jonathan Banks), though he tells them that he’s retiring and that from now on, the Parr family is on their own. Shortly thereafter, however, Elastigirl, Mr. Incredible, and Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson) are invited to a meeting with a powerful businessman named Winston Deavor (Bob Odenkirk) and his sister Evelyn (Catherine Keener). They tell the supers that they’re looking to return the heroes to their deserved limelight and make Hero work legal again, starting with a trial run featuring Elastigirl. This leaves Bob home alone to try desperately to make being a father work while Helen tries to become a symbol in the hero world by squaring off against the nefarious Screenslaver.

I’ll be honest, at a glance, the movie is a bit of a jumbled mess. There’s a LOT going on here. Helen becoming a hero again, Bob becoming a father, Violet dealing with her teen angst, Jack-Jack developing powers, the Screenslaver thing, and a bunch of other subplots mixed in here and there. I’d even argue that they don’t really… gel together most of the time. Bob’s mental state in the whole parenting thing seems to widely fluctuate. Now, obviously the parenting thing is really hard and I don’t doubt he’d struggle with it, but not like this. One second he’s losing his mind, the next he seems completely cool and collected, and then at the drop of a hat, he falls apart again. I just had a hard time really zeroing in on what was happening with Bob throughout this film.

While most of the family had some issues to go through in this movie, which thankfully gave each character plenty of time to develop, there was shockingly little for Dash in the movie. He was… just kind of there most of the time. I wish the writing staff had given him more throughout.

The film also had a big issue with its villain. Without giving too much away, it felt like the movie was retreading a lot of ground with the villain here. Their plan was really, really similar to Syndrome’s plan in the original. There was a lot of difference in the details, but at the end of the day, both of the villains sought to abuse the super hero icon in some way, and it just felt old to me. Not to mention that the Screenslaver was just a much, much less interesting and fun villain than Syndrome. It’s hard not to be disappointed with the Screenslaver in that department.

Well, I just spent a lot of time dogging on the film, so what did I like? Well, pretty much everything else. The music isn’t nearly as iconic as the original’s (and it borrows heavily from the original in that department as well), but it still does a great job of setting the mood; Michael Giacchino really has a way with this style of 60s sounding super hero themes.

The animation is notably improved in this movie. There were moments in the original where there characters appeared almost plastic, but here, everything has received an upgrade, and things look sharper and/or smoother wherever they need across the board. Though I will say that Bob appears to have gained 10 to 20 years in the couple of seconds that separated the movies, because he looks significantly older in this film.

While I criticized how each character’s story were arranged and interacted with one another, I did like the development for each character on display. Each of their stories really did seem to take each character somewhere, and it was great to see them all develop across the film. Except for poor Dash, without a subplot to call his own.

This film definitely isn’t as funny as the original, though I’d argue that the original is one of the funniest movies Pixar has ever put out, so that’s not a major mark against this movie, and it still gets its heavy laughs where it needs to.

And of course, the Action is on point for this movie. That’s really the biggest selling point on display here. With all the new super heroes on display, the great setting and creative ideas on display, you’ll find your eyes glued to the screen throughout. It has more, and arguably better action than the original, and I definitely appreciate what was given here. The team had fun with the idea of the super family, and since Violet and Dash were let off their leash more in this film, we get to see a lot more of them in the action (Though, unfortunately, towards the end a lot of the adults are similarly put back on the leash, so there was little time in the movie where we got to see all of our heroes on the screen at once, which was a bit disappointing).

Again, like with Cars 1 and Cars 3, I find myself unsure if I put Dory and this in the right order. But there’s a lot on display here. Despite the jumbled plot and sub-par villain, the action, comedy, animation, music, and characters really make this a solid sequel. Though the original is definitely superior, I found myself still charmed at what was on display here.  Perhaps later I’ll change my mind on whether this or Dory is really better (this does have the advantage of being fresher in my mind, after all), but for now, I’ll stick with my decision and plant Incredible 2 firmly as my Number 12 Pixar film.