Featured Blu-ray and DVD Review: Incredibles 2
November 12, 2018
Incredibles 2 - Buy from Amazon: DVD, Blu-ray Combo Pack, or 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack
Incredibles 2 was one of three absolute monster hits Disney released this year, all of them super hero movies. It is the delayed sequel to The Incredibles, which came out in 2004. Fourteen years is a long time for a sequel. Was it worth the wait? Or is Pixar running out of ideas?
This movie begins with Tony Rydinger being interrogated by Rick Dicker. Tony explains what happened at the end of The Incredibles when the Underminer attacked. As the Parr family, and Lucius, go to fight the Underminer, Tony sees Violet without her mask. After the fight, and after the cops yell at Bob and Helen for breaking the laws against supers, Violent mentions to Bob that Tony saw her without her mask, who tells Rick, hence the interrogation. An interrogation that ends with Tony’s memory of the events being erased. More on that later.
More importantly for the Parr family, Rick tells them that the funding for the program has been cut and in two weeks, they will be on their own. Someone is going to have to get a job. Fortunately, there were more witnesses to the events than just Tony. Winston Deavor also saw the events and it made him very excited. He and his sister, Evelyn, run DevTech, which they have run since their father died. Their father was a huge supporter of super heroes, something Winston also inherited. He helps Lucius avoid the police and gives him a message to pass along to Bob and Helen. He wants to change the laws to make super legal again. In order to do that, they need an ambassador to help improve the public image of supers. The Deavors have chosen Elastigirl, because she causes less collateral damage than Mr. Incredible does. At first she doesn’t want to do it, because it means leaving her family, but Bob convinces her to do it, because if she can succeed, then he can become Mr. Incredible again.
At this point, the movie splits into two stories: Elastigirl’s exploits as a super hero and Bob’s exploits as a stay-at-home dad. The movie bounces between the two, but I’m going to tackle them one after another.
Elastigirl’s exploits are a lot simpler to describe. Her first day on the job, she stops a runaway train, but is taunted by someone named Screenslaver. She is then interviewed by Chad Brentley for his TV program, but Screenslaver interrupts it by hypnotizing Chad and taunting Elastigirl. It seems to be personal for Screenslaver, but Elastigirl is up for the challenge. (There’s more to it than that, but we quickly run into spoilers.)
Meanwhile, Bob is having troubles being a stay-at-home dad. Dash is having trouble with his math homework and Bob doesn’t understand the new teaching methods. Violet’s date with Tony just doesn’t happen. It turns out when Rick Dicker erased Tony’s memory of the incident, he accidentally erased his memory of Violet entirely. Meanwhile, Jack-Jack is developing powers. (We saw these powers manifest at the end The Incredibles, but none of the main characters saw them until now.) It gets so bad that he has to call in help from Lucius and eventually Edna Mode, who is not the most baby-friendly person in the world. She does like hobnobs, so she earns points in my book.
By the time these two storylines reconnect, we are way too deep into spoiler territory.
I have a problem with this movie. The surprise twist was way too obvious. I know what many of you are thinking. It’s a kids movie, so being a little too predictable isn’t really an issue, as kids likely won’t guess the twist. That would normally be a fair point when it comes to animated movies; however, Pixar films are almost always made for adults, just in a way that kids can also understand. Fortunately, the rest of the movie is so good that waiting for the reveal was never tedious and even though I knew it was coming, it was still effective. Furthermore, this is the only real complaint I had with the movie.
I’m a really big fan of super hero movies and the original The Incredibles is an excellent movie, so I’m definitely part of Incredibles 2’s target audience. I’m also a huge fan of the retro-futuristic look that both films used. Add in a compelling bad guy and several action scenes that make excellent use of the various special powers the various characters have and this is one of the best action movies of the year. Furthermore, it is also one of the better family dramas of the year as well. Bob’s attempts to help his kids and the learning curve he deals with is the heart of the movie. Without that, the movie would still be good, but it wouldn’t be a must see.
On a side note, and this is maybe something I shouldn’t admit in writing, but if you setup a fight between a baby and a raccoon, I’m going to cheer for the raccoon.
Disc one starts with an audio commentary track with several of the animators, Dave Mullins, Alan Barillaro, Tony Fucile, and Bret Parker. There are two short films. Bao, which is about a woman whose cooks a bao, a filled bun, that comes to life. Aunt Edna is practically a deleted scenes extra with Edna Mode taking care of Jack-Jack over night. There is also a featurette about Brad Bird.
Disc two is loaded with extras, starting with Super Stuff, a seven-minute look at the movie’s design and such. Paths to Pixar: Everyday Heroes is a 12-minute featurette about the family dynamic in the movie and how they mirror some of the family issues the cast and crew deal with in real life. Superbaby is a five-minute featurette with Bizaardvark touring Pixar studio talking to the animators. Ralph Eggleston: Production Designer is a two-minute interview with the production designer for the movie. Making Bao is a six-minute look at Domee Shi, who was a storyboard artist on this movie and directed the short film, Bao. Heroes and Villains is a multi-part look at the main characters in the movie. Each one is about three minutes long, so they are not really in-depth individually, but rather meaty combined. There are some “vintage” featurettes, which are ads and theme songs for the older heroes. Finally, there are ten deleted scenes from the movie with a total running time of 40 minutes, including introductions.
I already named Incredibles 2 Pick of the Week when it first came out on DVD / Blu-ray / 4K Ultra. The quality of the movie alone was enough to get it there. The only question was if the extras would pull their weight, and they did. Audio commentary track, short films, featurettes, deleted scenes, etc. It’s more than enough to be a must buy.
Video on Demand
The Movie
The Extras
The Verdict
Filed under: Video Review, Incredibles 2, The Incredibles, Samuel L. Jackson, Holly Hunter, Jonathan Banks, Brad Bird, Ralph Eggleston, Catherine Keener, Craig T. Nelson, Bob Odenkirk, John Ratzenberger, Sarah Vowell, Bill Wise, Tony Fucile, Alan Barillaro, Dave Mullins, Huck Milner, Eli Fucile, Adam Gates