The Incredibles 2

Okay. Bear with me.

The Incredibles 2 is a very good movie, the animation quality is excellent, the story is very good as a continuation of the first, the voice cast is top form if not even better than the first, and there is more comedy and characters than the first. It still mixes different pools of source materials and still comes out to be a dang good movie. BUT, and this is the part you need to bear with me, it really was not worth the 14 year wait. It's a good movie, I really enjoyed the movie, I would buy the movie and watch it again and again! But I get this feeling that this movie was not made for us, the people who saw the teaser for The Incredibles, saw it in the theater, the people who wanted a sequel. It was made for the kids who saw The Incredibles when they were 6 or 7 years old, and now they are about 10 to 11 years old. They would love the movie even more so because they did not have to wait that long like we did. I'm not trying to go all "millenial" and be like, "Ugh we have to wait 2 or 3 years to see what happens next? That's way too long, we need to see it next year!", that is ridiculous. What do you want quality or quantity? Me personally, I want quality. But let's take another example of a Pixar movie, Toy Story, waited 4 years for the 2nd, and then an astounding 11 years for the 3rd. But with Toy Story there was a reason, they timed it to where by the time the 3rd came out all the kids who saw the first were Andy's age, moving onto college or adulthood. That is an example of timing. But 14 years for a sequel that could have easily came out in 2009 or 2010 if you were pushing it, does not hold that merit. I mean, you really made Finding Dory first rather than The Incredibles 2? Really? It just wasn't worth the wait for me. A very good movie, but too little too late. And to throw salt in my bitter old ass, the movie started with the cast ASSURING the wait would be worth it. And it just wasn't for me. Does that hinder my enjoyance? Only a bit. I hate to be so jaded on this but it affected me, and the movie was good I must stress that. I had really no expectations for the movie. Now you might be saying, "But Dude you had to have had some form of expectation, the movie took so long to come out!" and you know what my reaction was when the news was official and Incredibles 2 was announced? "Well that's awesome. Took them long enough." And that was it. So I was going in with a completely unbiased and unexpected mind, fully willing to accept whatever was on the screen. There is such a thing as too long or too short when it comes to continuations of stories. When everybody was thrilled to hear about the continuation of Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, they had to wait a long time unless they loved the story at a young age, which my guess would say that would be very rare. It took 55 years for that story to have a sequel. But did it need it? Well I haven't read the book or seen the film yet but even I could say the book ends definitively. And in actuality, it wasn't even a sequel, just an earlier draft of To Kill A Mockingbird. So people got so interested in reading essentially Mockingbird V. 0.487, and the event did not phase me in the slightest. So the film could have been an awful lot worse. But now my thoughts turn to the future. I joked about Monsters Inc. 2 but I am now worried it could end up the same as The Incredibles in terms of impact. If you're going to dedicate 14 years for a sequel, it better be Empire Strikes Back levels of amazing. And this, just wasn't. A really good movie hurt by it's dragging release. But if you can look past this huge gap, you're going to enjoy the movie. I just hope Pixar listens to it's dedicated fans in the future and take action on what they want.

The Incredibles

I'm simultaneously excited, and yet kind of bitter it took them 14 years to finally make a sequel to The Incredibles. I'll talk more about that later after the review.

The Incredibles, Pixar's superhero movie is a cut above the rest. Not only because of the great animation, but the story and characters. The interesting thing I noticed is the current story takes place in the early 60s, which is interesting enough but that also means the opening scene takes place a bit past 1945. So it simultaneously is a superhero movie, and yet an alternate reality movie. Hell the only other movie I know off the top of my head that does such a thing is Watchmen, so already I was digging this movie and appreciated it more than when I was a kid. Alright, in a reality of multiple superheroes that have yet again like Watchmen, been retired and are living normal lives after the glory days we meet Bob Parr, Mr. Incredible living a suburban life with his family. And he is going through the always fun time of a mid-life crisis, trying to relive the days of being a hero while trying to maintain his job and be a part of his family. And I am certain this is easily the best Fantastic Four movie ever to be made in history, with Helen Parr as Elastigirl having two children Dash who has super speed, and Violet who can create force fields and turn invisible. This family is awesome, because they act and feel like a real family that just so happens to have superpowers. The dynamic and characters are wonderful to say the least, and I have to give a special shout out to Brad Bird for creating these wonderful designs for each character. Back to story, so Mr. Incredible is contacted and sent to a island where I swear to God seeing it now is so clearly a villain's lair it is almost absurd. A plot is discovered that entails the deaths of all supers, leading The Incredibles to save the day. One glorious aspect is that a lot of love went to Ken Adam's designs in the early James Bond films, because honestly if I did not know the S in that board room meant Syndrome, at my age right now, I would say it's SPECTRE. Like it's amazing how much material they give homages to and it works. The characters are essentially The Fantastic Four, the plot is a combination of silver age adventures mixed with modern introspection of our characters, the set design is Ken Adams down to the letter, and the music is entirely done in this jazz/swing band with a lot of brass and soul straight from the 40s. I also love how the technology is so high tech that surprisingly the film is timeless. Animation can become timeless regardless of setting or story, and this is a prime example of that. People can watch this movie even 50 years down the line and still enjoy it as much as when it first came out. With that said, *BRIEF TANGENT INCOMING* this is going to sound really weird but hear me out. The Incredibles 2 is my Phantom Menace. Now what do I mean by that? Well, seeing as how I was born in 1995 I didn't have to wait that long for the prequels. Hell by the time I got into Star Wars, The Phantom Menace was in theaters if not almost out on video. The Incredibles 2 took 14 years to hit, about 3 years shy from the time it took from Return Of The Jedi to The Phantom Menace, I was 9 or 10 when I first saw The Incredibles. I...really, really do not want The Incredibles 2 to fall on it's face for me. I never experienced The Phantom Menace as a grown up and witnessed the betrayal of Star Wars. This could be a Phantom Menace situation, a continuation of a story that took over 10 long years to get here, with a loving and devoted fanbase, and the wait better have been worth it. The only thing left I have to say is, if you really make me wait about 20 years for a Monsters Inc. sequel, I will be severely disappointed in you Pixar.