{"id":7728,"date":"2018-06-16T16:39:04","date_gmt":"2018-06-16T16:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/?p=7728"},"modified":"2020-03-23T23:28:01","modified_gmt":"2020-03-23T23:28:01","slug":"incredibles-2-and-now-you-know-the-rest-of-the-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/2018\/06\/16\/incredibles-2-and-now-you-know-the-rest-of-the-story\/","title":{"rendered":"INCREDIBLES 2 – AND NOW YOU KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

AUDIO PODCAST OPTION OF INCREDIBLES 2<\/em> REVIEW:<\/p>\n

(I apologize for a small audio break in the middle of the review – please just stick with me, it only lasts about 5 seconds.)<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/2020_03_23_17_42_441.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

SHORT TAKE:<\/p>\n

The second act of a two part story which began as The Incredibles <\/em>in 2004. No more, no less as delightful, fulfilling, family friendly, exciting and fun as the first half.<\/p>\n

WHO SHOULD GO:<\/p>\n

Absolutely everyone! ESPECIALLY if you are a fan of the first installment. (Though I can not say the same about the short in the beginning, Bao<\/em>,\u00a0which has nothing to do with the main movie and which you might want to give a miss. I\u00a0explain why\u00a0in a\u00a0spoiler-filled overview of\u00a0Bao <\/em>at the end of\u00a0this The Incredibles 2 <\/em>review.) Incredibles 2<\/em> VERY child friendly, (Bao<\/em> not so much).<\/p>\n

LONG TAKE:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“And now\u00a0you know\u00a0the rest of the story.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Paul Harvey was a radio personality who used to tell stories on air about little known facts or anecdotes, leaving some key element out until the end – like one about a war hero who turned out to be Lee Marvin, why the passengers on the Titanic didn’t have to die, what really happened to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid – that kind of thing. \"\"<\/a>So as I watched the beginning of The\u00a0Incredibles 2 <\/em>pick up IMMEDIATELY as \"\"<\/a>Incredibles (1)<\/em> had ended, that tag line came to mind.<\/p>\n

If you have not seen Incredibles 2<\/em> yet please do not read any further. I don’t want anything I have to say influence your fresh impression of the movie. It’s bad enough trailers give away too much nowadays. I do\u00a0not want to compound that affront for anyone who has not yet enjoyed the sequel to the original Incredibles<\/em>. For those of you who HAVE seen I2<\/em>, READ ON!<\/p>\n

SPOILERS – REALLY SERIOUSLY – DON’T READ ANY MORE UNTIL YOU’VE SEEN THE MOVIE!!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Okay for those of you who have already seen the movie I have a confession to make. I was just a little bit disappointed, but really it was my own fault. Please do not get me wrong – I LOVED The Incredibles 2<\/em>. It’s a terrific movie. But let me give you\u00a0some examples – for those of us living in the south do you remember the first time you ever saw snow? The experience of seeing it again can never match up to the anticipation you have built up from your original encounter with the frozen fluffy stuff.<\/p>\n

OR – When you’re a kid, no matter how amazing Christmas is, there is always a little teensy part of you that is just a little bit disappointed that it’s not as amazing as you expected it to be. Build up and eager high hopes can do that to you.\u00a0FOURTEEN\u00a0YEARS worth of anticipation cannot help but handicap the real item when it finally comes along. And, yes folks, it has been 14 years since writer\/director\u00a0Brad Bird hatched the first Incredibles<\/em> and introduced us to the Parr family of superheroes.<\/p>\n

All our favorite characters are back!! And despite the time passage, all the voices are the same: \"\"<\/a>Holly Hunter with her growly, lispish, Texas-twanged Helen, \"\"<\/a>Craig T. Nelson, the occasionally bombastic Bob, \"\"<\/a>Samuel L Jackson, the smooth crooning voice of Lucius, Sarah Vowell returns as Violet whose vocal mannerisms echo an individual variation on her mom. \"\"<\/a>Jonathan Banks\u00a0returns\u00a0as Rick Dickers, the exhausted, put-upon government agent assigned to help hide the existence and whereabouts of the Supers. \"\"<\/a>And Brad Bird, the director, writer and father figure to the entire Incredibles<\/em> Universe returns to voice my all time favorite character – \"\"<\/a>Edna Mode, the adorably abrasive,\u00a0diminutive costume designer to the Supers, whose own super powers are: mega-confidence, an almost mystical calm, extraordinary talent, and \"\"<\/a>a forcefully maternal, protective, preternatural insightfulness into the Supers themselves. She was conceived by Bird as the solution to the eternal question: since when do super powers automatically make you a gifted tailor? Where DO those awesome suits COME from?! AND contrary to popular opinion, according to Bird, himself,\u00a0he did not create the inimitable “E” from any one or combination of real life designers – at least not consciously.\u00a0She is simply a mismash of the cultures of Japan and Germany – two, he thought, countries who were very small in relation to their cultural impact – much like Edna herself. Therefore, her house decor is a combo of Japanese and German,\u00a0as is the clothes she herself wears, her odd accent, and even her personality – swinging wildly from imperturbability to wildly forceful and persuasive as the occasion demands.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, \"\"<\/a>Spencer Fox\u2019 Dash\u2019 boisterous reflection of his Dad\u2019s commanding vocals had to be replaced with the younger \"\"<\/a>Huck Milner, but you will not notice the difference. Fox is the only one to be replaced. According to interviews and articles the decision seems to have been arrived at from a combination of Fox\u2019 puberty, (like in the lyrics of “Puff the Magic Dragon” warns: “A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys”),\u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/a>Fox\u2019 committments with his punk band Charley Bliss, and a certain nostalgic ennui Fox had for the entire project – that it was something great he did in his childhood to which he didn\u2019t really want to revisit.<\/p>\n

AND NOW FOR SOME SERIOUS SPOILERS – THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING.<\/strong><\/p>\n

First off, calling it a sequel really isn\u2019t accurate. Incredibles 2<\/em> is actually a continuation of the first movie. Literally. We pick up in the first moment of Incredibles 2<\/em> after the last second of The Incredibles <\/em>(1)<\/em>. The Underminer has arrived and the family Parr (the word “par” meaning average) becomes the family of\u00a0Incredibles. (Anyone notice the name significance before this? Very clever underscoring by Bird, I thought.) They go into action as a group and avert a massive casualty list of people but rack up a lot of collateral property damage in stopping the mammoth runaway drill.<\/p>\n

Once again they are unjustly blamed and sent off in disgrace, reinforcing to the public, through the willing accomplices in the media, why Supers were banned to begin with.<\/p>\n

Helen is summoned by a Super-Hero-loving industrial magnate, \"\"<\/a>Winston Deavor, (Bob Odenkirk)\u00a0and \"\"<\/a>his sister, Evelyn Deavor “Evil Endeavor” – geddit? (Catherine Keener) to be the face\u00a0the Supers need\u00a0to become accepted again. For any of you who have seen the trailer, the\u00a0movie plot\u00a0largely revolves around Bob adjusting to a Mr. Mom status while Helen goes off to be the poster child for Super Heroes. And the fish-out-of-water aspect to the movie is wonderful – fun, touching and eminently relatable to any parent ever. Bob\u00a0trades \"\"<\/a>fighting collassus killing machines, \"\"<\/a>saving people from building fires, and \"\"<\/a>wrestling with super villains for \"\"<\/a>math homework, \"\"<\/a>meals and a \"\"<\/a>metapowered \"\"<\/a>baby – oh yeah and exhaustion: \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It is the genius of Brad Bird that he creates a reflection of a modern family and places it into a Super Hero framework. \u00a0The Parrs\/Incredibles is a fairly young family – mom, dad, children. The kids cover the spectrum too – early teen, adolescent and infant. One of the things, I believe, which made The Incredibles <\/em>such a universally loved movie was\u00a0that people intuited the metaphor. In an interview with Bird prior to the release of the sequel, Bird makes this clear. \"\"<\/a>Bob, the father, is given incredible strength, as a father must have in one way or another: physically, mentally, and morally, to the best of his ability,\u00a0he must stand strong in the eyes of those he has sworn to protect. \"\"<\/a>Helen, the mom, stretches in impossible ways, much like your average mother who must be psychologist, chauffeur, chef, teacher, and judge, all while carrying a baby on her hip and breast feeding. \"\"<\/a>Dash, the adolescent, has\u00a0just GOTTA MOVE, so is super fast! \"\"<\/a>Violet suffers the normal \"\"<\/a>angst teens go through – is standoffish and sometimes wants to disappear, so has the powers of invisibility and force fields. \"\"<\/a>Jack Jack is an \"\"<\/a>unknown but delightful baby – which pretty much fits the description of every infant.<\/p>\n

Everyone who has ever been in a family, which is, of course, everyone, can relate to one or more of each of these characters. And every family has challenges and threats which come at them, against which they are best advised to confront together.<\/p>\n

In what is really only the first half of a 3 hour movie, in the 2004 installment of The Incredibles<\/em>,\u00a0Bob comes to understand he has allowed his desire for the limelight\u00a0to overpower the real center stage he should be occupying – that of Super Hero in his own home. The kids learn their parents really are the heroes in their lives and step up to the plate to emulate and obey their parents. Together they learn this lesson in spades and the family is triumphant.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The second half of the movie – aka Incredibles 2<\/em> – puts this newfound unity, affection and understanding immediately to the test. A familiar tune, as there is not a day goes by that the family in general is not under attack.<\/p>\n

It is (if you\u2019ll excuse the pun) INCREDIBLY refreshing to have a movie where the\"\"<\/a> Dad is and wants to be the man of the house, but is still confident enough as the leader to step aside,\u00a0when that is the right thing to do. That he will do the right and\u00a0manful thing for his family, EVEN IF, as in this unusual situation, he must\u00a0temporarily suppress his own natural, and very powerful, normal desires and instincts to protect and provide\u00a0for\u00a0his family,\u00a0to allow someone else to take point.\u00a0\"\"<\/a>The wife is a considerate partner, without either being submissive or dominating – conferring with her husband on important issues, but being wise enough to leave the final decision up to her husband, knowing and trusting his judgement. The husband is wise enough to put his own needs, wants and desires aside for the good of the Supers in general, sure, but primarily for his own family and his own children. The parents’ first thoughts are for their children – even if it means leaving their own comfort zones, or putting aside their own goals and wants.<\/p>\n

In other words, the Incredibles\u00a0 have their priorities straight<\/em><\/strong>!! And their nom de plume – Parr, the average – points out that this is and should be the structure of every successful family. That every family should aim for this healthy functional dynamic. And that is a wonderful thing to see.<\/p>\n

I do have a few quibbles with the plot. This is not meant to be a negative but a hope that the next movie will be even better. They may be smnall quibbles, but they did have 14 LOOOONG years to think of a script and it seems some of these things could have and should have been worked out:<\/p>\n

1. The first one\u00a0dates back to the first installment – Jack Jack got away from Syndrome because he expressed some heavy duty powers: \"\"<\/a>turned into a monster, caught fire, \"\"<\/a>became metal – but at the end of the first movie no one knows he has powers. And in\u00a0the beginning of the second movie Bob is shocked that Jack Jack has powers when he starts to display them and Helen later makes it clear she didn\u2019t know either. NONE of them saw any of what Jack Jack did to Syndrome? Granted it was a traumatic moment and\u00a0they were\u00a0pretty high up in the sky but the Parr family\u00a0is used to crises and they have super powers!<\/p>\n

2. Their living arrangements. Their house is destroyed by Syndrome\u2019s crashing plane. At the end of the first movie some time seems to have gone by. Violet makes headway with Tony – gets noticeed, he asks her out on a date; Dash has accepted he must restrain his abilities and the family has developed a certain code with him about holding back at events like track meets; there seems to have been some time to adjust, become comfortable with their new found unity and must be living somewhere. But when we see them in the beginning of the second movie they are\u00a0still living in a second rate government sponsored hotel.<\/p>\n

3. The Parrs, at the beginning of Incredibles 2 <\/em>are broke and\u00a0unemployed. Bob can\u2019t get a job as a security guard? Bank teller? Dock Worker? Secret service??!! They\u2019ve already run through the insurance money for their house? And don\u2019t tell me Bob wouldn\u2019t have had insurance to cover the unlikely eventuality of a plane falling on his house. He WORKED for an insurance company.<\/p>\n

4. The\u00a0no-show Supers were never addressed. Why did Gazorbeam and Dynaguy not answer the Deavors’ phone when they were under attack? Were they already dead at Syndrome’s hands? The parent Deavors were elderly and the siblings only barely seem to have had time to adjust to running the company, so maybe a year or two? So the timing would be about right. If so, why did no one explain that to Evelyn? The Supers who did not come to their parents aid\u00a0were likely DEAD, and ironically, at the hands of\u00a0Syndrome, someone\u00a0who, like Evelyn,\u00a0wanted to de-power the Supers for\u00a0their own selfish, shortsighted reasons.<\/p>\n

5. I find it odd that none of the Super Heroes questioned the motives of yet another mega-rich entity interested in hiring them. Wasn’t the last movie about exactly that? Granted it turned out Winston was the real deal, but aside from Lucius assuring them\u00a0 Winston was on the up and up after a single interview, no doubts are shared or intentions dissected by any of a group who should have been extremely sensitive to this scenario, coming so close on the heels of a very similar one from which they just finished extracting themselves.<\/p>\n

More of an observation than a critique, this is also kind of a dark movie – more so than the first. Whether you like it or not, and I did like it, there is an element of reality infused into this “kids\u2019” movie. People do die. Ethical and legal debates are had around the Parr dinner table. And there are complex cultural issues to wrestle with, along with physically fighting bad guys. \"\"<\/a>Much like the Sokovia Accords in The Avengers<\/em> Universe, the ban on Supers smacks of an unjust legalese stemming from an urge to place blame on the easy marks of Super Heroes instead of the real villains. It is easier to rein in people who willingly abide by and enforce the law than it is the criminals who break them.The issue of breaking a law in civil disobedience and leaving her family to save it, are ironies which are discussed and will be of interest to the adults in the audience,\u00a0but will go over the heads of most of the youngsters. Bird, himself, said in an interview that he eschews the term “kid” movie but simply makes animated films he would enjoy seeing. His is obviously a winning prescription, but it makes for a movie which might lose the attention of younger viewers in places.<\/p>\n

Which talk of Sokovia Accords and the ban of Supers brings me to the REAL villain of the Incredibles. <\/em>It\u2019s not really\u00a0Screenslayer or even Evelyn. It\u2019s the media.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the Underminer escapade, which bridges the two movies, the visual presence of the Parr family as Incredibles in the mountain of rubble is not portrayed as heroes mitigating and managing a catastrophe for minimal damage, but as the cause of the mess. Sadly, these talking heads, the REAL villains of BOTH movies, are the same media who\u00a0defined Mr. Incredible in the 2004 movie\u00a0not as a rescuer, but as someone\u00a0who ruined\u00a0a disturbed man\u2019s\u00a0attempted suicide. This is a typical example of how news bias and “fake news” reports are fashioned – a classic example of what happens in the real world –\u00a0to give their audience, not news, but their own prejudiced view.\u00a0These real evildoers are never\u00a0showcased as such. That might have been an interesting aspect to pursue, especially as it ties in with the bad rap the heroes in The Avengers <\/em>got in Captain America: Civil War <\/em>from the misguided and grossly civil-rights-violating\u00a0Sokovia Accords. But while we see the “news” people at work, either blankly vapid or ginning up anger towards the Supers (without\u00a0the excuse\u00a0of being hypnotised), no serious criticism is ever laid at their feet where that blame belongs.<\/p>\n

In an interesting note, the actors who voice the main characters – Holly Hunter, Craig T Nelson, and Samuel L Jackson, are given a small intro at the beginning of the movie, mentioning how grateful they are for the patience of the audience over the past 14 years and how glad they are to be working together again as this family of Supers. Fourteen years is not a small span of time and both Ms. Hunter and Mr. Nelson are not exceptions to reflect this span of a half – generation of years between movies. I only mention this because, strangely, \"\"<\/a>Samuel L. Jackson does not look a DAY older than when he did in the year the first Incredibles<\/em> came out.\u00a0 He\u2019s in many super hero universes as well: \"\"<\/a>The Avengers <\/em>and Agents of Shield<\/em> as Nick Fury, Mr. Glass in Shymalon’s alternate super universe,\u00a0and here as Frozone, as well as super, almost indestructible characters in movies\u00a0like \"\"<\/a>The Hitman\u2019s Bodyguard<\/em>. And the actor, much like most super heroes \u2014 never…. seems…..to age. Hmmmm. Is there something you\u2019re not telling us avid super hero fans Mr Jackson? LOL<\/p>\n

In conclusion on The Incredibles 2<\/em> – I just want to say PLEASE DO NOT WAIT ANOTHER 14 YEARS TO DO A FOLLOW UP FILM!!! We want to know more of — the rest of the story.<\/p>\n

Bao<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Finally, just as a side note, there is a strange little short at the beginning of The Incredibles 2<\/em> called Bao<\/em> \"\"<\/a>(meat or vegetable filled dumpling) about a dumpling which comes to life for\u00a0a lonely woman, \"\"<\/a>so is spared from being eaten, until it grows to an age where he wants to leave home and marry, at which point the mom EATS the dumpling! The movie has nothing to do with The Incredibles 2<\/em> plot, except perhaps as a counterpoint\u00a0DYSFUNCTIONAL family dynamic, making the strong family of Incredibles look even better. This is some fairly disturbing imagery, softened very little by the revelation that the “dumpling” is merely a reflection of her real life son, an only child, who left his parents to marry. While there is reconciliation with said son in the end, brought about by\u00a0his understanding father, and acceptance of the non-Asian wife as she learns dumpling making from her mother-in-law, I could not get the unsettling imagery out of my head\u00a0of the mother willingly eating her child rather than allow him to mature and leave home. This is a short you may want to either get in late enough to avoid or prepare to discuss with your kids later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AUDIO PODCAST OPTION OF INCREDIBLES 2 REVIEW: (I apologize for a small audio break in the middle of the review – please just stick with me, it only lasts about 5 seconds.) SHORT TAKE: The second act of a two part story which began as The Incredibles in 2004. No more, no less as delightful, … Continue reading INCREDIBLES 2 – AND NOW YOU KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1232,639,1694,1698,1686,1696,1097,1687,1689,1695,1691,1685,1684,1803,607,1683,1688,1761,8,7,2739,1802,90,243,1697,2718,551,9,1468,570,1801,1693,91,1692,1682,1690],"class_list":["post-7728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-animated","tag-audio","tag-banned","tag-bao","tag-brad-bird","tag-catherine-keener","tag-children","tag-craig-t-nelson","tag-dash","tag-deavors","tag-dickers","tag-edna-mode","tag-elastagirl","tag-fake-news","tag-family","tag-frozone","tag-holly-hunter","tag-home","tag-home-school","tag-homeschool","tag-iphone","tag-media-bias","tag-movie","tag-movie-review","tag-odenkirk","tag-podcast","tag-prejudice","tag-review","tag-samuel-l-jackson","tag-school","tag-sokovia","tag-sokovia-accords","tag-spoiler","tag-super-heroes","tag-the-incredibles","tag-violet"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/poster-2.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6mhKV-20E","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7728"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16808,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7728\/revisions\/16808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}