Beautiful Design But Not Quite As Good As The First

Rating: 7/10 (21 November 2018)

The Nutcracker: The Fourth Realm and Incredibles 2 are hands down the most beautiful films I've seen this year as far as production and design. Though, both were a bit lacking in the story department. Incredibles 2 has a story, and it's fine, it just doesn't hold up quite to the original, which was fairly flawless. I was fine with the feminist spin some are on here raving like lunatics that it's some political agenda. Ha. Animated films take 3 years to make. And, unlike live-action films, the script and voice-over work has to be done ahead of time so directors can't take liberties like they do in live-action. Basically, the structure is much more rigid and planned out than the Marvel live-action films where the storyboard artists come up with the action scenes then they hire a writer to write around them, or the latest Mission Impossible, where the director was writing the film as he was filming it. So, it would be literally impossible for Pixar/Disney to infuse the current MeToo movement into this film as it had to have been written at least 4 or 5+ years ago. And unlike live-action, it would be extremely time consuming and ludicrously expensive to add new scenes later and edit them into an animated film. Not to mention, I've never ever heard of them doing that. And since that's what I do for a living I think I have fairly accurate understanding of how big studio animation works.
I love Brad Bird's work and having Elastigirl take the role of the superhero in this film seemed like an obvious transition. Mr. Incredible doing the same thing again would have been redundant, so, it was a good choice to have her take on that role. And I thought watching Mr. Incredible at home was funny watching a big clunky guy trying to maneuver home life and kids. Maybe seems cliche, but that is what animated physical humor is about and what the great Warner Bros. cartoons were built on. Like the whole scene with the Jack-Jack fighting the raccoon I could see they were going for that old school physical comedy that required no words. That was one of my favorite scenes. Great physical comedy. My favorite scenes involved the kids and I wish they would have showed more of Violet and Dash. I liked Violet's arc with Tony and it would have been nice to see that or her school life explored a little more.
While I like the ScreenSlaver villain, which was clever and a great pun, and I liked the Winston character and his enthusiasm, I felt that storyline was a little clunky. It started out good, and the whole PR angle with Elastigirl was great, and played into the first film with destruction being why superheroes were outlawed in the first place. I can't say I know what was wrong with it. Usually it's pretty clear to me but...I think what it is is that they tried to tackle a more adult subject in a kid's movie and then tried to maintain the animation, kid angle, which made it like two films, struggling to take spotlight. Understandable, Brad Bird is getting older and has been doing kid's films for a while and may be interested in expanding into more adult subjects. Which, once you're pegged into one genre it can be hard to break out. Like, the scene where she goes to SreenSlaver's hideout reminded me of serial killer shows. That seemed a bit adult for children. It was pretty tame, but I shouldn't be in a kid's film and thinking of Dexter. Though, the first Incredibles is a cartoon version of James Bond which is very adult, so, where do you draw the line? I did agree with some reviewers that the adults shouldn't be drinking whiskey in an animated kid's film. I don't remember the swearing...it was in E.T., if I remember correctly, but I do agree that adults should feel safe to take their 5-yr olds to a Disney/Pixar film and not have to worry about that.
As far as design I think it's the most beautiful post '70s animated film I've ever seen. Every visual department is on-point and should be proud of the work they've done. Not only was it visually more beautiful than the first Incredibles, but the best animated design I've seen since Sleeping Beauty. The backgrounds, props were amazing, layouts amazing, animation, flawless. The scene where it was darkly lit sitting around a beautiful blue pool, that was stunning. The story could have used more oomph to truly put it into one of my favorites. But it is definitely something I will look back to for design, as I think anyone in animation, visual effects, architecture, or design will, as it was truly inspiring.