Incredibles 2

Theatrical release poster

***Incredibles 2*** is a 2018 American computer-animated superhero film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. Written and directed by Brad Bird, it is the sequel to *The Incredibles* (2004) and the second full-length installment of the franchise. The story follows the Parr family as they try to restore public's trust in superheroes while balancing their family life, only to combat a new foe who seeks to turn the populace against all superheroes. Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell and Samuel L. Jackson reprise their roles from the first film; newcomers to the cast include Huckleberry Milner, Bob Odenkirk, Catherine Keener and Jonathan Banks. Michael Giacchino returned to compose the score.

Following the success of *The Incredibles,* Bird postponed development on a sequel to work on other films. He attempted to distinguish the script from superhero films and superhero television series released since the first film, focusing on the family dynamic rather than the superhero genre.

*Incredibles 2* premiered in Los Angeles on June 5, 2018, and was theatrically released in the United States on June 15, 2018 in Disney Digital 3-D, Dolby Cinema, IMAX and IMAX 3D. The film received largely positive reviews and praise for its animation, voice acting, humor, action sequences, and musical score. The film made $182.7 million in its opening weekend, setting the record for best debut for an animated film, and has grossed over $1.2 billion worldwide, making it the fourth highest-grossing film of 2018, the second highest-grossing animated film and the 15th highest-grossing film of all-time. *Incredibles 2* was named by the National Board of Review as the Best Animated Film of 2018.

## Plot

The Incredibles, a family of superheroes, pursue the Underminer. Although he escapes with stolen bank money, they stop his drill tank from destroying Metroville's City Hall with help from Lucius Best. The government, concerned by the collateral damage, shuts down the Superhero Relocation Program, leaving the Parrs without financial assistance from agent Rick Dicker. After Violet's date Tony Rydinger discovers her superhero identity, Dicker erases her from Tony's memory. Lucius informs Bob and Helen of an offer from Winston Deavor, the owner of DevTech, a telecommunications corporation. Winston and his sister Evelyn propose a publicity stunt to regain public trust in superheroes.

Winston chooses Helen to spearhead the stunt under her old identity, Elastigirl, as she causes less property damage than Bob, and provides the Parr family with a new home. While Helen is away, Bob struggles with his new role as a stay-at-home parent: Dash has trouble with math, Violet becomes withdrawn after Tony stands her up, and Jack-Jack wreaks havoc with his burgeoning superpowers. Bob brings Jack-Jack to Edna Mode, who develops a suit that controls his abilities. Meanwhile, Elastigirl captures the Screenslaver, a supervillain who projects hypnotic images using television screens. She unmasks him as a deliveryman with no recollection of his actions.

At a party celebrating the Screenslaver's arrest, Winston announces a summit of world leaders to legalize superheroes, hosted aboard his luxury ship. Unsettled by the ease with which she captured the Screenslaver, Elastigirl realizes that he was controlled by a pair of mind-control goggles. Evelyn forces the goggles onto Elastigirl, revealing herself as the mastermind behind the Screenslaver. Evelyn explains she has hated superheroes since Gazerbeam and Fironic failed to rescue her father from being killed by burglars. She plans to sabotage her brother's summit and cause a catastrophe that will tarnish the reputation of superheroes, ensuring they remain outlawed forever. Using a hypnotized Elastigirl, she lures Mr. Incredible into a trap, then sends other hypnotized superheroes to subdue the Parr children. Frozone tries to protect them, but is overwhelmed and placed under Evelyn's control.

Violet, Dash, and Jack-Jack escape with the help of the Incredibile, a high-tech car once owned by Bob during his time as Mr. Incredible, and reach Winston's ship. On board, the hypnotized Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, and Frozone recite a vindictive manifesto on air to paint superheroes as a threat. They subdue the ship crew, aim the ship at Municiberg, and destroy the controls. Jack-Jack removes Elastigirl's goggles, and she frees Mr. Incredible and Frozone. The Parrs and Frozone release the other mind-controlled superheroes by destroying their goggles. With Mr. Incredible swimming underwater to turn the rudder and Frozone creating layers of ice, they slow the ship and prevent it crashing into the city. Evelyn escapes in a jet, but is captured by Elastigirl. Superheroes around the world regain legal status.

Later, Tony accompanies Violet and her family to a movie. Outside the theater, the Parrs spot a high-speed pursuit between police and gunmen. Violet leaves Tony at the theater and promises to return in time for the film, before the Parrs give chase in a refurbished Incredibile.

## Voice cast

* Craig T. Nelson as Bob Parr/Mr. Incredible, who possesses super strength and limited invulnerability.
* Holly Hunter as Helen Parr/Elastigirl, who has the ability to stretch her body into many shapes and forms.
* Samuel L. Jackson as Lucious Best/Frozone
* Huck Milner as Dashiell "Dash" Parr
* Eli Fucile as Jack-Jack Parr
* Sarah Vowell as Violet Parr

### Additional voices

* Maeve Andrews
* Steve Apostolina
* Kimberly Bailey
* Sola Bamis
* Brad Bird
* Steve Blum
* Kelly Bonbright
* Catherine Cavadini
* June Christopher
* Robert Clotworthy
* David Cowgill
* Wendy E. Cutler
* Rebecca Davis
* Debi Derryberry
* Bryan Dluny
* Terri Douglas
* Robin Atkin Downes
* Greg Dykstra
* Paul Eiding
* Ted Evans
* Dave Fennoy
* Jennifer Crystal Foley
* Eddie Frierson
* Grace Geller
* Jean Gilpin
* Jackie Gonneau
* Richie Gordon
* Karen Huie
* Justine Huxley
* Andrew Kishino
* Phil LaMarr
* Jeff LaPensee
* Pat Lentz
* Marcella Lentz-Pope
* AJ LoCascio
* Yuri Lowenthal
* Austin Madison
* Scott Menville
* Piotr Michael
* Melanie Minichino
* Max Mittelman
* Kitty Newton
* Teddy Newton
* Jonathan Nichols
* Nina Ozier
* Paul Pape
* Jacqueline Piñol
* Michael Ralph
* Usher Raymond IV
* Lynwood Robinson
* Dennis Singletary
* Alyson Stoner
* Pepper Sweeney
* Shane Sweet
* Fred Tatasciore
* Paula Tiso
* Toya Turner
* Diamond White
* Scott Whyte
* Wally Wingert
* Matthew Wood
* Joe Zieja
* Noelle Zuber

## Production

### Development

Following *The Incredibles*, Brad Bird directed his next film for Pixar, *Ratatouille*, which was released in June 2007. Near its premiere, Bird said he was open to an idea of a sequel to *The Incredibles*, but only if it could be better than the original. He stated, "I have pieces that I think are good, but I don't have them all together." In a May 2013 interview, Bird reiterated his interest in a sequel: "I have been thinking about it. People think that I have not been, but I have—because I love those characters, and love that world ... I have many, many elements that I think would work really well in another *Incredibles* film, and if I can get 'em to click all together, I would probably wanna do that."[16] While publicizing the first film, Bird had already conceptualized the eventual approach where Bob and Helen would switch roles, and Jack-Jack would develop multiple powers unknown to the family.

At the Disney shareholder meeting in March 2014, Disney CEO and chairman Bob Iger confirmed that Pixar was working on an *Incredibles* sequel, and that Bird would return as writer. Bird started the script around April 2015, and said that the *Incredibles* sequel would be his next film after *Tomorrowland*.

One challenge in writing *Incredibles 2* was how to deal with the large number of superhero films and television series that had been released since the first film, such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. To try to differentiate the sequel, Bird wanted to avoid tropes related to the superhero genre: "I don't think that kind of idea stays interesting for very long. For me, the interesting thing was never the superhero part of it. It was more the family dynamic, and how do superhero things play into that." He said he wanted to include some unused ideas from the first film, and that the new story would focus on Helen Parr / Elastigirl.

Though the sequel was released fourteen years after the first, Bird did not want to use a narrative element like a timeskip or to come up with new characters, and instead continued from where the first film left off. This allowed him to keep characters with the same superpowers and not have to develop new ones, nor did he need to figure out how to deal with Violet and Dash being adults. This also allowed him to keep Jack-Jack as an infant with an array of powers, which Bird likened to how infants are able to understand numerous languages. While the plot of the 2005 follow-up video game to *The Incredibles*, *The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer*, begins at that same point of time, the film discards the game's continuity. The film was produced with a production budget of $200 million.

One advantage that Pixar had with *Incredibles 2* was the advancement of technology the company had seen since the original film and a team of much more experienced animators. Producer John Walker said, "I think that one of the things that excited Brad and Ralph Eggleston, the production designer, was the fact that the technology existed now to finally realize the designs in the way that they had hoped to realize them in 2004. There were no notions of, 'Well, we don't know how to do long hair, we don't know how to do humans, we don't know how to do muscles.' Everybody knows how to do it. It's just now about doing it quickly." Because Pixar no longer used the same systems from the first movie, all the characters had to be created from scratch on the computer again. The studio also used physically-based human eye models for the characters for the first time, even if the eyes are larger and more stylized than in real humans.

### Casting

Pixar announced in November 2016 that both Holly Hunter and Samuel L. Jackson would return to reprise their roles, and at the July 2017 D23 Expo that both Craig T. Nelson and Sarah Vowell would also return with them. Spencer Fox, the original voice of Dashiell "Dash" Parr, was replaced in the sequel by younger newcomer Huckleberry Milner. Also that July, Brad Bird and John Ratzenberger were confirmed as reprising their characters from the first film.

In November 2017, Pixar announced that Bob Odenkirk and Catherine Keener had been signed to the cast, In January 2018, it was announced that Sophia Bush and Isabella Rossellini would voice new characters Voyd and The Ambassador, while Jonathan Banks would voice Rick Dicker after the character's original voice actor Bud Luckey retired in 2014; after his death in 2018, the film was dedicated to Luckey's memory.

### Music

In 2015, Bird confirmed that Michael Giacchino would return to compose the score. Giacchino began work around May 2017. The soundtrack album was released on June 15, 2018. In addition to the film's score, it includes the vocalized theme songs for Mr. Incredible, Frozone, and Elastigirl heard in the credits, as well as bonus versions of the songs sung by Disney's a cappella group, DCappella, and the latter's version of the track "The Glory Days" from the first film.

## Release

The official premiere of *Incredibles 2* took place in Los Angeles on June 5, 2018. It was theatrically released in the United States on June 15, 2018, including an IMAX release as part of Disney's new distribution deal with IMAX, but only in 2D. It is accompanied by Pixar's short film *Bao*. The film's release was originally scheduled for June 21, 2019, but the date was moved forward after Pixar handed the 2019 release date over to *Toy Story 4*, after its production fell behind schedule.

### Marketing

A 53-second teaser trailer premiered on November 18, 2017 during ESPN's broadcast of *College GameDay*. It received 113 million views in its first 24 hours, becoming the most viewed trailer for an animated film, and the 7th most-viewed trailer overall. A new sneak peek premiered during the 2018 Winter Olympics on February 14. On April 13, a new trailer was released.

### Merchandise

An *Incredibles 2* graphic novel and comic miniseries was published by Dark Horse Comics in 2018. The graphic novel, titled *Incredibles 2: Heroes at Home*, was written by Liz Marsham and illustrated by Nicoletta Baldari. A comic miniseries, titled *Incredibles 2: Crisis in Mid-Life! & Other Stories*, was written by Christos Gage and Landry Walker, and illustrated by Gurihiru, J. Bone, Andrea Greppi and Roberta Zanotta.

In May 2018, a prose novel was released entitled *Incredibles 2: A Real Stretch: An Elastigirl Prequel Story*, which focuses on the life of the character Elastigirl before the events of the first film.

A Lego video game adaptation of both films was released on the same day as *Incredibles 2*.

### Home media

*Incredibles 2* was released on digital copy on October 23, 2018, and on 4K UHD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on November 6, 2018.