Pixar's suburban superheroes – headed by Mr Incredible (Craig T Nelson) and wife Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) – are back, 14 years after their Oscar-winning animation debut
Pixar's suburban superheroes – headed by Mr Incredible (Craig T Nelson) and wife Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) – are back, 14 years after their Oscar-winning animation debut.
This time, Mr Incredible, alias Bob, is filling the role of stay-at home dad to kids Violet (Sarah Vowell), Dash (Huck Milner) and baby Jack-Jack (Eli Fucile), while Elastigirl, aka Helen, is out saving the world.
Then the whole family has to pull together, with help from old superhero pal Frozone (Samuel L Jackson), when new supervillain Screenslaver appears on the scene, aiming to hypnotise the masses via their screens.
What made the original 2004 film so much fun was that it worked both as an action adventure and a very funny parody, as well as the emotional weight writer-director Brad Bird gave the story with his fond depiction of the typical stresses and strains of ordinary family life.
Happily, he's pulled off a similarly incredible feat here. This sequel wittily tackles changing gender roles at work and in the home, with Helen relishing her dashing crime-fighting role as the public face of a campaign to make superheroes legal, while the befuddled Bob grapples with domestic battles.
Neither is aware of Jack-Jack's emerging superpowers - which get an astonishing workout when he takes on a thieving raccoon in a hilariously escalating battle. Yet possibly even funnier is when diminutive design guru Edna Mode (again voiced by Bird himself) pops up as Jack-Jack's unflappable babysitter.
