A T2 GIRL
Fourteen years ago, we fell in love with a family of four, okay 4.5, Supers and their friends. While more than a decade has passed in real time since we last saw our favourite Supers, in the world of the Incredibles they are right where the first film by Brad Bird ended. They are still chasing the Underminer as a family of crime-fighting superheroes while the world still considers them illegal. They are caught after a particular Underminer attack leaves a lot of destruction and they fail to stop or nab him. But no one can keep Mr Incredible, Elastigirl, Violet, Dash and especially baby Jack-Jack from being super for too long and what we get is an animated superhero movie that is as incredible as the first one was. Here are some of our favourite things about Incredibles 2...
Women who kick butt: Guess who is saving the day this time around, not just for the people of Metroville and New Urbem but also for the Supers around the world? It’s Elastigirl!
When the superhero relocation programme is shut down and the Parrs have nowhere to go, a super fan (pun intended) hires Mr Incredible, Elastigirl and Frozone to help him show the Supers in a good light and make them legal once again, and makes Elastigirl the key Super in that PR exercise. And boy does she do some serious PR, stopping a runaway train as she rides through the streets on a badass motorcycle, stops the mayor’s chopper from crashing and the baddie Screenslaver from doing permanent damage to the existence of Supers. And even when she is being fawned over by other Supers and regular people, she never lets it to her head.
(SPOILER ALERT) The villain of the story is also a woman who is not just evil but a genius scientist and a pretty cool lady.
Men who are real: It isn’t easy for men to take the back seat when it comes to being a bread-earner or more popular than their female partners, and Incredibles 2 doesn’t mince words when it comes to showing how badly they handle it.
Bob Parr or Mr Incredible is shocked to know that his wife has been chosen for a particular mission over him and can’t help but express it before he is scowled into grudging support by Helen. Oh, when it boils down to the brass tacks, she has got his support a hundred per cent and can easily say, “You go be incredible”, though he does add “so I can be incredible”. And, of course, the minute Elastigirl doubts if he’d be able to manage two kids and a baby, he is insulted, because how difficult can it be?
He finds out how hard it really is but is a champ about learning how to make things right so that he is not a bad dad. And when he learns Elastigirl is in trouble, he doesn’t hesitate to put on his suit to go help his lady-love, despite being in a supporting Super role.
It is all about family: The best part of The Incredibles was the family dynamics of the Parrs and this time it is no different. It doesn’t matter if Bob is bummed about not being chosen to be the hero; it doesn’t matter that Violet is having a fit because her date doesn’t remember her and is angry with her dad because it was his fault; it doesn’t matter that Violet and Dash are bickering; it doesn’t matter if Bob is foundering and it doesn’t matter if Helen is away from the family on work, because at the end of the day they have each other’s back. So Bob takes over parenting duties, Violet helps her dad catch a break, and Elastigirl makes sure she calls home every night and when it comes to saving each other, even the kids jump in to lend a hand. Of course, there are friends like Frozone and Edna who are always a phone call away.
Edna Mode: We cannot have enough of Edna, a designer for the Supers and a close friend of the Parrs. She is very unhappy, and grumpily so, that Helen Parr’s costume was designed by someone else and she doesn’t hold back her caustic barbs when Bob pays a visit, much to the audience’s delight. But the best part was how the rude, churlish lady goes from saying she doesn’t do babies to kicking Bob out to spend time with Jack-Jack and becoming the cooing Auntie Edna. She is, as always, a show-stealer.
Jack-Jack’s antics: Baby Jack-Jack goes from showing no powers, much to the disappointment of his dad, to showing 17 different kinds of them as he runs Bob ragged. Whether it is when he poofs away to another dimension only to come back when enticed with cookies or turning into a demon baby and bursting into fire when angry to shooting laser beams from his eyes and walking through walls, Jack-Jack alone makes the movie worth it. Our favourite moment is a toss-up between his fight with the raccoon and Violet using him as a laser gun while mouthing pew-pew sounds (the Star Wars fan in us was overjoyed).
Chandreyee Chatterjee
A 7-YEAR-OLD T2 FAN
Two days before the release of Incredibles 2, I saw its trailer. I loved the way Dash (the son with superhuman speed) ran to save an old woman from a drill-like machine. Also the way Elastigirl (wife of Mr Incredible) stretched made me go wow. I wondered if the film would be as cool as the trailer. And I wondered if I would get to see the film. I did just that on Saturday with my mamma and papa while eating cheese popcorn and potato smileys.
When the film started I thought it was very weird that a dumpling came to life. Thank god it was only a boring short film (about a baby dumpling coming to life) and not Incredibles 2. My film started just the way I thought it would, with a big fight. But I wonder why the police stopped Mr Incredible, made his super-duper family members raise their hands and then took them to court. Aren’t they the good guys?
Next, I saw the family at a motel, something which I have never seen in real life. Even though the Incredible family had been “made illegal”, and all of them were sad, they stayed together. That matters. Dash even ate up all the vegetables when his mom said that she had ordered it for dinner. Were I told to eat vegetables, I would have tickled my mom!
When Violet (the daughter), Dash and Jack-Jack’s (youngest family member) mom, got a job which required her to tell the world that superheroes are good guys, I was happy. Go mom! I felt happier when the dad was asked to stay at home to look after the kids. All dads should stay at home and moms should go to work. And I felt the happiest when the family moved (from a motel) to a new house, which had a pool inside the sitting room. I want to have a house just like that.
Once the mom was away on work, Mr Incredible found out that their youngest, Jack-Jack, has superpowers. It’s so cool to have a superpower like shooting laser beams from the eye or becoming a giant ball of fire. He’s so cute. But I am not jealous of Jack-Jack because I too have a superpower, which he doesn’t — distracting people.
(Spoiler alert) What surprised me is the villain, who turns out to be Winston’s (a fan of all superheroes and the person who wants to make superheroes legal) sister, Evelyn. The first time I saw her, I thought she just had a bad haircut but she was so, so evil. I was surprised to find that she didn’t even care about her brother. That’s not cool, yo! I wanted to throw eggs and tomatoes at her. She even managed to fool the best superheroes from all over the world. But bad-bad Evelyn met her match when the kids came to their parents’ rescue. Yes, kids can save grown-ups. They went pow-wow and Evelyn was defeated.
The movie was long enough to allow me finish my popcorn. Just the right length. I like that superheroes are loved all over the world. But I don’t think my city needs a superhero because my parents and teachers are here to protect me.
What I’m sure about is that next week I will watch the first Incredibles movie, which released long ago (2004). I think (back then) my dinosaur Stuffy’s family was alive.
Madhubani Paul
(A Class II student of La Martiniere for Girls)
