Incredibles 2 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Incredibles 2 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 6, 2018

Pixar isn’t a studio to Dash into making sequels, but it also isn't afraid of returning to familiar and popular properties. Of its many films, only a few have enjoyed a second (or third) outing. Toy Story, the studio's first film, released in 1995. The studio's third film was Toy Story 2, released in 1999. Toy Story 3 released in 2010 and was, to that point, still the only franchise with a sequel. The studio released Cars 2 in 2011, Monsters University in 2013, Finding Dory in 2016, and Cars 3 in 2017 (Planes is technically not a sequel or Pixar film). Until Incredibles 2, that was it: six sequels out of 20 films over the course of about 23 years. That's nothing in modern Hollywood terms and timeframes. Pixar, bless it, is more about quality of content, good stories, and creating worthwhile endeavors, not just distributing the big-budget cinema equivalent of shovelware-meets-money-printing-press. Incredibles 2 follows the original The Incredibles, releasing 14 years later. It's a decent film about the family dynamic, super powers, and saving the world, but it's arguably one of the more inconsequential and least dramatically impactful films in the Pixar library.

Super heroes are out and apparently...crime is in? When the superhero Parr family -- father Bob/Mr. Incredible (voiced by Craig T. Nelson), mother Helen/Elastigirl (voiced by Holly Hunter), daughter Violet (voiced by Sarah Vowell), and son Dash (voiced by Huckleberry Milner) -- attempts to foil the villain known as "Underminer" but fails to prevent him from robbing a bank (but does save the city from more destruction), they are chastised by the government and put out of a job. Superheroes are illegal, and the Parrs are suddenly out of work, forced to live out of a sleazy motel and the family is two weeks away from living on the streets. But the world needs superheroes, or so believe Winston Deavor (voiced by Bob Odenkirk) and his sister Evelyn (voiced by Catherine Keener) who head up the prominent telecommunications company DevTech. The pair have a proposition for the Parr family: a luxurious place to live in exchange for Elastigirl's return to the field to battle evil and reignite the public trust in superheroes. While she's away, battling a new criminal known as "Screenslaver," Bob, who is disillusioned because he was not chosen over his wife, attempts to raise his children as best he can: helping Violet with boy trouble he began, working through new-wave math with Dash, and attempting to harness baby Jack-Jack's burgeoning, and very impressive, superhero powers.

Incredibles 2 doesn't exert much effort in building a robust story of action and intrigue. The core plot elements are little more than window dressing for the more interesting storyline details, which include Bob's ability, or lack thereof, to care for his family as well as dealing with the disheartening news that his wife, not he, was selected to be the one to return superheroes to prominence. The film adequately develops various side stories, including Bob helping Dash with math and dealing with Violet's breakdown over her apparent breakup, but it's in how he discovers, and works to harness, Jack-Jack's own powers, powers which appear to be far greater than his own, his wife's, or either Dash's or Violet's, that the film finds many of its best moments. How Jack-Jack's newfound abilities will work into the story to help save the family when it needs saving the most is one of the great points of interest, but the action scenes in general don't much move the needle. They're fine, precisely executed and adequately exciting, but there's nothing creative here, nothing that really stretches the material (so to speak). Fortunately the supposedly ancillary, but truly focal, family dynamics are reason enough to return to the world. The voice cast doesn't miss a beat, and the movie does well to advance the Parr's story with enough charm, wit, and heart to cover up the otherwise linear supporting action dynamics and transparent plot twists. Maybe at some point in the future Incredibles 3 will feature a grown-up Jack-Jack raising his own family of superheroes, allowing him to be a bridge between a new and old generation of Parrs.

Incredibles 2 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Perhaps the most obvious distinction between this upscaled 4K/HDR-10 UHD release of Incredibles 2 and the counterpart Blu-ray is its darker façade, apparent immediately without even conducting a compare-and-contrast exercise. Black level depth and shadow details appear richer, which can be seen right away when Tony is interrogated just a few minutes into the movie; the surrounding blackness is much more evenly dense and perfectly dark on UHD where the Blu-ray tends to look a bit raised in comparison. In that same scene, a red laser appears much deeper, more visually fulfilling on the UHD, and the scene benefits from tightening background and surrounding object blacks while intensifying the contrasting beam. But the general push towards a darker appearance permeates the entire movie as probably the most readily apparent distinguishing characteristic. The classic red Incredibles costumes enjoy a more thoroughly dense and deep coloring, leaving the Blu-ray appearing borderline garish in comparison. Look at a shot of the entire family in costume and down in a dark hole at the 8:31 mark. The UHD's ability to more finely handle blacks, separate the reds with more depth, and remove the Blu-ray's more hostile-to-the-scene bright lighting renders the image much more palatable and authentic under the HDR-10 parameters. The reduced brightness also brings out finer costume, facial, and environmental details that are missing or lessened on the Blu-ray. Another scene of great contrast comes right at the beginning of chapter 20, a close-up shot featuring a weary Bob Parr. The Blu-ray looks like a harsh light source is shining down on him, directed at the left side of his temple. The UHD is much darker and much more even. The scene appears to be taking place at dusk on the UHD and at dawn on the Blu-ray, so there's a distinct change in visual tone at play. A couple of explosions benefit from a refined, deeper splash of red/yellow/orange.

The UHD brings out some finer character model details, including more readily apparent traits like light facial scruff or freckles that the Blu-ray cannot quite distinguish to this extent. Costumes enjoy more intricacy and tangible surface area detail as well. Clarity of individual hairs, various environments, and a few gadgets and gizmos also bear the fruits of the increased resolution. But Incredibles 2 is certainly more about the fairly drastic tonal shifts and deeper colors the HDR encoding brings to the table. It's often a dynamic shift that aids the presentation in terms of creating more realistic atmospheres, better black levels, and more intense colors. The Blu-ray, as good as it looks on its own, does suffer a good deal in direct comparison in terms of color but doesn't lag too far behind in terms of detail. It's also worth noting that one or two occurrences of banding which were visible on the Blu-ray, such as the interrogation scene near film's start, remain on the UHD. Visibility of such flaws is quite low on either format, though.

Incredibles 2 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

For its UHD release, Disney has promoted Incredibles 2 to Dolby Atmos; the Blu-ray features a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 lossless soundtrack instead. The Atmos track is a little fuller thanks to the additional channels available to it, channels used to better saturate the stage with music (not prominently but subtly) and sometimes engage it more precisely from above during several action scenes. The additional top layer effects can be subtle, such as when Bob dunks his head underwater in chapter 20, and some traversal when baby Jack-Jack rockets in an arc across the stage later in that same chapter and his voice also moves around the stage a minute or so after that. The final action sequence delivers some good sound elements from all over the spectrum: room filling surround and overhead layers (including some PA announcements inside a plane cabin in chapter 33), some of the best bass in the movie, and widely distributed music boasting good clarity. While the presentation lacks absolute precision and seamless clarity, the sense of movement, positioning, and immersion are amongst the finest listeners will find. The track is not fundamentally different in terms of its presentation of core sound elements compared to the Blu-ray's 7.1 track, including music and dialogue delivery and the need to crank the track a little above calibrated, reference norms. It's a fun track that could have been a smidgen better with a little more exactness.

As an interesting aside, there are no less than six distinct English soundtracks to select from between the Blu-ray and UHD releases: Dolby Atmos, DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, DTS-HD High Resolution 5.1, Dolby Digital Plus 7.1, Dolby Digital 5.1, and Dolby Digital 2.0, the latter being the only one shared between both, and that's not the descriptive track, either (so arguably seven total, eight if one counts the "core" TrueHD 7.1 track). And, that's not to mention that the Blu-ray and UHD both feature unique French and Spanish tracks, too.

Incredibles 2 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Incredibles 2's UHD disc contains no extras, but the bundled Blu-ray discs contain a multitude of extra content. This release ships with a Movies Anywhere digital copy code and an embossed slipcover.

Blu-ray Disc One (Feature Film):

• BAO (1080p, 7:41): A short film written and directed by Domee Shi.
• Auntie Edna (1080p, 5:08): A short film written and directed by Ted Mathot.
• Strong Coffee: A Lesson in Animation with Brad Bird (1080p, 18:50): Cast and crew talk up Brad Bird's best qualities while he covers his love for animation and influences in bringing him to the genre, character design intricacies, his history at Disney, his skills as an animator, and more.
• Audio Commentary: Writer/Director Brad Bird introduces Animation Supervisors Dave Mullins, Alan Barillaro, and Tony Fucile and Animation Second Unit and Crowd Supervisor Bret Parker. The participants deconstruct the film from a visual perspective.

Blu-ray Disc Two (Bonus Disc):

• Bonus Features (1080p): A five-part feature.
• Super Stuff (1080p, 6:36): A discussion of the "Retro-Futurism" world, the contrasts between the fantastic and the mundane, location details, character diversity, vehicles, and more.
• Paths to Pixar: Everyday Heroes (1080p, 11:40): Pixar cast and crew discuss how the film's family dynamics reflect real life.
• Superbaby (1080p, 4:57): Bizaardvark learns about character design in rhyme and raps about Jack-Jack.
• Ralph Eggleston: Production Designer (1080p, 2:07): Eggleston discusses what, exactly, he does there.
• Making BAO (1080p, 6:02): Writer/Director Domee Shi opens up about the short she made.
• Heroes & Villains (1080p, 25:35 total runtime): Cast and crew discuss the film's main characters. Included are Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, The Parr Kids, Frozone, Edna Mode, Winston Deavor, Evelyn Deavor, and Wannabes.
• Vintage Features (1080p): Includes Vintage Toy Commercials for Mr. Incredible (0:32), Elastigirl (0:32), and Frozone (0:32). Also included under this tab are Character Themes Songs for Mr. Incredible (0:32), Elastigirl (0:32), and Frozone (0:32), which differ only slightly from the Toy Commercials.
• Deleted Scenes (1080p, 39:44 total runtime): Following a brief Introduction with Writer/Director Brad Bird, the following scenes are included in storyboard form: Suburban Escape, Kari Revisited, Return of the Supers, Chewed Out, Late Audition, Slow Day, Frozone and Honey, Restaurant Robbery, Fashion Show, and Security Breakdown. Bird does chime in during the entire runtime.
• Trailers & Promos (1080p): Includes Powers - Global Leader Trailer (0:56), Family - Global Trailer (2:20), Theatrical Payoff - Japan Trailer (2:00), and Promo - Super Moments (4:03), which is just a fun collection of character moments.

Incredibles 2 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Incredibles 2 may be a little lower on the rung than most Pixar films, but that still makes it a standout in the greater movie landscape. The film exudes family-centric heart and charm, which largely covers the deficiencies that stem from a transparent story and well crafted, yet still relatively formulaic, action sequences. The film is gorgeously animated and a major step forward from the previous in that area. The voice cast again nails the parts. Disney's UHD release is packed with extras and features upscaled 4K/HDR video that is a positive step forward from the Blu-ray. The UHD disc also includes a high quality Atmos soundtrack. Highly recommended.