Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Incredibles 2 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 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Incredibles 2 represents a good and proper digital production translation to Blu-ray. Disney's 1080p encode is more than capable of revealing most all of the textural intricacies within the source animation, including costume fabrics, environmental particulars, character details, and the like. Superhero costume fabric is of note, revealing not as much information as the UHD but certainly allowing for the finer point qualities to shine with tangible depth and tactile definition. For characters who appear somewhat smooth at-a-glance, there's a surprising amount of fine-point qualities to see on character models. Line are clean and definition extends well into backgrounds, even dense city locales which zip on by at high speed, such as when Elastigirl zooms after a backwards-traveling train partway through the film. Colors are bold and intense, with costume saturation a highlight. Fiery explosions are impressively bold, and even flickering old television signals create a realistic glow. Nighttime black levels are very impressive. Source and encode issues are next to nonexistent, but extremely light banding is visible in a few places, such as during an interrogation scene early in the movie where a lone, bright light source illuminates an otherwise dark, black background room.

Incredibles 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

For Incredibles 2, Disney has once again demoted the Blu-ray to DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround rather than the UHD's Dolby Atmos presentation. It's also another victim of Disney's low volume output mixing, requiring listeners with calibrated reference volume settings probably wanting to crank things up a few decibels. Once the volume is adjusted, the track proves fairly good, with plenty of surround integration and effortless front width but lacking a little in terms of absolute low end output. Bass delivers effectively, but not to the prodigious levels one might expect the material to produce, with various large thuds and clanks and punches and machinery and all of the movie's weighty elements lacking that last little push to low end dominance. The same holds for music; it lacks the fullness and depth Michael Giacchino's score demands. Still, the track is fun and fluid, never wanting for more movement as necessary and atmospheric fill as scenes require. There is some good supportive surround use beyond more frenzied action scenes, including spacious reverberation when Bob, Helen, and Lucious meet with Deavor in chapter six and later at a ribbon cutting ceremony in chapter 10. Light, surrounding din in a school hallway in chapter 13 and at a restaurant in chapter 17 help define the sonic atmosphere at each location. Dialogue delivery is clear, well prioritized, and firmly planted in the front-center location unless otherwise necessary to move. The track is imperfect but still a good bit of sonic fun.

Incredibles 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Incredibles 2 contains extras on both the feature film disc and dedicated bonus disc. A DVD copy of the film and a Movies Anywhere digital copy code are included with purchase. The release ships with 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 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 Blu-ray release is packed with extras and features high quality video and a good lossless soundtrack. Highly recommended.