at risk of being too wordy (but since you asked, and I'm trying to articulate it):
- it's superheroes and I've had a lifelong love of the genre, although it has waned at times. mostly I like it when superhero stuff mixes with true real-life stuff, which The Incredibles does do.
- It's done in a digital style that is strongly reminiscent of Rankin-Bass stop motion animated specials (Rudolph, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, The Year Without a Santa Claus, etc.). I mean, I LOVE the art design for those shows.
- The sense of humor is totally my sense of humor. The story, once it gets going, makes sense. Each of the characters is sympathetic in their own way, and they respond to each other appropriately and consistently.
- The soundtrack is just great, on its own and stylistically, and the music buttresses the plot / dramatic element so well.
- There are heady ideas in the film that are not resolved but simply put out there for thinking about. Superheroes are supposed to help people but are also naturally elitist in nature. How do you manage to be more than the average person in ability, while also seeing everyone as equal in terms of value? Syndrome, the villain, wants to "normalize" everyone so that no one sticks out (and that democratizing of a populace sounds good in some respects); at the same time, Bob has a point about the celebration of mediocrity, and where does equalization end? These are issues the USA is STILL arguing about.
- It's similar to Black Panther in that the villain actually has a valid bone to pick with the hero, where the hero's ways were either ineffective and/or the hero even has conveniently ignored their own failings, which leaves the villain to try to fix things in their own way.
- I was in my mid-30's at the time, my kids were about the same age as the kids in the film, I hated my career (basically I was working tech on a product I didn't like when I wanted to be something more human or art centered, but couldn't because of the money), I was morbidly depressed all the time, it was probably the darkest two years of my life; and my marriage was also crumbling. I kept trying to do what was right and stay true to my promises and the people depending on me, but I was also dying in many important ways with no respite in sight and didn't think I'd be around much longer, it was that bad...
Needless to say, I totally understood Bob Parr's depression and frustration in working a job he hated, in a system he hated, with no apparent end in sight, then running to his own space because he just cannot handle being around people. He wants to be there for his family but it's too much and he just has nothing left. How can he not pursue this option to recapture some of who he once was? It's like being given a quick drink of life.
I also understood Helen's perspective, because no matter how you feel, your kids still need you, and one of your roles as a parent is to stabilize their world so THEY can explore and grow. Meanwhile you are mediating between your kids, your spouse, whatever else comes up in the day, to keep it all in balance and everyone's needs provided for, which setting your own needs aside and maybe even losing track of them -- it's a lonely place to be with no short-term reward, and often everyone you are trying to help seems to be fighting against you. You can't do it all on your own. Helen so often feels like the glue that holds everything together and Bob isn't able to engage.
Both Bob and Helen have these catharsis moments in the film, where they both realize they are losing the things they've invested in and cannot keep their world stable, predictable, or safe any more -- things have to CHANGE. But change feels like death, and you don't know what's going to happen. (That's actually an important sardonic line in the movie -- "Hey, we're just superheroes; what could happen?") Basically life involves risk and change, and somehow you have to embrace it and ride it out or you end up in this state of "living death" and "static existence" so to speak. But how do you live fully and balance all your responsibilities? How do you keep your kids safe and nurture them, while somehow taking care of yourself? It's damned complicated and feels risky.
There's a sense in the movie of how we can also become absorbed in the roles we play while forgetting (or even denying) core parts of ourselves. I really love Edna's line where she accosts Helen to "show [your husband] that he is Mr. Incredible AND you will REMIND him of who YOU are! Now, go!" Everyone has needs; everyone needs to remember who they themselves are; stop cutting yourself off from core elements of your being, if you want to fully be alive.
There's also 5-6 scenes that automatically make me tear up in the film no matter how many times I see it -- it's all about concepts + execution, the film crew really just nails it all.
tl;dr, basically it intersected perfectly with a similar crisis I was having in my own life in that time period, so the film really spoke to me, it's done very well, and I really identified with the characters.
My only worry is that it is the same movie but with the roles reversed (And no, I don't mean that in the "Fucking feminists ruining my children's media" way that has been very popular in trailer analysis videos). Granted it's been a very long time since the actual release of the first movie, I hope writers still maintain the idea that this second movie starts immediately after the first. No retreads or grand re-reveals needed, we know the family, we get the concept, let's do something new with it.
Yup, very much. I don't want them just to "flip the movie around" either.
From the second trailer, it looks pretty close to the ending of the first film.
I'd hate for it to just be a movie full of callbacks. Finding Dory was essentially just that and if not for the pretty visuals I'd argue it was a worse movie than Cars 2. Pixar has been pretty disappointing and blatantly cash grabby, so I'm hesitant, but to my knowledge, this movie was deep into production a long while ago and then got canned, so this sequel wasn't a last minute decision, but a decision made long ago and only just now given room to flourish.
Dory started kind of poorly but started to get more of its own life at the midpoint of the film. At least it had some kind of impactful ending. Would the film have ever been made if Finding Nemo hadn't existed? I'm not sure it would have.
I think for a long time Pixar was the high bar, then at midpoint of its existence it dropped a bit (while the Disney branch finally started to play a better game). They've had a minimal amount of "ehhh" pictures at least, but they aren't as much of a sure bet as their earlier stuff felt at the time. I have mixed feelings about Disney, because yes they are partly a marketing giant, not just a creative house.
