"Incredibles 2" Brad Bird: Superheroes vs. Domestic Problems

Cartoon studio Pixar "Incredibles 2" directed by Brad Bird, who has not worked in animation since 2007. The first part of the “Incredibles” - the story of a family consisting of some superheroes - brought to its creator the Oscar. I am sure that the sequel that came out 14 years later turned out to be just as good - against the background of fantastic chases and battles, he talks about changing gender roles in the family and a middle age crisis.

The return of the family of superheroes - Mr. Papa Incredible, mothers of Elastigirl and their three children - the event is important, cultural sensation. We are accustomed to sequels and triquels, but still not to those that go a decade and a half later. However, the event is even more ambitious - the return of the creator of "Incredibles" Brad Bird in the animation.

The director made his debut in 1999 with animated retro-fiction "The Iron Giant", in which he had already shown his passion for superheroes: the space robot in his cartoon imagined himself to be Superman. At the studio, Pixar Bird made two undisputed masterpieces - "Incredibles" and "Ratatouille". Received for each of the "Oscar" and a bunch of other prizes, and then went to shoot a feature film. Made a successful, albeit devoid of obvious signs of its author's individuality, the picture "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol", which became the highest grossing of all "Missions" and the most commercially successful film Tom Cruise. Then "Tomorrowland", which failed. For this failure, it is probably necessary to thank the fate that once again sent the Bird to its former rails.

"Incredibles 2" - anything, but definitely not a capitulation to commercial necessity, not an attempt to make money on a proven brand. Byrd continues the themes touched on in his innovative and partly provocative cartoon of 2004, at the same time deepening them and calling into question the textual theses of the “family” movie. Actually, if it were not for the adventurous spirit and dizzying scenes of chases and fights, "Incredibles 2" could be called a serious, not at all childish psychological drama about changing gender roles and a midlife crisis. Fortunately, there are also superheroes, villains, as well as the miraculous baby Jack-Jack, who has seventeen unexplored paranormal abilities. Even a five-year-old spectator will not be bored.

For starters, this is the perfect sequel. Despite the time lag between the two films, "Incredibles 2" begins at the very moment when the previous film ended. All the main characters are preserved - the weak-tempered healthy fellow Bob, he is Mr. Incredible, his strong-willed and business-like wife Helen, she is Elastigirl, their eldest daughter is the shy Violet, her younger brother is the swift Shastik, and also the baby Jack-Jack. In addition, a family friend, the imposing black man-freezer Freon (in the world of Lucius), and the designer of superhero clothing Edna Mode, which was voiced by the director himself.

On the horizon, there is another scary villain - anonymous Screenslaver, a zombie of his or her victims. The exceptional challenge him, in parallel solving domestic household problems. The groovy retro soundtrack by Michael Giacchino, reminiscent of the main musical themes of the bondians and the “Mission”, is also here. The animation has become more thorough and elaborated in detail - but the authors reacted carefully to this, retaining the deliberate schematism close to the comics in drawing the main characters.

However, as in the first cartoon, an implausible adventure plot (however, more thoroughly motivated than in any Marvel or DC blockbuster) is only a cover. "Incredibles 2" begins with the desire of an eccentric millionaire to rehabilitate superheroes, to bring them back to the forefront. Suddenly, for this task, he chooses not Mr. Incredible, and his wife Elastigirl: she fights with criminals more delicately and carefully, without destroying everything around. In addition, the white-skinned alpha healthy today has less chance of popularity and success than a flexible and strong woman does. Heroes are changing roles. From now on, the Elastigirl in a new costume fights with the omnipresent Screenslaver, saving the population of the megalopolis from terrorist attacks and crashes, and Mr. Incredible monitors the house and cares for children.

In "Incredibles 2", there are thus two films. The first one is the tragicomic story about a woman who for the first time in her life found herself in the position of leader of resistance to world evil and role model for millions. The point here is, of course, not in the competence, swiftness and strength of the Elastigirl, capable of defeating any bastard in battle, but in her weakening ability to self-control and self-irony, who previously saved the family from any troubles. In other words, taking the place of a man, she immediately takes over the male defects.

The second film is a very every day, almost completely devoid of the magical elements of the epic "unshaven babysitter", resolutely unable to cope with the duties of a homemaker. It’s hard to imagine how many hundreds of thousands of viewers unmistakably recognize themselves in scenes where a superhero in pajamas unsuccessfully trying to put a naughty baby to bed, console an angry teenage daughter or do math homework with her son (“They changed all the math, why don’t I understand anything? ").

The first "Incredibles" explored the world of forced normality, in which superheroes are prohibited, it is impossible to stand out against the general gray background. In the second part, the characters who have defended their right to be special and not to be ashamed of unique abilities are turned in the opposite direction: they solve trivial problems in their free time from outstanding fights with villains, and here they are neither smarter nor stronger than the rest. Ordinary life does not become here a background for a cascade of adventures, as it happens in Marvel films. On the contrary, action and special effects set off a psychological and everyday plot, in which there was a place for both adults and child injuries, as well as their paradoxical overcoming.

Brad Bird is true to the main principle of Pixar: remember about the current agenda, but do not be its slave. "Incredibles 2" criticizes the euphoric movement for women's emancipation and, at the same time, exposes men's fanfare even more brutally. In addition, most importantly, he wonders what happens to the family in the 21st century, when the relentless human rights struggle has destroyed its traditional models, but has not offered new ones. In this "Incredibles 2", no matter how ridiculous, is related to the "Shoplifters" of the Japanese Hirokazu Kore-eda, not a child-winning film of the Cannes Film Festival.

The global nature of the raised problem is ideally illustrated by a short film glued to the top of "Incredibles 2" - "Bao", made by the Chinese-ethnic Domee Shi. In this grotesque and touching film, the heroine raises and brings up a lively dumpling in her house, which at first touchingly obeys her mother and pleases her in everything, but grows over time, begins to be rude and willful, and then intends to leave her own nest and marry. Asians and Europeans, Americans and Russians, people and dumplings — everyone today faces a crisis of "family thought" no matter how conservative the society in which they exist.