Review of Incredibles 2 (2018) by Bob D — 19 Jun 2018

Entertaining, but a slam against dads and men.

The action, characters, and animation were, well, incredible. The occupation reversal of Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl sufficiently separated this sequel from its original. It was good clean fun. Violet's angst as a teenager, Bob and Helen's struggling to adjust to their new roles were humorous. But the producers needlessly stuck it to dads as parents (and husbands) more than once.

1) Bob trying to help out Violet with her boyfriend was funny until he wearily confesses to his daughter that he feels he's a failure. He should admit what he did didn't work, but the way he did it portrayed him as weak and clueless.

2) Frozo getting yelled at by his off-screen wife to return, ASAP was another opportunity by the sexist producers to demean a man by showing him being ordered around by his wife. And why is she off-screen? Only room for one African-American character?

3) The brief ad for a ready-made pie, "so easy to bake, even he can do it" may have been missed by some, but yet another example of demeaning men.

Now I know it's just an animated children's comedy movie, but it is being seen by millions of people and these not-so-subtle slams against men and dads left me with a bad taste in my mouth. They were unnecessary in a story about mom being empowered to work outside the home and for a family sticking together though adversity. Those are themes we should all agree on.