The Incredibles 2...? Um, what?

Everyone else seems positively optimistic about this. I don't understand why.



(Digression)

Over Spring Break I joined the year 2013 and started watching House of Cards. It fell prey to what I like to call "Third Episode Syndrome" and I had trouble summoning enthusiasm for the fourth. That is to say, the third episode did not live up to the standard set by the first two. (The only show I'm aware of that beats "Third Episode Syndrome" to death with a shovel is Battlestar Galactica. Because "Bastille Day" gave us Tom Zarek, that's why.)

(/digression)

How many films live up to their predecessors? Of all the sequels out there, here is a full list:

• The Empire Strikes Back
• From Russia With Love*
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan 
• Batman Returns**
• Aliens
• The Dark Knight
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King***
• Toy Story 2
• Toy Story 3

End of list.

*not really a sequel, but distinctly moreso than any other Bond film save Diamonds Are Forever and Quantum of Solace, both of which utterly failed to live up to the films they are sequels to.

**there, I said it.

***absolutely, positively does not count. The Lord of the Rings films are one film split up into three for artistic moneymaking reasons, and also so that theatergoers didn't have to wear diapers to sit through it/them.

Please note that The Godfather, Part II is not on that list. This is because The Godfather, Part II is about as overrated as Skyfall is shaping up to be (except that Godfather II won more awards, whereas Skyfall is more entertaining), and one day I will have to do a post on that.

Also please note that Disney/Pixar have nailed it twice in one franchise, but struck out in two others (Cars and Monsters, Inc.)

So... I'll admit to it being years since I've seen The Incredibles, but why is that film getting a sequel? Didn't it tell a complete, contained story? I thought it did.

Yes, Toy Story told a complete, contained story, and then they told pretty much the same story again a few years later with a few twists. And then they let the series rest for a decade before swinging back and chopping loads of onions right in front of us. (And also casting Timothy Dalton as a stuffed hedgehog. Let's see how many James Bond references I can creep into the rest of the post.)

But, um, the reason Toy Story 3 was the second-best film of the Noughts (the first being, of course, The Prestige, AKA My Favorite Film, Like, Ever) was because it was perfect. The kids who saw Toy Story in theaters were leaving the nest around the time Toy Story 3 came out.  It wasn't a kids' film, and I really hate the term "young adult"* but it was aimed at people my age.

*I really have to do a post on the term "young adult" and why I got bent out of shape when a reviewer called Ender's Game "a Hunger-Games-like young adult novel." Mayhaps this weekend.

Applying the Toy Story 3 formula to The Incredibles, we'll get a story wherein Incredible Daughter is going off to college... or something.  Thing is, we're kind of on to them at this point. Having seen TS3 tug at the heartstrings to effectively, we know what to look for now. The family will be broken up, everyone will be sad, there will be action and then a reunion and then some more "crying porn" as somebody I'm too lazy to link to called it. 

Yippee.

I had no idea we were clamoring for another Incredibles film. (I had no idea we were clamoring for another Cars film, for that matter. And I would say that I'd be more interested in seeing A Bug's Life 2, but the memory of watching a bunch of characters I previously liked utterly fail Leadership 101 in A Dance With Dragons is still rather sour in my mind.)

Hey, did you know that The Incredibles trailer used a remix of the theme from On Her Majesty's Secret Service - aka One Of The Greatest Film Themes, Like, Ever? Now you do.