Voices: Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell, Huckleberry Milner, Catherine Keener, Eli Fucile, Bob Odenkirk Director: Brad Bird ALONG with the “Toy Story” trilogy, “The Incredibles” is one of the jewels in the crown that made Pixar the ne plus ultra of animation companies. But whereas the saga of Woody, Jessie and Buzz Lightyear played out in three films spread across a decade and a half, it’s taken 14 years for Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl and their kids to find their way back to the big screen. Boosted by central characters that remain vastly engaging and a deep supply of wit, “Incredibles 2” certainly proves worth the wait, even if it hits the target but not the bull’s-eye in quite the way the first one did. Still front and center are the key elements that made Brad Bird’s original creation so captivating: The tested but resilient bonds within the Middle American family with secret superhero lives, the fabulous late-’50s/early ’60s space-age-obsessed design scheme, the deep-dish reservoir of wit, a keenly expressed sense of what it takes to maintain a balanced marriage and great command of a narrative curveball employed to register frequent surprise. On top of all this is the pronounced female slant: The story shines the spotlight on Elastigirl, with adolescent daughter Violet beginning to spread her wings. For good measure, infant tyke Jack-Jack hilariously begins displaying his potential with incipient displays of Incredible behavior. Oblivious to the passage of real time, the tale picks up exactly where the first one left off, with a massive drill guided by the aptly named Underminer (John Ratzenberger) breaking up through the pavement to wreak havoc on Municiberg. There to thwart him are Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) and Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), the latter displaying an astounding flexibility that goes beyond what she displayed the first time around in an elaborate opening sequence designed to announce that the Incredibles are back. But the civil authorities don’t appreciate the destruction caused by their intervention and ban superheroes for good. What this means for the Parrs — Bob and Helen along with 14-year-old Violet (Sarah Vowell), 10-year-old Dash (Huckleberry Milner) and baby Jack-Jack (Eli Fucile) — is two weeks at the gorgeously retro Safari Court motel before they’re cast out and forced to decide what to do with the rest of their lives. Bird’s authorial attitude is both sly and sincere, with a view of the nuclear family as the locus of human virtue and strength. It’s a perspective that is both tested and reaffirmed multiple times throughout the film. Society’s chief nemesis is not another masked man or cackling deformity but an elusive presence cleverly called Screenslaver, which hypnotizes and thus establishes control over anyone who happens to glance at its image when it appears on a screen. This insidious mind-control entity can lay claim to anyone at any time but can’t be caught or retaliated against directly; it’s an advanced, high-tech version of Orwell’s telescreens that works instantaneously. Given the official opposition to superheroes, it falls to entrepreneurs to make use of their talents, and it’s Helen who gets the call from telecommunications tycoon Winston Deavor (Bob Odenkirk). So while Helen suits up to pursue the elusive Screenslaver, her family must learn to get along without her for a while. Grumpy and disgruntled, the professionally sidelined Bob must assume familial duties that involve various challenges: Violet is going through teen angst and a boy problem; Dash can’t wait to join in the adventuring; and Jack-Jack hilariously begins exhibiting superhero attributes at unexpected moments. The movie is now being screened in Shenzhen. (SD-Agencies) | 