John and Athena Talk About Stuff, Episode 2: The Incredibles 2
Posted on June 20, 2018 Posted by John Scalzi 13 Comments
Athena and I are back with our occasional podcast, this time going deep on Incredibles 2, which brought in more than $180 million on its first weekend. Is it better than the original? And what does it have to say about the world we live in right now? Athena and I explore it all, in roughly 20 minutes.
Note: This podcast comes with spoilers, so it you haven’t seen Incredibles 2 yet and don’t want it spoiled, hold off until you’ve seen the movie.
If you’ve enjoyed this and missed the first episode, here’s the link. It’s on Deadpool 2.
Good conversation!
A lot of superhero stories have a convention that superheroes and supervillains kind of cancel each other out; if you removed them both you’d just have something resembling our real world.
I’d love to hear your thoughts about whether the themes of the Incredibles movies reflect Objectivism (something a lot of people have said about some of Brad Bird’s work).
Team Cap: I demand the right to go anywhere in the globe whenever I want to punch whomever I want. This is OK, because I am a good guy.
Iron Man is a total canoe, but at least he has a workable ethos, man.
The Totally Ninja Raccoon cameo was my favorite part
I’m severely deaf and not able to listen to podcasts. Might a transcript be available, please?
I also think it’s worth noting that they didn’t immediately go for the cheap “idiot dad” stereotype. I mean Bob obviously had difficulties and some of them were played for laughs but I found most of the problems at least relatable. He tried his best and made rational attempts to solve problems.
In general I think that’s what I’ve liked about both Incredibles movies. It’s clear that a lot of effort was put forth into making the characters “human”. They had real emotions and every action they took was clearly driven by them. That’s something you don’t even get in most regular movies much less a cartoon superhero one.
It was ruined by the commercials, but having a 10 year old kid made it so Bob’s “math is math” rant really did a great job summing up Bob’s plight. I have a degree in economics and I recently had to relearn how to multiply and divide.
Fantastic overall.
Some minor nits: I figured out who the villain was way too easily–there was one obvious person with the skill and an even more obvious motive (even though the latter turned out to be wrong, it pointed in the right direction). And I was disappointed that the raccoon did not end up as JackJack’s best (one-sided?) friend, or at least hitch a ride to the rescue and add to the mayhem. And I was seriously confused by one subthread: I recall that the parents saw JackJack’s powers in I1?
Boffo bonus points for having some of my new favorite cartoon characters watch on television some of my old favorite cartoon characters!
Will your podcast be available on any platform other than YouTube?
Probably not because I’m lazy?
👍
Susan 5660: YouTube does an automatic transcription in its closed captioning that does a reasonably okay job of understanding what’s being said although the transcription there doesn’t distinguish between my voice and Athena’s. I’m looking to see if there are any other options that do a better job.
The Terminator, Terminator 2. The Evil Dead. Evil Dead 2. The Incredibles, Incredibles 2. There are precedents for removing the The.
I’m not deaf like Susan 5660, but I do have trouble processing videos or audios (it’s gotten so I can’t listen to the radio), and at this point, I’ve just given up on articles that assume you’ll watch the video or listen to the podcast. There are a few video bloggers who include transcripts (Rebecca Watson comes to mind) and I am _so_ grateful for them.
As for those who don’t — well, ….