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Giacchino employed a 99-member ensemble for Incredibles 2, opting to record the orchestral elements and the highlighted jazz band together in the same room to allow the musicians to feed off of each others' groove. The orchestrations in this entry pilfer the genre's heritage to an even greater degree, taking the sound to new parody levels. The trumpets in particular are offered wailing and trilling performances that are so frequent as to become obnoxious at times. The 1960's jazz instrumentation favors percussion, piano, brass, and woodwinds in predictably rhythmic formations, tapping cymbals often setting the rhythm for acts of coolness on screen. Giacchino even plunders the Barry technique of repeating the same phrases of a thematic structure endlessly, or at least twice consecutively in obvious fashion. Whereas the first score sounded like a more cohesive parody of the spy and caper genres, Incredibles 2 plays like a parody of the parody, endeavoring to outshine the predecessor in style so much that it sounds ridiculous at times. In the film, the score is functional in striving to achieve this competitive stance, but the melodies of the sequel struggle to compete with the main identity from The Incredibles. That primary franchise theme is reprised more regularly than the composer may admit, including the obligatory opening and closing statements of full glory, but Giacchino consciously made an effort to restrain its usage; this decision makes some sense, as the full family unit doesn't engage together in battle outside of the opening and closing action sequences, not to mention the marginalization of Mr. Incredible himself for much of this narrative. Perhaps the best interpolation of the idea comes at 1:11 into "Elastigirl's Got a Plane to Catch," during which the composer takes the theme through a brief, religiously morbid interlude. Concept enthusiasts will be pleased with Giacchino's revisiting of his Underminer material from the 2004 film (and a subsequent video game) in "Consider Yourselves Undermined!" Several new themes are explored in the score, but only the wild jazz piece for Elastigirl is really a memorable hook in context. Heard fullest in her resurrection in "Elastigirl is Back," this idea accompanies her heroics during "Train of Taut" and in fragments thereafter. One of the lingering disappointments of this score is that Giacchino didn't make a greater effort to emphasize the Elastigirl melody's phrasing directly against the original main theme by the end of the film, perhaps as overt counterpoint as he had done in his Star Trek scores.

Since the Screenslaver villain is nothing more than a decoy in Incredibles 2, Giacchino wraps his identity (outside of some Bernard Herrmann-inspired Vertigo string figures for the actual hypnotization) together with that of the real antagonist of the tale; the Deavor theme is the kind of eye-rolling, stock Barry Bond villain theme that repeats endlessly, variants of this technique heard in "Searching for a Screenslaver" and "Hydrofoiled Again." Meanwhile, Jack-Jack is afforded some nods to Carl Stalling's Warner Brothers cartoon style to match his antics. Interestingly, Giacchino conjured three jingles, one each for Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, and their sidekick, Frozone, and yet none of these short commercial-inspired pieces seems to directly influence the same characters' music in the actual score. That said, there are obvious interludes for the score's main theme in the Mr. Incredible entry. These songs, offering mostly Giacchino's own lyrics, are placed awkwardly in the middle of the end credits, which otherwise, like the preceding score, feature a solid summary of themes. This "Incredits 2" suite includes a healthy dose of the Elastigirl theme, Jack-Jack's antics motif, the Screenslaver/villain motif, and even a dose of the funky solo saxophone material for Frozone, with generous transition statements by the main franchise theme. Overall, Incredibles 2 is a wholly functional score, but it doesn't play as memorably in the film despite its often stomping personality defined by far too obvious instrumental accents. The trumpet wailing and repeated ensemble hits in super-melodramatic caper fashion are simply too saturated throughout this score for it to serve as a parody that succeeds without begging for too much attention. The movie's Screenslaver hypnotism scenes forced Disney to release warnings about possible epileptic seizures amongst those in the audience so inclined, and Giacchino's score could have the same effect on your ears. It's technically more proficient in the genre than The Incredibles, but with that maturation of the composer came a willingness to revel shamelessly in his capability. On album, the score contains several rather dull suspense sequences in its middle third, and the remainder is simply too outrageous to appeal beyond a narrow, parody-oriented audience. The allure of the franchise theme helps, and Elastigirl's appealing new identity is well defined, but little else will tug at you for repeat listens. An incomplete, 75-minute digital version of the score contains unnecessary jingle remixes; both that and the 69-minute CD (why didn't the CD simply contain all 75 minutes from the digital version?) offer bonus news/talk show source motifs. In either case, prepare your ears for an effective but potentially tiresome onslaught of parody enthusiasm.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Michael Giacchino reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.46 (in 43 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.21 (in 21,446 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 74:50