INCREDIBLES 2

Here's the short answer: take the family. Pixar's sequel brings back everyone you loved from the first film and gives them a story with real stakes and real wit — humor, adventure, and a strong, unfashionable moral spine about doing right no matter what the law or the culture says.

It costs you very little. There's a light "d" word and an "h" word, a couple of exclamatory profanities, and some action-movie jeopardy — falling, fighting, a baby who can catch fire. The villain, Screenslaver, may unsettle younger viewers, and there are scenes with strobing lights worth knowing about if anyone in your family has epilepsy.

Parents walk away with something to talk about: what does it cost a marriage and a family when one parent works and the other holds down the home? Kids walk away thrilled. This one earns its trip to the theater.

Superheroes are outlawed, and the Incredibles are in hiding — until a wealthy entrepreneur named Winston wants to change the law and put super heroics back in the public eye. He picks Elastigirl to be the face of that campaign, leaving Mr. Incredible home with three kids who each come with their own superpowered chaos. Elastigirl is thrilled to be back in the field. Mr. Incredible insists he's got the home front handled. Neither is quite ready for what's coming.

Four stars means this sequel earns its place beside the original. It's fun, exciting, and witty, with the same characters you remember now given a storyline that widens the family's world without losing what made them work in the first place. The humor lands, the adventure delivers real thrills, and the heart — especially in the home-front scenes — gives the spectacle something to stand on.

It doesn't reinvent anything, but it doesn't need to. This is confident, big-studio animated filmmaking that trusts its characters enough to let them carry both comedy and genuine tension about parenting and partnership.

This is a movie with real conviction. The mother is unmistakably the hero of this story — Elastigirl gets to be capable, brave, and central — but the film doesn't do this at the expense of the men around her. Mr. Incredible is respected, needed, and never made a fool for staying home; the family works as a team, not as a lecture on who's better than whom. That's a rare balance, and Movieguide is glad to note it plainly, once: this film resists the culture's usual script without turning into a culture-war statement either.

Underneath the superhero mechanics is a serious question about parenthood — what it costs to raise children, and what it costs a marriage when duties shift. The film also takes a swing at something true: Screenslaver's hypnotized victims are a not-so-subtle picture of a culture addicted to its own screens, and the Incredibles' fight against him doubles as a fight for people's attention and will. There's a light warning here too about government overreach, and a clear conviction that doing right sometimes means resisting what the law or the crowd demands.

That conviction has deep biblical roots. When the authorities told the apostles to stop preaching, Peter and John answered simply: "We must obey God rather than man" (Acts 5:29). A family choosing to do right despite the cost is an old and good story — this is just a very entertaining new telling of it.

This is a sequel worth the trip: exciting, funny, and unafraid to say that doing the right thing matters more than doing the easy thing. It handles parenthood and partnership with more honesty than most family movies bother to attempt, and it does it all with heart to spare. Bring the popcorn — this one's worth the trip.