Onward

So I knew this movie was going to break me. I watched the trailers, I knew what the plot was, and I've seen other Pixar/Disney movies about family. I knew this movie was going to make me cry. I had a short period of time where I was worried the movie wouldn't follow through with the fantastic set up but not only was I proven wrong, but I got a really entertaining movie in the process.

Onward takes place in a fantasy setting where magic has essentially been forgotten and focuses on two elf brothers. Ian (voiced by Tom Holland) and his older brother Barley (voiced by Chris Pratt) are polar opposites. Ian is afraid of everything while Barley is afraid of nothing. Ian is looking to the future to change the way he is, Barley is stuck in the past playing fantasy role playing games, which in this world are essentially historical role playing games, which as someone with an amateur interest in DND, I thought that was hilarious.

But on Ian's 16th birthday, their mother (voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus) gifts Ian and Barley a magic staff from their diseased father. The staff comes with a magical spell that allows the brothers to bring their dad back to life for one day. However, the spell goes half wrong and the brothers only bring back the bottom half of their dad.

So in order to finish the spell, they must go on a quest to find a mcguffin with the bottom half of their dad, and in the process discover the importance of family, and brotherhood, and yada yada, you kind of know how this is going to go the minute you hear the plot. I guess you could call it predictable and honestly that might be the worst criticism I can think of this film because the film is just a lot of fun.

There's kind of a weekend at Bernie's flare to the movie as the dad can't hear, see, or say anything... he's only legs. But that actually adds to what I thought was probably the best part of the movie, the sense of adventure it has.

You immediately connect with the characters, and their connection with this pair of legs, so when the pair of legs almost falls off the edge of an endless cliff, even though I had seen that in the trailer, I gasped because I knew how important that character was to them despite the majority of the time its just a comedic element.

And then there's the mom.

The mom is trailing behind them with a manticore (voiced by Octavia Spencer) trying to prevent them from falling into a curse at the end of their quest. Even though I definitely preferred Ian and Barley's side of the movie, these two were definitely down played and I still had a chuckle or two when they were on screen. Furthermore it added to the adventure.

You'd think after watching 4 seasons of Veep I'd immediately recognize the voice acting of Julia Louis-Dreyfus but she was probably the best vocal performance because I never associated the voice with her. Holland and Pratt are pretty obvious because you can pick out their voice pretty easily. But Dreyfus becomes the character. Octavia Spencer also blends in pretty well too.

The fantasy elements combined with the spirit of adventure, and of course the heart warming family messaging, I could easily see this becoming one of my favorite Pixar films. Maybe I just have a bias towards fantasy settings, but everything about this movie just felt super sincere and new. For as predictable as the plot might be, and it's pretty predictable, I thoroughly enjoyed going down this familiar adventure with these characters because of the establishment of characters and execution of the adventure.

Onward might be a film that slips under people's radar because it has kind of a short theatrical run and was released straight to Disney Plus at the start of the coronavirus outbreak and start of social distancing. But I would highly recommend not to wait on this one like I did.

Pixar continues its reign of very good storytelling and heart warming themes and it's the kind of movie that will make you want to text your dad immediately after. So overall, I really enjoyed it. It might be a little predictable and the voice acting of Holland and Pratt is a little too obviously them, but you're going to have a lot of fun enjoying an adventure and having some heart warming moments in this unique fantasy setting.

But what did you think of Onward? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for reading!