Onward

As of now, Onward is only the second movie from Pixar to officially bomb at the box office (which is a little funny given some of their less-than-great movies, but they at least managed to squeeze past this issue). The effects of COVID-19 and the subsequent global lockdown definitely is a factor to consider for this, but it isn’t the only reasoning as even before the pandemic took hold of the world, people weren’t sweeping out in droves to see this film. It was actually viewed more on digital than in cinemas, with the general consensus from most people seeming to be that they liked it quite a bit, which was the general responses from those that also saw it in theatres. With a positive reaction that still leaned towards the softer side for most Pixar reactions, it does explain why the film wasn’t able to turn heads. In a world full of fantastical creatures and magical spells, the manner in which these creatures live their lives slowly starts to erode away from sorcery and instead become enamored with a new system, that being technology. In the present day where the magical creatures now live in modern-looking suburbia, a teenage elf named Ian (voiced by Tom Holland) struggles with self-doubt and never tries to break out of his shell, with the antics of his magic-obsessed brother, Barley (voiced by Chris Pratt) not helping that problem in any way. On his birthday, Ian is given a magical staff that belonged to their deceased father, and quickly learns that he has magical powers. They also discover that through this magic, they have a chance to bring their dead father back to life, which almost works but is halted before completing which just leaves a pair of sentient legs. Realizing they only have until the next day to complete the spell before he is gone for good, the brothers set out on a wizard’s quest to find the jewel required to finish the spell, facing all sorts of magical challenges along the way and even managing to bond along the way. Onward is a fairly mixed bag movie as it manages to do some things fantastically and other things not so much. It on occasion reaches towards that familiar Pixar magic through a very strong narrative, fairly likeable characters and a great finale, yet comes up short thanks to some predictable cliched elements, mixed humor, and a pretty unengaging opening act.

The premise of the movie, on a concept level, is actually pretty ingenious and has so much great potential for Pixar to tackle. The idea of introducing technology to the fantasy world and having it replace magic as the world’s go-to power source is already a pretty fun idea, and it’s even fair to say that the story overall, written by the film’s director Dan Scanlon, and the film’s screenwriters, Jason Headley and Keith Bunin, from a structural level is very well laid out. Watching these two brothers of opposing personalities travel on a magical quest to bring back their lost father has a great road-trip vibe to it, and how all of it ties back into the magical components of this world, the growing bond between the brothers, and the final conclusions is extremely well delivered. The ending is easily the best part of the movie as the emotions on display are extremely effective, it feels well set-up and results in a great pay off, provides a sense of climatic finality without needing to result in last-minute bad guy, and includes a bittersweet quality to it that doesn’t resolve things in a perfect manner, allowing for a sense of consequence, but not sacrificing resolution. With that said however, while it sounds too good to fail, this strong narrative actually takes a bit too get going as the opening 20 mins of the film feels pretty different from how the remainder of the movie feels, with this intro being pretty formulaic and even pretty annoying. It’s filled with a lot of cliches and familiar scenes that don’t really seem to add anything to overall experience, the manner in which its delivered, paced and written feels far more pandering and not as emotionally rich as it will later become, the jokes aren’t very good, the world feels surprisingly uninteresting in spite of the great idea, all the characters feel like obvious cut-outs, the music is way too over-the-top and whimsical, and until it starts the actual plot, it honestly feels like the film isn’t going to work. It is able to turn itself around, but it was a rocky first step. Considering Scanlon previously directed Monsters University, it’s actually amazing the film came out as strongly as it did but does go to explain some of the lesser qualities of this movie.

The characters, as previously mentioned, start off as fairly stereotypical roles for this kind of narrative like the nervous younger brother who needs to be put through strife and grow into a stronger person, the older brother who can be a bit of a lunkhead but has a good heart and means well underneath the rambunctiousness, the stereotypical nice mother figure, the mother’s new boyfriend who looks invasive but isn’t actually evil, the pet who’s only distinct change is that it’s a dragon this time around, it’s all pretty lazy and not very interesting. But it really feels like something clicks on the second the journey gets going, as even though these archetypes remain the same, the manner in which they are led and written gets so much better. The relationship between the two brothers is honestly really nice and even kind of surprises you down the line as it doesn’t look like the film is really about that to begin with. It provides for some of the stronger moments of the movie and both Tom Holland and Chris Pratt (despite being incredible noticeable voices) manage to be really charming, entertaining and even surprisingly emotional when placed in the right situations. The mother, Laurel (voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is paired up alongside this warrior manticore named Corey (voiced by Octavia Spencer) who gone from this savage warrior in the past to the head of a ”chucky cheese-esque” restaurant, which results in a few laughs, and they never overstay their welcome and keep the focus where it needs to be. Even the way the father is handled strangely works, as despite the idea of viewing this character through only a pair of legs feeling like it’d be hard to get any personality across, the manner in which the movie gets these legs to ”emote” is pretty effective and it never takes the audience out of any moment whether it be serious or funny. Pixar is usually great at capturing that sense of heart even in some of their bad films, and it definitely feels present here during the latter half of the film (to the point that you actually grow attached to a minivan which gets a surprisingly funny conclusion near the end of the movie), and while there are times when it can get oddly dramatic and feel a little off against a surreal funny visual (there is a dramatic discussion about death on top of a giant chess puff in this movie, it’s a little weird), the writing, visuals and acting usually sells these moments pretty well.

In terms of looking at the film from the outside, it’s surprising seeing what this film gets right and what it gets wrong, as they are kind of jumbled up from what you believe from the advertising. Looking at the trailers, you’d imagine that the world would be extremely creative and full of personality while the characters and story would pretty stale and forgettable, when in actuality the story and characters prove to be pretty great and well handled, and the world is surprisingly dull. For a premise and world that seems to write itself in terms of what kind of visuals and possibilities could from this (especially in a Pixar animated film), the movie never takes fully advantage of how this world can look, with it mostly just being suburbia with fantasy creatures included in, which just isn’t that fun. Disney and Pixar have done a great job creating expansive, vibrant locations that felt distinct and wonderfully original, but this one feels very by-the-books and almost like it was coasting on its opening premise instead of actively expanding it to let it reach its full potential. Even when it escapes suburbia and goes into the more traditional fantasy areas, it doesn’t feel that special or unique, it’s a little disappointing. It is still a nice-looking movie overall, as it has bright colors, expressive character designs and several moments near the end have some great lighting work that makes a lot of the softer moments feel very warm and wholesome, but that feels very expected for Pixar at this point, and even though the world should’ve offered something fresh to showcase, it really didn’t. This can also be said for most of the humor as well, as despite Pixar usually nailing this element of their films at providing great writing and jokes for both kids and adults, this one really only works for kids. It’s not really painful per say and there is an occasional inventive image and/or concept, but nothing really feels that fresh or like something we haven’t already seen in properties that have twisted these kind of genres before.

Onward feels like a bit of a tragedy honestly because it has the making for a fantastic Pixar film, yet also contains elements that are usually present in some of their worser material, so it is very much a mixed big movie. It’s a shame that something so middle-of-the-road features things that are incredibly heart-warming and worthy of checking out, and while the film’s flaws really don’t overwhelm the positives and even most of the negatives won’t affect everybody on the same level, it doesn’t feel like this is a movie that can be loved beginning-to-end without needing to squint past some obvious problems. The story, characters and emotional moments are really the highlights, but the comedy, opening act and the world itself don’t work at all. While it doesn’t really work as a whole, it still works a lot better than most of the live-action films Disney has been releasing at the moment, so it deserves respect for that alone.