Pixar's Onward Movie Review
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Disney Pixar has always been a go to for good animated movies that can really bring out the fun and emotion for everyone. Onward, though is a fun movie however, tends to just miss the mark across the board for what has come to be expected from these films. Today we are going to take a look at the Onward movie that was released to streaming services earlier this week.
Onward takes the fantasy trope and puts the world in a modern like setting. Where in most fantasy series out there, it’s perpetually a medieval event. This concept flips that on its head as they discover electricity and slowly phase out the need for magic in the world.
Along with this comes the 9 to 5 slog of working a regular job which is personified with the Manticore character named Manticore (Octavia Spencer) We see that she was once a mythical character that was fierce and sent adventurers on quests, but now she is a owner of a restaurant.
The main characters are around their high school years, with Barley Lightfoot (Chris Pratt) most likely recently dropped out of High School. Ian Lightfoot (Tom Holland) is the main protagonist in this story. He is trying to fit in at school and make friends. He lacks confidence in doing just about anything because he did not have a father figure to look up to and teach him.
On Ian’s birthday, his mother Laurel Lightfoot (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) tells Ian that his father left him a present for his birthday to be opened when he was ready. It turns out the item is a magic staff that came with a stone for a spell to bring back their dad for 1 day.
The spell only works halfway leading to only the legs of their dad being recreated. So Ian and Barley venture off on a quest to go get another gem that is needed to restore the other half of their dad. The catch is that they only have 24 hours now that the spell is completed.
So that is the main concept of the movie. Obviously like most Pixar movies, the animation is fantastic and contains funny little gags that can be related back to our lives, or are just simply cleverly pulled off. One that stood out to me was the treatment of the Pegasus where in this world they are treated more like pests and act like racoons.
There are also details in the background of this series, even when they venture to the more fantastical looking areas of their world, there are still airplanes flying in the sky.
There are plenty of jokes in these movies, some of them that reflect creative writing that are for adults and fly over the heads of children. Something that Pixar has always been pretty good at accomplishing. It’s not to the level of a Shrek movie with it’s bluntness and frequency, but is there to still cause me a couple laughs.
The story unfortunately misses the mark to me on several levels. Even though the movie is a good time, it does not live up to the Pixar standard that many of us have come to expect from these movies. Sure this is a good time. But I cannot put this into the same category of many of their other projects. I won't be reaching for this one again. This is a movie that if it was already playing on TV, I would probably watch it, it’s just not one that I am going to pick off the digital shelf multiple times.
The underlying adventure and message in this story is nice. Just because a father is not around, does not mean that you don’t have a father figure.
Onward’s Final Score
When it all comes down to it. This movie is a good time, but is not one that I would go out and watch over and over again. This movie gets a 7/10. If you watch it you will have fun with your family. It has plenty of laughs for everyone and is masterfully animated.
Be sure to show this movie to you kids, or even sit down and watch it if you have Disney Plus. Being someone that does not currently have a Disney Plus subscription, I went the buy or rent option with Amazon. If you are like me and want to rent it or buy the movie, you can use our affiliate link here.
