Pixar’s Onward had an unfortunate run at the box office, by Pixar standards anyway. There really was no single reason for it to have a low performance. Being an original story and not a sequel may have been part f the reason, poor marketing may have been another. The Covid-19 outbreak was definitely an additional factor as movie theaters began shutting down a couple of weeks after its release. The underwhelming box office does not negate that Onward is an exceptional animated film that is fun and emotional as well. Through it use of fantastical settings, Pixar brings us a film that not just funny but addresses grief as well.
Onward introduces us to a world that may at first seem familiar to genre fans. It is a world filled with fantasy creatures such as elves, unicorns, trolls, etc. Normal life is filled with magic and adventure. But when technology actually happens, that adventure and magic gets forgotten. Who needs wizard fire when one can simply flick a switch for light? Over time, their world now somewhat resembles our current world in terms of technology and culture. Quests of Yore, is a Dungeons and Dragons equivalent game that is considered history.
Ian Lightfoot is a young elf who has just turned sixteen and is lacking on confidence and has very few friends in high school. His older brother, Barley is obsessed with the game Quests of Yore and practically lives his life by it. Ian never got to meet his father as he died before he was born and Barley has only small memories of him. Their mother, now presents them both with a gift that was supposed to be given to them from their father when Ian turned sixteen. Unwrapping it, the sons discover that it is a wizard’s staff. Barley believes that their father was a wizard, but their mother says, no, he was an accountant. Along with it is a spell that Barley interprets to be able to bring their father back from the dead.
Their mother doesn’t believe any of this, of course and leaves the, on their own. After Barley fails to use the spell, Ian apparently is able to use it and bring back his father. The only problem is that it only half works before the gem in it shatters and they only summon back dad’s lower half.
So now comes the moment that Barley decides that they must go on a quest to get a second gem to bring back their father and time is their biggest enemy as the spell only lasts for twenty four hours. What follows is an adventurous road movie with the two brothers who could not be any more different in personalities than the other.
To those who have lost loved family members, most will have had one last thing that they wanted to say or do with that member, whether it is a mother or in this case a father. This is the opportunity that fate had denied these two young brothers. For Ian, it is an opportunity to meet the father he had never known and for Barley it is perhaps to say the farewell that he never got to say to him.
True to Pixar form, this is not a superficial animated kids road movie, but one centered on characters and how they grow and discover things not only about themselves but each other as well. The road movie formular works especially well with Pixar as can be seen by the tropes laid first laid out by their first animated film, Toy Story. What will tickle the fancy of nerd fans is it’s constant references to the origins of the fantasy genre that we all love so much, Dungeons and Dragons. And, like me, even if you’ve never rolled a 20-sided die in your lie, you will recognize the influence of the game as the movie references scenes from Raiders of the Lost Ark and even the Lord of the Rings films which brings the genre full circle.
I’ve sometimes criticized modern films as being too much like video games with fetch-it quests to finish the main quest. And in the case of Onward, that sort of guest with maps leading to other tasks and hurdles is what makes it enjoyable because the structure of it is meant to mirror a game. Even though I’m not a board game player of D&D, I’ve spent hundreds of hours playing video game equivalents of it and had an absolute kick out of the fun tropes and references that the movie pulls off.
Some of the plot points may in fact be predictable to jaded fans of the fantasy genre or even video games. But don’t let that distract you from the fun times it can provide you.
Each of the brothers has a story arc that is told and issues with the loss of their father that they must deal with and by the end, some of you may even shed a tear. Tom Holland as Ian is practically playing an even dorkier version of his Peter Parker persona here. I hope he isn’t typecast like this forever. He is slated to play the character of Nathan Drake in an upcoming film version of the Uncharted games, but who knows when that will see the light of days as it is one of the most troubled productions in Hollywood right now, even with a worldwide pandemic. Chris Pratt as Barley is basically playing Chris Pratt from almost every other film he’s been in lately but as a late teenager.
Onward was the very last film before my area enacted a shelter in place order which ended up shutting down theaters. But it was already a relatively low performer in the box office anyway. Through an agreement between Disney and the theater chains, it is now available for purchase digitally on all major streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime and Vudu. It is also now currently included if you are a subscriber to the Disney+ service. At this point, since it’s on home video, it is highly recommended and definitely worth checking out.
The Ranting Penguin 