Guest writer Hugh Verheylewegen reviews the newest Pixar film, Onward.
Two teenage elf brothers, Ian (Tom Holland) and Barley (Chris Pratt) Lightfoot, go on an journey to spend one last day with their father, who died when they were too young to remember him, using magic in a more modernized world of fairytale creatures that no longer rely on magic.
This is the first original Pixar film since Coco to come along with a fairly unique premise. This also marks the second Pixar film to be directed by Dan Scanlon, who did Monsters University, which I thought was a decent movie overall but definitely not as strong as a lot of other Pixar films. Joining him are some very new writers to Pixar, and together they deliver a very fun, heartfelt and bold adventure story to audiences, backed up by absolutely drop dead gorgeous animation.
One thing you have to give credit to Pixar for is their increasingly improved animation over the years, from the photorealistic backgrounds to the creative creatures and characters we get to see in the story. The design choices made for all these creatures living in a modern setting are absolutely brilliant and humorous, it really makes this film stand out among most features that include mythical creatures.
One big challenge this movie had to tackle was finding a balance between fleshing out the characters and building the world around them, which I think they nailed perfectly. None of it felt too overwhelming and you could follow things pretty easily, as it is somewhat a familiar story we have seen before, but done in a unique way.
Obviously the best highlight of this movie, as you would expect, are the Lightfoot siblings played by Chris Pratt and Tom Holland, who have really excellent chemistry as nearly polar opposite brothers. The theme of sibling relationships is the major aspect this movie brings to the table, and it is done in a very surprising way. Tom’s character, Ian, is your typical shy and introverted individual that slowly tries to break out of his shell. His arc is emotionally compelling and Tom’s performance was really excellent.
Chris Pratt as the more adventurous and geeky Barley was a role that was truly meant for him, I mean my god was so good in this. And while he is certainly the more outgoing of the two siblings he still has his own personal flaws that he has to overcome on their journey together, which I believe was also handled nicely. Also the fact that he is a gamer and the RPG games he plays are based off of real history of the world they live in I thought was an absolutely genius detail.
One thing this movie handles incredibly well is the character arcs for everyone, as they make sure everyone is fully developed and no arc ever feels unfinished or left hanging. Being able to do that, along with introducing audiences to the world and its lore, is seriously commendable.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus has a good performance as the mother of the twins and injects more heart in the story, but the biggest surprise was Octavia Spencer as Corey the Manticore. Not only is the design of her character really cool but she delivers a fun and funny performance that really made her another big highlight of this movie.
Also the theme of how this world of fairy tale creatures are so modernized that they have forgotten the magic of their past is certainly a good thing to push forth in this movie, as it is certainly related to our own world.
Now when it comes to the idea of a lost family member being the main drive of the narrative there is a lot of risk. Bringing a dead parent back to life is not an easy subject to tackle, and Pixar could have made a safe and easy cop out, which I was afraid they were going to do based on the way the narrative was going, as well as the fact they are interacting with a pair of legs for most of the adventure. Not to say that the story is bad by any means. It is very fun and entertaining but it does seem to be a bit of a predictable quest movie that had a chance at leading to a poor conclusion. But what they end up doing in the third act of this movie, without giving away anything, was completely unexpected and very commendable as it does change the way you look at what everything has been leading up to. What they do truly pulls at the heart strings, which is what you’d expect from Pixar at this poin,t but they always manage to do it so well and find a new way to do it. Even if you might not have been on board with all of the first portion of the movie, the third act and ending truly make this movie so much better.
This is the exact kind of thing I like to see from Pixar, which is to make great films that are not only emotionally impactful but have the guts to be bold with choices that most other filmmakers might not even bother pursuing, which brings me to an important topic. One thing I noticed in a lot of early reviews for this movie was how people say it’s not up to top tier Pixar films. The only thing is, what most of them consider to be top tier are Pixar sequels and not originals like Up or Coco. This really says a lot about how both critics and viewers seem less acceptive of something that’s new and tries to be something different.
A lot of original Pixar films seem to be missed out or completely ignored because they don’t have associations with an existing franchise, and very poor trailers (which has always been a curse of Pixar for some odd reason, despite making mostly outstanding movies). In an era where Disney is running on creative fumes I’d like to see original films like Onward and even the upcoming Soul to have huge support, and push for more original ideas to come out of Disney like they used to have in previous years. Yes I know movies like Finding Dory, Incredibles 2 and even Toy Story 4 were great but if those films are given a chance then so should the new original films.
This movie might not look like much upon first glance but when you see what it has to offer I think people will have an absolutely great time with this movie. The animation, the performances, the fun world, the themes and unique narrative take make Onward another big win for Pixar, even if not all aspects of it are pitch perfect. I’m going to give Onward an A.
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