On the surface, Onward fits the bill for the typical Pixar emotional adventure vehicle. Set in a world once filled with magic that has long since moved onto the convenience of technology, it follows two brothers on a quest for a magical gem that will allow them to spend a day with their dead father. While the foundations for an emotional tearjerker are there, most of the film gets bogged down in a routine quest that gets Ian (Tom Holland) and Barley (Chris Pratt) from point A to point B.
On his 16th birthday, Ian’s mother, Laurel (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) reveals to him that his dad had left him a wizard’s staff and a gem with instructions on how to revive him for one day. Ian starts the spell, but only manages to summon half of his dad, leaving him a disembodied pair of legs. Barley, Ian’s older, goofball brother, insists that they have to go on a quest to find another gem with the help of the knowledge he has from a D&D-inspired card game, Quests of Yore. Barley insists that the game is historically accurate, and soon they set off for an old tavern tended by a fierce Manticore.
There’s a good splash of inventiveness in the way Onward colors its world, with trash-eating unicorns and sloppy dragon pets.
However, it doesn’t feel as thrilling as fantasy worlds can be, since the world has so many mundane, modern elements.
There are some fun elements, like biker pixies riding full-sized Harley Davidson bikes, and the final sequence introduces a familiar creature with a new twist.
The story, helmed by Monster University’s Dan Scanlon is personal: Scanlon’s dad passed away when he was just one year old. However, the emotional tug in this film is more implied than fleshed out. The Weekend at Bernie’s like situation with the half-materialized dad is funny for the first few minutes, but it wears its welcome out through the rest of the movie. The quest that Ian and Barley go on also feels rote, as though the writers were ticking off a checklist for a typical adventure. Furthermore, the world feels too bright and safe, as though Ian and Barley were never really in danger. Even Inside Out, with its bright color palette and imaginative rendition of a human mind, had enough danger and darkness in it to make the stakes feel high and the emotions feel earned.
Onward isn’t a bad movie, but it’s a far cry from the best Pixar fare of yesteryear.
It feels like an eighties band churning out an album that’s both too reminiscent of their best works and lacking in the boldness that made them hits in the first place. Pixar is now 25 years old, and Onward is its 22nd film. Is Pixar hitting a quarter-life crisis? Probably not. Toy Story 4 was still a pretty good film, and even 2017’s Coco showed a lot of promise. Here’s to hoping that the upcoming Soul takes more risks and tells a story that’s both effective and emotional.