Dir. Dan Scanlon
Onward tries to be an intimate personal exploration of two boys’ relationship with the memory of their father and a Bright-For-Kids modern fantasy adventure filled with wacky side-quests- and in the attempt at both it doesn’t quite succeed at either. While the film is certainly not bad, and my face was indeed mysteriously wet by the end of the third act, most of the movie feels like a well done paint by numbers road trip movie until it’s time to tug on some heartstrings. However, despite my apathy towards the main characters, the magical world the film creates is ripe for a deeper exploration that I’d love to see in a more focused spin off.
Onward takes place in a world that started as a land of fairy tales, full of mermaids and fairies and elves, that eventually experienced its own industrial revolution. Magic is hard to master and only a few can use it so electric lights and cars have sprung up in this world leaving wizards and spells in the past.
The film opens on the 16th birthday of Ian Lightfoot (Tom Holland), an awkward, introverted, elf who can’t do anything without consulting his checklist first. In celebration of his birthday (and in memory of his late father), he attempts to socialize for apparently the first time. This plan is derailed by the embarrassing antics of his older brother Barley (Chris Pratt), who is hyperactive and loud and utterly lacking in social awareness. Barley is infatuated with all things magical, including a Dungeons and Dragons-esque game that most other characters write off as a dumb children’s game and his enthusiasm as childish, which is confusing because it seems like in the terms of this universe he would just be an unusually energetic History major.
Their mom, Laurel (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), a home work out video aficionado, surprises Ian and Barley with a gift from their late father, a magic staff complete with a gem and a spell to bring their father back for exactly 24 hours. They accidentally botch the spell, and the gem is destroyed with only half their father returned. Ian and Barley must then set off on a quest with a pair of legs to find a new phoenix stone so they can complete the spell before their opportunity fades away at the next sunset.
With such a fantastical setting and high-concept plot, the two-dimensional nature of the lead brothers is all the more disappointing. The on the nose casting of the voice actors only enhanced that somewhat bland characterization. I’d be shocked if these roles were not written with these actors in mind with how tightly they’re tailored to the actors’ personas. If you saw Tom Holland in Spies in Disguise then you’ve seen this character. If you’ve seen Chris Pratt in any Pratt role then you know exactly what this character is going to be. There’s not much fun discovering a new character when you have them pegged the minute they open their mouths. That isn’t to say the voice actors do a bad job, both of them pull off the character arcs that were asked of them; the script just didn’t ask for a lot.
The boys go on their quest, with their mother in hot pursuit accompanied by the Manticore (Octavia Spencer), who rides along after realizing she’d neglected to tell the boys about a dangerous curse. In this odd-couple comes the most interesting relationship of the movie. While Laurel is a cul-de-sac brand mom figure with a crossfit twist, The Manticore was once a figure of myth, who sent noble heroes on their quests and battled monsters. Unfortunately, now she’s an anxious wreck who runs a children’s restaurant. Over the course of their journey the Manticore rediscovers the parts of herself she’d abandoned to better live in this modern and much less fantastical world. A buff, suburban, ax-wielding mom teaming up with an ancient adventurer turned harried Chuck-e Cheese manager to hunt legendary monsters is the spin-off I want and deserve.
The story of the brother’s journey to reunite with their father is handled tenderly, which is understandable as the story is based on the loss of the screenwriter’s own father under similar circumstances. My complaints about the flat characters aside, there is never any doubt that they would both do anything they could to see their dad again, or for the first time. Touching though it is, it feels very disconnected from the goofy side quests that make up the rest of the movie. Instead of melding the two organically, it feels like this is the fantasy-adventure where we fight flightless pixies on motorcycles and then this is the sad time where we talk about our feelings.This same exact story could have been done in an entirely human world where a pair of brothers find a magic wand and try to bring their father back- in fact it would make things like Barley’s obsession with magic being dismissed as childish make far more sense in a seemingly non-magical world.
Onward is a perfectly serviceable Pixar movie; kids will probably enjoy it, adults will like it enough, and there will probably be some tears because that’s the Pixar Promise™. The setting promises a lot that sadly isn’t followed through on accept to make some well-tread, somewhat lazy jokes (looking at you Sprite Bikers), while the main plot promises the exploration of a complicated fraternal relationship marked by tragedy that we only get sometimes. If you have a child I would take them to see this movie, but if you’re an adult Pixar fan, you can wait till it’s streaming somewhere on a service you’re borrowing the password to.