Onward

Rating

Director

Dan Scanlon

Screenplay

Dan Scanlon, Keith Bunin, Jason Headley

Length

1h 42m

Starring

Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Octavia Spencer, Mel Rodriguez

MPAA Rating

PG

Original Preview

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Review

It’s nearly impossible for any studio to consistently live up to expectations. Disney and Pixar may have proven that beyond a shadow of a doubt with Onward, a film about family that eschews some traditional narrative trappings while embracing too many others.

Pixar’s output has shifted from one focused solely on ingenuity to one enamored with modest concepts that work on whatever scale they approach without feeling like they redefine the genre. The days of consistent hits are long behind them. The death of original Brain Trust member Joe Ranft may have signaled that change. Most of the studio’s greatest ideas were his, which shows just how much the departure of a great mind can dilute future output.

Onward is the kind of film that looks interesting on paper, a magical world of elves, ogres, unicorns, and pixies that found magic too hard and relied instead on technology to better their lives, leading to a modernist society that is a shell of its former glory. Tom Holland voices Ian Lightfoot, a teenage elf whose big brother Barley (Chris Pratt) is a laze-about who is more concerned with having fun with life than either fitting in or being productive. His is a world filled with the magic seemingly lost to their world while pragmatic Ian seems to take more after his practical mother Laurel (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) than his late father.

As his 16th birthday approaches, Ian and Barley are given a gift their mother has held onto from their father for just such an occasion. Within is a staff with a magical gem and a parchment detailing a spell that will bring their father back to them for 24 hours. While Barley is unable to activate the staff in spite of all of his desire and passion for the old ways, Ian is the catalyst, but isn’t strong enough, so the spell only brings back the lower half of their father, forcing them to quest to get another magical stone to complete the spell before time runs out.

Pixar’s animators try very hard to take their concepts and run with them and they are occasionally successful, especially in the scenes with Octavia Spencer’s Manticore and the flightless pixie bikers, but a lot of their ideas are thrown out there and disappear just as quickly, leaving behind very little impact. The notions of family are sometimes well observed, but too often feel shoehorned into the narrative and while the last act is a thrilling one almost living up to the Pixar legacy, all that leads up to that point feels only serviceable at best.

For better or worse, Disney and Pixar have redefined the genre of cinematic animation, but as their outsized influence has faded, their grip on the title of most inventive seems to be slipping from their grip. Great actors delivering satisfactory or otherwise uninspired work, concepts that are well worn and lacking, and a general desire to output as much as they can without concern for the overall quality of output are all factors that help make Onward a mildly enjoyable, but backward-fading achievement.

Review Written

May 4, 2022