Onward

RATING: A

It's hard to believe that this is Pixar's first original film in three years. Even more so, that in the latter half of the 2010's, they only had one original feature at all--and that was Coco, which was indeed their best film in several years. During those past five years, we've gotten sequels of varying quality to The Incredibles (finally) and Finding Nemo, a third Cars movie, and a fourth Toy Story--the last of which is probably their most unnecessary sequel ever (which is saying something). Fortunately, things seem to balancing out at least to start the 2020's, as we've got Soul dropping later this year (well, hopefully) plus four more untitled features on the docket which are allegedly all originals.

Onward was an idea that had my interest from the start--or at least, the setting did. Director Dan Scanlon described it as a "suburban fantasy world"--which is pretty accurate. A world where anthropomorphized magical fantasy creatures populate the Earth instead of humans, and pretty much everything about Earth--including modern-day tech--is exactly the same otherwise (well, except for the pets/wild animals--those are also fantasy creatures). A very interesting and original concept, and a lot of potential there.

In this suburban fantasy universe, magic actually did use to exist--but it faded out over time when the creatures started inventing technology that negated the need for a lot of the natural magical abilities or magical spells that could be performed. And yes, that means that the fantasy creatures got too lazy to do anything magical (almost like WALL-E, except not taken even close to the extremes of that movie). Which... oddly feels fitting and appropriate for our times, if you take the obvious fantasy out of the equation.

The plot itself revolves around two elf siblings--Ian and Barley--voiced by Tom Holland and Chris Pratt, respectively. Ian, the more quiet and nervous one; and Barley, the enthusiastic RPG/quest-obsessed one. They're given the opportunity to meet their long-deceased dad through way of a temporary resurrection spell... but after it backfires halfway through, they're left with only the bottom half of their father. Cue a quest to go and find a magical MacGuffin to bring the rest of him back before time runs out and he's gone for good.

Overall, this is up there right alongside Coco among the best that Pixar has offered in almost the entire past decade. There's a great blend of comedy, action (some of which is also comedic), and the heart we've come to expect from Pixar--all put to the backdrop of one of their more inventive settings in a long time. (Yes, I know Inside Out exists, and that certainly was very inventive. But I wasn't as crazy about that movie as... well, almost everyone else.) And there's hardly any missed beats or missteps along the way. Some of the best parts include Barley getting accidentally shrunken and the hilarity from that, and a "battle" that ensues not too long after with some biker punk pixies. No, seriously. It has to be seen to be believed.

Beyond all that, despite the quest to get dad back, the heart of the movie rests heavily upon the relationship between the two brothers--which really works well. They're quite distinctive, but they play off each other quite well--which can probably be attributed in part to Holland and Pratt, the latter of whom is clearly having a lot of fun lending his voice here. But all of that builds up to a very strong ending, which--given the storyline of "will they get their dad back briefly or not"--could've easily missed the intended impact. But it sticks the landing near-perfectly. I don't think they could've done it any different and still had the heart-filled/emotional impact necessary for the intended resolution/takeaway. Knowing that a lot of the basic story background came from director Scanlon's own life, it's clear that a lot of this is close to home for him--and that perhaps makes it all the better, regardless of whether the viewer can relate or not.

Onward may still live somewhat in the shadow of some of Pixar's highest-acclaimed works, but this one shouldn't be overlooked. Even if it relies on a handful of story cliches, it uses a very unique setting and has some quite strong character moments and development. And it has plenty of laughs to go around, too. In other words, it actually is more or less what we've come to expect from Pixar. And once again, they're giving us another periodic reminder that they do still have some of their old selves left in the tank.