It’s been a while since we did a Pixar Playlist, it’s time to Move Onward
This film is
something to me because it’s the last film I saw before everything got shut
down due to the Covid-19 outbreak. I was originally going to see the Vin Diesel
outing Bloodsport when the cinemas shut.
What that means is
that the film didn’t do very well at the Box Office, making $114m or
thereabouts over its measly 2-week run. The film did better on Video on Demand,
and helped boost a recently launched Disney Plus in the US, it took a while
longer to come into the UK.
Dan Scallon is the head of this project and based the idea on his own life story and relationship with his brother. Scallon’s last Credited Pixar Film was Monsters University but we won’t hold that against him.
In a fantasy world
some people found they could use magic to help others and themselves but it was
difficult to master and eventually society settled with magic technology and
magic kinda died out. We’re introduced to our Protagonst, Ian Lightfoot (Tom
Holland), his brother Barley (Chris Pratt) and his mother Laurel (Julia
Louis-Dreyfus). And in true Disney Tradition we have a dead parent. In this
case, their father, they’re not specific about how he died but given the
descriptions I would guess something akin to cancer.
Barley is obsessed
with the old world, imagining it through a Dungeons and Dragons’ style quest
and spending much of his life protesting the destruction of old relics and
artefacts. It’s Ian’s 16th Birthday and it’s revealed that their
late father is a wizard and that he’s created a spell to bring him back to talk
with them for one day. Ian is the only one with the gift to use it but lacks
experience and manages only to bring back his lower half, and destroys the
Phoenix Gem that amplifies the spell in the first place.
Now, Ian and Barley
are in a race against time to find a new Phoenix Gem and restore their father
before it’s too late to say hello or goodbye to him.
First thing’s first,
I get why people enjoy this premise, as someone who has lost my father I know I
would love to spend a day with him again. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if
people thought this was a horrible idea as well. It could remind you of the
Zatanna scene in Young Justice Outsiders. Getting the chance to spend time with
her father is great but it means having to say goodbye to him all over again,
and that can be heart-breaking.
It's another film
that does away with having a traditional villain. Sure, there are antagonists
to the journey but Colt wants to see the boys safe and well, he just doesn’t
understand the situation. Then there’s the pixies who are just a biker gang for
a chase scene to facilitate some character development.
The journey in
itself is mostly fairly standard stuff, but I do like the brother dynamic here.
Far too often in media the relationship between brothers is antagonistic and
don’t get me wrong, that can happen but Barley is a supportive older brother,
he’s not faultless, mind-you, he can get obsessive over details to the point
that would annoy anyone but he means well, and that’s absolutely essential to
Ian’s character journey.
Laurel too doesn’t
serve as an antagonist, she supports their journey to an extent but just wishes
she was taken along, and is out of her mind with worry when she finds out about
the Phoenix Gem being cursed.
The Manticore
(Olivia Spencer) is by far the funniest character in the movie. Ian’s character
journey of realising how much his brother serves as his rock and has helped him
grow feels very real to me, all with the tragic undercurrent of what their
father meant to the two of them, with Ian having never met him and Barley only
barely remembering him, and not being able to say goodbye the first time. It’s
for that reason I like the resolution to that.
OK, there is a
negative in this film, and it’s the worldbuilding. Zootopia used modern
technology with animals but there it was always adapted to the species in
question. The world in his film seems built for elves. We have a centaur
struggling to get in and out of a car because it’s not built for him (also, he
doesn’t have opposable thumbs, how does he drive) as just one example of the
issue here, the worldbuilding is pretty week. The ending is also kinda
hap-hazard, I don’t believe one guy discovering magic would lead to such a
substantial shift in the status quo.
Onward elevates a
fairly standard quest story with good character development and a few creative
visuals. The arc excels and there’s some decent jokes but the worldbuilding
isn’t good enough to take advantage of the potential of this scenario.
#1 Inside Out
#2 The Incredibles
#3 Up
#4 Finding Nemo
#5 Finding Dory
#6 Coco
#7 Incredibles 2
#8 Toy Story 3
#9 Toy Story 4
#10 WALL-E
#11 Toy Story 2
#12 Onward
#13 The Good Dinosaur
#14 Brave
#15 Toy Story
#16 Cars 3
#17 Monsters Inc
#18 Ratatouille
#19 Cars
#20 Monsters University
#21 Cars 2
#22 A Bug’s Life
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