Pixar’s latest movie Onward is an original story set in a world where a lot of mythical creatures coexist, but the story fell short to the studio’s standards, and it doesn’t really feel like a Pixar movie. After two years of sequels (The Incredibles 2 in 2018 and Toy Story 4 in 2019), Pixar was ready to go back to original stories and new characters, and so it brought Onward, directed by Dan Scanlon (Monsters University).
Onward follows the Lightfoot brothers, Ian (Tom Holland) and Barley (Chris Pratt), who on Ian’s 16th birthday receive a magical staff with a rare gem left by their late father, Wilden. The gift came with a “visitation spell”, which would allow them to resurrect their father for one day, but magic is easier said than done and the spell fails, only bringing back the lower half of Wilden’s body. Ian and Barley then go on a journey to see if there’s still magic out there that can help them bring their father back and spend a couple of hours with him.
Onward has all the elements that differentiate a Pixar movie from other animated features, but it still didn’t feel like a work from Pixar, though that doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie.
Onward Doesn’t Live Up To Pixar’s Standards
There are some elements that every Pixar movie has to have, such as a journey of self-improvement and more mature and complex themes that traditional Disney fairy tales wouldn’t address (just take a look at Inside Out). Onward has them all, but it took the easy road and handled them in ways that, compared to its predecessors, were mediocre – for example, Ian’s journey, which was pretty obvious was all for him to realize he didn’t really need his father’s presence and that he was going to be the one to master magic, as it was going to give him the confidence he lacked.
The premise, while emotionally charged, was too predictable, and not even the fantasy setting could save it – more so because it promised magic and fantasy, of which there were little. Magic was obviously present, though not as much as teased, with Ian spending the whole movie trying to cast spells (and, obviously, managing to do it perfectly by the time the big battle happened), but there wasn’t enough fantasy, and the only bits of it were at the beginning, where viewers got a brief look at the history of the magic that was once commonplace.
Pixar’s most emotional moments are those that the audience doesn’t expect (for example, the toys almost dying in Toy Story 3), and even those that viewers are waiting to happen are handled in ways that give them a big emotional charge, such as when Boo is sent back to her world in Monsters Inc. Ian’s realization of Barley being his father figure was something the audience could see coming, and him not getting to meet his father at the end wasn’t a big shock or emotional moment as it was probably planned. This doesn’t mean Onward is a bad movie – it’s entertaining, the relationship between Ian and Barley is fun and meaningful, and it’s a movie that the whole family can enjoy, but as a Pixar movie, it doesn’t live up to the expectations.
