Onward

Review

Rating: PG
Runtime: 1 hour, 42 minutes
Director: Dan Scanlon

Quick Impressions:
Initially, we planned to take our kids to see Pixar’s latest, Onward, over spring break. Then the coronavirus pandemic made social distancing essential, spring break eternal, and going out impossible. When I wrote my review of The Hunt last Friday, I fully expected it to be my last review for weeks.

To my pleasant surprise, though, now that most theaters have closed, some studios are making their new releases available for streaming (assuming you buy or rent them). So we did, in fact, take our kids to see Onward over spring break…in our living room. Unfortunately, our seventeen-year-old was unable to join us (since he’s social distancing with his other family). But the movie kept reminding me of him, so I feel like he was here in spirit.

The Good:
Like every Pixar movie, Onward makes you laugh, cry, smile, cry, cheer, cry. (Did I mention cry?) If I’m being honest, I wasn’t that excited to see this movie, but in retrospect, I can’t explain my strange lack of enthusiasm. Who doesn’t love Tom Holland and Chris Pratt? And the film’s setting–a world full of fantasy creatures who slowly gave up magic for modern conveniences like electric lights and cassette tapes–cleverly mixes up their nostalgia for the past with our own. Pratt’s character Barley yearns for a time when elves (like him), manticores, and dragons embraced their amazing origins, practiced magic, and went on quests. Meanwhile, he surrounds himself with treasured relics of the 1980s. He drives around in a full-sized van emblazoned with a painted Pegasus who looks ready to fly off the cover of your favorite record album (or the side of your prized Trapper Keeper). He obsesses over D&D and listens to hard rock on cassette. So the movie simultaneously romanticizes the past of its characters and the past of its audience. In fact, to a degree, it conflates these pasts.  That’s pretty fun.

If you’ve seen the trailers, you know the premise. Two elven boys living an ordinary life in the suburbs are given a wizard’s staff that belonged to their late father and discover that he knew a spell that would bring him back to life for just one day. What an amazing gift! Sixteen-year-old Ian (Holland) has never even met his father. His older brother Barley (Pratt) loves magic! But when they perform the spell, something goes awry, and their father only materializes from the waist down. The brothers then depart on an epic quest to find a gem they need to cast the spell a second time. The clock is ticking, though. They only have until sunset the next day to spend quality time with their father before he disappears forever. (And right now, he’s only legs and feet.)

So basically what we get is a high fantasy epic quest meets an 80s buddy comedy. Sometimes the movie gives us fire-breathing manticores, sometimes riffs on a A Weekend at Bernie‘s (as the two brothers must drag blind legs along with them everywhere they go). Most of the time, this particular hybrid creature works very well on screen. I do wish I could have seen it on the actual big screen just once because some of the action sequences and epic visuals would be great to experience in the theater. But you know what’s even better? Not dying in a pandemic!

Weirdly this movie at this moment may have an unintended appeal for captive audiences. Onward clearly intends to show an exciting quest, a romanticized, fantastical past. Kids are supposed to cry, “Wow! Manticores and unicorns!  So amazing!” Parents are supposed to cry, “Remember? The 80s was so awesome!” But now, kids and parents alike will watch and cry, “Wow? Remember! We used to get together, leave our homes, and have adventures in restaurants and gas station convenience stores!” (Or maybe they just cry.)  (For most of the movie, my eyes were full of tears.)

The Manticore (charmingly voiced by Octavia Spencer) may miss her glory days before she ran an obnoxious family restaurant, but many of us may be sighing instead, “Remember when we could just go to an obnoxious family restaurant? And all the kids at the birthday party could gather around and watch the birthday kid spittily blow out the candles without worrying about COVID-19?” Remember when life was like that?  I mean, it was last week! (But it’s all starting to seem like a distant dream now, isn’t it?)

So the movie perhaps stirs even more nostalgia than it intends.

But it’s fun to watch, certainly in no way melancholy.  The whole cast is engaging. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is particularly good as the boys’ worried (yet helpful) mom. Grey Griffin (who my family knows mainly from her long stint voicing Daphne on Scooby Doo) voices the leader of some biker pixies. Tracey Ullman plays the slimy, forked-tongued pawn shop proprietor with wicked glee. And Lena Waithe voices a female police officer who mentions that she is newly building a relationship with her girlfriend’s daughter. (It’s a small part, but she does say the line, “It gets better.”)

The talented Tom Holland makes Ian incredibly sympathetic. He sounds a lot his Peter Parker here, young, American, but creakier and more initially unsure of himself than Spider-Man.

For me, personally, though, Chris Pratt steals the film as Ian’s older brother Barley, the one bafflingly called a “screw-up” by everybody (except his mother), despite the fact that he is consistently kind, relentlessly optimistic, never jealous, committed to his principles, passionate about life, and excited to grace his younger brother Ian with Giving Tree levels of support.  Barley is such a positive presence, and for me, he’s the character that makes the movie such an entertaining, rewarding watch.

Best Scene:

Because I love Barley so much, my favorite scene comes when he confesses why he’s never afraid of anything.  Certain aspects of this moment might be more than a little cheesy (hahaha, you’ll see!), but the emotions revealed here are genuine, powerful, and so moving.  Pixar has certainly unlocked the secret of making the audience cry.  They do it every single time.  And this time, the moving moment gives us (and Ian) so much insight.
Also quite nice is Ian’s “conversation” with his father early in the film.

Best Scene Visually:
I love the Indiana Jones-style (and obviously inspired) journey late in the film.  The bridge (a clear runner-up for best scene) is fantastic.  Even better are those spooky caverns on the final leg of the journey.  I love the way that entire sequence looks, particularly the accelerated ride.

Best Action Sequence:

The chase sequence on the expressway is pretty much what every driving lesson felt like to me, but Ian certainly learns under pressure much more quickly than I did.

The Negatives:
Like every great Pixar film, Onward borrows from quite a few movies, but I assume we’re supposed to understand that as homage, which, given the emphasis on nostalgia should probably be considered a plus, not a negative.

When I watched the trailer, I found the idea of a dead father being magically revivified as a pair of legs and feet with no head or torso kind of…creepy?  But it doesn’t play that way in the actual movie at all.  It’s a little strange, yes.  But then a simple solution turns the whole thing into more of a rehash of Weekend at Bernie‘s (which is also creepy if you think about it, but if you simply remember it with a nostalgic giggle like you’re supposed to, everything’s okay).
There’s definitely an odd visual metaphor at play here.  The brothers lost their father when they were very young.  Obviously, they carry his memory with them everywhere.  Now they’re literally dragging him behind them everywhere they go.  They feel his weight, but they can’t quite see him.  They speak to him, but they can’t be sure he understands (literally since his ears have not materialized, figuratively, because he’s dead).  What they do have of their father is essentially what they always have with them in their memories.  So the undead pair of legs ends up working surprisingly well in context.  But I will concede that it’s a bit odd, and some viewers may find it off-putting. 

My dad also expressed concerns about the centaur dating the elf, and I myself was a bit unsure how Officer Bronco (Mel Rodriguez) managed to drive a car so successfully.  So yeah, the movie has some weird elements.

I didn’t come away from Onward thinking, “This is my favorite movie ever!  It’s the best movie I’ve ever seen in my life!  When can I watch it again?”  That’s the only thing I can say against it.  Onward is not the best movie I’ve ever seen, but it is a good movie with a moving, engaging story, well-drawn characters, and lovely, eye-catching animation.

Overall:
Onward is a beautiful movie about the love we all have for the people who have nurtured us and the love we attempt to show to those we nurture.  The brothers’ journey is ostensibly about locating a gem, but it’s really about finding closure.  They also learn to see each other in new ways.  (Pay attention to Barley’s jacket!)   The movie is engaging and funny, beautifully drawn, well-acted, and almost certain to make you cry.  It’s the best family film I’ve seen so far this year.  Will I see another new movie next week? Who knows!
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