Onward movie is yet another feather in the hat of Pixar, a flick that is just as dramatic and sincere as it is fun. It builds itself on a backdrop of magic set in contemporary times, but scouts relationships like a pro. The way it explores kinship puts your faith back in relationships again and fills your heart with hope.
The movie evokes a sense of poignancy in you on more than two occasions. If animated stuff could do that to you, that goes on to show how many aspects apart from CGI goes into the film-making process. That’s real power!
Irrespective of what you are watching, the situation, the setup, the backdrop, the story, the music, and the characters combined have the power to dictate your emotions. Pixar has been so effectively and seamlessly doing that for a while now with their creations that it is hard to decipher what is that one thing that other animated studios like Blue Sky Studios or DreamWorks Animation sometimes miss.
The Theme of Onward Movie
It’s a wonder how Pixar always manages to weave ingenious tales. This time they explore a whole new territory where there is magic, and hope. That’s what makes them the best, there are so many new horizons to explore, that the fun never stops.
The plot of Onward movie is built around magic being commonplace in ancient times. The characters in the flick are all mythical creatures. It is a nice way to save their unique characteristics, which the movie leverages too on several occasions.
With scientific advancement, magic got forgotten. Technology wrote over the life of these creatures. The story of Onward movie rises from such a setup, stays contemporary, and then blends it with the past. The past gets woven in an inventive manner via the protagonist’s father, well at least half of him.
The movie then becomes an adventure, more like a road trip, or as Barely Lightfoot (Chris Pratt) might say – Quest! It plays out more from the perspective of Ian Lightfoot (Tom Holland) as the quest begins with so many meandering twists and turns that it ends up being a complete entertaining package.
The Screenplay and CGI
The screenplay of the movie is average. There are funny moments true, but the humor is not up to the mark. Most of the jests drawn out using situations. Like the encounter with Pixie Dusters. That bit was really entertaining.
There are very few profound lines to devour in the flick.
I hope there’s a little magic left in you.
The CGI is great, but somewhere you feel the movie lacks the seriousness and the meticulous detailing of the previous Pixar ventures. Come to think of it, you can’t really shake off the CGI of Coco or Incredibles 2 yet. Why is that?
The direction of the movie by Dan Scanlon is really good. There are pious moments of relationships that seem to be taken directly from a leaflet of personal experience. They hit you hard because it is hard not to compare them against reality. With Pixar flicks, it is also very hard not to empathize. It all comes quite naturally.
Brothers on Quest (Spoilers)
The whole movie revolves around the Lightfoot brothers. Voiced brilliantly by Chris Pratt and Tom Holland, both the actors seem to be built for the roles.
Onward movie gets dictated by how good their rapport stands with each other. While unsaid truth and masked lies come out in the open bringing the much-needed catharsis, every relationship gets stronger by the bond of not hiding things from each other. Of coming clean and telling things to each other the way they are, even though how harsh they must sound. If you don’t call potato a potato, the potato might keep thinking it is a tomato.
If you really think about it, every relationship is built on honesty. It is imperative for everyone to come out clean and say things to each other no matter how hurtful they are, and be prepared to deal with the minor inconvenience. After that not only will you feel better, but it would end up strengthening your bond too.
Au contraire, if you keep stowing it, that’s when it starts to build up inside and that ends up decimating the relationship. It never gets to come out, and the sad part is when it finally would, it ends up doing irreparable damage.
Onward movie is smart enough to play that card where Ian Lightfoot (Tom) is secretly housing the idea where he thinks his elder brother Barely Lightfoot (Chris) is full of shit. They end up having a fight, at a time when they needed each other the most. Eventually, he gets proven wrong, of course, and his whole perspective gets broken.
Them Great Bits in Movie Onward
Probably the best part that the movie hits a home run on is the fatherly connection that the brothers are after. The connect Ian thought he didn’t have, not being able to have any memory of him, since he had never met his father gets satiated in the form of his very own brother Barely.
Barely had been with him all this time. He was that fatherly figure that had forever took care of him. With that epiphany, Ian decides to take a bigger step in letting Barely meet their father instead. For him, Barely was enough.
The good part about Barely is his undying optimism. In his fad that follows ancient mythicism, he does sound stupid most of the time. Not just to the audience but to his brother too. They fight a lot but that’s what happens in a good relationship. It wakes them up to all the good things they are without when they have fought. They realize the importance of how much they need each other.
The Final Verdict
The Onward movie is an outstanding watch. Blended extremely well with the right amount of intensity, and entertainment, it takes you into the fantastical world of magic. The good part is their gradual build-up on relationships, the self-exploration under the pretext of a fantastical quest.
That’s the thing about fantasies, they never take away their leg from their original throttle. They try to deliver a strong message using things that don’t exist. How clever of them to do the job without being preachy! Three cheers to Pixar!
Pixar’s next is Soul which is set to release in November. Can’t wait for that one now.
You can check out the trailer of Onward here:
Onward
Pros
- Plot and Setup
- The Relationships
- Very entertaining
- Great Voice Overs
Cons
- Screenplay
