Onward is a romp through a suburbia turned fantasy world! It opened in theaters on March 6th and was released for streaming on Disney+ on April 3rd. The film is directed and co-written by Dan Scanlon who also directed Monsters University (2013). The potential is in Scanlon’s personal story, but the screenplay needed more development. What do the various fantasy creatures and people represent? What is the development of technology? It seems stuck in two time periods without going forward. The screenplay is also by Keith Bunin who worked on the horror film, Horns (2013), and Jason Headley. The credits have a dramatic Lord of the Rings-like score for Pixar. The narration opens to the magical world with the pegasus who has an unicorn horn, I keep thinking this is a pegacorn.
There are Smurf-like mushroom roofed houses, and mermaids swimming, I think this is a homage of the mermaids in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. A wizard casts a fireworks spell, pyrotechnics?, and there is a Dungeons & Dragons-type scene where adventurers face a dragon guarding a magic cup. A wizard tries to teach his cyclops apprentice a light spell. There is a faun who shows villagers her invention, the lightbulb. So we get the progress of technology into suburbia with the people now lazy. I do like the arcade game, Prance Prance, for centaurs. It gets industrialized and takes away from the natural beauty of the world. This should be enough for a film, but no.
We get to a suburban street with pegacorns scavenging trash cans, sad, this is the basic premise of the world where the fantastic becomes suburban. The narrator, whom I assume is the father, hopes there is magic where we get the young son, Ian (Tom Holland) getting ready for school. He is a gawky, bluish elf. We may know Holland as Spider-Man, but he also voiced Walter Beckett in Spies in Disguise (2019). Ian pulls on the Willowdale College sweatshirt and sees that it is his 16th birthday. He greets his mother, Laurel (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) who is busy working out as a “Mighty Warrior.” Dreyfus has distinction for her part in Veep, but also did voice work in Planes (2013). Their enthusiastic pet dragon Blazey leaps on Ian with Laurel spraying him with a water bottle. He goes to clean up the table with his brother’s game, Quests of Yore, it looks like your standard role-playing game; figures, paper dungeon tiles, and cards.
His older brother, Barley (Chris Pratt), is burly with a biker’s jacket. Pratt may be recognized for playing Star Lord, but another iconic role was as Emmet Brickowski in The Lego Movie (2014). Barley goes to take out the trash and sees Officer Bronco (Mel Rodriguez), half police officer, half horse with a thick moustache and sunglasses. Rodriguez voiced Mr. Fyde in Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017). Bronco is new to the family, but doesn’t seem too interested in it. He shows on his cell phone a video of Barley trying to protest the knocking down of an ancient fountain. Laurel’s new husband enters the house knocking around everything. Barley tries to speak up for a “historically accurate” game. He doesn’t remember much about his father and makes a tear in the sweatshirt. There is an important moment for Barley, but this shifts from Ian.
Ian leaves his family heading to Burger Shire, nice name, with the advertisement, “Now Serving 2nd Breakfast”, clever Fellowship nod. While he waits for his order, Gaxton (Wilder Valderrama) recognizes the sweatshirt and recalls his late father, Wilden Lightfoot. Gaxton notes that Wilden was bold and inspirational to others. On a park bench outside of his school, New Mushroomton High School, Ian makes a checklist of the “New Me.” An ogre bully has his giant feet on Ian’s chair. Ian goes out to learn how to drive. The city reflects modern suburbia, but it is boring. Ian of course is about to pull into an expressway with traffic going at high speeds. This is a very relatable teen event, but we know what is going to happen.
Later, he goes over how to invite a group of students to his party, the gag of writing ideas on his hand is an obvious joke. He is nervous, but they are friendly and agree. This when Barley comes charging in with his van that has a dark blue sky and a pegasus. Barley is proud of his van that he calls Guinevere. Ian is embarrassed and cancels his birthday party. Will he gain the confidence to have friends and drive on the highway like his father? Yup. There are door locks on the van so it is 80’s tech mixed with current tech. Barley stuffs parking violation tickets into the glove compartment, he really needs the lesson, because if he was more organized, Barley could be a leader in protest movements, here it seems like a lark.
Ian returns to his room and plays a cassette tape of his father speaking. It seems like the rest of the family has forgotten Wilden or just moved on. Ian pretends to have a conversation with his father. Strange, there were home movies in the 80’s, and it should be a video. Later, Ian is working on sewing up his sweatshirt, it is a good moment with his mother who taught him sewing. Laurel decides to go to the attic and get the gift for both brothers when they turn 16. Ian unwraps it and Barley is excited that it is a wizard’s staff. We get that Ian is learning to be a wizard, but we don’t get what is Barley’s character class or role in the game or the world.
He discovers a letter and reads the beginning narration. There is also the Visitation Spell that will bring back Wilden for one day. Barley finds the rare Phoenix Gem and tries casting the spell. It fails after several attempts. Of course, once alone Ian reads the spell and the Phoenix Gem lights up. Barley enters as the spell begins, funny line, “Whoa, feet!” The gem shatters and they find that they only brought back their father’s animated pants. Barley is excited that their quest is to find the Phoenix Gem with the help of his game cards which points to the Manticore’s Tavern. They drive over to the tavern in New Mushroomton. The world building has some blink-and-you-miss-it references on The Simpsons-level, but misses the potential like a museum that has some old artifacts.
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| Guinever at the D23 Expo, 2019, photo by the author. |
Ian has a stuffing to form the top half of his father and uses a tape measure to bring him along. This reminds me of the gags in Weekend at Bernie’s (1989). Barley builds up the tension before opening the tavern door and of course it is not as expected. It’s more a family themed restaurant and Corey (Octavia Spencer) is a busy manager with glasses. Spencer is a gift to any film and she did voice Mrs. Otterton in Zootopia (2016). Corey has potential, but this isn’t her story. A map to the Phoenix Gem is on the restaurant wall, but Corey doesn’t want to risk losing her tavern. Ian is not backing down and reminds Manticore of her adventurous past. This sets her breathe flames to the place and Ian is able to finally use a levitation spell.
The Phoenix Gem kid’s map leads to Raven’s Point. They take Guinevere onto the expressway to Raven’s Point. Laurel’s car is pulling up to the tavern as she talks to her Mane Man. She sees the fire and Corey talking to a police officer. Corey forgot to tell the brothers about the curse. Ian and Barley face the motorcycle gang of the Pixie Dusters led by Dewdrop (Grey Griffin). Also, officers Gore (Ali Wong) and Spector (Lena Waithe) all to save their father with the help of their mother and Corey. There are some funny moments, but the film feels like a direct-to-video animated movie imitating Disney and Pixar. It has the same running time as Frozen 2, but feels slower paced. Onward is a good movie about brothers, some parts are standard, but it does have moments.
Three Phoenix Gems out of Five!
#Onward, #DanScanlan, #TomHolland, #ChrisPratt
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