Onward – 4.5/5 stars
On his 16th birthday, Ian Lightfoot (Tom Holland), a socially awkward elf, gets a present from his dead father whom he never had the chance to meet. The gift is a magical staff along with instructions on how to reanimate their Dad for a full 24 hours. To do this, Ian, and his older brother Barley (Chris Pratt), set out on a quest to find a phoenix stone and complete the spell before this once-in-a-lifetime chance is gone.
Onward was directed by Dan Scanlon (Monsters University, Toy Story 4, Incredibles 2) and released in theaters March 6, followed shortly by an early Disney Plus release April 3 due to the coronavirus pandemic. I was excited for Onward to come to Disney Plus, mostly because I like getting to watch recently released movies at home for free, but was pleasantly surprised with how thoroughly I enjoyed it. When Frozen 2 came to Disney Plus a few weeks ago, I wasn’t nearly as impressed.
I thought Onward had an interesting world with elves that lived in mushroom houses, motorcycle gangs of pixies, feral unicorns digging through trash, and centaur policemen. Their world, while starting off with magic that was difficult to master, developed similarly to our world with technology advancing and becoming more convenient to use than magic. Because of this, winged creatures became too lazy to fly, centaurs drove cars instead of running, and magic almost became a myth to most. But not all. In the movie, Ian’s older brother, Barley, is obsessed with a D&D-like game, except that in his case, it’s actually based on their world’s history. With this knowledge, Barley accompanies Ian and teaches him how to embark on a quest and how to cast spells using magic.
Onward added a unique angle to the quest/adventure-story with the two brothers trying to find a magical stone to complete a spell and finish conjuring the top half of their dead Dad’s body.
Can’t say I’ve seen that done before. I also loved the humor in the film. Just the little silly details had me giggling throughout the whole thing (especially the Guinevere sacrifice scene. RIP Guinevere, the noblest steed of them all). At its core, this was a great feels-good brother bonding story that reminds us to appreciate the things we have in life instead of always craving the things we don’t.
I thought this movie had great casting with Holland and Pratt. They each did great in their respective roles and formed the brother duo I never knew I needed. Holland nailed the relatable socially awkward teenager (Peter Parker?) who is scared of everything from driving, to speaking up and trying to make friends. Pratt complemented this role well playing the older D&D-obsessed brother who was not afraid of anything and pushed his younger brother to conquer his fears throughout their journey.
I’d rate this movie 4.5/5 stars and highly recommend you go check it out. I was pleasantly surprised and think there is something for everyone to enjoy from it. If you have Disney Plus, what are you still doing reading this review? Go watch it! Shift it to O, for Onward!