Onward is fine. Just fine. It tries to make you feel things, and clearly it's succeed for many. But the film left me cold. The world is ill-defined- there's races of all sizes here but everything remains human sized, including the car and motorcycles that a centaur and pixies drive respectively. It's akin to Cars; the world isn't shaped by the characters living in it, the characters are just transplanted onto our world without really asking how they would change it beyond 'these buildings look like castles if you squint'. There are oodles of visual gags that could've been done here if they took the time to imagine how technology would be changed for these races- a friend came up with the idea of the centaur cop on a segway!- but it's all goes unused. Monster's Inc over a decade ago spent more time on this, and speaking of that franchise, none of these designs feel anymore inspired than the ones from Monster's University. Slot in the manticore or centaur or trolls into that film and they wouldn't feel an inch out of place.
Magic is held up as an important past long forgotten that once helped people, but this is never displayed as the brothers use it only to help themselves and rarely to do something visually arresting. The film looks fine, sounds fine. There's nothing to talk about in these areas, as there's no passion afforded to them All of this could be forgiven if the emotion was there.
But the two brothers fall into familiar archetypes and never stray from their outlines- Holland's performance never reaches into the depths necessary to tug the heartstrings like the film wants, and Pratt wants to be Jack Black so badly and never comes close. They rely on a montage to deliver a genuinely interesting theme full of potential instead of truly laying the groundwork themselves. Pixar's efforts to make you cry have never felt more transparent and hollow. Pixar's gone from the preeminent animation studio to just one among many. Like the rest, it has its hits, its duds, and its mediocre. And these days, the safe path feels like the path they most travel. Onward they go.
Review by JCVIP 4BlockedParent2021-05-27T11:15:12Z
Onward is fine. Just fine. It tries to make you feel things, and clearly it's succeed for many. But the film left me cold. The world is ill-defined- there's races of all sizes here but everything remains human sized, including the car and motorcycles that a centaur and pixies drive respectively. It's akin to Cars; the world isn't shaped by the characters living in it, the characters are just transplanted onto our world without really asking how they would change it beyond 'these buildings look like castles if you squint'. There are oodles of visual gags that could've been done here if they took the time to imagine how technology would be changed for these races- a friend came up with the idea of the centaur cop on a segway!- but it's all goes unused. Monster's Inc over a decade ago spent more time on this, and speaking of that franchise, none of these designs feel anymore inspired than the ones from Monster's University. Slot in the manticore or centaur or trolls into that film and they wouldn't feel an inch out of place.
Magic is held up as an important past long forgotten that once helped people, but this is never displayed as the brothers use it only to help themselves and rarely to do something visually arresting. The film looks fine, sounds fine. There's nothing to talk about in these areas, as there's no passion afforded to them All of this could be forgiven if the emotion was there.
But the two brothers fall into familiar archetypes and never stray from their outlines- Holland's performance never reaches into the depths necessary to tug the heartstrings like the film wants, and Pratt wants to be Jack Black so badly and never comes close. They rely on a montage to deliver a genuinely interesting theme full of potential instead of truly laying the groundwork themselves. Pixar's efforts to make you cry have never felt more transparent and hollow. Pixar's gone from the preeminent animation studio to just one among many. Like the rest, it has its hits, its duds, and its mediocre. And these days, the safe path feels like the path they most travel. Onward they go.