Onward 2020

Onward is a solid and heartwarming adventure about brotherhood and the importance of believing in yourself

Even though over the years we have come to expect nothing but perfection out of Pixar, (Which is kinda harsh from my perspective even though it unfortunately makes sense) I believe it is still worth noting that movies like this one give the impression that the beloved animation studio wants to keep enchanting us with stories that are relatable, creative and tug hard at your heart strings.

The movie pretty much does all that is listed and then some. The world is unique combining our modern day world with a dungeons and dragons like twist, The chemistry between the brothers is beyond enjoyable and the story does it's very best to give audiences something adventurous but also something though provoking as well

Although I personally wouldn't put it up there with other Pixar Originals like Inside Out, Wall.E, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo and ect.... I still believe that Onward is still one of the better movies Pixar has put out in a while and definitely stands on it's own merits as a great family adventure that has something for everyone

All I can say now is, Pixar, I'm super excited to see what you come up with next.

Cute, conceptually and emotionally rich adventures with a twist, brought to you by the folks who've basically built an industry of such stories. I speak of Team Pixar, of course, which harvests the fruit of high fantasy and pleases all manner of D&D geeks with their latest epic. Onward is about a number of things, from the illusion-crushing indifference of post-industrialization to the stress of graduating into adulthood in a single-parent household, but it's never so heavy as all that. At least, not for very long.

For most of its running time, Onward is a loud and loose road trip movie: a pair of essentially different siblings on the run, exploring the wild in search of the past. What shape the past happens to take, that depends upon the individual. Chris Pratt's elder brother, the live-at-home RPG burnout, seeks a taste of the old life, a genuine sense of romantic swords and sorcery in a world that's almost entirely moved on. Tom Holland, the uncertain soon-to-be high school grad, hopes to learn about the father he never met and, maybe, find himself along the way. Did I mention the half-reincarnated, animated lower-half of their dear ol' dad, blindly stumbling along for the ride? Well, that relates to both goals. Pratt and Holland are great together, poking and teasing like brothers often do, while retaining a sense of radiant familial warmth and compassion. Dad's legs, shockingly emotive for what's little more than a pair of slacks, socks and loafers, bring constant comic relief when the scenes threaten to grow too somber.

It's a quick, colorful film, proudly weird and effortlessly funny, with a witty sense of meta awareness and an intense personal message at the heart of it all. Good proof that, even without John Lasseter, Pixar is still in good hands.

Pixar's latest release, Onward, tells the story of two teenage elf brothers, Ian and Barley, on a quest to discover if magic still exists in the world. The film is set against the backdrop of Pixar's signature animation and is packed with themes and messages for audiences of all ages. The brothers' relationship and camaraderie is at the center of the story, and the film touches on the theme of brotherhood and the bond between siblings. The voice acting from Holland, Pratt, Dreyfus, Spencer and Ratzenberger is effective, and the film's fantasy-adventure elements, macabre humor and emotional ending packs a punch. While it may not be one of Pixar's strongest stories, Onward delivers the complete Pixar package of beautiful visuals, engaging story and effective voice acting.

El último lanzamiento de Pixar, Onward, cuenta la historia de dos hermanos elfos adolescentes, Ian y Barley, en una búsqueda para descubrir si la magia todavía existe en el mundo. La película tiene como telón de fondo la animación característica de Pixar y está repleta de temas y mensajes para audiencias de todas las edades. La relación y camaradería de los hermanos está en el centro de la historia, y la película toca el tema de la hermandad y el vínculo entre hermanos. La actuación de voz de Holland, Pratt, Dreyfus, Spencer y Ratzenberger es efectiva, y los elementos de fantasía y aventura de la película, el humor macabro y el final emocional tienen un gran impacto. Si bien puede que no sea una de las historias más sólidas de Pixar, Onward ofrece el paquete completo de Pixar de bellas imágenes, una historia atractiva y una actuación de voz efectiva.

Onward is an enjoyable, wholesome, heartwarming movie with some well excecuted scenes and jokes. The story is good.
Remarkable, that the film hardly contains any negativity in character's actions and/or relationshp, i'm sure not used to that in movies and it was interesting to notice :D

World-building lacking in polish is the main flaw of the film.
Looks like the movie wanted to tell us an emotional story of main characters as well as possible and didn't have enough time to show us a bigger picture.
Zootopia comes to my mind as an example of a cartoon where a fictional major cultural shift was shown better through numerous details .

The more i think about this, the more i understand that magic is a powerful tool in this movie and its techniques and magical artifacts should have been carefully documented, preserved and supervised by society. So yeah, something is not quite right with 'magic vs technology relationship today' part, because the magic they used is too OP to be abandoned by everyone completely.

So i think that magic should have been shown being just a bit more closer to Onward's 'present time' world. With technology still winning of course.

Regarding all other aspects i think the movie is pretty good and worth a watch!

A bit of knit picking from me is about the colours. The general colour pallete seems to miss something but i'm not sure what.

 Lol i made up an alternative version of the main characters, bare with me:

 For this story the creators  could have used an unemotional protagonist who very talented in science and is an active supporter of the 'science&technology' future of the world, who gradually discoverers his  magical abilities (by learning to be more honest with his emotions and express them). All that growth motivated by reviving his dad till the sunset of course.  As for the brother, that could be  the same happy-go-lucky guy who's passionate about magic but can't perform it for some reason that would also  be better to explain (maybe even an idea of a magically-handicapped character?).

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.