Rated PG

Written by Dan Scanlon, Jason Headley, and Keith Bunin

Directed by Dan Scanlon

Cast: Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Julia Louise-Dreyfus, and Octavia Spencer

After yet another Oscar for Best Animated Feature in Toy Story 4, Pixar is back at it with their latest original film.

Onward takes place in a fantasy world that has lost its touch of magic and centers on elf brothers Ian and Barley Lightfoot. On Ian’s sixteenth birthday, his mother gives him and his brother a gift from their father, who has long since passed. This gift turns out to be a wizard’s staff that just so happens to have a spell with the ability to bring Ian and Barley’s father back for one day. When the two of them make an attempt at the spell, they only manage to bring back the legs of their father. In order to see their father before he completely fades away, the brothers embark on a quest to search for a means to complete the spell.

Over the last decade, the filmmakers over at Pixar have been making more sequels than they did in their glory days when they were well-regarded for making purely original fare. Granted, that is not to say Pixar did not make any original films over the last decade and at the end of the day, a high level of quality still remained intact for the most part including a majority of the sequels. With that in mind, Onward seems like it may be setting a trend for the new era of Pixar as this film and Soul, both of which are original, are the only releases on their schedule at the moment. No matter the case, the question of how Pixar will continue to grow in the new decade is sure to be on everyone’s mind. Though, if Onward is truly telling of Pixar’s future endeavors, then nobody needs to fear, as this fantasy film turns out to be a delightful adventure.

Right from the moment Tom Holland and Chris Pratt were cast as the two leads, everyone knew that it would make for an enjoyable pairing, and unsurprisingly, they did not disappoint. Both Holland and Pratt give terrific voice over performances in their own rights and they use their strengths to give these characters a believable sense of depth. It may be a fantasy world, but Holland and Pratt bring so much to these two brothers that make them irresistible to watch. Though, the strengths of Holland and Pratt extend even farther. When their two characters are onscreen, the dynamic between them is as much entertaining as it is emotionally resonant. The entire film is centered on the bond of these two brothers, and from the way they accentuate every aspect of that relationship with their terrific chemistry, it feels completely believable. Considering that, saying that Tom Holland and Chris Pratt make Onward’s focus on these elf brothers even more special would be an understatement to say the least.

On top of that excellent duo that fits in line with Woody and Buzz, Pixar manages to hit on another one of their strengths with the brilliant use of Onward’s modernized-fantasy environment. The filmmakers put a lot of effort into every detail of this film’s setting and from that, this world leads to a bevy of charming moments, sequences, and gags that can only be described as Pixar magic. In fact, everything about this film that makes it magical, literally and figuratively, is all too clever from the moment the film opens. Whether it be from a visual standpoint with Pixar’s unsurprisingly gorgeous animation, or in the storytelling department with the abundance of beautiful subtleties- the cleverness of Onward is a showcase of how much Pixar’s charm can make a film shine even brighter.

It is that Pixar glamour that helps Onward breathe extremely well, yet the quality that makes the film feel even more alive is the storytelling abilities from writer and director Dan Scanlon. The entire story is derived on Scanlon’s own life and relationship with his older brother after all, and throughout every single second of the film, Scanlon infuses that personal heart in a way that feels earnest and thankfully subtle. Of course, a heartfelt story can go absolutely nowhere if the execution is poorly handled, but Dan Scanlon, along with co-writers Jason Headley and Keith Bunin use even more clever storytelling tactics to keep the movie from feeling either overly manipulative or hard to decipher. Adding on to those strong instincts on paper were Scanlon’s choices as a director in capturing that emotional story in tandem with the brilliant adventure aspects that help to make the movie feel like a blast, while still earning those tears in the process. Considering that, it is hard to deny that without Scanlon on board with Onward, this film may have not been as great as it ended up being.

Fortunately, there is only one relatively minor thing that keeps Onward from creeping into the best Pixar films of all time–that issue is how, for as much soul the film does have as an adventure-fantasy, it does tend to overpower the aforementioned heart and thematic core more than I would like personally. If the film dug into that even more than it already does, then this could have been an instant classic for decades to come. Though as is, Onward is still another great film to be added onto Pixar’s already legendary lineup. It is worthy of a 9/10 rating and everyone, no matter if they are five, fifteen, or fifty, should run out to the theater for an undeniably magical experience.

9/10