Onward (2020) - Movie Review

Even without bringing the cinema closures into the equation… I’ll admit, I was putting off watching this one. After the utter clusterfuck that was 2019 in Disney’s history, simultaneously one of their best and one of their worst in terms of both content control and financial reward, I’m a lot more hesitant about the House of Mouse than I used to be. And as I’ll get into, while that event lingering in the background does cut into the enjoyment a little, I still managed to have fun with it.

Let’s get the obvious shit out of the way first: Visuals are still excellent, as are the voice cast. What may not be as obvious is that, since they’ve already established this kind of pedigree with their last handful of releases, we need to put some emphasis on the aesthetic it’s all in service to. And here, it’s basically a massive slab of Dungeons & Dragons worship, right down to the adjacent ‘80s nostalgia, what with the unicorn-emblazed van named Guinevere and Barley’s rocking mix-tape collection (I’m sensing a theme with Disney’s utilisation of Chris Pratt).

For an urban fantasy-adventure, it certainly hits the nail on the head far more consistently than something like Bright, as historical setup for both the modern action and the plentiful variety in character design. As much as I (and from the looks of things, quite a few others out there) wrote off Monsters University as a bit of a slump for Pixar, credit to director Dan Scanlon for maintaining the same creativity for the characters here, from Ian and Barley’s elves to the Manticore to what might be the single coolest design for a dragon I’ve yet seen in a movie. Yes, even with that doofy face, it’s still all kinds of awesome.

Of course, all of this faffing around with magic and perilous quests and tabletop RPGs actually being historical fiction (one of those minor touches that adds a lot to the film’s overall grounding) is primarily here as a vehicle to discuss something Disney has basically made a meme out of featuring in their films: Kids dealing with the death of at least one parent. Bit irksome that they’re still mining this same well for inspiration, but in fairness, it’s at least decently handled here. Tom Holland and Chris Pratt as Ian and Barley respectively make for a solid buddy duo, the admittedly cracked-out idea of them being accompanied by only the lower-half of their father worked surprisingly well, and as another example of learning to deal with loss and bonding with who you still have, it hits the right emotional points to be effective.

However… there’s something about this whole thing that doesn’t smell right, and it’s to do with how the existence of magical creatures in modern society is ultimately set up. Essentially, it’s boiled down to magic being the oldest force in the world, but since not everyone was able to work with it, they went with something simpler: Technology, which eventually overtook magic as the way things are run. It regularly points out how the modern world is lacking in colour due to the lack of connection to the fantastic, almost as if technology has sucked all the magic out of everyday life.

Now, on paper, this is honestly a decent point to bring out in a family-friendly fantasy film, but the rub comes in when it sinks in that this thesis actively goes against what Disney has been spending a lot of its time doing over the last several years with their live-action remakes. Yes, beating this dead horse again, but it’s kind of difficult to take this sentiment seriously when it’s being delivered by the people who think “don’t fix what isn’t broken” is a dare wrapped in reverse-psychology with how intent they are to, quite frankly, ruin the magic of their older works through a fixation with computer graphics technology. Before 2019, I might’ve chalked this up to Disney/Pixar showing a bit of self-awareness, but after the Dumbo remake, I like to think I’m less naïve about these things: They want to have their cake and render it too.

And yet, even with that niggle constantly in the back of my head while watching this… I still had fun with it. The fantasy elements are always welcome when they’re presented this crisply, it makes for one of the better attempts at urban high fantasy in recent years, and retraced territory or no, it still slaps emotionally. It’s not exactly a high point compared even to some of Disney’s more recent output, but for the film it is and the standard Pixar is still managing to hold onto, I’d say it’s worth checking out.