Take an Outward Journey to See Disney and Pixar’s Onward

Disney has been so focused lately on remaking its old properties—like Beauty and the CGI’d Beast, Aladdin and the Blue Prince of Bel-Air, and The Frighteningly Realistic Lion King—you’d think they’ve forgotten how to create instead of duplicate. Luckily, Pixar’s newest installment builds an original tale out of familiar parts. Onward is the story of two brothers on an epic quest to see their father again. That’s right, the main characters have a dead parent; it is still a Disney movie, after all.

Ian and Barley Lightfoot embark on an extraordinary quest. Pixar

Ever dreamed of living in a fantasy world, surrounded by centaurs and trolls and mystical flying Pegasi? In the realm of Onward, that life is a reality . . . except they live just like us. People in this world have forgotten about magic and adventures and just focus on technology and doing their taxes. Magic is literally ancient history, so much so that nerdy kids play a mix of Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering called Quests of Yore.

Ian Lightfoot, the film’s main character, doesn’t know much about magic; he’s focused on trying to make friends and be confident like the father he never knew. His brother, Barley, is a Quests of Yore master and classic-van enthusiast. Their mom, Laurel, keeps them on task and does her workout videos. The Lightfoots lead perfectly normal lives—until Ian’s 16th birthday, when magic makes its return. Ian and Barley have been left a wizard staff by their long-deceased father, paired with a spell which will bring dad back to them for just one day. But the spell doesn’t work as planned, only regenerating his lower half, which, obviously, can’t tell them how to fix it. With only 24 hours to remedy the spell, the two and a half elves venture forth to battle time, traffic, and pixie bikers in a story that comically combines D&D and Weekend at Bernie’s, with some heart thrown in.

The boys with their dad—or half of him, at least. Pixar

As with almost all major animated films these days, Onward is stacked with voice-acting talent. Tom Holland and Chris Pratt reunite—out of their Spidey and Star-Lord costumes—to voice the protagonists. There’s some good chemistry between the two, but it’s clear Holland is doing most of the emotional work. At 23 years old, he still has the youthful energy to make his character believable; Pratt, now 40, is at least double his character’s age and seems to shout most of his lines (even whisper-shouting at the soft moments). It doesn’t completely detract from the connection, but their brotherly charisma just doesn’t stand out. Onward also thoroughly squanders the comedic talents of Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the boys’ mom. There’s a powerful aspect to her character that doesn’t seem to get the credit it deserves in the story. It’s entirely possible she’s meant to play the “straight elf” to the amazing vocal performance of Octavia Spencer, who portrays a once-fearsome (and hilarious) manticore, but it still feels like a missed opportunity.

Corey the manticore teams up with Laurel Lightfoot to find her sons. Pixar

Onward is heartwarming and fun, a double coming-of-age story for those who still believe in magic. With a PG rating, it’s definitely geared toward older kids—there’s plenty of animated fantasy violence with swords, chains, and fire, but no fantasy blood. They’ll enjoy the adventure, while you, the adult nerd, will appreciate the ’80s technology throwbacks and inside jokes. Even though it clocks in at 102 minutes, pretty standard for a family movie, it feels like there’s so much more story to explore. There’s no postcredit scene (you can take the little ones to the bathroom before they explode), so only time will tell whether we get an Onward 2.