Episode 740 - Onward (2020)

Hi everyone!

Welcome back for another Matinee Monday. Some weekends it’s easier to pick a film than other weekends. And generally, whenever Pixar releases a new film, we’re first in line to check it out. Stay tuned for my review of ONWARD in a minute, but for a couple other Pixar films we’ve reviewed, check out INCREDIBLES 2 (Episode #169) and TOY STORY 4 (Episode #531).

Before the review, we’ll have a brand-new promo from our good friends at The VHS Strikes Back podcast. Every week, Dave and Chris blow the dust off an actual VHS cassette, then watch and discuss the film. You can find out more on Twitter @vhsstrikesback or on Facebook and Instagram by searching for The VHS Strikes Back podcast. Don’t miss their two guest episodes during last year’s Reign of Terror 2019, with reviews for ALIEN VS PREDATOR (Episode #605) and 30 DAYS OF NIGHT (Episode #626). And don’t miss their recent guest review as Comics in Motion for BIRDS OF PREY (Episode #720)!

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Here we go!

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<< VHS STRIKES BACK PROMO >>

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Today’s movie is ONWARD (2020), the Pixar animated film directed by Dan Scanlon and written for the screen in collaboration with Jason Headley and Keith Bunin. ONWARD takes us to a world of magic, populated by fairy tale and mythical creatures, but after science has replaced magic in their everyday lives. Ian Lightfoot (Tom Holland) is an elf living at home with his mother Laurel (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and his older brother Barley (Chris Pratt). On his sixteenth birthday, Ian and Barley are given a staff from their long-dead father, which contains a spell to bring him back for one day. But when the spell fails halfway, the brothers embark on a quest to find a gem to finish the spell and see their father one last time.

If you’re not crying right now, I don’t know what’s wrong with you.

No spoilers.

In addition to being a movie nerd growing up, I was also a role-playing nerd. I absolutely loved to play Dungeons & Dragons, but like most folks, I had trouble finding a group that could meet regularly. My love for fantasy transferred into reading multiple franchise novels and playing the many RPG video games making their way to consoles. Before nerd culture was accepted, I was teased for all of that. After the explosion in nerd culture, I’m just one of the many unshowered masses at conventions and theaters. All those intellectual properties and characters I loved growing up are now heading to the big screen, at least seven of which we previewed before ONWARD. I’m really happy about all of that, but sometimes seeing those adaptations comes to life and having everything at your fingertips takes away... well, the magic of it all. And that’s the key theme being explored in ONWARD.

ONWARD is definitely a coming of age story disguised as a family road trip film, built within an amalgamated, modernized fantasy world. You can catch all that from the trailer. But as happens with most Pixar films, there are always more than one larger subtexts to explore. ONWARD, in many ways, builds off the same themes of fantasy and reality, and coming of age, as seen in the TOY STORY franchise. But ONWARD also looks at what our world becomes when we lose the magic in our lives, even when magic is all around us. The fantasy creatures and the idea of magic in ONWARD are easily substitutes for ourselves and the miracles of the technology around us. We’re often told to let go of that magic in our lives, and ONWARD meditates on what happens when we wildly give into that magic, even when it seems hopeless.

Worldbuilding is always important to Pixar franchises, created with a sense of embedded meaning, and operating by a specific set of rules crucial to the overall story. ONWARD not only opens with a bri