Onward

Onward brings out the laughs and tears with a small, digestible story. It matches the energy of Brother Bear and The LEGO Movie (before the big reveal), as it offers a family friendly story, but it is not groundbreaking in the execution.

The story takes a while to fully start. For me, it was around halfway through the runtime that it finally found its voice. Once the film gets over the hump of exploring the premise of its world, it quickly starts digging into the characters and their much more interesting developments. The world built with Fantasy elements on a traditional roadtrip-story arc takes too long to reveal very shallow concepts, but as soon as the idea is set in the audience’s brains, it floors the narrative pedal and steers the film into the fast lane. On paper, the scenes gradually build and connect everything together, it just takes most of the film before many aspects of the writing pay off.

The two brothers are the beating heart of this film. They are what drive the story onward. The choices they make feel real, and the dimensions of their characters shine in each scene. There are moments where the film cuts to other characters, and those scenes are fun, but the energy only flows when the two brothers are on screen. Tom Holland surprisingly gives a very limited performance, heavily drowned out by Chris Pratt’s dedication to being over-the-top, yet these choices are written in the script as their characters match them. What they do is far more empowering and real than what they say, which puts the actors in the back seat with us for most of the ride. It is not what the characters become in the end, rather what they have to do along the way to find what they truly want that successfully creates a realistic and emotional connection to the audience.

Overall, the heartfelt story utilizes every aspect to offer a fun and emotional experience, but it somehow lacks that sticking power to be remembered. The chemistry between the two brothers is great, and the twist on the conventional road-trip journey works really well with each scene. The combination of Fantasy world and 21st-Century technology is mainly a visual gag and rarely influences the story, although it offers great visuals as it becomes the boardgame of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. The humor works, and in the end the story has something meaningful to say. As a whole, it does everything right, yet it still feels incomplete. If you want to enjoy a small, enjoyable animated film, this film is perfect, but if you want to see the next addition to Pixar’s greats, you will be left wanting more—but that does not mean it is bad.

Story Rating: 8/10

Character Rating: 7/10

Entertainment Rating: 7/10