OVP: Onward (2020)

Film: Onward (2020)
Stars: Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Octavia Spencer
Director: Dan Scanlon
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Animated Feature Film)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

We're continuing on the week with movies released this year with what was supposed to be the first film I saw that was (calendar-year) released in 2020 in theaters.  I had plans to go to this movie, but right around the time of when I was going to catch it (February is a busy time at my job), Covid broke out, and suddenly I was petrified to go to any movies, and quickly they shut down.  As a result, Onward joins a very select list of Pixar films that I did not see originally in theaters (which is a bummer, though not as much of a bummer as other things...you know, we're allowed to have a gamut of disappointments from the valid to the vapid through all of this).  Either way, this movie is now on Disney+ and so I caught it and can weigh in on the latest from the Mouse House's cool kid brother.

(Spoilers Ahead) We live in a modern-day world where the convenience of technology has made magic, once a centerpiece of this realm, commonplace, even though our main characters are elves and we frequently encounter throughout the film creatures of myth.  The main characters are Ian (Holland) and Barley Lightfoot (Pratt), who are raised by a single mother Laurel (Louis-Dreyfus).  Their father died many years earlier, before Ian was born, and on Ian's sixteenth birthday, he encounters a spell that his father had left him as a present, allowing him the opportunity to see his father again for one day if he can break the spell.  However, while Ian figures out the spell, his overzealous older brother Barley goofs it up, so that only his father's legs return.  The two start out on a quest to bring back their father for the full day, knowing that there's a ticking clock on if Ian will get to have the reunion with his father he always dreamed of having.

Onward isn't a great movie, and it's probably one that would've been a bit of a disappointment in general for Pixar even if it hadn't been for Covid totally tanking the box office (I think, ultimately, it would have won back enough to be a modest hit internationally, but wouldn't remotely approach the recent box office of Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4, or even an original like Coco.  This is partially because the film does lack a lot of mojo and world-building.  We're given a fairy tale, really Pixar's first foray into territory that Disney had already perfected, and they don't really know how to bring the magic to the movie.  The film's mid-section is repetitive and a bit confusing, not utilizing ace hires Louis-Dreyfus and Octavia Spencer enough for what could have been great side bits (Spencer plays a manticore restauranteur).  It's not bad, and it's fun throughout, but this isn't really what we've come to expect from a Pixar original-even in the age of the sequels being more-and-more disappointing, the originals have by-and-large kept their original sheen.

That is, except for the ending.  Onward finishes in a better place than virtually any movie I've seen compared to the rest of the film than any picture I've seen in a while.  The ending doesn't go for the easy tears of a joyful momentary reunion between Ian and his father, but instead underlines that Barley was the father figure that Ian needed most, but in exchange Barley never really got to say goodbye to the only father figure he had ever known.  As a result, when a situation with a golem-like figure precludes them both from going forward to see their father, Ian sacrifices his big moment with his dad to let Barley go and say goodbye to the man he'd never properly let go of; it's a beautiful, unexpected ending to a film that probably hasn't earned such a big payoff, but you aren't going to care because you'll be crying throughout.  I don't do half stars on this blog, and so this is getting a 3-star since the movie earned it, but it's a high 3-star, bordering on four, just because of how beautiful the finale ends up being to a fair picture.