- A family tale about finding your roots and coming to appreciate what you already have, Onward is very funny but also touchingly sentimental
- Directed by Monster’s University’s Dan Scanlon, it features great voice work from Tom Holland, Chris Pratt and Julia Louis-Dreyfus
4/5 stars
As movie brands go, Pixar knows a thing or two about magic. In its latest animation adventure, Onward, which premiered out of competition at the Berlin Film Festival, magic is everywhere " as long as you believe.
The story is set in New Mushroom, a modern-day world that looks like just like ours (well, America at any rate), except that it's populated by elves, centaurs, pixies and dragons. Spells are no longer cast, with modern-day technology doing the job instead.
A family tale about finding your roots and coming to appreciate what you already have, Onward focuses on Ian Lightfoot (voiced by Tom Holland), a high-school kid who lacks confidence.
Ian lives with his mother Laurel (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and older brother Barley (Chris Pratt), who drives a beat-up van and loves nothing better than playing the fantasy role-playing board game Quests of Yore. Their father passed away some years before.
On Ian's birthday, he receives a gift bestowed by his father " a wizard's staff and a spell that hints it will bring him back for just one day. Ian can't even drive yet, and thinks magic isn't real, but with Barley's encouragement, he mutters the incantations.
Suddenly, their father appears, or rather half of him. The bottom half " a pair of disembodied walking legs. It sounds creepy, but director Dan Scanlon (who made 2013's Monster's University ) knows exactly how to play this.
Needing a gemstone called a Phoenix Crystal to complete the spell, the boys set out on a quest, heading for a place named Raven's Point. On the way, they will meet Corey (Octavia Spencer), a manticore now running a themed restaurant, and a biker gang of leather-clad sprites.
They also need to keep ahead of their mum's new boyfriend, Colt Bronco (Mel Rodriguez), a centaur cop who suspects they are up to no good.
One of the best original Pixar movies in a while, Onward is very funny but also touchingly sentimental, with Ian desperate to see the father he barely knew again.
The details are beautiful " like the way Barley has taped over the "D" on the gear handle in his van with an "O" for "Onward". Pratt is superb as the "screw-up" Barley, while Louis-Dreyfus brings heart as their mother, who also has to go on her own quest to help save the day.
Whatever you believe about magic, Onward proves it still exists on the big screen.
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