Disney Pixar is giving people at home something to look forward to despite all of the chaos COVID-19 has caused. On March 6, 2020, Disney Pixar released their newest family animation movie, Onward. Viewers were able to see the movie in theatres for a short time before the theatres started shutting down due to COVID-19. Onward was made available to buy digitally ahead of schedule on March 20, 2020. The movie will also be released on Disney+ April 3, 2020. 

The night after it was released online, my family decided to have a movie night. My younger siblings had watched trailers for the movie and were ecstatic to be able to watch it from home. I had no prior knowledge about the movie and had not seen any trailers, but I was excited to watch something new as a family. 

The animation is set in a fairytale suburbia, it follows Ian (Tom Holland), a scrawny, shy elf and Ian’s older brother Barley (Chris Pratt), a boisterous, fairytale role-play-game loving elf, who still lives at home with their mom. Their father died when Barley was very young and Ian was not yet born. On Ian’s 16th birthday, their mother uncovers a staff to bring their father back to life for just one day through magic. However, in doing so, something goes wrong and they only have their father’s bottom half. The movie takes viewers on a quest along with the characters, as the brothers deepen their relationship by finding a new piece for the staff in order to make their father’s top half appear so they can talk to him. 

The movie kept the viewers’ attention through many action-packed scenes and kept me on edge throughout. The setting was very interesting as well as the side characters. All of the details added to the intensity of the action. As one chaotic scene concluded, another entailed. This concept kept my attention throughout the movie, and I am sure it kept younger kids’ attention as well. While full of action, the movie also kept me and my siblings laughing a great deal of the time. Scenes with tiny mean biker fairies and characters who were scared of unicorns, as well as a centaur who used a car to get around, lightened up the emotional intensity the characters were going through on their journey to talk to their dead father. 

The dead parent plot is used far too often in Disney movies. For example, The Lion King, Frozen, Lilo and Stitch, Cinderella, Bambi, Tarzan and many more. At the beginning of the movie when this storyline was introduced, I was hesitant to think the movie would still be unique in any way. While that plotline can get old, Onward definitely put a twist on the heavy topic. Instead of it just being a part of who the main character was, the dead father’s lower half was a character throughout the movie adding to the comedy. 

While the movie stayed packed with action the heart-felt, mushy-gushy stuff didn’t play a huge role until the end of the animation. To me the final scenes of the movie stuck out from other Disney Pixar movies. It left me bawling my eyes out. The movie was given a twist towards the end as the dynamics of the relationship between the two elf brothers changed. It didn’t just pull on the heartstrings attached to viewers, but it pulled on the ones attached to siblings as well. 

Overall, the animation movie kept me on my toes, was funny, creative, unique and emotional. I recommend watching the movie, and I would for sure watch it again. The early online release was a good move for Disney Pixar, so families can enjoy the movie together through their social distancing efforts. 

5/5