'Onward' Review: Pixar at it's Worst Still Isn't Horrible

Going into this movie I didn’t really have any expectations. I thought the idea of Chris Pratt and Tom Holland playing brothers was pretty cool and I like when fantasy and real-world law come together.

There were a lot of ups and a lot of downs. Kids won’t notice the downs, but this is far from Pixar’s best work. I knew that this would try and pull on a few heartstrings just from the premise alone and it succeeds in doing that, the problem is there wasn’t much entertainment in-between the emotional moments.

I just don’t think the comedy landed if you were an older viewer. There were a couple of moments where I chuckled, but I never laughed out loud at any point in the movie.

It relied too heavily on Chris Pratt’s character Barley’s recurring schtick of trying to help and only screwing up with his trademark nerdy personality. The constant overzealous approach to geek culture at certain points even seemed like a jab at anyone in the D&D community as opposed to the love letter I thought this film was going to be to that community.

The comedy just came off lazy with recycled jokes in every act.

The animation quality was amazing and every character had so much personality from their designs alone. This was a big saving grace, it was satisfying to watch and the colorful backgrounds were pleasing to the eye.

From promotional marketing, I expected there to be some tear-jerking moments. The climactic moment did lead to a tear from me personally. Anyone with close relationships with their siblings or have lost a loved one will connect with this plot overall.

The voice acting in this left a lot to be desired. Chris Pratt was amazing, but a not so popular opinion coming: Tom Holland is a bad voice actor. Holland is amazing as Peter Parker and when you have him being able to use his physical and emotional strengths he does great, however, as a voice actor, he took me out of scenes.

Perhaps his American accent is just more obvious in a voice role, but his delivery was off the entire movie. It doesn’t help when his co-star Chris Pratt is taking him to school playing a character that was tailored made for him.

Holland has a big career ahead of him, so he has all the time in the world to work on his voice acting. This seemed like a trial run from him though, and it left a lot to be improved.

Overall,

This film is 2.5 out of 5 stars for me.

The feeling of satisfaction you want when you walk out of the theatre wasn’t there. I love Pixar films and I can usually always find enjoyment in films meant for children. This film really struggled to adhere to every audience member.

Children will find enjoyment in the fantastical atmosphere and magical elements. The overall plot and moral of the story is a great one for kids at a young age to help them appreciate what they have in their family unit, no matter what the situation is.

There was so much potential for this plot and it just fell flat. I thought this could be an introduction to D&D culture for young kids, but instead, it seemed like at certain points in the film they were only making fun of it.

I’m not a member of the D&D community, but I respect the intricacy of it. It’s a complex game that I can see where a lot of enjoyment can come from, but Onward did not capture that in the way I expected.

Definitely take your kids to see it, because they will take something away from it. As an adult, don’t expect to really enjoy yourself until the end.