Onward
Family and magic
Pixar have always been the king of magic where I’m concerned. They seem to have an understanding of how to bridge that gap that allows almost any demographic to enjoy their movies.
They tend to have something to teach about life, family and the world and Onward is no different.
I’ll start off by stating that it isn’t the deepest animation I’ve ever seen and some of their other features are way better than this, but what this animation lacks in depth it makes up for in the feels.
In these uncertain times where the world faces an unprecedented pandemic of epic proportions and a lot of people are stuck at home with loved ones for a long duration of time, a film like Onward is a feature I’d recommend everyone sees together.
Usually when I’m reviewing a film, I like to focus on the cinematography, the acting, the story and how it all comes together or falls apart (as the case may be) but for this one, I will instead write about how it made me feel.
It’s a basic story about wanting to meet a father for one day because he died before the protagonist was born and the story turns it into a magical quest that I think only a studio like Disney can pull off in this day and time.
We meet various characters in this magical world and you can relate to them regardless of the fact that they’re of a different species and not one of them is human.
This feature reminds us of the importance of family and that sometimes, the one thing you thought you always wanted has been with you the entire time; all you needed to do was to pause, take stock and realise this.
The third act and the final closing scenes will have you in tears. You’d have to be stone cold or not care about family to feel nothing. I won’t even lie, I had tears in my eyes for a portion of the third act when our hero begins to tick off items from a list.
Onward is not the best Pixar feature I’ve seen but the commitment of the voice actors to the script is amazing. The visuals are topnotch, the characters are funny and wholesome and feel well rounded. The relationship of the characters raise this feature above the average and for me that’s enough.
Watch it because you love Pixar animations, watch it because you are human. The only reason you have not to watch it is because you don’t like animations.
