Review of Onward (2020) by Hannahboelman — 10 Mar 2020

Onward was highly disappointing. The story teller(s) was out of touch with their audience, their characters, their setting, and their motive. For a movie about wonder and enchantment, those seemed more like buzz words than anything else.

The magic lacked demention and structure. The pacing was unpredictable and the jokes suffered because of this. The characters were ungrounded and over simplified. Each one had a unearned character arc and convient circumstances.

There was no true tension. Just "Problematic circumstances". It truly came across as a million dollar student film. Despite what I consider to be an incredibly poor Pixar movie, the moral of the story was touching.

I actually cried at one point as I considered the burden of love and loss. This seemed to be the crescendo of the movie. But it was not well supported. It was a great concept that was poorly conceived.

Overall, I am questioning my loyalty to my lifelong devotion of Pixar. The movie I saw yesterday does not match up to the movies of Pixar's past. Unfortunately, Onward seems to be following a recipe without understanding the ingredients.

I have to believe it can do better.