Review of Onward (2020) by Thequietgamer — 20 Mar 2021

While not good enough to reach the upper echelon of the Pixar pantheon, Onward is better than it perhaps may have seemed at first glance. It might not succeed at selling the feeling of having reintroduced magic and adventure into its Tolkien-esque fantasy world that has moved on from such things in favor of the comforts or the modern era by the time the credits have rolled, and its tale about a young man overcoming the lack of a father in his life and discovering who he is definitely feels like something we've seen before, but there's still enough heart and humor here to provide an enjoyable and emotional experience regardless. In fact, if this hadn't of come from Pixar it probably would have been a little bit more celebrated.

That's a problem the animation studio has run into over the past 10 or so years. After doing the unprecedented and releasing nothing short of straight masterpieces from 1995 to 2010, it's hard to accept anything from them that comes off as even remotely conventional. Yet, although Onward isn't fresh or inventive enough to be the next Toy Story or Ratatouille, it certainly isn't a Cars 2 or Monsters University level disaster. Rather, it ranks comfortably among the likes of Brave and The Good Dinosaur, which are still fantastic movies in their own rights even if they aren't held in as high of regards as the classics.

8.