My passion towards Animation is partly because of Pixar Animation Studios. The studio which brought us the first ever CGI animated movie i.e., TOY STORY. These guys make legendary animation with love, care and with ease. These gems include the Toy Story quadrology, Monsters Inc. series, Finding Nemo series, Cars Trilogy and their original gems such as Coco, Inside Out and many more. But, these days it has become hard to get an original movie from Pixar.The films Pixar released after Coco is Toy Story 4 and Cars 3. Now, there are back to original cinema with Onward. I had my concerns due to the director of the film who has previously made Monsters University, which is one of their weaker works. Onward is now out on VOD earlier than expected due to the coronavirus pandemic. Could Onward meet the standards of Pixar(You see, they have set a standard for themselves)? Let us see after this picture.
Onward is a 2020 animated adventure drama starring Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Octavia Spencer among others. The story revolves around Ian and Barley who are elves and their quest to restore their father for one day as part of a spell.
The screenplay is very good. The beginning was kind of cliched. You know the Once upon a time cliche. Then we see fantasy creatures living a normal urban life. These scenes of the movie are the most boring part of the film. But, quickly they move away from suburban life and move to pure quest. The movie builds upon step by step and in the end, our eyes get teary. Seriously, I have cried only thrice while watching this film. On two of those occasions, I was watching a Pixar film. One is Inside Out and one is this. The ending really squeezes out the brother relationship. It got the adventure and it got the emotion. The heart of the film is kept in the right place. The father character with two legs though loses its presence from time to time. The idea on paper sounded very creative but then it is quite half-baked. This story is more about the brothers. In that perspective, the screenplay is very well done. It is definitely in the middle of the Pixar's best films list but it is in upper middle(Onward >The Good Dinosaur > Brave).
The voice acting is absolutely spot-on. Tom Holland as Ian is very good. The fact that his age matched his animated character adds to the charming and very relatable performance. Chris Pratt as Barley is very good. But, he tends to go on the bass a little too much. He tried hard to make it natural but it shows on the screen that it is not so natural. Octavia Spencer is very energetic and having fun in the role given to her. As Corey, a manticore she has the best lines in the film. All the other voice artists give a very nice performance as well.
The animation is excellent. Pixar has reached to a point where each scene they animate is almost photorealistic. The creativity and passion with which they work is incredible. All the creatures in the film are different from each other and all have a unique design and different movements. The climax of the film had this dragon made with debris of a school building and that is quite brilliant. The character animation is smooth. The backgrounds are stunning. The magic effects have more colour and makes the audience feel excited.
Overall, Onward is another well made animation gem by Pixar but this time it impact is lower than expected. It has great animation and has a great ending but lacks in parts. This is definitely a great film but not as good as Toy Story or Inside Out. Grab a popcorn and enjoy this wild adventure ahead with Onward.
iMDB Rating : 7.7 / 10
My Rating : 8.5 / 10
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