Review | Berlin 2020: Onward film review – Pixar’s magic-infused family tale is both funny and touching
- A family tale about finding your roots and coming to appreciate what you already have, Onward is very funny but also touchingly sentimental
- Directed by Monster’s University’s Dan Scanlon, it features great voice work from Tom Holland, Chris Pratt and Julia Louis-Dreyfus
4/5 stars
As movie brands go, Pixar knows a thing or two about magic. In its latest animation adventure, Onward, which premiered out of competition at the Berlin Film Festival, magic is everywhere – as long as you believe.
The story is set in New Mushroom, a modern-day world that looks like just like ours (well, America at any rate), except that it’s populated by elves, centaurs, pixies and dragons. Spells are no longer cast, with modern-day technology doing the job instead.
A family tale about finding your roots and coming to appreciate what you already have, Onward focuses on Ian Lightfoot (voiced by Tom Holland), a high-school kid who lacks confidence.
Ian lives with his mother Laurel (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and older brother Barley (Chris Pratt), who drives a beat-up van and loves nothing better than playing the fantasy role-playing board game Quests of Yore. Their father passed away some years before.
On Ian’s birthday, he receives a gift bestowed by his father – a wizard’s staff and a spell that hints it will bring him back for just one day. Ian can’t even drive yet, and thinks magic isn’t real, but with Barley’s encouragement, he mutters the incantations.
