‘Onward’ or — Dude, Where’s My Da?
‘Onward’ (2020) tells the story of two elf brothers who cast a magical spell to bring their dad back from the dead but only succeed in doing so with the bottom half of his body, which is only appropriate as this movie is constantly pulling stuff out of its ass.
I really wanted to like ‘Onward’, I really did but I think, for me, the problem is the movie ends up caught between two extremes being both simultaneously novel to the point of convolution as well as overly familiar and unoriginal that it tips into cliche. So on the one hand you’re dealing with two elf brothers in a land where magic has been replaced by domestic appliances whilst a pair of disembodied legs stumble about animated by some hazy and ill-defined rules yet on the other hand what’s on display here — a fairy-tale kingdom which functions like our modern, everyday society — will be of no surprise or novelty to anyone familiar with Terry Pratchett, Shrek, Disenchanted, Bright, The Flintstones, Harry Potter or any of the other hundreds of ‘fantasy with a comedic slant with a slight satirical twist’ tales. Very little here felt genuinely original (it also seems to rip off about three of four Spielberg films, ‘The Last Crusade’ in particular).
It’s all exasperated by the fact the film doesn’t seem to know what its own rules are, so sometimes the magic is pushed to the fore only to swing wildly back to being a place of mundanity and ‘realism’ which leads to a somewhat confusing tone. I never got to fully grasp what sort of land we were dealing with here. On top of that the quest, because ‘Onward’ is a quest film, feels as though its getting made on the spot, like you’re playing Dungeons and Dragons with a Dungeon Master who’s making everything up as they go along — and then this happens and then that happens which means you get that sword of power which leads you to this cave which, in turn, brings you to… and on and on with no clear set-up or through-line. It feels like a constant conveyor belt of fantasy tropes.
This film will also succeed or fail depending on your tolerance for people proclaiming in faux fantasy-esque speech. You know the sort of thing — ‘Forsooth and verily I say unto you dear Maiden that by the sword of Grobox I shall smite thee unless the morsel of…’ when all they’re doing is buying a cheese-burger. You get the idea, and I hope you’re into that because there is a LOT of it here. Personally I can’t stand that shit so this movie quickly got on my tits. Plus, because this is an ill-defined world none of the jargon or lingo means anything apart from being identifiable as vague, generic fantasy gibberish.
All this disconnected me from the film emotionally so that when we get to the inevitable ending (and the ending is inevitable unless this movie wanted to risk sending out highly dubious messages about how to deal with grief and bereavement) I was left cold and not really giving a damn. I’m also finding myself getting a little tired of Pixar’s recent habit of wanting to pull at the heart strings so hard it starts to feel intrusive and manipulative, as though they’re doing so purely for the feels. I think that’s why I love ‘The Incredibles’ as it’s happy just to entertain and have fun and not as though it’s legally obliged to make you cry.
‘Onward’ isn’t awful or terrible and I’m sure a lot of people will have no trouble at all connecting with it. For me I found it lacking in magic, originality and direction, often stumbling about blindly like, well, like a pair of headless legs.
