{"id":20118,"date":"2020-03-04T11:47:03","date_gmt":"2020-03-04T19:47:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=20118"},"modified":"2020-03-04T11:47:03","modified_gmt":"2020-03-04T19:47:03","slug":"onward-isnt-always-magical-but-casts-a-charming-spell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=20118","title":{"rendered":"ONWARD Isn\u2019t Always Magical, But Casts a Charming Spell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Sequels and remakes have made up the majority of films over\nthe past decade, with even animated studios getting on board. Thankfully, not\nevery single project hitting cinema screens is a follow-up or reimagining. The\nlatest from Pixar is Onward<\/em> and it\u2019s their first original work in two\nand a half years (Coco<\/em> being the last title that wasn\u2019t a sequel). The\nfamily flick may not be the greatest work from the studio, but it is a\nbeautifully animated and entertaining family feature that at least attempts to\nprovide viewers with something slightly new and different. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The story is set in a magical world whose influence on the\npublic has faded with the advancement of modern technology. Ian Lightfoot (Tom\nHolland) is a shy and nervous teenage elf struggling to make friends with his\nfellow students, and yearning to be more like his deceased father. Embarrassed\nby his rambunctious older brother Barley (Chris Pratt) who studies long\noutdated magic books, Ian finds an incredible gift for his 16th<\/sup>\nbirthday from his dad. It\u2019s a magical staff that, when used with a special\nstone, can cast a spell and bring his pop back for a period of 24-hours. Of\ncourse, unexpected complications arise and the two brothers are forced out on a\nquest to find a second magical rock that will reunite them with their parent.\nIn the meantime, their concerned mother Laurel (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss) pursues\nthe pair with a once beastly manticore Corey (Octavia Spencer) who now operates\na family-friendly, fantasy-themed restaurant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Like all Pixar movies, the visuals are pretty incredible. Everything\nfrom the fantasy-world-turned-suburban tract to the characters themselves look phenomenal.\nThere\u2019s an incredible amount of detail on display that is continually\nattention-grabbing. This leads to some fun sight gags as magical creatures are\nplaced in what would otherwise be generic environments. Although it\u2019s something\nof a throwaway joke, one bit early on involving a pair of unicorns is\nparticularly funny. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A big part of the story also involves a set of phantom appendages\nand the script also derives some enjoyable moments from the featured limbs\u2026\neven if some adults might find these jokes reminiscent of a popular comedy\ninvolving a flailing, deceased figure that was released back in the summer of\n1989. The screenplay also gets humor out of Ian\u2019s growing abilities, as he and\nBarley use spells to overcome great obstacles (another amusing visual involves\nwhat the pair use to help them travel along a waterway). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s also plenty of camaraderie on display between the\ntwo brothers, both of whom greatly miss their dad and whose unusual attitudes\nand behaviors are largely influenced by his absence. When the two share\npersonal memories and the loss they feel as they desperately strive to be\nreconnected with him, it will certainly strike a chord with many audience\nmembers. And the elaborate climax also has a lot of heart and handles the\nunique situation well, not providing quite as straight-forward and clear-cut a\nresolution as one might initially anticipate.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Of course, things aren\u2019t perfect. Not every joke plays and a\nfew of the supporting characters don\u2019t end up delivering as many laughs as\nhoped for. Although it likely would have slowed the pacing down, this reviewer\nwould have liked to have seen even more technology obsessed fantasy creatures\nstruggling with their somewhat passive and constricted roles in suburbia. And\nwhile the boys single-minded quest to be reunited with their dad offers plenty\nof material, it seems like their mother Laurel gets lost in the shuffle. She\ndoesn\u2019t know the details of what her sons are trying to accomplish and one\nsupposes that she may have already accepted and have come to terms with her own\npersonal loss. Yet even by the climax, the character ends up coming across as\nalmost uninterested in reuniting with her spouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, while it doesn’t all work, the movie is still a gorgeously animated effort that will appeal to families. It provides enough fun moments and emotional heft when it deals specifically with the plight of Ian and Barley to make it all worthwhile. And it isn\u2019t a sequel or remake. Outward<\/em> isn\u2019t always magical, but in the end it\u2019s spell is charming enough to warrant a couple of hours of your time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sequels and remakes have made up the majority of films over the past decade, with even animated studios getting on board. Thankfully, not every single project hitting cinema screens is a follow-up or reimagining. The latest from Pixar is Onward and it\u2019s their first original work in two and a half years (Coco being the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[198,1455,4321,5922,7266,7287,11133,12916,15195,15442,15443,15444,15445,16155,23019],"class_list":["post-20118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-198","tag-animated","tag-chris-pratt","tag-disney","tag-fairy-tale","tag-family-film","tag-julia-louis-dreyfuss","tag-magic","tag-octavia-spencer","tag-onward","tag-onward-film-review","tag-onward-movie-review","tag-onward-review","tag-pixar","tag-tom-holland"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}