“Onward” – Movie Review

Just the plot of the movie itself is freaking sad. Ian and Barley are trying to spend one more day with their dad who passed away 😢 Who wouldn’t want to spend one more day with a parent that has passed away?? What I did like though was that the Disney/Pixar film did not rip your heart out in the first 10/15 minutes of the movie. They wait till the end to do that. So thanks for that! 😑

Aside from the sadness, this is such a great and fun movie! Very well done. I LOVE video games with quests in it, I like playing World of Warcraft, I like RPG games, so man oh man was this the movie for me! (Wreck It Ralph was also a movie made for me). The world they created was PERFECT. Absolutely perfect! I LOVE that everything we know in our world has a different name in this world. Like this photo for example. (No it is not a spoiler. It was in the trailer).

Tom Holland (Ian) and Chris Pratt (Barley) do an awesome job as these characters. It was honestly as if these characters were made for them. They were so true to their personalities it was great! Their chemistry together is wonderful, it really is.

Side note. . . Barley’s car is fantastic! His van is awesome! My dad had a van similar to Barley’s so it brought back a lot of memories. No my dad’s car did not have similar images on it. It was just plain brown 😅, but we went EVERYWHERE in that brown van. . . Ahhhh the memories.

Back to the brothers. The way they were written to me felt very much a brother dynamic. Some movies the family or friend unit will feel forced (I’m looking at you Justice League!). But these two felt very real. Their are brothers who are usually the same person or sometimes complete opposites, but they still get along great. Now I know this is not the case for everyone, but in this movies case, the two do get along very well.

Even the family dynamic is very real world. Ian and Barley’s mom has started to date someone new since their dad’s passing, and both of them are cold towards him. This totally happens in real life. When your parent starts to date it is always a bit of an awkward situation. So I am happy that they touched on this as well.

When Ian and Barley start to go on their quest is amazing. Who knew that having the whole movie show only the khaki pants part of Ian and Barley’s dad would be funny. Once they summoned half of his dad I honestly did not think it would be the WHOLE movie. I thought I was going to get over it, but I didn’t. They did such a great job keeping the khaki pants dad fun to where you do not get bored of him.

I just love that this whole film is strong with family ties. It’s great to see how far someone will go for their loved one (within reason of course). I like that they made Ian and Barley’s mom a strong woman and she will go to the ends of the Earth to make sure her kids are safe. I also love that their is no love interest. This way we can just focus on the story itself.

Usually movies can be pretty predictable with where it is going, but I am happy to report that this movie is not predictable. It truly did catch me off guard.

Overall, this was a wonderful, hilarious, and fantastic movie. A must watch!

Last thing I will say is. . . The Biker Pixies are hilarious.