Not Quite Epic, but Still a Meaningful Quest – Review of “Onward”

If there’s one thing you can count on it’s a good Pixar film. Not all of them are universal but more often than not when you hear the name Pixar, you expect a certain level of quality from their stories. “Two brothers, sent on an epic quest to retrieve a magical gem to resurrect their father for one day.” Yes, it sounds like Pixar plucked this idea right from their last DnD session, but they’ve managed to take what is essentially a quest film and present a simple yet loving about brotherly love.

Magic used to be abundant but hard to use. The mythical creatures turned to technology and magic eventually vanished from their world. Enter Ian Lightfoot (Tom Holland) a timid introverted elf who just wants to make friends and be a better version of himself. His older brother Barley (Chris Pratt) is a bit of a slacker and a total goober. He’s a loving older brother but completely enthralled in his tabletop games and magic lore. For Ian’s 16thbirthday their mother Laurel (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) gives them a present from their late father, a spell to bring him back from the dead for 24 hours and a magical staff. But when the spell only brings back the lower half of him, the brothers sent off on a quest to fix the spell before time runs out. On the surface, the setup is a fetch quest, “Go get X before time runs out.” But that is probably the least important part of this movie. The trailers and promos almost present this as an epic quest filled with action and it’s really not. What this m…