Onward 2020
I usually enjoy Pixar movies, but Onward got barely positive reviews from Metacritic, while Rotten Tomatoes was more generous. This movie is certainly less complex with only two primary characters and a few secondary ones. Plus the animation seems a little weak, more like Trolls than something from Pixar. This is still a good movie, with a lot of action and magic and a little bit of character development and family drama. It is an interesting setting, a fantasy world that has shunned magic for modern conveniences, but not exactly dystopian, just not that magical. There are no real villains, no sidekicks, just a road adventure of two brothers who are elves getting in touch with magic and trying to make a spell work that will let them spend a day with their father who passed away years earlier. The movie works and stays entertaining, but seems just a little generic. The two brothers have a hard time carrying the entire movie and adding magic in there lets almost anything happen. Still, it works out well, but I was hoping for something more. This movie is somewhere in the middle of the pack (or a little lower) for Pixar, which is still definitely worth watching. The opening weekend crowd applauded at the end and the theater was full despite the coronavirus scare. Instead of an opening short by Pixar, it is The Simpsons. It is a cute story involving a romance for Maggie (the baby) so there is no dialogue. Disney is showing off their acquisition of Fox, but I feel like I was cheated out of a Pixar short (though some have been showing up on Disney Plus).
Written: 07 Mar 2020
Owned on: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital