Onward: A Magical Quest

Onward is a Pixar movie, so it should come as no surprise that it is an imaginative, charming, and emotional piece of movie magic. At this point, you don't need me to tell you that a Pixar movie is required viewing; that’s just an established fact. But if you’re curious to learn what this movie is about before you inevitably head to the theater to see it yourself, let us proceed.

The movie is set in a world where magical creatures discovered technology and therefore forgot how to do magic. It’s hard to properly explain, but it's a wonderfully clever conceit that is established within the first five minutes and already tells you that the script by Dan Scanlon (also the director), Keith Bunin, and Jason Headley is going to be an effervescent joy. Wizards needed their magic staffs to help light fires, but then the world got electricity so everyone forgot how to cast spells because they could just hit a light switch. Centaurs used to run across the plains but then they got cars and that was all the horsepower they needed.

Enter our hero, Ian (delightfully voiced by Tom Holland). He is an elf, whose father died before he was born, so he grew up with his big brother, Barley (voiced by the equally delightful Chris Pratt), and mother, Laurel (voiced by comedy icon, Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Ian is a shy and awkward kid, but on his sixteenth birthday, his mother presents him and Barley with a present from their father. It’s a wizard's staff, with a spell designed to bring their father back to Earth for one day so he can see how his boys turned out. Barley is obsessed with magic and historical lore, but it turns out Ian is the one with wizarding powers, and he manages to semi-successfully cast the spell. It’s semi-successful because only his father’s lower half manifests itself - oops.

What follows is a quest to find a Phoenix Gem, which will help the boys restore the upper half of their dad and reconnect with him before their 24 hours are up. It’s such a bizarre concept but this movie is so impeccably well-scripted that you are along for the ride and everything makes perfect sense until you sit down a day later and try to explain the story to the readers of your blog. Suffice to say, the rest of this movie is a story about two boys and a pair of legs making their way to a mountain and learning a lot about themselves along the way.

Onward is a wonderful movie, and underneath all the magic and silliness, there is that beating emotional heart that is the hallmark of any Pixar movie. This is a story about the relationship between these two brothers, their grief for missing out on having a father, the fierce love of the mother who raised them, and facing your fears and growing up. It is a gem of a film, funny, clever, and heartwarming, with dazzling visuals and pitch perfect voice talent. So go forth on your quest and watch Onward. It will help you reclaim some of the magic we’ve lost in the world.