Onward: the feel good film of lockdown

For all the controversy Disney has generated over the past few months, including some questionable choices in their promotion and release of its live-action Mulan, the addition of Onward to it's growing index of movies on its streaming service (Disney+) has been one of their better decisions.

We all know that Disney's entire brand is wholesome family movies, but Onward really captures it all; it's got an awkward teenager, the 'disappointment' of the family, the single mum and of course the step-dad. While it thankfully avoids the evil step-parent trope, it pretty much has every other one in the bag. It's got everything from moral lessons on believing in yourself and facing your fears to not letting adversary break you down. Not to mention the eye-opening realisation that the feeling you've been looking for, you've had all along in a different form. And what Disney original isn't complete without dragging a few tears from even the most hardened of souls.

Onward is the story of a young elf Ian (Tom Holland) and his older brother Barley (Chris Pratt) who go on an adventure to find a magical stone in order to bring their father back for one day. We're all familiar with Disney offing one of the parents as part of a backstory, but the idea that this parent can come back just for the day to see how their kids grew up is, I'll admit, a rather emotional notion. Naturally it doesn't go perfectly, leaving the two kids with the bottom half of their dad materialised and giving them no choice but to go on a dangerous quest to complete the spell. Having your two main characters encumbered by a magical pair of legs is rather amusing but brings a new level of sympathy for the brothers as they can't actually talk or really communicate with their dad, which is all Ian wants to do. Of course by the end of the film Holland's character realises that the things he longed to experience with his dad, he'd already done with his older brother. This leads to an emotional change of perspective, providing the movie with it's most bittersweet moments. And while Holland's elf is the main protagonist, Pratt's own character reveals the heart-breaking truth about his own experiences with their dad and how it shaped his character into the fearless older brother he knew he had to be. In particular how he was too scared of seeing his dad in the hospital to say goodbye, which is a common fear amongst anyone who's experienced losing a loved one.

Along the way they accidentally help several other magical creatures, bringing more magic back into a corporate magic-less world. As far as social commentaries go, Onward's not-so-subtle jab at capitalism draining the world of everyday magic is quite a bold one; the creation of the lightbulb quickly leads to the world of skyscrapers that we, as an audience, are familiar with. However, the technological advancements bring about the decline of magic, even though the population are all magical beings; the brothers encounter a group of pixies who've become a roving biker gang since their wings no longer work. There's a sharp line about ancestors being to blame and five minutes later the pixies have re-learned how to use their wings. It's a nice way of saying that even if the past is out of our control and has negatively impacted our present, we're capable of changing the negative course for ourselves and future generations.

What I found was a bit different than other adventures was their mum's, Laurel (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), role; obviously she's your usual caring Disney mother but she's also not afraid to chase after her sons once she realises they've left on a dangerous quest. In fact by the end she's actively helping them stop a curse connected to their magical stone. Onward goes one step further in their morals with including Louis-Dreyfus's own character arc; she too embraces her insecurities in order to face them with courage... and a large sword.

I'll give Disney credit in their attempt to tackle a few 'controversial' topics. And by 'controversial' I mean 'non-family friendly'. And by that I mean topics that imply being white, straight and cisgender isn't actually the experience of everyone. In short, I'm referring to Disney's first canon-lesbian character, Officer Spector (Lena Waithe). There have been many fanon lesbian's in the Disney Universe, the most recent being Elsa, but films such as Finding Dory (2016) and Storks (2016) both feature split second frames of same-sex couples, both of which sparked argument from their more bigoted watchers. Onward features a stereotypical butch police officer who mentions a girlfriend during a conversation about dating someone who has children. Disney boasts its inclusivity while keeping it to a point that it's easy to edit out for the more conservative audiences in other countries, namely China and Russia.

With any movie it has it's slower moments, but maybe that's because of my low attention span. Anyhow, if you find it slow in parts take the time to truly appreciate the animation. Now, Disney is well known for being top-dog this retrospect but this really shows how far they've come since the days of hand drawn frames. It's such a fluid and natural animation that I found myself forgetting they were all magical creatures and animated. I found myself marvelling over the character's picking things up and holding them in such a human and realistic way that I almost missed some key plot points.

Overall, it's an enjoyable, heart-warming, heart-wrenching Disney film that embodies everything the major corporation stands for. Quite frankly if you don't cry or at the very least have to fight back tears when you watch this film, I'm convinced you're a sociopath. I was talked into watching it and warned that I would most probably cry; I'll admit I didn't but it was a close call, and had I been home alone, I 100% would've been bawling for the last twenty minutes of the film. While lockdown isn't yet national here in the UK (for the second time), many places are indeed under strict social distancing and with limited options on how to pass the time, Disney's latest animated film is definitely worth the watch.

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