Onward (2020) review

What’s this? Two Pixar films in one year? And they’re both original stories? “Huzzah!”, the internet proclaimed. Yes, it’s safe to say that 2020 marks a new era for one of the most revered animation studios in the industry. For starters, it’s the first feature in the studio’s history to not involve one of its most prominent figures, John Lasseter, after he left the company in 2018 due to the various sexual misconduct allegations directed against him, with fellow Pixar mainstay Pete Docter now serving as the studio’s Chief Creative Officer. But the change that has excited the internet the most is that following the release of Toy Story 4 last year, Pixar announced that it would be their last ‘sequel’ film for the foreseeable future in favor of doing more original stories like the ones that made them famous in the first place. For fans of the studio, this was a very big deal given the arguably mixed run that Pixar has had over the past few years when it came to doing follow-ups to some of their most beloved works. Personally, though, I’ve loved most of the films that came out during that time, which means that the demand for Pixar to do more original stories wasn’t that big of a concern for me, especially given how the internet often has intense expectations for Pixar films either way. Nevertheless, here we are with the first Pixar film of 2020, Onward, which serves as the second feature-length directorial effort of Dan Scanlon. Since joining Pixar in 2001, Scanlon served as a storyboard artist for the first Cars and was the co-director of that film’s direct-to-DVD short, Mater and the Ghostlight. Scanlon would ultimately make his feature-length directorial debut with the company via Monsters University, the 2013 prequel to the studio’s 2001 masterpiece Monsters’ Inc. But as for Onward, Scanlon’s main source of inspiration for this suburban fantasy adventure was his own personal experiences of losing his father at a young age and the relationship that he formed with his older brother in the wake of that moment. And with that personal backstory in mind, it’s easy to see why Onward ends up being yet another classic (and devastatingly emotional) outing from Pixar. 

In the old days, the world was full of beings who could conjure powerful magic. However, these magical abilities proved to be incredibly difficult to learn, and in due time, this world of fantastical creatures began to rely more on technology instead, thus paving the way for a more modern lifestyle. In the present day in the town of New Mushroomton, a teenaged elf named Ian Lightfoot (voiced by Tom Holland) celebrates his 16^th birthday. During this time, Ian begins to wonder about what his father Wilden was like since he unfortunately passed away before he was born. And as luck would have it, his widowed mother Laurel (voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus) gives him and his older brother Barley (voiced by Chris Pratt) a gift from their father, which turns out to be a mythical wizard’s staff. Almost immediately, Barley, who’s a massive fan of fantasy role-playing games, deduces that their dad had studied magic and the brothers discover that he had collected a rare Phoenix gem that would allow them to cast a Visitation spell that would bring him back to life for one day. Ian soon discovers that he possesses the rare ability to conjure such magic, but unfortunately, his attempt to use the spell isn’t a complete success, resulting in only the lower half of their father’s body materializing into existence. And since the powers of the Phoenix gem that their father found were used up during this attempt, Ian and Barley head out on a quest to find a new gem in the next 24 hours so that they can complete the spell and reunite with the father that they never got the chance to know.

Onward certainly crafts a fun fantasy world that combines its cast of mythical creatures with the visual aesthetic of modern-day suburbia. However, for those fearing that this means that Pixar has just made a film that relied entirely on modern references like several of its competitors tend to do, that’s not even remotely the case here. Sure, you do have some characters using cell-phones here and there and other bits of modern technology, but moments like these never overtake the key narrative points of the story while still resulting in plenty of fun visual gags that are brought to life by Pixar’s always-stellar animation. Admittedly, I wouldn’t call this the ‘best-looking’ Pixar film to date, but since this is still Pixar we’re talking about, the animation is top-notch regardless. And given the nature of the plot in which the main characters are guided by Barley’s extensive knowledge of role-playing games, this film is filled with tons of references to the genre. While I’m personally not too familiar with the likes of Dungeons and Dragons and other popular fantasy RPG’s, those who are will surely love all the nods that this film contains and how, from what I can tell, it perfectly captures the spirit of these adventures. But, of course, Pixar also knows how to deliver on the emotional depth of their stories, and Onward is no exception. After all, this is a story in which two brothers are trying to bring their father back to life (even if it’s just for one day) that’s based heavily on writer/director Dan Scanlon’s own life. Thus, it goes without saying that Onward hits hard when it comes to its emotional beats.

Onward also happens to be quite special in the fact that it serves as an unexpected crossover between Spider-Man and Peter Quill AKA Star-Lord… all joking aside, it’s kind of funny how Tom Holland and Chris Pratt’s characters in this film end up mirroring their respective superhero roles in the MCU to a tee. Ian’s the socially awkward teenager with something to prove while Barley’s the boisterous rogue who, despite his goofy nature, has experienced quite a bit on an emotional level. With that in mind, Holland and Pratt do phenomenal jobs in their respective roles. The brotherly camaraderie between them is superb and just like they’ve done for years now over in the MCU, these two brilliantly handle all the film’s big emotional moments. Holland and Pratt are then backed nicely by the duo of Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Ian and Barley’s mother Laurel and Octavia Spencer as Corey, a manticore who the brothers seek out given the significant role that her species often plays in fantasy RPG’s. And while the fact that the film focuses primarily on Ian and Barley means that Laurel and Corey admittedly don’t get that involved in the action until the climax, they also form a fun partner dynamic once the two of them meet up. Julia Louis-Dreyfus brings just as much heart to her role as Tom Holland and Chris Pratt do to theirs as a mom who’s fully dedicated to keeping her boys out of trouble while Octavia Spencer has a lot of fun with Corey’s arc of rediscovering her adventurous spirit after several years of being in an unfulfilling job as the owner of a local family restaurant.

As I’ve pointed out several times over the years, I’m not exactly part of the crowd who continues to have incredibly high expectations for Pixar films to the point where any Pixar film that isn’t an outright masterpiece ends up getting ignored. It’s a tragic fate that has, unfortunately, affected quite a few of the studio’s films over the years such as Brave, Monsters University and The Good Dinosaur. And while Onward technically hasn’t been a flop with critics and audiences (although that pesky coronavirus will certainly do a number on it at the box-office), I also wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up getting completely overshadowed by Soul, Pixar’s other 2020 release that will be coming out in June. It’d be quite the sad scenario if that did happen, though, since I would argue that Onward is another masterpiece from the legendary animation studio. Like many of Pixar’s classic outings, Onward is a delightful fantasy adventure that delivers an excellently written story full of highly endearing characters. The fantastical world that it creates is a lot of fun to explore and the main adventure that its heroes go on is so well-handled that you don’t need to be an expert in the lore of Dungeons and Dragons to appreciate it (although it would make the journey even more satisfying). But, of course, the best Pixar tradition that Onward dutifully maintains is its impeccable ability to tug at the heartstrings with a story that’s just as much about brotherhood as it is about two brothers hoping to get the chance to have a connection with the father that they never knew. Because of all this, it’s easy to see real growth in Dan Scanlon’s talents as a director and how he’s shaping up to be a major standout amongst Pixar’s next generation of filmmakers. And while I again recognize the fact that this film will undoubtedly be impacted by the global pandemic that we’re all dealing with right now, I also hope that it’s ultimately the main reason why since that’d be a much easier pill to swallow than the fact that this is another Pixar film that isn’t being regarded as a ‘15/10 masterpiece’.

Rating: 5/5!

Pixar films have almost always been accompanied by one of the studio’s shorts that precede the main feature… however, while I’ve been reviewing Pixar films on this site for the past 8 years now, I’ve realized that I don’t usually talk about the shorts that they’re paired with. The only instance where I have addressed one of them was in my review of Coco when I also reviewed Olaf’s Frozen Adventure, and that was just due to the unique situation of it being a Frozen short instead of something that came directly from Pixar. Thus, I’ve decided that starting now, every Pixar review that I do from this point on will conclude with a brief discussion about the short that accompanies it (if there is one). This new tradition begins with, of all things, a Simpsons short.

PLAYDATE WITH DESTINY

The most famous animated family in pop culture recently joined the Disney universe following Disney’s purchase of 20^th Century Fox (now 20^th Century Studios) last year. This fact is well-reflected in this short, as it opens with a shot of Mickey Mouse’s iconic silhouette… before being revealed to be an image of Homer Simpson holding two donuts and then cutting to a title card proclaiming that ‘Disney welcomes The Simpsons’. And at the end of the short, Mickey can be seen in the production logo for producer James L. Brooks’ company Gracie Films as one of the theater patrons. Anyway, Playdate with Destiny is the second theatrical short to come from The Simpsons; the first was The Longest Daycare, which ran with 2012’s Ice Age: Continental Drift. Both shorts revolve around the youngest member of the Simpsons family, Maggie, with this new short consisting of her meeting a boy named Hudson, the adventures that they go on together, and her efforts to see him again the next time she’s taken to the park, which becomes rather complicated when Homer’s the one taking her instead of Marge. Keeping in line with the fact that Maggie usually never speaks on the show, this short is almost entirely dialogue-free and instead opts for visual humor. And while there’s been plenty of debate over the years regarding the quality of a show that’s been on the air for three decades now, this is a genuinely cute little short that develops a whirlwind romance out of an innocuous playdate between two babies. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that this is one of the best things to come out of The Simpsons (which, admittedly, I can’t say much about anyway since I haven’t watched a lot of it), but it’s still a pleasant watch nevertheless. And if that wasn’t enough, the events of this short will be addressed in an upcoming episode of the show that’s set to air on April 19^th.

Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) review

In the ’90s, video gaming was primarily defined by the intense rivalry between the two biggest game developers in the industry at the time, Nintendo and Sega. For the longest time, Nintendo had been the most dominant force in the industry thanks in large part to their third-generation home video game console, the Nintendo Entertainment System, which almost single-handedly saved the industry from financial ruin after the video game crash of 1983. And ever since his debut in the 1981 arcade classic Donkey Kong, the red-hatted Italian plumber named Mario has been the company’s quintessential mascot. During this time, another company named Sega was also developing its own video game consoles, and in 1988, they released their first 16-bit system, the Sega Genesis. While the console wasn’t exactly a top-selling item in Sega and Nintendo’s native country of Japan, it fared far more successfully in the U.S., where it promptly challenged Nintendo’s own 16-bit system, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, thus paving the way for the concept known as ‘console wars’ that technically still persists to this day. And just like Nintendo, Sega’s success would become defined by its own mascot, a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog with super-speed known as Sonic. Developed primarily by programmer Yuji Naka and artist Naoto Ohshima, Sonic the Hedgehog would officially make his debut in the 1991 Genesis game of the same name. As you might have guessed, it was a massive hit upon its release and effectively made Sonic one of the most recognizable video game protagonists of all-time. Since then, the series has seen numerous follow-ups over the years, with some even making their way onto Nintendo consoles after Sega transitioned away from developing consoles in 2001.

Admittedly, though, the Sonic franchise has had a tumultuous run over the years when it comes to the overall reception of its games. In other words, amidst successful outings like the original quadrilogy of games for the Genesis and more recent titles like Sonic Generations and Sonic Mania, other installments like Sonic ’06 and Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric have been some of the most critically savaged games in recent memory. Nevertheless, Sonic the Hedgehog continues to be a prominent figure in the world of gaming and has even left his mark on other forms of media. In the world of comics, Sonic was responsible for one of the longest-running series in the medium’s history thanks to his 24-year run with Archie Comics. He’s also headlined several successful TV series over the years, including the beloved 90’s series Sonic the Hedgehog (affectionately referred to by fans as SatAM) and the TV adaptation of the Sonic Boom games. And yet, it wasn’t until nearly three decades after his initial debut on the Genesis that the blue blur would finally get to make his feature film debut. That’s not to say that an attempt at a Sonic the Hedgehog film has never happened, however, as this film has technically been in the works since 1993. However, it wasn’t until 2016 when production would finally get underway on the film under the direction of VFX artist Jeff Fowler in his directorial debut, who developed it alongside his long-time collaborator, Deadpool director Tim Miller. And, of course, as I’m sure many of you reading this already know, this film attracted quite a bit of infamy online when the intensely negative reaction to Sonic’s initial design prompted a full-on redesign. But now the film has finally come out and the result is a decently entertaining popcorn flick that, largely thanks to that crucial redesign, does a nice job of adapting its popular source material.

On a far-off planet known as Green Hill, a young hedgehog named Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) is constantly on the run from those who are after his ability to run at insanely high speeds. He eventually ends up traveling to Earth, where he spends the next ten years living a secret life in the town of Green Hills, Montana unbeknownst to its residents. However, when Sonic begins to lament the fact that his life of solitude has resulted in him not having any friends, he accidentally makes his presence known to the world when his powers cause a regional blackout. In response, the government enlists the services of an eccentric scientist/inventor named Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) to track down the source of this anomaly. To make matters worse, Sonic’s attempts at escaping to another world are hindered when he’s confronted by Green Hills’ sheriff, Tom Wachowski (James Marsden). In the process, Sonic loses the bag of special rings that he uses to travel to other worlds when it ends up stuck on top of the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco. Thus, Sonic now finds himself having to join forces with Tom (and later Tom’s veterinarian wife Maddie (Tika Sumpter)) so that he can get to San Francisco, collect his rings, and escape before Robotnik can capture him with an army of robots that he powers with the supersonic energy that he collects from one of Sonic’s quills.

As that plot synopsis suggests, this is one of those cases of a film based on a popular property that takes the main characters of that series out of the worlds that they’re from and puts them on Earth to interact with humans. There have been quite a few films over the years that have done this including the recent live-action Smurfs films and even the first Thor, and to be perfectly blunt, this can often lead to mixed results since fans are most likely more interested in seeing these characters in their natural environments. As such, the first Sonic the Hedgehog film’s plot is admittedly very basic in its execution. Now granted, fans of the franchise know that the idea of Sonic interacting with humans has been done before in almost every other form of Sonic media, so it’s not like this is a completely illogical concept for a Sonic story. Still, what we get here is your basic ‘comedic road trip’ plot that goes exactly the way you think it does. But despite the generally predictable nature of its plot, Sonic the Hedgehog does handle it a lot better than some of the other films in this unique little ‘subgenre’. It mainly manages to achieve this by maintaining a breezy pace throughout and by also sporting an earnestly heartfelt character arc for Sonic in which he simply yearns for some friends after spending so much time alone. And when it comes to the action sequences, the film does a wonderful job of translating Sonic’s super-speed abilities into a live-action context. Plus, the film is also chock-full of fun nods to other facets of the franchise’s lore to make up for the fact that it doesn’t focus too much on Sonic’s universe.

While there was a lot of hubbub made over Sonic’s original design, the one aspect of his character that stayed consistent throughout this film’s development was his voice, and Ben Schwartz does a phenomenal job in the role. For starters, he certainly sounds like Sonic, with his rendition of the character sounding very reminiscent of voice actor Ryan Drummond, who played the character from 1998 to 2004 in games like the Sonic Adventure series and Sonic Heroes. But most importantly, Schwartz excellently maintains Sonic’s wisecracking but all-around likable persona from the games that is then matched nicely with the character’s cinematic arc of longing for a friend, which he ends up finding in James Marsden’s Tom ‘Donut Lord’ Wachowski (‘Donut Lord’ being the nickname Sonic gives him (it makes sense in context)). While Marsden’s role is your basic ‘best friend’ archetype that also requires him to interact with a CG character most of the time, he and Schwartz do manage to form a terrific camaraderie that helps make Tom and Sonic’s growing bond feel incredibly genuine. Marsden also has some nice romantic chemistry with Tika Sumpter as Tom’s wife Maddie, who admittedly doesn’t factor into the film too much (i.e. she’s absent for the whole second act until Sonic and Tom get to San Francisco) but still manages to be a solid supporting player. But, of course, the most talked-about member of the ensemble is Jim Carrey in the role of Dr. Robotnik. In fact, Carrey’s turn as Sonic’s notorious arch-nemesis was so anticipated that before Sonic’s big redesign, many figured that he’d be the best part of the film and partially make up for all the shortcomings surrounding Sonic’s controversial look. And while Sonic’s initial design is no longer an issue for this film, Carrey is still easily one of its biggest highlights as he’s clearly having a lot of fun playing an over-the-top mad scientist. All in all, it’s a great return to form for the man who practically defined the comedy genre in the 90s with hits such as The Mask and Ace Ventura.

At the end of the day, Sonic the Hedgehog’s first foray on the big screen will most likely be known primarily for the fact that it nearly ended up being a total disaster. When it came to bringing the title character to life in a live-action film, the initial intent was to give Sonic a realistic/humanlike design. However, when the film’s teaser trailer dropped and showcased Sonic’s new look (which I’ll be providing a visual link to here for reference), it was almost universally panned for quite arguably making him look nothing like he does in the games. But in an unprecedented move for a film of this nature, director Jeff Fowler announced that he and his team had recognized their mistake and would fully redo Sonic’s design to be far more game-accurate. And while there was some initial concern that the film’s VFX team would have to endure some major crunch time to get the film done in time for its initial November 2019 release date, those fears were assuaged when Fowler also announced that the film would be pushed back to February 2020. Thus, when the film’s second trailer debuted in November (AKA the month it was originally meant to come out) and showcased Sonic’s new design that had been spearheaded by franchise artist Tyson Hesse, the fandom rejoiced about having a much better-looking cinematic interpretation of their beloved hedgehog. And overall, this correlates nicely to the film itself being a good old-fashioned crowd-pleaser. It may not be perfect by any means (namely due to it having a rather basic plot), but thanks to an enthusiastic cast, fun action sequences that perfectly highlight Sonic’s abilities, and of course, that pivotal visual update, Sonic the Hedgehog is another one of those rare cases of a video game based film done right.

Rating: 4/5