Onward No half measuresPosted by Odgaard Espensen on June 9th, 2021 What if fmovies li develop a life of their own as soon as their owner leaves the room? What if it wasn't children who were afraid of monsters, but monsters of children? What if feelings exist not as abstract emotions but as people living in the head? The animation company Pixar has been asking itself such what-if questions since their first feature film "Toy Story" - only to then answer them with an excess of creativity and cleverness. Slowly the formula is almost calculable - but it still works just damn well. This is no different with the now 22nd Pixar feature film "Onward: No half measures". Director Dan Scanlon, who has so far only been responsible for one of the studio's admittedly weaker works with “Die Monster Uni”, asks himself the question: What if the magical world of fantasy literature and role-playing games actually existed - but it changes over time has become more and more aligned with our universe? The result is a touching and amusing adventure comedy that is somewhere in the middle of the previous productions of the Disney subsidiary. Whereby Pixar is probably the only Hollywood studio where this statement should be understood as praise. Magic takes place in the new Pixar film. Magic used to rule the world, but then the lightbulb, cars and cell phones were invented - and because it's much easier to press a light switch than to cast a torch spell, the art of magic has slowly died out. The elven brothers Ian (voice: Tom Holland) and Barley (Chris Pratt) therefore lead a life that is astonishingly similar to that of human teenagers in our world. But then Ian turns 16 - and receives a magic wand as a belated birthday present from his father, who died many years ago. There are also instructions for a magic with which the brothers can bring their father back into the world of the living - only for 24 hours, but that would be enough time to really say goodbye to each other again. But the enclosed Phoenix stone is used up halfway through the ritual - and only the lower body of the father has materialized so far. Ian and Barley have little time to complete a dangerous mission and find another Phoenix Stone. Always with her in tow: her father's blindly stumbling legs ... A magical world without magic Such missions always start with the manticore (a mythical creature with a human face, the body of a lion and the tail of a scorpion). As an experienced player in a historical role-playing game, Barley is absolutely sure of that! But when the brothers arrive at the oh-so-dangerous tavern, it turns out to be a modern family restaurant, in which a children's birthday party is being celebrated - with a manticore mascot to amuse the little visitors. What does a magical world look like that has lost its magic? “Onward” is always the cleverest and funniest when the focus is on this central question - for example with fairies who now had to retrain to become Harley-riding rocker brides after their ancestors forgot how to fly. The slapstick interludes with half the father are also successful. His sons only gave him a makeshift upper body, which now sways uncontrollably back and forth when his legs move - dry black humor in the tradition of “Always Trouble with Bernie “, In which two accountants have to drag the body of their boss around with them for a weekend. It goes without saying that everything else - from the cornflakes brand to the name of the high school - has been adapted to the fantasy setting at Pixar anyway. You would probably have to look "Onward" at least three times to see at least a large part of the little gags and discover allusions in the background. Ian and half of his father.
As for the quality of the animations, Pixar remains beyond reproach. In addition to a general brilliance in trick technology and an unrivaled wealth of detail, the juxtaposition of the magical and the technological world stands out in “Onward”. When adventurous paths meet busy highways and elves stock up on chips stocks at the motorway service station, the clever coloring underlines that these things shouldn't really go together at all. The clear highlight, meanwhile, is a dragon that emerges from the rubble of a high school (with the concrete print of the school mascot as a face). It's really creative.
At its core, “Onward” remains a coming-of-age story about two brothers who missed their father so much, despite all the funny gags and visual gimmicks
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