Onward

The world used to be filled with all sorts of magic but the rise of technology made magic redundant in many ways. New Mushroomton, a small town in which all sorts of creatures like dragons, giants, dwarfs and elfs co-exist, has adapted to a magic-free lifestyle and opened the door for modern technology to take over. Most inhabitants of New Mushroomton do not even believe in magic anymore, as everything fantastical in their world has been made fictitious. In doing that, they completely negated their once magical history.

Onward is the 22nd feature film from Pixar and Dan Scanlon’s second Pixar film after 2013’s Monster’s University, the prequel to the critically acclaimed Monster’s Inc. from 2001. 

Tom Holland and Chris Pratt team up once again, this time not to fight Thanos but to voice the elf brothers Ian and Barley Lightfoot. On the day of this 16th birthday, Ian receives a present from his Dad that passed away when he was very young. A magical staff and a spell able to bring his Dad back for one whole day. But the spell goes wrong and only brings back the bottom half of their father, so the brothers are forced to embark on an adventurous quest to find an artifact powerful enough to complete the spell and bring back the rest of his body.

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Pixar has always been strong at pulling at the audience’s heartstrings and it has gotten to a point where it has become a cliché to cry when the lamp is done stamping on the ‘I’ and the consecutive story starts to play out. I found myself at a dilemma with this because although moments of the third act did manage to make my eyes quite watery, I do not think this is one of the stronger Pixar outings. The story told in Onward is one that I feel quite personally attached to because of a similar life experience that I had with my father. The brother relationship is another one that I relate to quite a bit, as I have a little brother around the same age as Ian. Therefore, I was really connected to the relationships between the characters, rather than the plot itself. Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of spectacle over substance in the film. This film could have had an even bigger focus on its well-established character relationships, but it went for action-packed chase scenes instead. Ian is a blank canvas, as most protagonists in those types of stories are, in order for people to relate to him. His character traits are; being socially awkward, sad about his father’s death and not believing in himself. But apart from that, he does not resemble someone that would exist outside of this story. 

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Fact: Pixar makes the prettiest looking movies. After last year’s gorgeous Toy Story 4, comes Onward with a colorful, quirky animation style that is incredibly detailed. The comedy mostly worked as well, the highlight being all the Weekend at Bernie’s and literal ‘Daddy-only-legs’ humor coming from Wilden, Ian and Barley’s dad.

Onward is filled with moments that are universally relatable to young viewers like believing in yourself and appreciating what you have. As an adult, you pick up on when the filmmakers try to put those moments in and although I noticed when it was happening, it did not feel forced or preachy. When films are able to incorporate inspiring and touching messages into their films without bringing the story to a screeching halt, I applaud them for that. Because a lot of animated movies tend to cater to their target audience way too much. Although, there are a few tense moments in Onward that I wish were not played and broken for lazy attempts at comedy.

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Should you see this film? Yes, if you have enjoyed Pixar films in the past, Onward will certainly not disappoint. If not, who are you and who has robbed your childhood that you don’t enjoy Pixar? 

Onward is an enjoyable family film that will make you laugh, cry and hug your loved ones.

★★★⋆☆

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Release Date (CH): 05.03.20 - Release Date (Australia): 02.04.20 - Release Date (US): 06.03.20

Film Data: Director: Dan Scanlon - Writer: Dan Scanlon, Keith Bunin, Jason Headley - Cast: Chris Pratt, Tom Holland, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Octavia Spencer, Mel Rodriguez, Ali Wong, Lena Waithe, John Ratzenberger, Tracey Ullman - 103’ - 2020 - USA - Pixar - Walt Disney Company

Photo and Video Source: Walt Disney Company Switzerland

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Dolitte Does Little For Me

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• by Ewan Graf
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Robert Downey Jr. portrays the charismatic children’s book hero Dr. Dolittle, a physician with the ability to talk to animals. In his first role outside the MCU since 2014’s The Judge, RDJ teams up with writer/director Stephen Gaghan instead of the Avengers to bring us a family adventure nobody really asked for.

Dolittle’s production process was reportedly a huge mess in the editing room because of Gaghan's lack of previsualization. Throughout the 100 minute runtime, there are several sequences in which Robert Downey Jr.’s character isn’t even looking at the right spot. It feels like a big chunk of the work was simply handed off to the animators to figure out where animals would end up in shots that weren’t properly blocked and staged for them. All the conversations between the animals and Dolittle are noticeably disjointed and lack chemistry and cohesion between the animated and real-life characters.  There’s a scene between Emma Thompon’s duck and RDJ in which he just stares of into the distance even though the duck is right in front of him. The voice acting cast for the animals is impressive with the likes of Emma Thompson, Rami Malek, John Cena, Kumail Najiani, Octavia Spencer, Tom Holland, and Ralph Fiennes. However, all of these (mostly) great actors are heavily underutilized in the plot and undercut by the limitations of realistic animal animations. I personally don’t think that the use of talking animals will ever work outside of animated films and silly kids movies, but if definitely does not work in Dolittle.

When it comes to story it is basically an exact copy of Up just with fewer balloons and therefore less fun. We do get John Cena as a cuddly polar bear, but even that can’t prevent this ship from sinking. There’s the reluctant hero, who shuts down after the death of his wife until a young kid comes along and he sneaks onto the journey with him. They run into talking furry creatures and eventually complete the adventure that Dolittle's dead wife wasn’t able to complete.

This visualization of the relationship between the animals and Doctor Dolittle is a really helpful reminder for the waste of talent on this production. Honestly, I probably would have enjoyed it more if they went full-on Cats and morphed these stars into their animal counterparts. Now that would have been something. Even more of a fever dream, but certainly entertaining.

For anyone still indecisive about whether they should give this a chance or not, I want to highlight a scene in which a tiger named Barry, voiced by Ralph Fiennes, is kicked in his groins and yells “My Barry Berries!”.

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★☆☆☆☆

Dolittle falls short on almost every level. It lacks humor, charm, and originality and wastes a star-filled cast in favor of a simple cash-grab

Swiss Release Date: 30.01.2020

Film data: Dolittle - Regie: Stephen Gaghan - Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Harry Collett, Rami Malek, Michael Sheen, Emma Thompson, Antonio Banderas, Octavia Spencer, Carmel Laniado, John Cena, Kumail Nanjiani, Jessie Buckley, Jim Broadbent, Ralph Fiennes, Tom Holland, Kasia Smutniak, Selena Gomez - USA - 101 Minuten

Source for Pictures and Trailer: Universal Pictures International Switzerland / COPYRIGHT © 2020 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS and PERFECT UNIVERSE INVESTMENT INC. All Rights Reserved.

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