Hello everybody and welcome back to the Rotoscopers' YouTube.
In today's video, I'm going to be giving you my spoiler review of Pixar's new, fantasy
adventure film Onward.
So if you want to go on this review quest with me, then keep on watching.
First and foremost, this is a spoiler review of Onward.
If you want our non-spoiler review, then check out Chelsea's review right here.
And also if you want to know all the spoilers for the film, because I'm not going to go
through the entire plot right now, but I do in this video right here, check that video
out where I give all the spoilers to the entire film.
Onward is a story about two brothers who live in a magical world, or a formerly magical
world, but this world is inhabited with all sorts of magical creatures.
There are elves, there are sprites, there are unicorns, there are mermaids.
Basically anything that you would imagine in a fantasy adventure, a novel, a movie,
it's there.
But the problem is that magic got too hard for the people long ago.
Magic used to be everywhere and now it's nowhere because technology took over things like the
light bulb, cars, indoor plumbing.
It's going to be big.
And so there really is no need for magic anymore.
Now, I actually really liked the premise of this film.
This is kind of what I imagined The Good Dinosaur was going to be like where it's a modern world,
but it has elements of an old world that doesn't exist anymore.
And so we have all these creatures, the Lightfoots, as they're known, our main characters, Ian
and Barley, they are elves and there's just all these other creatures that they live together,
and it's these magical creatures that are just in a modern setting.
That's what I thought The Good Dinosaur was going to be, that it was going to be dinosaurs
that somehow the meteor missed the Earth and dinosaurs were now living in a modern setting
where there were houses and cars, but they're also still dinosaurs.
To be honest, that's why I actually didn't like The Good Dinosaur because it didn't end
up being that, and to me it was so much cooler to have dinosaurs with cars and planes and
trains and all of those fun things.
Anyways, this isn't a review of The Good Dinosaur, but I am really excited because they brought
those elements into Onward and it was really, really, really fun to see all of these magical
creatures and just ideas in this modern setting.
The characters are really, really strong in this.
The strongest relationship and characters are obviously the two brothers.
They are so different.
You have Ian who's not confident in himself.
He never got to meet his dad, because his dad died when he was just a baby, so he has
all this internal strife and conflict because he really misses his dad, and all these amazing
things he only gets to hear second person account from other people or seeing pictures.
He has just grown up not being very confident.
He doesn't really have any friends.
He's learning how to drive and he's not very good at it.
And then we flip to Barley who is the older brother.
He recently graduated.
He's sort of in a gap year where he's not necessarily doing anything.
He's not going to college, or working, or being a productive member of society if you
will.
But what he is doing is he's really into magic.
He plays this game called Quest of Yore, which is sort of a Dungeons & Dragons style game,
and he's all about preserving the ancient relics around town and preventing those from
being destroyed.
And so he's definitely an activist, a magic activist, if you will.
He's totally nerdy and he's so into the "Hey, hey.
Let's go on a quest."
I think he is so endearing and fun.
He's supposed to be this total loser, just this didn't amount to anything, but I find
him so cute and endearing.
I love him.
He was my favorite.
He's voiced by Chris Pratt, who I just love and adore to death.
He is amazing and do no wrong.
The relationship between the two brothers, I felt, was very believable and realistic.
I really could believe that those two were brothers, and had that relationship, and they
are so fun together, and they are the heart of the story.
Yes, the dad is involved, but because he's just kind of legs, he's not really an active
participant in the story.
He's more of just a tag along, and it's all about the brothers.
It really does come to a really dramatic point at the very end where Ian gives up this opportunity
to be with his dad, to meet his dad, to talk to his dad.
He's been working so hard the past 24 hours to make it happen, and he does this selfless
act of service and gives Barley that chance to say goodbye to his dad.
Oh, the tears.
They were flowing.
So again, the brothers and their relationship was the strongest part of this film that I
really did love and they carried it so, so well.
Now the other characters, I loved the manticore.
She was hilarious and funny, and I'm glad that she wasn't just a one-off character.
We go into the tavern, we get the map or whatever, and we leave.
Where we actually get to see more of her as she travels with the mom to give them the
sword and to save the day, so they have some funny impact.
The mom is great, and I actually really liked that this didn't have too big of a cast of
characters.
There weren't so many people that we needed to focus on.
There's basically the mom, the boyfriend, the manticore, the two brothers, and there's
a few ancillary other characters, but for the most part it's really just this family.
I loved it so much and I really did appreciate the small cast.
Now, like I was talking about with the world building, I thought it was absolutely hilarious.
This is something we've seen since the very beginning trailers, but just how modern society
has sort of taken a toll on this world.
I love that the unicorns are something that us as people who do not have unicorns, we
idolize as these glorious and beautiful majestic beings, but in this world they are essentially
just raccoons.
They are vermin and dumpster divers, and no one really cares, which makes me wonder why
Barley would put one on his van.
Imagine that's like seeing someone with a raccoon on their van, like a glorious flying
raccoon.
We'd be like, "Huh?"
So yeah, no wonder people thought he was a weirdo.
I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the idea of this quest, because the quest
felt very formulaic and it seems like a video game almost.
Where go here, now go here, now go here, follow the clues, go here, go here, go here.
It really did feel like a video game that I was playing where I was getting the characters
where they needed to go and less like a movie.
The very beginning was cool when they went to the manticore's tavern, but as it kept
going on, I kind of was losing interest, because it felt like insert another quest plot point
here.
If I compare it to other films, like I don't know, National Treasure, am I really mentioning
National Treasure, or Indiana Jones, I just felt like, I feel like the quest aspect in
those movies didn't take me away as much as this one.
I don't know.
I guess I just felt like a little too meta how the beginning of the quest started from
the game that's essentially a quest, and I don't know, so I didn't love that.
Did you love that?
Was I the only person who felt this way?
Did you feel like you were watching a video game?
That means that I did like the elements of the quest, how it's never the easy path that
you expect.
And [Raven's Point 00:06:52] particularly was pretty fun.
Another issue that I had was the elements of magic and how it was almost too easy for
Ian.
It seemed like, "Oh, magic has been lost."
Sort of like the ring.
It was a fable, it was a myth, it was a legend.
And then here he is and within 24 hours he goes from not being able to do anything to
mastering the hardest spell in the land, and there's really only three basic things to
magic and then you got it.
Like, I don't know.
I know there was this book, this kind of like guidebook of magic, but it just seemed like
it was too easy.
And again it was too formulaic.
There were like the three things that he had to do to master magic, and he did one, and
then he was able to do the next one, and then do the next one.
And then finally, arcane lightning.
And another issue that I had is it seemed like everyone had just completely forgotten
magic altogether except Barley.
It seemed no one had any interest in magic and he was just the one weirdo kook who was
still into magic.
I have a hard time believing that.
I have a feeling that if magic was involved, there would be so many more people.
There would be clubs.
I guess they kind of alluded to that when the manticore's like, "No, there's been too
many people going on quests and getting hurt, and I can't risk it anymore."
And so maybe they were just kind of just one-off people, but it just seemed like it was just
so easy, because he was the one person who knew about magic and was able to help Ian.
Then also I was really, really confused with the Phoenix gem, because, okay, if it's so
rare they were able to get it in 24 hours, and then no one had figured out that the Phoenix
gem just happened to be like right there by the school.
Like had no one else attempted to go on this quest before?
That really, really confused me, or does this sort of like in a video game where anyone
can go on this quest and then the gem would like reappear for the next player?
So many questions.
Why it was so easy to get the gem?
I mean it was hard to get it, but it was 24 hours and you were done.
Like check.
It would've been kind of interesting if they introduced some antagonists, other people
who were trying to get the gem.
We already had the ticking time bomb element with the 24 hour countdown that was really
giving us urgency to move forward, but I think another layer you could've done was to have
other people searching for this and realize if they get it, then our chance to meet our
dad is over.
So not only are we, we have to do it in 24 hours, but we have to get it before these
other people do.
Kind of like a rat race.
Did I really mention Rat Race?
And I know people have said this before, but to me this just did not feel like a Pixar
film.
I don't know what it was about it, but it was missing that Pixar element that just really
made these stories stand out, and it had so many good things.
I liked the modern day setting in a magical world.
I liked the relationship of the brothers so much, and I don't know.
The quest element and just how that, how that all came together I think was what threw me
off, and just how magic was in this world.
I also thought it kind of weird that people had basically de-evolved.
The sprites didn't know how to use their wings, and the manticore didn't know how to use their
wings, but then conveniently Ian talks to them and mentions like, "Hey, you should fly."
Boop.
Then they were able to figure out how to fly very quickly.
You're telling me you're able to overcome years of de-evolution and biology to get your
wings to come out and work.
It's like how certain birds have wings, but they just simply can't fly no matter how hard
they try.
I just have feeling like these creatures can't fly anymore.
Another thing is like how many years has it been since magic went away?
That was never quite clear.
Was it a couple decades?
Was it a couple of hundred?
Was it thousands?
I would've liked that to help ground me of how close or far away we were from the magical
realm.
But I really did like the ending of it.
I loved how Ian gave that sacrifice to his brother and that really was, like I said,
the core of the element of the story was that brotherly love and that relationship between
them.
So all in all, I liked this movie, but something felt off.
Again, it didn't quite feel like Pixar to me, and I felt like I was just watching someone
play a video game versus watching a movie and there were pieces of the quest and elements
of magic that were just a little too easy for me.
I would've liked them to try a little bit harder, but ultimately it's the brothers that
saved the day.
So with that, I am going to give this movie three out of five stars.
I didn't absolutely love it.
I probably won't be going back and watching it again.
It's probably one of my lower tier Pixar films, but it still was a really fun time and very
enjoyable.
All right, let me know on a scale of one star or, I guess zero stars, if you're that person,
to five stars, what would you rate Onward.
Let me know in the comments below.
All right guys, thank you so much for watching.
Let me know also if there's any other videos that you want me to do on Onward, or anything
Disney Pixar animation, let me know.
I'm here to record more videos just for you.
Until next time.
I'm Morgan, and this is the Rotoscopers' YouTube.
Ian is voiced by Spider-man.
What's his name?