I'm seeing a pattern with PIXAR movies now. Increasingly, the movies feel less about thinking up an interesting story, and more about picking some tear-jerking moment and then attempting to build a story around them.
I'm all for a good tear-jerking moment or two, but those moments have to be earnt and come naturally. Whilst watching Onward, you can almost feel the script writers and director standing around you, begging for a single tear, or a sniffle. Unfortunately, they feel far less concerned about writing the story and the characters that get you there.
That's not to say Onward is bad. It's entertaining enough, and there is the odd chuckle, but it never really comes to life. One of the other problems is the 'world' they have created. The idea of a fantasy world, full of fantasy creatures that have advanced to modern levels of technology, is a great concept but they do very little with it. For the most part, the story could have happened in our world with a small dash of magic.
Zootopia is a prime example of doing this alternate universe well. It takes the concept of a world full of animals, but using contemporary levels of technology, then alters that world with logical extensions of 'what if?'. This makes for plenty of enjoyable 'skewed reality' jokes and metaphors. Onward pretty much misses most of those opportunities.
For example, Onward's equivalent of Dungeons and Dragons... In our world, it is a fun way to imagine being in a fantasy realm. It should be the equivalent to their characters, flipped for a fantasy world. What would that be? Perhaps it would entirely lack magic, and be all about technology? Unfortunately, knowledge of magic from the game is a core feature required to move the plot along, which also lessens the need for us to actually BE in a fantasy world, rather than simply being in the normal world and enjoying the discovery that magic is real.
Then there are simple touches... One humourous moment shows that unicorns have actually become more akin to vermin and wild dogs. This is one of the few genuinely funny moments. However, the brother's van is painted with a magical unicorn on the side, in the same way that an equivalent character in our world would have. It makes no sense. It would be like having a few scruffy rats or wild dogs painted on it, rather than something magical.
Ultimately, the events unfold in a contrived way in order to 'force' the tear-jerking emotional moments and all-important 'life lessons'. As a result, rather than being an emotional road trip it's more of a bus ride with a few pleasant views, that gets you from A to B.
I'm all for a good tear-jerking moment or two, but those moments have to be earnt and come naturally. Whilst watching Onward, you can almost feel the script writers and director standing around you, begging for a single tear, or a sniffle. Unfortunately, they feel far less concerned about writing the story and the characters that get you there.
That's not to say Onward is bad. It's entertaining enough, and there is the odd chuckle, but it never really comes to life. One of the other problems is the 'world' they have created. The idea of a fantasy world, full of fantasy creatures that have advanced to modern levels of technology, is a great concept but they do very little with it. For the most part, the story could have happened in our world with a small dash of magic.
Zootopia is a prime example of doing this alternate universe well. It takes the concept of a world full of animals, but using contemporary levels of technology, then alters that world with logical extensions of 'what if?'. This makes for plenty of enjoyable 'skewed reality' jokes and metaphors. Onward pretty much misses most of those opportunities.
For example, Onward's equivalent of Dungeons and Dragons... In our world, it is a fun way to imagine being in a fantasy realm. It should be the equivalent to their characters, flipped for a fantasy world. What would that be? Perhaps it would entirely lack magic, and be all about technology? Unfortunately, knowledge of magic from the game is a core feature required to move the plot along, which also lessens the need for us to actually BE in a fantasy world, rather than simply being in the normal world and enjoying the discovery that magic is real.
Then there are simple touches... One humourous moment shows that unicorns have actually become more akin to vermin and wild dogs. This is one of the few genuinely funny moments. However, the brother's van is painted with a magical unicorn on the side, in the same way that an equivalent character in our world would have. It makes no sense. It would be like having a few scruffy rats or wild dogs painted on it, rather than something magical.
Ultimately, the events unfold in a contrived way in order to 'force' the tear-jerking emotional moments and all-important 'life lessons'. As a result, rather than being an emotional road trip it's more of a bus ride with a few pleasant views, that gets you from A to B.