ONWARD 3D [2019 / 2020] [3D Blu-ray + 2D Blu-ray] [UK Release] From the Creators of TOY STORY, The Incredibles and COCO!
In PIXAR and Disney's ‘ONWARD,’ teenage elf brothers Ian Lightfoot (voices of Tom Holland) and Barley Lightfoot (voices of Chris Pratt) get an unexpected opportunity to spend one more day with their late dad, so they embark on an extraordinary quest aboard Barley Lightfoot's epic van Guinevere. Like any good quest, their journey is filled with magic spells, cryptic maps, impossible obstacles and unimaginable discoveries. But when the boys' fearless mum Laurel Lightfoot (voice of Julia Louis-Dreyfus) realises their sons are missing, she teams up with a part-lion, part-bat, part-scorpion, former warrior aka The Manticore (voice of Octavia Spencer) and heads off to find them. Perilous curses aside, this one magical day could mean more than any of them ever dreamed.
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 2020 Dublin International Film Festival: Win: Fantastic Flix Children's Jury Award for Best Feature for Dan Scanlon.
FILM FACT No.2: There was a storyboard scene where Ian Lightfoot, Barley Lightfoot, and Wilden are joined with a goat girl in their journey. Ian Lightfoot and the goat girl come across as though hosted by three evil mermaids. The mermaids sing their mesmerizing song to lure the two into staying in one of three houses for rent. Ian Lightfoot tries to silence them with the staff but the spell is too weak. When Ian Lightfoot and the goat girl are finally in a trance, the mermaids place them in one of the houses. The house they are in starts to sink into the ground. The goat girl was omitted because the filmmakers want the film to focus on the relationship between Ian Lightfoot and Barley Lightfoot. The scene itself was removed because the filmmakers felt it was too grim.
Voice Cast: Tom Holland (Ian Lightfoot), Chris Pratt (Barley Lightfoot), Octavia Spencer (The Manticore), Mel Rodriguez (Colt Bronco), Kyle Bornheimer (Voice of Dad Wilden Lightfoot), Lena Waithe (Officer Spector), Ali Wong (Officer Gore), Grey Griffin (Dewdrop “Pixie Dusters Leader”), Tracey Ullman (Grecklin “Pawn Shop Owner”), Wilmer Valderrama (Gaxton “College Friend”), George Psarras (Officer Avel) and John Ratzenberger (Construction Worker Fenwick)
Director: Dan Scanlon
Producers: Becky Neiman-Cobb, Daniela Strijleva, Kori Rae, p.g.a. and Pete Docter
Screenplay: Dan Scanlon (original story/ screenplay), Jason Headley (original story/screenplay) and Keith Bunin (original story/ screenplay)
Composers: Jeff Danna (composed) and Mychael Danna (composed)
Cinematography: Adam Habib (Director of Photography) and Sharon Calahan, A.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Audio: English: 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
English: 5.1 High Resolution Audio
English: 2.0 Descriptive Audio
English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
German: 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus Audio
Spanish: 5.1 DTS-HD Digital Surround Audio
Spanish [Catalan]: 5.1 DTS-HD Digital Surround Audio
Subtitles: English SDH, English, Português, Spanish (Catalan), Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French (Quebec), French, German, Italian, Spanish, Norwegian and Swedish
Running Time: 102 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 3
Studio: PIXAR Animation Studios / Walt Disney
Andrew's Blu-ray Review: ‘ONWARD’ [2020] is PIXAR’s latest advocates for the everyday magic within us. PIXAR films can change the way you see the world. Whether it is the symbiosis of art and critique, the afterlife and the familial bonding, starting afresh in your twilight years, or humanising emotions. PIXAR has a knack for dismantling perceptions. The imagination, at a conceptual and philosophical level, often transcends the creativity we see on-screen.
PIXAR’s latest animated film, ‘ONWARD’ has a similar goal and it wants you to re-imagine family and advocates for everyday magic. But in this one, the audio-visual creativity on-screen supersedes the messaging, which is simple and personal, but hardly life-altering.
The 3D animated film begins in a time, long long ago, when there was magic in this world. All mythical creatures knew how to use magic, be free and explore. Over time, the magic started dying and civilisation, as we know it, tamed the creatures.
This is the background of ‘ONWARD’ which follows the quest of two elf brothers, Ian Lightfoot and Barley Lightfoot, to find a jewel that can bring back their dead father. The film functions on two levels, one where the mythical creatures, living in a suburban area, learn to tap into the magic they forgot they had, and other is a more personal one and the pursuit of an absentee father. While the 3D animated film earnestly and successfully builds up the emotional crescendo with the two brothers, the attempt to reinvigorate magic in a suburban life (allegorically, the world we inhabit today) remains a rather neglected by-product. The philosophy of ‘ONWARD’ remains on the surface, and even predictable, which is not the level of emotional intelligence we expect from PIXAR.
Once you make peace with the disappointment that this Pixar film doesn’t possess the transcendence of ‘Ratatouille,’ ‘UP’ or ‘Inside Out,’ you can enjoy the temporality of the film: the world-building and wit. There are imaginative booby traps, invisible trust bridges, amusing spells and ample silly animation humour. An elf single mother dating a cop centaur, rough pixies riding bikes in groups and a tame manticore running what should have been a dangerous tavern, make for hilarious characters. There’s also a Cyclopes police officer, who is touted to be Disney’s first-ever openly-lesbian cartoon character, where Cyclopes has one line that reveals her sexual orientation: “My girlfriend’s daughter got me pulling my hair out.”
‘ONWARD’ partly succeeds in its quest to capture PIXAR animation magic from the studios newest animated film is a mostly enjoyable effort that rises to the occasion at the most crucial moments at its best. ‘ONWARD’ is PIXAR’s first original, non-sequel movie in more than two years, makes you wish that they’d finally leave Woody and Buzz in the toy chest.
The style and tone of writer-director Dan Scanlon’s movie has elements of DreamWorks’ ‘Shrek’ and ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ mixed with the siblings-with-secrets aspects of Disney’s ‘Frozen.’ But ‘ONWARD’” is better for the change-up. That stylistic and narrative departure gives us PIXAR’s most heartfelt story in years. What began as a fairy-tale town — think King Arthur and Merlin — lost its magical powers through the years as the creatures invented modern conveniences. Who needs a wand when you’ve got lightbulbs and microwaves? Thus, history has become a legend.
ONWARD MUSIC TRACK LIST
LET’S GET IT ON (Written by Marvin Gaye and Ed Townsend) [Performed by Marvin Gaye] [The beginning portion is heard as Laurel's ringtone]
CARRIED ME WITH YOU (Written by Brandi Carlile, Phil Hanseroth and Tim Hanseroth) [Performed by Brandi Carlile] [The closing credits' song]
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3D Blu-ray Image Quality – PIXAR and Walt Disney presents us with a stunning 1080p image and a brilliant 2.39:1 aspect ratio that really enhances the 3D image and looks absolutely stunning. When magic comes out the end of a staff, there’s pixie dust and the stuff dreams are made of. Textures on the Elvin skin have a palpable sense to them, especially the stubble on Barley Lightfoot’s face. The backgrounds are so clear, you feel like you could walk through the television into their world. Wonderful multitude of colours really burst out of the screen, stitches are visible in a jean jacket. Scenes in an underground tunnel envelop characters in pure black. Near an expressway as the youngsters pull off into town and at night, the differing elements seamlessly blend. Suffice to say that when you pop the 3D Blu-ray into your player the result is sheer joyous wonderful visual delight.
3D Blu-ray Audio Quality – PIXAR and Walt Disney brings you two alternative audio experiences and they are 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and 5.1 High Resolution Audio are an equally audio experience, but found the 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio to be a slightly higher grade audio experience. This is a very loud animated film, but it’s not so “in your face” loud that you feel the need to turn the volume down. Vocals are spot on, sharp and crisp and lacking with any distortion. The front soundstage speakers pull no punches and directional effects are used often and with great results. So while audiophiles might turn their noses up at this, I found it very acceptable and, more to the point, a very enjoyable experience, as well as magical.
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2D Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Audio Commentary with Director Dan Scanlon [Writer & Director] and Kori Rae, p.g.a. [Producer]: Here Dan Scanlon and Kori Rae introduce themselves and of course are here to talk about the PIXAR Animation Studios animated film ‘ONWARD.’ Dan Scanlon comments that this is the second project that both of them have worked on together, and this time wanted to something really special and much more personal together, and that is why they feel this animated film connected with everyone who worked on it and especially with audiences around the world. They wanted to start the animated film with a fantasy setting, on what the place looked like before it went the way of the modern day setting for the rest of the animated film. As we get to the 2:40 part of the animated film, where we enter the modern day setting, where everything has started to go wrong, and we see the Pegasus going through the garbage and eating it. Now we enter the Lightfoot family home, which is loosely based on Dan Scanlon’s own family situation when he was a very young boy and especially growing up with an older brother who was three years older and of course his Mother, when Dan Scanlon was one year old. Then suddenly the older boisterous brother Barley burst in, causing havoc, which was not like Dan Scanlon’s older brother, who was totally the opposite to Barely Lightfoot. Then suddenly Colt Bronco the policeman comes into the house and causing havoc, who is of course a Centaur, who is also a mounted policeman, all rolled into one character. When you see Ian Lightfoot doing a lot of writing in his little notebook, and of course when the film was shown in countries that do not speak or read English, they of course had to have the written words in that countries native language. They say that they wanted lots of different fantasy characters, like elves, trolls, but set in a modern day world. When Dan Scanlon had to sort out all of his Father’s paperwork, he came across a tape cassette of his Father’s voice, which he had never heard before, but unfortunately it was not until the end of the tape cassette he finally heard his voice, but all he says is “Hi,” and “Goodbye” and both brothers thought it was super magical, and of course inspirational to be included in the animated film. They wanted to have a gift from their Father that was a very magical gift, and especially for the staff as a way of an introduction of bringing magic back into their world, that had been lost over a very long time. When Ian Lightfoot reads the Letter from his Father Wilden Lightfoot, is exactly the words you hear at the start of the fantasy sequence in the animated film and is the voice of Kyle Bornheimer. When you see the two brothers driving off on their perilous journey and destiny, and they run out of fuel for the van, well the team still wanted to create some fantasy sequence, even though it was still in a modern day setting, so of course Ian Lightfoot tries to make the petrol can much larger, but unfortunately makes Barley Lightfoot tiny, and at the same time create some magic chaos. When you see the Mother and The Manitore arrive at the Pawn Shop and they say it was really wonderful and a great honour to be able to get Tracey Ullman to play Grecklin the “Pawn Shop Owner,” even though it was a very short scene and of course The Manitore has to give Grecklin a small injection in here neck to render her helpless so The Manitore can retrieve her giant sword, because Grecklin would only let it go because of the massive price tag. When we get to see Barley Lightfoot defending the fountain, you soon see that he realises the item in his hand that they found on their perilous journey, which suddenly starts the whole saga and the big climax of the animated film, with the battle of the stone Dragon and Ian finally becomes the hero at last and will their Mother, The Manitore be there to help, and will both the brothers finally get to see the fully formed Father? When we see Barley Lightfoot in the distance talking to the fully formed father. We of course are longing to know what the Father says to Barley Lightfoot, well Dan Scanlon lets out the secret, the words said by the father, is the exact same words said by Bill Murray to Scarlett Johansson in the film ‘Lost in Translation.’ Also Dan Scanlon mentions that when an animated film is finished, they usually at PIXAR have a rap party to celebrate the finished animated film, and especially watch the finished film and people are allowed to bring guests, and Dan Scanlon is going to bring his elder brother to the party to watch the animated film ‘ONWARD.’ So ends this audio commentary with Director Dan Scanlon [Writer & Director] and Kori Rae, p.g.a. [Producer] and it was quite interesting and sometimes Dan Scanlon would go off at a tangent now and again to talk about past family stories, especially about his elder brother, but despite this, it was still an interesting audio commentary and worth listen to.
Special Feature: Quest for Story [2019] [1080p] [1.78:1 / 2.39:1] [9:21] The animated film's story, characters, and themes explored with roots in Dan Scanlon's own history with an older brother he looked up to and also talks about when he was a year old, his Father sadly passed away, and his brother was three years old at the rime, and of course he has absolutely no memory of his Father, and the animated film was a curiosity about his Father and who he really was and of course it is also about the two brothers characters and their perilous journey together and to find out more about their Father and also how they eventually bonded together so well and at the same time gave each other support on overcoming obstacles on their journey. We also get to view lots of rare sketches of the two main characters in the animated film, as well as viewing some animated storyboard drawings. Also very interesting is seeing behind-the-scenes of the animators at work and trying to work scenes out. We also get lots of clips from the animated film ‘ONWARD.’ Contributors include: Dan Scanlon [Writer & Director], Kori Rae, p.g.a. [Producer], Bill Scanlon [Dan’s Brother], Austin Madison [Story Artist], Catherine Apple [Film Editor], Noah Klocek [Production Designer], Betty Scanlan Zych [Dan’s Mother], Kelsey Mann [Story Supervisor], Madeline Sharafian [Story Lead] and Louis Smyth [Story Artist].
Special Feature: Citizens of New Mushroomton [2019] [1080p] [2.39:1 / 1.78:1] [10:08] This special features starts up with clips from the animated film ‘ONWARD,’ and seeing the two brothers starting out on their long journey of discovery, and to show their modern world where no humans live. Citizens of New Mushroomton is the primary location in the PIXAR animated film, ‘ONWARD.’ This is the place where elves, goblins, trolls, centaurs, gnomes, mermaids, sprites, fauns, satyrs, cyclopes, dragons, and unicorns live there. Here get to view how they went about building a "modern fantasy world" and the characters that inhabit it, including main illustrations of the character designs, but much more refined and full of colour and voice work. We also get to hear in more detail about the main characters in the animated film. Contributors include: Sanjay Bakshi [Supervising Technical Director], Burt Berry [Shading Art Director], Dan Scanlon [Writer & Director], Becky Neiman-Cobb [Associate Producer], Kori Rae, p.g.a. [Producer], Louise Smyth [Story Artist], Matt Nolte [Character Art Director], Noah Klocek [Production Designer], Kelsey Mann [Story Supervisor], Tom Holland [Voice of Ian], Chris Pratt [Voice of Barley], Michael Stocker [Animation Supervisor], Julia Louis-Dreyfus [Voice of Laurel], Maria Yi [Character Designer], Adam Habib [Director of Photography Layout], Octavia Spencer [Voice of The Manticore], Rob Thompson [Animation Supervisor] and Jessica Torres [Directing Animator].
Special Feature: Heart's Fire [2019] [1080p] [1.78:1 / 2.39:1] [7:35] With this special feature, it combines a character-driven drama with magic, exploring character construction, digital workflow, and much more. We also get lots of clips from the animated film ‘ONWARD’ and about the magic they experience with their Father’s “Wizard Staff” with their onward perilous journey, and how the brothers found their strength and weakness, especially about each other’s characters. We get to see how they got a real person who is clothed in green on the top half of his body to see what it is like to have only his legs visible like the Father in the animated film ‘ONWARD’ and then with trick photography, we only see his legs walking about while trying to communicate with his feet so that they can use it to incorporate it into the animated film. We also get to see the animators trying to come up with named for magic spells and what they do, and you also get to see the team trying out the spells and making comments from the other team if they are good spells or whether they are rubbish spells. Contributors include: Vincent Serritella [Effects Supervisor], Noah Klocek [Production Designer], Sanjay Bakshi [Supervising Technical Director], Sharon Calahan [Director of Photography Lighting], Adam Habib [Director of Photography Layout], Rib Thompson [Animation Supervisor], Kelsey Mann [Story Supervisor], Kori Rae, p.g.a. [Producer] and Madeline Sharafian [Story Lead].
Special Feature: Dragon High [2019] [1080p] [1.78:1 / 2.39:1] [6:31] Here we get to view the making of the animated film ‘ONWARD’ and the film's climactic action sequence when Ian battles with the stone dragon, and how they went about creating it, and we get to see how very complicated the animation process was in trying to get the Stone Dragon to look right, and we see the team also trying to work out the storyline for the Dragon High sequence, but they eventually were all very satisfied with the finished animation. Contributors include: Kori Rae, p.g.a. [Producer], Kelsey Mann [Story Supervisor], Dan Scanlon [Writer & Director], Austin Madison [Story Artist], Catherine Apple [Film Editor], Garrett Taylor [Set Designer], Josh Minor [Sr. Lead Software Engineer], Stephen Steinbach [Sr. Software Engineer], Adam Habib [Director of Photography Layout], Hannah Eichers [Animation Coordinator], Russell Stough [Animation Manager], Michael Stocker [Animation Supervisor], Sharon Calahan [Director of Photography Lighting] and Sudeep Rangaswamy [Technology & Pipeline Supervisor].
Special Feature: Wizard Rock [2019] [1080p] [1.78:1 / 2.39:1] [6:31] With this special feature, first we are at the East West Studios in Los Angeles, California, in a recording studio with several musicians, where they are trying to create and compose the music for the two brothers characters in the animated film. Next up we visit the Eastwood Scoring Stage in Los Angeles, California, this time with a full orchestra of 100 musicians, and we also get to see clips from the animated film, that relates to what the orchestra is playing and recording. Contributors include: Jeff Danna [Composer] and Mychael Danna [Composer].
Special Feature: Fantasy Is Our Destiny [2019] [1080p] [2.39:1 / 1.78:1] [2:29] Here we take a look at the cast and crew's love for the Fantasy film genre and they all talk about what they like about fantasy and how it affected them when growing up. They also talk about fantasy books they have read when growing up and also informs us their favourite fantasy films they have really enjoyed. We also here from certain animators when at school were told they had no talent and would amount to nothing and was always being told off for drawing their own fantasy characters, especially animals like the flying Pegagus [mythical winged divine horse] and Dragons. Contributors include: Kori Rae, p.g.a. [Producer], Louis Smythe [Story Artist], Tom Holland [Voice of Ian], Chris Pratt [Voice of Barley], Sudeep Rangaswamy [Technology & Pipeline Supervisor], Octavia Spencer [Voice of The manticore], Austin Maddison [Story Artist], Jessica Torres [Directing Aniator], Jeff Danna [Composer], Mychael Danna [Composer], Maria Yi [Character design] and Matt Notle [Character Art Director].
Special Feature: Deleted Scenes [2019] [1080p] [2.39:1 / 1.78:1] [29:27] Here we get to view first of all a personal Introduction by Dan Scanlon [Writer & Director], explaining in great detail why seven different very basic animated storyboard deleted scenes that did not end up in the animated film for certain reasons and they are as follows: Unstoppable; Training; Mismanaged; Partnership; Trees Warning and Sirens. By the way, when you get to Sirens, you get a quick glimpse of a full colour short animated deleted scene of the two brothers when they were very young. After that you get to view a full length animated basic storyboard of the Sirens delete scene. As usual, you can either play each deleted scene separately or Play All.
Sneak Peeks Previews: Here we get to view three Original Trailers and they are as follows: DisneyLand Paris [2020] [1080p] [2.39:1] [0:30]; SOUL [2021] [1080p] [2.39:1] [1:31] and Jungle Cruise [2021] [1080p] [2.39:1] [2:05].
Trailers and Promo: Here we get to view six individual separate trailers that is related to the PIXAR Animation Studios ‘ONWARD’ and they are as follows: Magic Gems [2019] [1080p] [1.78:1] [2:54]; World – Global Teaser in English [2019] [1080p] [2.39:1] [1:53]; Believe – United States Trailer [2019] [1080p] [2.39:1] [2:33]; Japan Payoff Trailer [English Subtitles] [2019] [1080p] [2.39:1] [2:05]; Legs – Global Trailer in Ukrainian [English Subtitles] [2019] [1080p] [2.39:1] [2:32] and Memories – Global Trailer in Spanish [English Subtitles] [2019] [1080p] [2.39:1] [1:51].
BONUS: MAXIMIZER: MAXIMIZE YOUR HOME THEATRE! It informs you to get the most out of your Home Theater by conducting the following simple testes. Use the left and right arrow keys on your remote control to page through each test, and they are as follows: Getting Started / Aspect Ratio and Framing / Brightness / Contrast / Gamm / Audio.
Finally, the PIXAR Animation Studios ‘ONWARD’ is a crowd-pleasing and surprisingly moving adventure. There's a novelty akin to that of the animated film ‘Zootopia’ in seeing non-human characters inhabit a familiar, human-like suburban universe. In the world of ‘ONWARD,’ feral unicorns eat trash like raccoons, dragons can be pets, and a millennia-old The Manticore [Octavia Spencer] runs a Medieval Times-meets-Chuck E. Cheese novelty restaurant. Tom Holland [Ian Lightfoot], Chris Pratt [Barley Lightfoot], do a winning job as brothers who are opposites but still very close. Chris Pratt's Barley Lightfoot is particularly charming: Who is an exuberant, role-playing game aficionado who believes deeply in the magic left in their world. Tom Holland's Ian Lightfoot is a lot like his Peter Parker [Spiderman] personality: earnest and reluctant to embrace the powers he exhibits. And Louis-Dreyfus is an ideal pick as a comedic but courageous Mother to the two brothers who won't stop until she's protected her sons. Although the fantasy-adventure plot is fairly straightforward, the story may make even adults (especially those who have lost a parent) will shed some tears. PIXAR's fantasy adventure ‘ONWARD’ takes place in a fantasy world in which elves, trolls, centaurs, minotaur’s, and other creatures co-exist in a traditional suburban setting. ‘ONWARD’ is a crowd-pleasing and surprisingly moving adventure. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
