For some lore on this review series
In all honestly when I first heard the premised of Onward I thought was going to super derivative of Full Metal Alchemist. And that soured my perception of this movie. Then I heard that no, that the comparison to Full Metal Alchemist was not a good comparison and that Onward was like Dungeons and Dragons.
Now I can’t say that I myself am I DnD person, I just never got into those types of games BUT I will say while I do like Full Metal Alchemist I and not so much into DnD, I was warmer to the idea of Onward going into it as it more akin to Dungeons and Dragons.
And then I watched the movie.
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Thy Riddle is a Puzzle
Honestly I’m a little baffled on this movie because I was very underwhelmed by it on the whole. We have sprawling world that was formally magical but it’s suburban fantasy with unbaked concept. However let’s put a pin in that and start with some positives.
Thy Positives
While I do think core aspect of this world were underdeveloped, I did like architecture. For example Ian’s high school is a very intriguing combination of medieval with neoclassical design.
Speaking of the high school I did love the Curse Dragon that made from the school and face was the painted dragon mascot. Hands down I thought the was creative part of the movie for me. More of the Curse Dragon please!
Also on the subject of dragons, I loved Blazey the pet dragon.
I enjoyed the subplot with Corey the Manticore and Laurel.
Also the scene when Barley sacrifices his van, I felt that for some reason.
Thy Quest for Questing
I might be alone on this one but Onward really didn’t resonate with me. I first I thought maybe it was the fact that I’m not a fan of Dungeons and Dragons as table top game and that as the core aesthetic an subject matter of Onward would be alienating for me but then I remember that I actually enjoyed Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves movie and I adore The Guild which is more MMO RPG but it’s tangental. So that wasn’t the reason.
Thy Resonates Not
So what is about Onward that other people seem to like/love but didn’t work for me. Honestly I didn’t resonate to characters or the humor. I’m not sure it was the vocal performance by the actors or how they were directed but the performances existed in a weird place between being too restrained and too over-acted. It felt less than genuine but not enough to be over-the-top in a good way.
I do understand why people liked the character but I found Barley very annoying most of the time. His more genuine emotional moments were fine and did land but mostly I didn’t enjoy his antic or character.
Thy Creatures be People
I think weird issue I have with Onward is a similar issue I have with Monster Inc, there is all this diversity is denizens of in this world and yet the just feel like humans. They live in mushroom houses but it just a human-code space. They have cars but they are for humans. The elf of just blue with pointed ears. There is Colt, a centaur who has to exist in these space but also what does it mean to be a cyclops, an ogre or any other type of magical creature in this world? How are the mermaids faring with their magical atrophy? But it’s okay because it was used for humor.
This more of me issue but from the prologue I thought that magic was skill that most creatures can learn with time but it seems like no you need to have a gift for it and it’s hard to learn. So I thought while watching the movie that Ian having magic but not Barley was inconsistently as Barley could just learn but no I was mistaken. While it’s true that magical is hard and electricity is easy one still needs to learn magic.
Thy Ending Lore
Perhaps I’m heartless or emotional stunted but while I do get appeal of emotional crux of Onward and Ian’s revelation of his older brother Barley shaped his life I just didn’t connect to it like other people have. So while I do recognize other people love/like Onward, I do not.
I wish this movie had been more about the Curse Dragon with the silly painted face or it had more Blazey. Or maybe the sequel can be a gal-pal road trip movie.
