Onward Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs
Downs...
4. The Formulaic Road Movie Plot
Onward quickly establishes that brothers Ian and Barley Lightfoot (Tom Holland and Chris Pratt) need to find a magical gem which will complete the ritual to resurrect their father for 24 hours - who is currently just a pair of legs.
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Though Pixar has cleverly reinvented well-trod genres in the past, Onward plays it pretty safe in this regard, serving up a mostly standard fare animated road trip movie with little in the way of smart subversion.
As a result, the narrative largely sees Ian and Barley travelling from one zany scenario to the next in shamelessly formulaic fashion, with several of these detours feeling less like comedically or dramatically inspired sojourns and more like contrived padding.
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