Onward is an on-point experience

★★★★☆Disney’s new animated film, “Onward,” released March 6, was a tearjerker. The story was emotional, backed by an intriguing concept and writing that could have been better. It might not be a Disney classic, but it had a good moral and solid acting.  “Onward” is the story of two brothers, Ian, played by Tom Holland and Barley, played by Chris Pratt, who must go on a harrowing quest to see their late father one more time. Keeping in theme with Disney’s obsession with dead parents, much of the emotion in this film was caused by grief about Ian never meeting his father. This could have, and has, been resolved many ways in many different films, but “Onward” took a surprisingly mature route, making up for its choppy start. The first few scenes of exposition were written more like a high school coming of age movie— an uncool teen trying to deal with an embarrassing brother and making friends— didn’t quite fit with the rest of the movie, which was all epic fantasy. That being said, they served a purpose, and once that information was relayed, the pacing and dialogue steadily improved, along with Holland and Pratt’s voice acting. While Pratt may have a good number of animated movies under his belt, the field is fairly new to Holland. He proves in “Onward” that although he has generally mastered the awkward teen persona, it might be best for him to stick to live action. There’s a reason the few animated characters Holland plays looks like him: he can’t imitate any other kind of character. Regardless, Holland’s typecasting served its purpose in this movie, even reinforcing the character’s awkwardness. Despite its technical flaws, the concept and storyline for “Onward” was remarkably refreshing for an animated movie. Modeled like Dungeons & Dragons, the city, Ian and Barley’s hometown and the lands surrounding it are like no other cartoon fantasy world. A completely different take on modern magic that asks, “What if our world was magical, but nothing changed?” Beyond concept, the actual story was actually quite unique when compared to other Disney quests. The brothers actually manage to stay on their path, metaphorically, the whole time, instead of a map and a destination just being a starting point for a movie of sidequests. There is no animal companion, unless you count their dad’s disembodied legs. A sibling relationship that is open and loving from the start, only taking the characters the majority of the movie to see that.  “Onward” may have started off rough, but it improved as it went along, and it was fundamentally quite interesting. Plus, it made me cry at the end, so that’s at least three stars for emotion.