Review: In Onward, a strange but worthy Pixar magic act | Entertainment

For a revolutionary animation studio, Pixar has surprisingly been wary of technological advances. The company may be at the forefront of digital animation, but for 25 years, its spiritual DNA has been resolutely nostalgic. It is the new school of the old school.

In WALL-E, high-tech humans have become overweight television addicts who need to be shaken by their stupor. In Monsters Inc., modern children have become too blasé to be frightened by monsters, causing a shortage of screams. Cars preached the values ​​of small towns off the beaten track.

The latest Pixars, Onward, goes even further. A long time ago, the world was amazed, introduces a narrator. There were magical creatures like trolls, gnomes, elves and dragons with special powers. But the drumbeat of progress, from light bulbs to planes to smartphones, has regularly undermined the whole fantasy of life. In New Mushroomton, an expanse of suburbs and highways similar to Los Angeles, these once magical creatures lead an orderly and predictable life much like ours, with unicorns still in the trash and goblins who roll in gangs bikers.

The configuration is Pixar par excellence, even if Onward with his bluish pointy-eared elves in flannel shirts and 70s-style hymns almost resembles Pixars' response to progressive rock. This is one of the strangest movies in the studios, one that owes a lot more to Dungeons & Dragons and the rock-geek exuberance of Jack Black than your typical animated film.

Ahead, written and directed by Dan Scanlon (Monsters University), may be initially difficult to sell, and it's not a film that will immediately rise to the top of everyone's Pixars rankings. (Ratatouille forever.) But his eccentric odyssey of two brothers plunging into a fantastic past to find their way through grief and self-doubt is a worthy addition to the canon of the studios. His world is a bit incongruous (we want to see the centaur's police officer), and the depiction of death in the movies is not as sharp as in, say, Up or Toy Story 3. But Onward makes the most of its strange blend to tell a story sweet and touching enough to let you shake your head once again at the magic act of Pixars.

Ian Lightfoot (voiced by Tom Holland) is a high school elf with typical teenage problems. He is 16 years old, a transition to adulthood which for Ian is filled with anguish and anxiety. His lack of self-confidence is all the more worrying for him when he learns that his late father, whose death occurred before the birth of Ian, was an audacious man. impressive. Ian makes a new list of me with the entry: Be more like dad.

He lives with his mother, Laurel (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and his older brother, Barley (Chris Pratt). Barley drives a battered purple pickup truck with a winged horse decal and a tape deck; he nicknamed the van Guenièvre. (You'll let Onward swear that someone owes Jack Black money.) Dressed in a denim vest and a spiked bracelet, Barley doesn't seem to be heading for one. great success in life, but he is an affectionately enthusiastic brother of Ian and a young man with passionate tastes. He is an aficionado of the role-playing game Quest of Yore and an ardent defender of the artifacts of the past. For developers who thwart, it melodramatically binds to magic relics.

The adventure of the film begins when Ian opens a gift that his father left him (expressed by Bryan Cranston): a stick and a spell that will bring back Ians' father for a day. Ian finishes only half the round: his father returns in pants and dress shoes. In a race to beat the sunset over the next few days, the children tow their half-trained father on an odyssey in search of a crystal for another chance to take advantage of the spell.

A pair of elves with a half-resuscitated dead father is, unquestionably, esoteric territory for even Pixar. When Ian gives him a pillow chest, a shirt and shades, the effect is a bit like Weekend at Bernies. And yet, Onward still works. As they hunt from place to place, the quest for the elves awakens long pools of dormant magic. Under pressure from insurance companies and Yelp reviews, a manticore (Octavia Spencer) is beginning to question the transformation of its lair into a restaurant similar to the TGI Fridays.

In a series of such meetings, Ian gradually becomes more courageous; the film is not as unconventional as it seems. But Onward pivots, moving. It is more brotherly love than anything else. As a Pixar entry, he may be the first to explicitly fight not with the trials of childhood, but with the heavy onset of adulthood. Either way, by the time Onward has completed his journey, it will likely be the only movie with a manticore to make you cry.

Onward, a version of Walt Disney Co., is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for its action / peril and some light thematic elements. Duration: 103 minutes. Three stars out of four.