Once upon a time, the world was full of original Pixar movies. Then came an era dominated by sequels, and fans complained. But just before those supposed dark times came to an end, Toy Story 4 arrived with some of the most marvelous animation we’ve ever seen — and another smart and hilarious and heartwarming story to go along with the technical cinematic wonder of it all. I watched Toy Story 4 again right after watching Onward, the subsequent release from Pixar and the start of their new age focused on original works again, and it puts this latest title to shame.
That’s not to say Onward is bad by any stretch. It’s a very different kind of movie and a much more personal adventure with its own positive themes that are carried through an imaginative story, one that is comparatively simple and more focused on fewer characters and a narrower narrative. Not that far off from the first Toy Story. Certainly, any criticisms, good or bad, about Onward specifically as a Pixar movie calls for re-watches of the studio’s whole library, for better or worse. Including Onward director Dan Scanlon‘s Monsters University, which is an underrated piece of entertainment.
So, I do recommend seeing Pixar’s latest, which is also very entertaining. What else do I recommend next besides binging on 21 animated features? Well: this edition of Movies to Watch After… recognizes the direct and indirect cinematic roots of Onward as I recommend fans go back and learn some film history, become more well-rounded viewers, and enjoy likeminded works of the past, even if it’s the fairly recent past (and in some instances not enjoy but still learn about some relevant junk). As always, I try to point you in the easiest direction of where to find each of these highlighted titles.
Puddles (2019)
Let’s begin with something small and kind of local as far as Disney animation goes. Puddles is one of the first films in a new series called Short Circuit, which is kind of like Pixar’s own SparkShorts program but involves creators at Walt Disney Animation Studios and is less focused on diversity in its talent or subject matter. Instead, the interest, while still meant to highlight new voices, is geared toward innovation in the form. Puddles is also by far the best of the hit-or-miss series (so far). More importantly for inclusion here, it’s a short film that really reminded me of a major theme of Onward.
Written and directed by Zach Parrish, an animator at Disney for the last decade, Puddles takes a rather simple idea and makes it feel much bigger with ingenious execution. A little boy tries to get his sister’s attention while playing on a sidewalk full of puddles, but she’s busy with her smartphone. He’s a reminder that there’s still imagination and wonder in the world to be found outside the frames of our pocket-sized screens. I’ve seen people say Sony’s upcoming animated feature Connected seems to tackle the message of Onward better, but Puddles already does so in a concisely creative way.
The Kid Who Would Be King (2019)
One of the most underseen and underappreciated if not also underrated (the movie was very well-received by critics) movies of last year, The Kid Who Would Be King is the sort of quality preteen-targeted fantasy adventure that we cherished in the 1980s. That was to be expected from nostalgia-driven writer/director Joe Cornish (Attack the Block). If Onward makes anyone think of Harry Potter, the Pixar feature should also remind them of this similar tale of a young boy who finds out he’s destined for greatness as the chosen one within the context of a magic-based world.
What The Kid Who Would Be King shares more with Onward than Harry Potter does is the idea of returning to a magical time and resurrecting that wizardry for today rather than revealing a still-existing magical society going on beneath our noses. And The Kid Who Would Be King, with its basis in Arthurian legend, is closer to high fantasy for kids with its likeminded medieval-minded quest for a MacGuffin. And similar to Onward, its climax occurs at the boy’s school. But unlike Onward, which goes for intimate, family-focused pursuits, this movie has greater save-the-world stakes.
Stream The Kid Who Would Be King via HBO
Zootopia (2016)
In addition to the short film Puddles, I was especially reminded of another work from Walt Disney Animation Studios while watching Onward, as opposed to any of Pixar’s past features (though many of those came to mind, too). Zootopia is, like Onward, set in a world in which modern society has suppressed the traditional manner of that place. In Onward, mythological creatures lazily use electricity and other conveniences and have forgotten how to use their wings and stopped depending on magic. In Zootopia, animals have advanced from their primal nature so that predators and prey can coexist.
The big difference between the two movies, besides Zootopia having a lot more on its mind and apparently wanting to say something (with debatable political correctness) about racism, is that the old ways are not as fondly resurrected in the story of Zootopia as they are in Onward. The movie’s villain is causing predators to return to their basic bestial behaviors in an effort to frame them as intrinsically too dangerous for society. Onward is, contrarily, critical of its modern life for its dismissal of history and the bygone era of magic and wonder and ultimately supports characters to be free in their beastliness.
About Time (2013)
I probably wouldn’t have thought of About Time as a suggestion if not for Courtney Howard, a critic for Variety and Fresh Fiction whose review of Onward makes the connection to Richard Curtis’ time-travel drama that begins like a rom-com and then turns into more of a father and son story. The latter is the key to the link. “The filmmakers have carefully crafted a heartrending love letter to the magic of rediscovery and the latent powers our legacies hold,” Howard writes. “It’s essentially Pixar’s About Time if Richard Curtis had set his film in an animated magical realm populated with mythical creatures.”
While I knew what Howard was getting at after seeing Onward, it’s still not the most obvious of pairings and not one I’d be comfortable describing as if it was my own idea. So, I reached out to Howard and got this following explanation to share: “Both films share a similar sentiment of a son wanting to spend the most time, bonding further, with his dead dad. Both sons have latent magic abilities unbeknownst to them — Tim’s [in About Time] is metaphysical time travel, Ian’s [in Onward] is wizardry. And both are temporary fixes for greater lessons they’re tasked to learn.”
Tracy (2009)
Onward is Dan Scanlon’s second feature with Pixar but his third feature overall. His first (incorrectly labeled as a short in some places) was made outside of his work for the animation studio, where he’s been employed since 2001, and it’s a live-action film in the mockumentary format (unsurprisingly, he’s a huge fan of The Office) called Tracy. The premise is that a filmmaker, played by Scanlon, is making a documentary investigating the shooting of a children’s television host decades earlier. Despite how the plot sounds, this isn’t another Citizen Kane by way of Velvet Goldmine level masterpiece. It’s a crudely shot debut.
However, Tracy is worth checking out for what it is, and there is even an interesting connection outside of the obvious. Onward is a movie conceived from a very personal place for Scanlon, who like the main character lost his father before he could ever know the man. And he, too, has an older brother who had only a few vague memories of their dad. But maybe Onward isn’t the first time Scanlon made a movie as a way to cathartically deal with having grown up without knowing his father. Again, I’m going to let this idea come from the person who first made me realize the relevance.
As Collider’s Dave Trumbore puts it, “Tracy feels like the first honest exploration of his Quixotic quest to reconnect with his father. Sullivan is a stand-in for Scanlon himself, an aspiring filmmaker with a penchant for animation who steps outside of himself for a while in order to chase down a decades’ old mystery. In the process, he discovers truths about himself, about the man he and others held up as a mentor, and about those who say they knew the man best. It’s a fantastically put-together tale that also likely offered some catharsis to Scanlon along the way.”
Huldufólk 102 (2006)
As Onward is one of Pixar’s few movies lacking human beings, there aren’t a lot of nonfiction works applicable to be this week’s documentary selection. Sure, there are films about how we’ve become too dependent on technology, especially in the computer age, and lost a sense of wonder that we had in the past, but none of those are as interesting to recommend as Huldufólk 102. This Herzogian feature, directed by Nisha Inalsingh, examines the possibility that there is a secret world of “hidden people,” or elves, that have inhabited and still reside in Iceland.
Through its mix of interviews and landscape shots, Huldufólk 102 considers the possibility that our world was once a time of mythical creatures and even still could be. How else to explain certain mysteries of the natural world or cultural traditions and beliefs? Even if the elves aren’t real, though, the film showcases Iceland as a mystical land from its physical environments to the magic of the Northern Lights. Huldufólk 102 also reminds me of the more famous Scandinavian mockumentary Trollhunter, which goes further to depict the sort of regional lore of a culture that’s only hinted at here.
Stream Huldufólk 102 on CultureUnplugged.com
Shrek (2001)
There was a time when Pixar and DreamWorks Animations seemed to be rivals. Early on, they would put out similar-enough projects around the same time (A Bug’s Life and Antz both in 1998, Finding Nemo and Shark Tale in 2003/2004) in a way that felt like too much of a coincidence. But through it all, Pixar stood out as having a better product overall. In 2001, Pixar put out Monsters, Inc. following DreamWorks’ immensely successful Shrek, and both were good enough and different enough on their own to evade too much of the kind of comparison that their respective insect-focused features faced a few years earlier. Still, they were in a way competing projects as far as them both being about fantastical monsters.
Nearly 20 years later, in an age when the animation studios are doing their own things entirely, Pixar has made a feature even more comparable to Shrek with Onward. They’re both set in realms populated by mythical creatures and follow their main character, a reluctant hero, on a quest involving dragons, annoyingly talkative sidekicks, and magic related to sunsets. And they both find humor in relating their fantasy worlds to our own through certain cultural references, albeit more flagrantly in Shrek‘s case. Anyway, I kept waiting for The Proclaimers’ “I’m on My Way” to play on the Onward soundtrack as a result of my mind relating the two movies.
Coupe de Ville (1990)
What happens when you pile Patrick Dempsey, Arye Gross, and Daniel Stern into an old car together for a road trip to see their father? Pretty much the same thing that happens when you pile elves voiced by Tom Holland and Chris Pratt into an old van together for a road trip to see their father. The sibling characters bond along the way and realize they have more of a kinship than they’d thought. And this lesson was maybe orchestrated by the father in the first place. Definitely in the former situation, since Dad admits to the idea.
Coupe de Ville is a little-known favorite of mine from youth, mainly because it’s about three brothers and I’m one of three brothers (I’m the middle child so of course I identified with Gross’ character). The movie is about how the fraternal trio is tasked with personally delivering, together, their father’s old Cadillac to him, but when they get there, the old man (Alan Arkin) explains that it wasn’t about the car so much as it was about them being forced to be with each other again. It’s a good movie no matter what your sibling situation is, but it’s especially meaningful if you’re a brother and have brothers.
Onward is about a fraternal pair on a quest to be able to see their father again, but ultimately the younger learns on his own that the best thing to come out of the trip was actually him being forced to spend time with his older brother and understand how important the guy was as an elder mentor in substitution of having a father around. Onward does it much more emotionally, as in pulling on the heartstrings and turning on the waterworks. Coupe de Ville is sentimental in a way but nothing you’ll need tissues for. Except maybe when you’re laughing during the “Louie Louie” bit.
Stream Coupe de Ville on MAX GO
Weekend at Bernie’s (1989)
If there’s one movie referenced in reviews of Onward more than any other, it’s Weekend at Bernie’s. I didn’t even think that many people thought about this movie anymore. But when you’ve got a story about two guys attempting to pass off a lifeless human shape as being alive, Weekend at Bernie’s automatically comes to mind as relevant content. The black comedy (probably one of the first films I saw that was described as such) delivers some darkly funny slapstick involving a dead man’s body being puppeteered around town by a pair of young dudes who worked for him.
Onward is a bit more classy as the body being pulled around and propped up is partly alive, reanimated magically. The comedy comes in the fact that the bottom half is sort of a zombified entity — just legs and crotch but somehow mobile and sentient (unintentionally implying that men could function as only such because our brains are in our pants?) — while the top half is a stuffed torso, head, and arms combination that flops about and creates awkward situations with its accidental poses. It’s not quite Weekend at Bernie’s for kids, but once you think about the connection it’s hard to forget it.
Buy Weekend at Bernie’s from Amazon
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