Originally published at CBR on 03/15/2020.
Mountains and rolling fields. Fantastical creatures. Magical spells. Staffs and quests.
At this point the conventions of high fantasy, largely established by J. R. R. Tolkien, have been so well-trodden, replicated, parodied and criticized that there’s almost no way to make them feel fresh anymore. But much as it did with the equally overdone tropes of the superhero genre with The Incredibles, Pixar has done the impossible and breathed new life into fantasy with its latest film Onward.
In The Incredibles, director Brad Bird makes his intentions clear from the very start — sure, this is a send up and deconstruction of the superhero genre, but it’s also a celebration of what makes the genre work in the first place. Likewise, Onward makes its intentions very clear early on, asking the viewer to make connections to Dungeons and Dragons and Lord of the Rings. But in the end, both films know why they exist in the first place, and function, above all else, as effective, humanistic stories with everything else grafted on top of that.
Through specific, intentional echoes of famous superhero and spy stories, The Incredibleshas a lot of fun with its premise. To start with, the main family of heroes each correspond almost directly to a member of the Fantastic Four, from their personalities all the way down to their superpowers. On top of that, many of the tools and gadgets are ripped straight from the Mission: Impossible films, and composer Michael Giacchino’s theme is clearly riffing on music from the James Bond franchise. In specific moments, characters reference a villain who “monologues,” or the dangers of capes. Even the general premise, a world where superheroes once had a heyday but are now illegal, calls Watchmen to mind.
However, what really makes The Incredibles tick as a send-up of classic superhero tales is its villain, Syndrome. A stand-in for the entitlement of fan culture, Syndrome forces Mr. Incredible to face the mistakes of his past and the arrogance of his present. Bird attacks the hypocrisy of superheroes and fandom head-on, but in the end allows his heroes to grow, improve, and save the day. Ultimately, though it takes a postmodern, deconstructionist approach, The Incredibles is a celebration of the joys, the awe and the wonder of our modern superhuman myths.
In that same vein, Onward pokes small, fun jabs at fantasy properties, but it’s all in the service of a larger point. The most obvious comparison is not in any tales of Middle Earth, but in Faerûn. Of course, the “historical” role playing game that Barley (Chris Pratt) plays is an almost exact recreation of Dungeons and Dragons, but it bleeds into the structure of the story as well. Much like a group of friends gathered around a table in the middle of the night with nothing but character sheets and a handful of dice, each obstacle Barley and his little brother, Ian (Tom Holland), face is solved in increasingly absurd ways. Rather than handle their troubles the way Frodo, Aragorn and Gandalf would, the pair always rely on their luck and ingenuity rather than any sort of skill in battle.
Though not quite as sophisticated as The Incredibles’ approach of using genre to confront its fans, Onward uses this fun, familiar adventure to draw in the audience, disguising an achingly human story of growth under the surface. Ian and Barley have spent most of their lives without their father, who died when they were young. Of course, they love each other and their mother (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), but the two have often yearned for the father they barely even knew. In a fantastical world that has lost its magic, they go on an epic adventure for the chance to speak to him one last time. Along the way, the two grow closer and make the world a little brighter. The characters’ growth mirrors the way a D&D hero’s stats level-up, but they’re instead developing as people, or in this case elves.
Ian’s growth as a wizard becomes clear around the film’s midway point in an action-packed moment when he is forced to use magic to save someone’s life, and reflexively casts a successful spell at the last moment. The moment lands perfectly, earned through time spent struggling with magic, much in the way a D&D character grinds before leveling up. But as he gains magical prowess, Ian is also learning more about himself, who he is and how much his brother Barley really means to him. This all comes to a head in the emotional climax, one of the most powerful moments in the history of a studio known for emotional resonance.
This focus on telling a powerful, human story in the context of a genre send-up is what makes Onward click together so perfectly as The Incredibles’ spiritual successor, and it’s also the arena in which The Incredibles 2 falters. The sequel, also directed by Bird, puts too great a focus on living up to the fun and style of the original, but fails to capture the thematic richness. The reveals of the villains, full of twists and turns, is seemingly for the sake of the spectacle, but does very little to build out what the story is actually trying to say or how it impacts and develops the Parr family. Though certainly action-packed and imbued with the same spirit of superheroic fun, The Incredibles 2 is too concerned with living up to its predecessor to earn its place as a genuine successor.
On the whole, Onward, director Dan Scanlon’s follow-up to Monsters University, is a sharp step forward for the storyteller, and could be a portent of a brighter future for Pixar itself. In recent years, only Inside Out and Coco were able to leave a strong impression, with a heap of sequels like Cars 3 and Toy Story 4 and misguided, generic experiments like The Good Dinosaur unable land the way the studio’s films once did. Instead of a direct sequel, Onwardsuccessfully recaptured the magic of The Incredibles by doing what that film did back in 2004 — telling a unique story. With Soul, another original film, just months away, perhaps this is a sign of what’s to come.
Written and directed by Dan Scanlon, Pixar’s Onward stars Chris Pratt, Tom Holland, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Octavia Spencer. The film is now in theaters.
Justin Don Jones 