Onward

Available digitally today!

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Perhaps not one of the more profoundly original efforts by the team at Pixar, the Disney partner's new film "Onward" is still an enjoyable romp that certainly taps the tear ducts by movie's end.

Set in a modern fantasy world that had once been a place of fantastical beasts and enchantment, this world has lost its magic due to the invention of, well, "things" like lightbulbs and cars. Very much a nod to a loss of imagination, this set-up is clever in that the journey finds a timid elf named Ian Lightfoot (voiced by "Spiderman" Tom Holland) discovering his long-gestating powers as well as his place in the world.

Sounds familiar, right? Sure, because pretty much every Disney movie is about this same thing. "Find yourself." "Be yourself." "Discover yourself." There's nothing wrong with this, especially when we're making a movie for kids (that adults still enjoy), but at the same time, thematically, nothing truly surprising happens.

That's not to say that this world isn't clever and ingenious, because it is. The world that Ian and his obnoxious older brother Barley (voiced by Chris Pratt) and their widowed mother Laurel (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss) inhabit is colorful and cute and imagines what the world would look like if we discovered Middle Earth in present day.

Unicorn-cats raid trash cans, small dragons are the new family dog, and Laurel's boyfriend is a centaur policeman. A mythological beast called a Manticore (voiced by Octavia Spencer) now runs a themed restaurant that looks an awful lot like something you'd find at Disneyland. And school is pretty much the same, except you sometimes have to share space with an apathetic troll.

This town is where Ian lives, and on his sixteenth birthday he hopes to create a "new me." Besides standing up for himself and making new friends, one of his biggest goals is to be more like his deceased father – someone he never met but has heard all sorts of wonderful stories about. To his surprise, dad left a present for him and his brother that involves a scepter, stone, and magical incantation that will bring him back for one day. But when Ian works his newfound supernatural abilities, he screws it up halfway through, bringing back only half his dad - the lower half. Dad's legs. So, in a weird nod to "Weekend at Bernie's," Ian and Barley set out on a quest to find a magical stone that will allow them to complete the spell and bring their father to life until the next sunset.

Barley is thrilled at this idea, as he is not only nostalgic for his land's legendary past, but a big fan of a Dungeons and Dragons-style board game that he is sure is based on that history. So, with the wooden scepter dad left them and a rickety van named "Gwiniver," the two set out to find the stone.

This leads the two brothers on all sorts of misadventures throughout their city while mom chases after them. Throughout their quest, the brothers bicker and fight about what the best course of action is and what to say to their dad when they get the full version. They have car chases, learn more magic, get shrunk, meets a gang of biker sprites, and run into Disney's first official LGBTQ character in Officer Spector (voiced by Lena Waithe). Sure, it's a throw-away line that establishes her as such, but with the addition of another small character that uses forearm crutches without it being a plot point, it's nice to see Disney/Pixar expanding their diversity.

Some sequences feel swiped directly from other films, and in fact, there is an entire scene that is almost beat for beat from "Raiders of the Lost Ark." While it felt like a wink to a classic, after a few minutes it just felt like a copy. But that's a minor quibble in an otherwise jolly good time.

"Onward" heads toward an emotional finish that is truly poignant in ways that won't be spoiled here. But know that this will do for brothers what "Field of Dreams" did for sons and their fathers. This addition to the Pixar oeuvre isn't as significant as some of their other works, but it's endlessly charming, good-spirited, and surprisingly touching.