Joshua Noel, Liz Clyde, and TJ Blackwell dive into the heartwarming world of Pixar's "Onward," the first film of three "COVID era" Disney / Pixar films that will be discussed in this series. Right off the bat, they highlight how this flick serves as a poignant exploration of family bonds, grief, and the notion of stepping up when it counts. With brothers Ian and Barley embarking on a magical adventure to reconnect with their deceased father, the trio reflects on the film's deeper themes—like the importance of relationships and the bittersweet nature of longing for lost loved ones. They also chuckle about the film's quirky fantasy elements, including a world where magic has faded into the background, replaced by modern conveniences. Tune in as they unpack their favorite moments, spellbinding scenes, and the emotional weight that makes "Onward" a standout in Pixar's lineup.

In a delightful blend of humor and heartfelt reflection, the podcast crew embarks on a captivating discussion about Pixar's 'Onward'. Joshua, Liz, and TJ set the stage for an engaging exploration of the film, which they place within the freshly coined 'COVID era' of animation. The episode kicks off with light banter about their recent obsessions, seamlessly transitioning into a deeper analysis of the film's themes. The group artfully navigates the complexities of brotherhood and grief, emphasizing how 'Onward' resonates with audiences on a personal level, especially in light of recent global events. Liz shares her own experiences, drawing parallels between her journey into motherhood and the film's exploration of family dynamics. Meanwhile, TJ provides witty commentary that keeps the conversation lively, ensuring that listeners are both entertained and informed.

They delve into the film's narrative structure, its quirky characters, and the emotional stakes that elevate it beyond a typical animated feature. As the discussion unfolds, the trio reflects on how 'Onward' captures the essence of growing up, highlighting the importance of cherishing memories while forging ahead. With a perfect balance of laughter and sincerity, this episode serves as a tribute to Pixar's ability to tackle complex emotions, making it a must-listen for fans of animation and storytelling alike.

Takeaways:

1. This episode kicks off the discussion on Disney's COVID era films, starting with Pixar's 'Onward', a heartfelt journey that reflects on family and loss.
2. Joshua, Liz, and TJ dive into the unique premise of 'Onward', exploring the blend of modern technology and fantasy elements in a world where magic has faded.
3. The trio highlights how 'Onward' addresses themes of grief and the importance of recognizing familial relationships, especially between siblings.
4. A key point shared is the movie's subtle representation of LGBTQ+ characters, sparking conversation about its impact on audiences and the film industry.
5. The conversation emphasizes the emotional depth of the film, with TJ expressing how 'Onward' resonates with personal experiences of loss and connection.
6. Lastly, they wrap up by discussing the film's animation style and humor, noting how it balances heartfelt moments with comedic relief throughout the story.

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Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, trolls, unicorns, and fairies of all ages, we welcome you all to the wonderful world of Walt Disney's animation studios. This is the first of three films we will be reviewing in an era of Disney animation that I made up called the the COVID era.

And they're not all technically Disney animation. This one is Pixar. I think one of the other ones we're doing is Pixar as well. I am Joshua Noel. I make things up sometimes. What I do.

I am here with the one and only Pod Almighty, tj Tybeer Swan Blackwell. Welcome to your show. Thank you. We also have someone else. So today we're gonna start with what we're geeking out. So Liz and Zuko, Baby Zuko are here.

Liz, would you like to introduce yourself?

Hello, I am Liz. I am with child, whose name will apparently be Baby Zuko as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah. At least.

While he's gonna be awkward when he

grows up, I just can't wait till he's an adult with whatever real name he has. I'm like, you know, I try to get you named Zuko.

I mean, I'm sure it will stick for a little bit.

Yeah.

Yeah. Anyway, we do like to start with what we've all been geeking out on lately. I feel like I'm probably gonna disappoint some people here, maybe.

But the day of recording Scrubs just came back. Nothing else exists other than Scrubs. I'm sorry, I'm wearing a one piece shirt. I don't know what that is. Scrubs. That's it.

Dj, what have you been geeking out on?

Yeah, well, I don't know if it really counts because it comes out tonight, But Resident Evil 9, Resident Evil Requiem comes out tonight. So that's what I'm geeking out by the time you're listening to this.

Yeah. Too bad it doesn't exist because it's not Scrubs.

Well, my show literally just came out today, so. Bridgerton, Part two of the new season just released. So I've already watched all four episodes and now I have to wait an eternity for the next one.

But, yeah, if you listen closely, you

might be able to hear it in the background at my house.

What? Bridget. Oh, yeah. Tiffany's watching it.

Currently playing on the tv.

I only had to fast forward between two scenes this. This time, so it was very nice because it does have, like, the flack of being a little raunchy, but it's gotten better.

Yeah.

I mean, but we must make haste and talk about our current stuff.

All right, that said, if you guys are listening, we would appreciate if you would rate and review our show wherever you get your podcast, Spotify, Apple Podcast doesn't really matter. It helps make our show more noticeable and the algorith if people are trying to look for shows and they'll see the ones that have more ratings first.

So if you rate that could be us. We also want to thank all of our financial supporters.

Today we're going to do a special shout out to Gunnar Bergen, who I'm still not sure if I'm saying his name correctly.

And if you guys want me to shout out your name possibly incorrectly, you can get your own shout out by becoming an official member of Systematic Geekology on our website. The website is in There's a link in the show's description. I'm struggling with words. Good thing I don't do podcasts.

You guys can also get free extra content, buy some merge and get a one time financial or leave a one time financial gift on our website without joining as a member. Again, that link is in the show's description. I mentioned it before.

This is the first film we'll be reviewing in my made up era, the COVID era of Disney animation.

We're going to be talking about Pixar's Onward if you want to catch up on our whole playlist of reviews going through the different eras of Disney animation, all of the rest of which are real except for, well I guess Pixar's not really an era, but we do it anyway. Most of them are real eras of Disney animation. You can check out the playlist down in the show's description.

We have a lot of stuff in the show's description. Check it out. I put a lot of work putting those links down there.

Today though, we are going to be jumping straight into what I think is going to be a really fun conversation. Actually I think it might be top tier new Disney Pixar for me. Yeah, I love this film. I'm excited to talk about this one. First up, D.J.

could you tell us just briefly without summarizing, what is the movie, what's the premise and why did we choose this one? Of all the movies that exist in this made up era I created, it's

like a modern day fantasy kind of thing. It takes that one of my favorite tropes of like magic used to be real but we found out technology was easier.

It takes that kind of route and it's a lot of fun. It's really cool. See how magic has kind of faded, but not entirely.

Yeah, it's like the world of fairies and trolls and sprites and stuff, except for, like, they also discover technology and realize they could be just as lazy as we are. It's great.

Yeah. So it kind of rocks.

Yeah. Yeah.

And I think, like the big grabs were Tom Holland and Chris Pratt being like the voice actors for the two main character brothers, which was cool. The made up era, the COVID era.

The reason I made this up and thought it was important to pick some movies from this, I feel as though there were some movies that either got short sighted or treated just like weirdly different because of how they had to release or just like circumstance around Covid, you know, people being quarantined and stuff. Existing made movies weird for a while. It affected a few. I think the biggest sad time. Strange World. Strange World didn't get what it needed.

It was a good movie. No one seems to care.

Strange World's pretty cool. Cool premise as well.

Yeah. But not what we're talking about today. Today we're talking about Onward.

Liz, first up, let us know, when did you first see this film and what memories do you have around it?

You're not going to believe me today. I watched it for the podcast.

Sweet.

Sweet.

I started it last night. Lots of good memories because I go to bed early. I finished it today.

Yeah, perfect. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. Some inside baseball for those listening.

We do have like a million Google Docs for systemic ecology and one of them is just like, sign up, whatever, for different episodes.

And I saw it was on it forever ago.

Well, whenever I did Disney, you literally were like, just put me on all of those. That's fine.

Yeah. Because I'm like, I'll watch it if I didn't see it.

So I have, I think. And maybe not all, but like, anytime I'm like, I don't know who should go here. I'm like, listen.

So the funny thing is, so I've said that before and not to sound like a broken record, I grew up with dad issues. And so since it's about a dad, I just had no desire to watch it. And so not like I was avoiding it, but it wasn't like, ooh, let me watch this.

And so kind of forgot about existing. And that's why I'm so late to the game. But that's fair. Thanks for having me. I've gone through therapy.

I'm like, I don't currently have daddy issues, guys.

I mean, that's fair.

Maybe I Don't know.

Yeah, this. I almost fell into the.

Missed the movie because of quarantine and wasn't sure if I was going to see it because, like, once it hits streaming, like, there's already so many options on streaming. It's hard to be like, oh, yeah, this is what I'm going to take my time to do. When you're at home, it's easier to be like, I'm gonna go to the movies.

This is what's out. But my aunt. Shout out Annette, one of our official members, you guys can be too, and TJ actually both spoke about it, and we're like, this is good.

And I'm like, I think I really need to watch this. And then I think I've probably watched it like once a month since then. I enjoyed this movie.

Although, to be fair, most of the times I watch it, it's just kind of on, you know, I'm not always intently watching it, but Tejo.

Yeah, it's a. It's a hard one for me because I, like, I love my dad. My dad's super involved in my life. We got dinner together last night.

I also don't have an older brother or any brother. So that would make you think. Yeah, most of the time I will not. But. But you could try.

But that would make you think that, you know, I don't have a real reason to connect to this movie, but I cry every time I watch it anyway.

Yeah, just.

It's beautiful. So I really love this movie. I watched it just maybe like a year after it released with some friends who are brothers. So that was fun.

Yeah, but it's just. It's really. It's great. It really is great. I also watched it today just. Just because it's. It's great. There's never really a bad time to watch it.

It's a fun setting. It's. It's really up there.

I watched it like a week and a half ago when we were going to record this, like a week ago. I didn't watch it today because today scrubs and nothing else exists, you know. But no, it is great. Emotionally, it's just so easy to connect to.

And I've heard. I don't know if this is a joke or not. I choose to believe it because it's just entertaining. Originally, this movie was banned in China.

Was it going to be allowed to play? Because there is, like, I think the first time any Disney or Pixar movie acknowledged a lesbian character exists, they just simply acknowledge it.

That's it. That was enough. To get it banned. But the Chinese sensory.

Actually, what I heard again, I don't know if it's a joke or not, was that it was just so emotionally rich. They just ended up unbanning it. They were like, you know what? Now this is too good. Change your mind. Hilarious.

Yeah. Doing that blip. I literally. Because Taylor and my roommate, I made them watch it with me. Taylor also has.

Have never seen it, but which makes sense because he usually watches what I want to watch, like a good husband. But he was. I paused it. I was like, how many people do you think do we know? We didn't name names obviously, for the privacy.

They would have literally canceled it just on premises without one. Tiny.

Yeah, that was. That was a thing.

Like, I could name so many people. I would know. They'd be like, nope, not watching this stuff.

Yeah, my parents were amongst.

That was. That was a big thing.

Yeah.

When this came out, got a lot of hate, certain circles because the lady cop was like, yeah, my girlfriend.

Yeah. Which, by the way, is literally it. Nothing happens at all.

Just.

She just says, my girlfriend.

Yeah. Like my girlfriend's kid or something like that. Little. And that was.

Yeah, yeah. Just acknowledging that other types of people exist. That's it.

Yeah. Maybe that's the act. That's the. See, that's the real problem. It's not that they're gay.

It's that she has a kid, which means she got divorced or not married. That's. That's the real issue is that.

Well, I mean, we can take it a step further. And maybe we just assumed she was a female because she had a higher voice.

I think Pixar did say that this was the first time they had a lesbian character.

They did.

Yeah.

I didn't do any research, but also,

I think that's also part of what Strange World suffered from. It's just a lot more blatant about having a gay character. Just way more blatant. But, you know, it's a good movie.

So that said general audiences, why might this movie be significant or not significant? You know, we mentioned some, like, quarantine. Some people missed it for that.

Some people missed it because they banned it because someone said my girlfriend. But, like, as a whole, I feel like this movie was still received pretty well, even though it did not do great in the box office.

It's like the classic hero's journey with a twist. It's. It's great. What do you want me to say? We're just. We're not going to talk about it yet, I guess, but it's really good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We've come a long way.

Yeah.

The D and D movie, that was

great I think too. It does some really weird things.

Like it kind of subverts expectations all along the way because, like, it's coming from a world where trolls and fairies and all that stuff. The sprites are real, but magic has kind of been put to the wayside a little bit. But that's where you get like some weird stuff.

Like the rocker brother with like a metal van, whatever, is like super into magic and dnd.

I don't know if it says dnd, but like very obviously dnd, you know, and like, I feel like usually you would have expected like the Chris Pratt buff guy to be like sports or something. It's like, nope. Magic.

Magic van restoration and tabletop role playing games.

I'm not sure what Ian was into. He just wasn't into anything. Nothing.

Yeah, he was into graduating and then going to college. That was his plan.

That's it. All right, TJ or Liz. Does anyone want to take the opportunity to summarize what happens in this film?

There are one mom, two brothers, no dad in a world. Okay.

Anyway, so the guy, the younger brother, just turned 16 and on his 16th birthday, his mom had a gift from his dad, who we assume passed away either while he was in the room or a super early age. He doesn't even remember at all.

And we know at the beginning, like you said, there was magic, but it kind of faded away as things got easier and more modern and people kind of like forgot how to use magic or they just relied on modern conveniences. So they find out their dad was actually a wizard and left them a spell where they can bring back the dad for one day, one day only.

And so it goes through pretty much the whole brother's dynamic, their relationship to each other, how the little brother is embarrassed by the older bro because he is taking a gap year. Kind of has that grunge, you know, nerd type, not cool kid vibe. And so they have to work through that.

And the older brother seems like he's such a screw up. So of course somehow it gets screws up that the dad doesn't come back fully, just his legs and like hips.

And so it's a whole adventure to go on A quest to try and restore the dad's full body. Because now they need this magical stone that no one really knows where is this. Except maybe one weird lady that is Lion, Griffin.

Weird lady.

The manticore.

That was it. That was it. All right. And so, yeah, it just is the only adventure the brothers grow up. You want me to go ahead and say, like, the conclusion too?

Yeah.

Okay.

The brothers grows up, and then as the screw up happens even more throughout the movie, the little brother was like older brother's, like, you always mess up everything. You got to know dad, you have three memories with them, but finds out exactly. Actually four memories.

Because the last memory he has is how he did not say goodbye to his dad because he was hooked up to all the. The wires and whatnot.

And so little brother has a list, and he wanted to do everything he wanted to do with the dad, and he realized they're not going to be able to restore the dad. And so he starts just scratching out the list.

But as he's scratching out the list, like ride bike, play catch, laugh, all this stuff he wished he could do with his dad, he realized that his older brother was the father figure all along and helped, you know, be that role model for him.

So near the very, very end when they defeat the dragon, blah, blah, blah, blah, someone had to, like, hold off the dragon while the dad was getting his last full body. And he let the older brother actually have the last five seconds with the dad so they could say goodbye.

So he didn't get to ever see his dad's face, which that was kind of sad. And then it, yeah, kind of ends and. But it ends with.

Because now people sell dungeons and dragons and magic, so now, like, the magic spark is kind of alive again.

Yeah. And that's something that they do, like, during their journey, you know, like as they're adventuring as well.

As far as we know, like, the only wizard. Ian is like the only wizard at this point. But it's really cool.

They, as they go to these different places, they reawaken the magic in the people they interact with. Like the Manticore, Manticore's Tavern. She had sold out, turned into like Chuck E. Cheese, kind of the whole bits.

She doesn't even fly anymore.

Yeah, she doesn't even fly anymore. And they wake her up, and with a little help from their mom, she becomes the legendary Manticore again.

And then they're at Swamp Gas, which would be a great name for a gas station in, like, Louisiana. Florida Swamp guess is a good one.

They are talking to the Pixies and Barley, the older brother, he's like, you know, you guys are supposed to be able to like, fly and stuff, right? And they do eventually figure out how to fly through a chase scene. You know, they're a biker gang made of Pixies, which is hilarious.

Tiny little guys. But it speaks to another one of the big poignant messages of the movie, which is that Ian really thinks Barley is a screw up for the entire movie.

He doesn't trust Barley at all.

Because when we get to that final scene, the climax where Ian is finishing the spell to restore their dad for, you know, until the sun sets, it only works because he accepts Barley's help.

And if he had accepted his help the first time in his bedroom when he was doing the spell for the first time, they could have spent an entire day with their dad. And Ian realizes that, you know, as he learns to trust his brother more.

Yeah. Which part of the ironic bit with that too, though, is that part of what his brother was teaching him this whole time.

And I think part of the reason why it had to be a world that used to have magic that very clearly is supposed to have magic was to also portray, like, sometimes it is about the journey. It is about going the long way, not just taking the shortcuts.

So it's kind of funny that even though he notices, he's like, wait a minute, we could have had a whole day with Matt if I would have just listened the first time. He also is faced with the journey is the important part. Like, it's good he didn't just immediately end up where he wanted to be.

So it's kind of like a Both and there a little bit.

Yeah. It's just really good. Their relationship that they forge throughout the movie is phenomenal. I honestly put this up there with Pixar's best.

Oh, yeah.

Like, it is emotionally poignant. It never fails to make me tear up. It's hard for me to, like, just rank Pixar's movies, but. Well, except for number one is Ratatouille, obviously.

After that, Onward could be second or third.

Yeah, it's funny is that I too think I have a. This is probably in top five for me because, like, you have like, original Toy Story for nostalgia reason.

Original Monsters Inc. For nostalgia reasons. Coco, because it's just phenomenal. Ratatouille because TJ has just slowly been convincing me it deserves to be there.

And then this because, like, just. It just gets you in the Feels like it just does. I mean, yeah, I love It.

I think it's interesting how the dad had already figured out a way that he could come back for a day until sunset, and he set all of this up. And then.

Well, I think what's cool is, like, near the end part that we were talking about, like, where Ian ends up letting his brother Barley go beef his dad instead because, you know, someone had to fight the dragon, which also, Liz might be the only person I have ever and maybe will ever hear say the phrase dragon, blah, blah, blah.

Okay.

Usually dragon, which is freaking awesome. You know, dragon.

It's a really fun design for a dragon.

Yeah, it was awesome. But anyway, because of dragon, only one of them really got to spend time with her dad. And Ian let it be Barley because of his realization.

What I thought was interesting was, like, the dad designed this for Ian to have a date with him. And then, like, they mentioned something about how, like, Ian says, you know, you were, like, the dad to me and all this.

And Bradley was like, yeah, dad said that, too.

And it was interesting because I feel like in the short period of time that the dad had with his son, he realized, oh, actually, it was more important that you had this with me than Ian, even though that's who I designed the spell for, which kind of. It was interesting. Yeah. There's a lot to dissect this film.

Yeah. It's just so good. It's really good.

Also kind of convenient that he just forms as a pair of legs, you know, because if he had been formed for, like, a full, like, two days, if they had done the spell, like, in the morning, and then he was there for a night and then another whole day, things would have got real awkward.

Yeah. Yeah. Because the mom was also starting to see someone already, which I feel like, yeah. Colt Bronco.

It was like he wasn't a major character, but, like, as far as secondary characters go, he was great because, like, he has that whole, like, I want to be, like, a dad, but I don't want to, like, replace your dad.

Like, he has, like, a little bit of this, like, and he's a cop, and Barley keeps getting in trouble with the cops, so he's like, ah, you know, I want to be good, but, like, also, I have to do my job. And, you know.

Yeah. Also he's named Colt Bronco, which is great. Centaur. He also drives a Ford Bronco police cruiser and is a horse.

Oh, man. Yeah. This movie is phenomenal, I will say, like, there are parts that I feel, like, lagged a little bit. Like, I was, like, lolled a Little bit.

But for the most part it was funny. Emotionally deep. Great. I do think animation wise, I was like, yeah, I don't feel like they did anything like super creative or new.

There was some stuff that I loved. Like, the gags were great. The way they animated facial expressions. Like you felt what they were feeling.

And I feel like what they did good was they took what Pixar already figured out. Like they already got like the hair and stuff done well and they just stuck with it. I personally though, wish they would have tried more new.

Like, I just get tired of like animation being the same, you know? Yeah.

But it is beautiful though.

It is cool. The fighting scene at the end where Ian takes everything he learned from his brother and he's fighting the dragon.

He's like literally making steps as he was walking through the air. I'm like, yeah, it was awesome. Yeah, it's good stuff.

Also, the design of that dragon is hilarious. It's got like a painted dragon head. That's so funny.

Yeah.

And then it gets angry and it breaks off the top of the face and uses it as eyebrows. That's great gag. Yeah.

And the way they.

That's a great gag.

I think one of the. This is really weird. One of my favorite too was the way they animate the scene where Ian has to basically make a bridge to walk across.

And Barley has rope tied to him so he's like, could feel safe because that was like the things he had to feel like he was confident to be able to make the bridge out of magic. And the rope dropped it like the way it did it.

Like it didn't look like old Looney Tunes, but it still felt like it were like the ropes kind of drops it. You're like, oh, yeah. Just the way like that particular animation was great. Super specific.

The van final scene.

Yeah.

Yeah.

An emotional goodbye to a van. That's what makes a movie really great, you know, it is. All right, so if we were rating this 0 to 10. Liz hasn't spoken in a while.

Where are you putting this, Liz?

Because I don't have the emotional connection or even like nostalgic because I just watched it. Finished watching it today. I do like a 6. Maybe a 6. 7.

6.

5.

Ironically, I was also going to give it a 6.5. Whoa. Yeah. Now I do have to remind everybody, for me, that's still incredibly good. When I rate it, I'm reading it.

Compared to all other Disney and Pixar films, A5 means it is average Disney Pixar film. Anything above that is better than average Disney Pixar film. And they're all great. When I think about it, though, like, there's maybe seven.

I'm gonna go with seven because, like, there's so many Disney films that I like more than this. Even though I think it's a phenomenal film. Hercules, Milan, Peter Pan, Jungle Book, Treasure Island, Monsters, Inc. Toy Story, Ratatouille.

I mean, the reason why I don't rate it higher is because I probably won't watch it again on my own. But the reason why I can't rate it lower is I'll let my son watch it when he's growing up.

Because I feel like the emotional depth is important for kids to kind of know and to feel grief and to feel loss and to understand they're going to have classmates that may not have a dad. Honestly, even though, you know, we, Taylor and I, we are a part of, like, a conservative community.

I literally told someone the other day, they're like, are you going to private. Are you going to homeschool or send your kid to private school? I'm like, no, my kid's going to go to public school.

Because how can you be a light in the world if you keep them hidden away or keep them under a basket? Because he's going to have classmates who has two moms, and he's going to have classmates that has two dads.

So whether you agree with it or not, that's the reality of the world we live in. So I appreciate. I actually appreciate the subtle nuances. They're not. They didn't introduce anything. It was like a 0.1 second thing.

But that's the world we live in. Yeah, it's a reality.

Yeah, Homeschooling makes kids weird anyway. I know a couple of them.

Me, me. But I want to shout out real quick a book Room at the Table by Justin Vaughn, good friend of ours. Because, like also does a really good job showing.

Hey, there are different kinds of families. This is what foster parents can look like. I think it helps parents as well as children see, hey, there's other kind of. I think that's important.

I also just want to shout out, even though, like, nothing's happened to my dad tragically, which is great. Love my dad. Glad he's around.

I love that this movie acknowledges the role of an older brother as an older brother, you know, I'm like, yeah, you know, I had those moments where my little brother was like, you know, I realized that, like, there were certain things that I couldn't go to. Mom, dad for. That I had to go to YouTube and like, I don't know. There is. There's like, a brother is a weird role.

Even when you have parents where you're like, you know, like, some things I still had to take care of you even though I wasn't taking care of you, you know, so it's kind of like. Yeah. So I like that they kind of acknowledge that brothers are important. Made me feel good. Yeah. Yeah.

I can't imagine rating this any. Any lower than 8. I think you're out of your mind. The level of emotionality that this film reaches by its climax is absurd.

Yeah. If I was. Yeah, it's just rating it with all animated films in mind, or just all films in mind, it would probably be an 8 or a 9.

But if I'm specifically limiting it to Disney Pixar makes it harder. So many good Disney Pixar.

Don't see why you would do that.

Because this is what the series is, you know?

Yeah, but they're all just good.

It's true. They're all great. Well, not all of them, but.

Anyway, we should do a low ranking.

Me and Christian are going to be talking about fun and fancy free at some point and. That one. Not good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Just do our worst. But this is not one of them. This is like an easy eight and a half for me, easily. It does do a lot.

That is fun with the fantasy idea and the return of magic and the return of their father, which is tragic in itself because Ian can see him. Ian kills the dragon with his mom's help.

Yeah.

And still has the time to see his dad say goodbye to Barley. And his dad has no idea that Ian's there. He doesn't know that Laurel is there.

Yeah.

There's no clue.

That is.

He just has to say goodbye to Barley.

Yeah. It gives me chills just hearing you talk about it.

I'm so mad. If I was at Dag, you had one job. Not really, but, you know. Yeah.

Which?

His legs had fun throughout the movie. I mean, there was dance parties.

Yeah.

It was fun.

Which that's part of, like, when we're talking about, like, the art and animation. That's part of what I love is how they do show magic in this world that's become modernized. Like, technology exists.

Motorcycles, cars, computers, phones, whatever. But these are trolls, fairies, unicorns.

Because I think it does this really intentional comparison of showing us how, like, we've allowed these things to keep us from real connection. Because if you notice, even Barley not getting to say goodbye because his dad's nurtured all these computers and stuff.

And when he does get to have a true moment where he can say goodbye to his dad and start a real grieving process was because of magic.

Now, I don't think magic is real, but I think there is something to say of, like, we are losing what makes us special sometimes because we're so attached to our technology, to our modern ways or whatever. Then I feel like sometimes we do lose it. Ironic. Someone talking on a podcast.

There's a lot of technology involved right here, but I think, like, if I don't put it away sometimes and I'm just hanging out with tj, no phones or anything, then, like, I'm losing something.

I think this movie does a really good job of showing that, like, sometimes, whether it's spirituality, just being in touch with who you are as a human, you know, we're not fairies. But I think it does say a lot of that just in how it depicts the art of the film. What.

What else, though, in the art animation that really stood out to you guys? Tj, I know you've talked a lot about how cool that dragon looked.

Yeah, super cool.

You know, I don't think.

Also fun. Yeah, she didn't see it. She just had it on.

I mean, I looked at it. I didn't hate what I saw, but I don't pay attention. Like, ooh, graphics.

Yeah. I mean, I'll go back I said earlier. I just don't feel like they did anything new. They use what Pixar already figured out.

You know, they have good animation to depict a really unique world, which was cool.

I do wish they would have tried more new with this, make it look a little different than some of the other films, especially if we're gonna do high fantasy. But they didn't, and that's fine. It still looked good. It didn't. Nothing took me out of the film.

I think that plays to its credit, in my opinion.

I think it's super funny that instead of seeing, like, all these different changes that they've made to, like, a normal society to fit the fantasy races, it's just all normal. Maybe their doors are, like, a little bit bigger, but Colt Bronco just. He pretty much just drives a Bronco without a driver's seat.

It's not, like, adapted to a centaur or anything. It just doesn't have the front seat.

Yeah. Which is great.

Which is, I guess, is adapted, but not. Not in a normal way. It's a lot of fun.

Now, I do want to shout out the. The main People who get credited for the animation. Sean Cacko, who started with Brave after this, does Incredibles 2.

Both movies that I didn't really care that much about, but they don't look bad. Jamie Ryan, however, does. I think this is like her first big film that she was a part of. She goes on to do Soul and the animation in that film.

Incredible, actually. Incredible. They do some stuff in that film that I think is a little different. And that's what I like.

You know, I like to see animation grow, which why we do this series. However, do I. A little bit about the director, Dan Scanlon. He did Monsters University before this and basically was given a. Hey.

What people liked about that was the emotion in it. We want you to tell a personal story. He and his brother did go through the loss of his dad.

So that's kind of how this story was born out of a really personal experience. I think you really feel that throughout the film, as we've kind of already said.

So.

Yeah, it feels very authentic.

Yeah, it's great throughout. Any other comments on, like, the art animation history that you guys want to mention? No. All right, let's. We do like to do this every time.

If you had to pick a favorite song, scene and character from the film, who are you picking? Tj?

The songs actually did not stand out to me.

I don't think it was really a song.

Yeah, there's not like a song they don't sing. They do have a fun diegetic soundtrack at some points in the van, in

whatever spell that works. Is that a song? Favorite spell, scene and character.

I mean, you can still do song, but the spell Axelio is. Is a lot of fun. It works kind of weird, but there's clearly a lot to the magic system we don't get to see, so kind of depends.

Bridgie and Viso is what it's called the Invisible bridge. That only works if you believe it works. That's super fun and becomes relevant.

It shows, like, how confident that Ian becomes at the end of the movie because he's not even questioning it. He just casts it and starts running on air. It's awesome.

But

for my favorite scene probably is when Barley realizes that he's gonna. He has to sacrifice Guinevere the van and he puts out.

And if you haven't seen the movie, it's just like this old big cargo van that he fixes up and paints a pegasus on the side. Or I guess it's a unicorn. But Pegasus don't seem to exist in Onward. I'm just One of those old beaters that someone takes care of.

He puts just a heavy rock on Guinevere's gas pedal to cut off the police pursuit that they have developed. Or it's like the midway point of their journey.

And he just aims it, puts the rock on the gas pedal, and watches as his noble steed, Guinevere, drives up this rock face, nails an outcrop, and shuts the road off from them being followed.

And as it's doing that, the hundreds of parking tickets that he has start flying out of the glove box and spreading on each side of the van like, their wings.

Which I just gotta say, like, I love that even the magic character Barley isn't like, anti technology. You do both. Yeah, you do both.

Character wise, it might also be Guinevere. Guinevere does count as a character, but if that's not okay with you, I

mean, whatever you want. What's your show?

Manticore is a lot of fun.

Yeah.

I do love the Manticore first name, the last name. Manticore. Yeah, I love her. He's a lot of fun.

That's fair. Liz, you want to go next? You want me go next?

I'll go next. My favorite character are the fairies that they are a motorcycle gang when they can just fly. I love that. It made me chuckle. Lol. Even if you will.

And, like, they're just so tiny, and they just try and be so tough,

and it takes so many of them to ride each bike.

Right, right. It's like, out of.

It's like 20 per bike.

Yeah. Out of all the things you wanted to do, this is what you chose with modernization.

Yeah. And again, they didn't, like, make motorcycles for the sprites. They just. Motorcycles. Yeah.

They just made motorcycles. And they didn't know they could fly. They had forgotten that they could fly.

But it still doesn't make a lot of sense that the 80 of them were like, let's buy four motorcycles, and we'll be a biker gang.

That's crazy.

Okay, so those for your favorite character? What about favorite scene?

Favorite scene. I always. I love, like, a puzzle.

So when they were, like, in the dungeons, trying to, like, figure out the codes and stuff like that, I guess that was my favorite. I guess it was multiple scenes, but that was, like, kind of like my favorite portion of it. I'm like, oh, look at them.

They're working together, getting along. Good job. Siblings.

Yeah. What about a favorite spell?

I don't care about that.

All right.

If I have to pick, I guess the one that makes things Giant.

That is fun.

It is fun because I would.

Giant Chee.

Could you imagine how low my grocery bill would go?

I don't think it would affect mine at all.

I just.

It now it's still be so hard though, because you're either going to cook one grain of rice, which is hard, or try to cook one giant grain of rice, which seems hard.

So the baby right now really loves fruit by the foot. I've been buying them and yeah, honestly. So to make that giant, I'm like.

And they're not cheap, you know, I mean, like the snacks and stuff like that are not cheap. So I'm thinking like all like the snack cakes and all that stuff.

Fruit by the foot's never been cheap. Actually, if we want to talk about

it, well, I've been buying it in bulk multiple times. So I'll eat like four or five a day.

For my favorite spell. I like the bridge. I thought that was great. I just. I like that it took confidence to kind of make the spell work. Favorite scene.

See, I'm torn between two. There's the obvious one at the end, the emotional one that like really makes the movie, in my opinion.

But I feel like the reason none of us are saying that is because it's too obvious. So I'm not going to say it either. I'm going to go.

Actually, when they get pulled over with the cop that everybody, all the people try to hate on because, you know, she had a girlfriend. Just because that scene was really unique, that it was funny.

You have this gag of them trying to pretend to be a different character, but they weren't allowed to lie. So you had to like word things really differently. So you had like a lot of like funny, like wordplay kind of stuff of like trying to say stuff.

But then it got really emotional because Ian was caught basically saying that he really does believe that Barley is a screw up. And it ended up with having this really kind of emotional climax in the film as well.

So you got like the funny, the gags and that emotional bit all in one scene. And I thought that was just really well done. So I like that. Favorite character between Barley. But I think you're not supposed to say main characters.

Just feel like we're not allowed to do that. And I actually really like the mom, Laurel. I thought Laurel was great because she's like a normal like soccer mom kind of deal.

But she's going out beating a manicorns. Like, yeah, we're just going to go and, you know, kick butt, take names.

She's A she's a mighty one.

Awesome. Like, she was so cool. I actually really liked her character, so I thought that was great.

And with that, I don't think there's yet any place in, like, the Parks or other movies or even Kingdom Hearts that these characters show up in that I'm aware of. Yet still relatively new movie. So there's time.

Yeah. I don't think it did well enough to get represented. It probably won't.

Yeah.

But, you know, we touched on this a few times, how this movie kind of touches on, like, this whole idea of, like, grief, how we remember our lost loved ones.

Like, would it be good to have one last day if you had the magic spell to do so, or is it, you know, so it has, like, stuff like that has, like, giving room for others to grieve. Like, he realized it was more important for his brother to have that moment than him to have it. That kind of stuff. So I just kind of want to.

As we get near the end of this, how do we relate to the way this movie kind of shows this themes, like, not necessarily the dad thing. I know we don't always have that, but, like, we've all had to deal with grief in some way or another. Do we think this was handled well?

Do we relate any way of how, like, sometimes we got to give others room to grieve and sometimes maybe technology gets in the way or. How are you feeling about this, tj?

It's definitely kind of detached from reality because most of us don't have a spell that will bring back a loved one for a day and a half.

Yeah.

But as far as letting other people grieve, understanding your place in the world, it's a really unique lesson that I don't think another story would be able to tell this way.

Yeah, I agree. Liz, anything, Any comments or thoughts or concerns?

Yeah, I wouldn't want that to be a reality. Because us humans, we are sinful by nature and we are selfish. So one day would never be enough. You know what I mean?

You're always going to want another day and it's just going to open up wounds all over again. So I get.

Closure might be fine for some people, but when someone passes a lot of the times, if you did not have a proper goodbye, you have this idolization of who they were or like this fake narrative you kind of, like, built up to make yourself kind of cope with the death.

So even if they could come back for a day, very rarely would they be the same person that you now envision because you now it's like a self protective mechanism and then you would be just left with more disappointment, more hurt, and then a bigger therapy. Bill. But I still love, I mean, like it's whimsical, right? We always say, you know, if we just had one more day.

Yeah.

But I mean, true, if I had another day with my sister, what would like, miss her? Hate that she passed away suddenly and tragically. But there's nothing I can do with that day. Right.

It's going to just make me angry and bitter afterwards. But I think being with the audience intended for children, this is a really great avenue for them to be able to process their emotions.

Because if you look at psychology, a lot of people have not progressed from a mental state, not even adults from the age of eight. So that's just kind of like a, if you, if you read the book, let them. The let them theory.

She kind of talks about that as well as how like you can see an adult's behavior, how they've never matured past the age of eight. And just reading the book, it's a fantastic correlation of it.

So just to help the kids be able to start processing their, processing their emotion and not building it, you know, inside and allowing them, like, I can't be sad that my dad's dead or I can be sad that my brother got something and I don't get it and that's not fair.

But he was selfish to see those acts of everything's not having a super happy ending because if you think about it, the dad's still dead and he didn't get to say CSA's tea or like spend time with his dad. Really, that's technically textbook. Not a happy ending if you look at it black and white. But it did a really good job.

But it was, they did a really

good job, you know what I mean of that?

So yeah, yeah. So one my obligatory C.S.

lewis reference, he mentions the grief observed because like part of that book feels that Lewis writes, just feels like he's just kind of like throwing out his thoughts.

And you see like how sometimes thank you too much makes grieving harder because he even is like, man, even if I do see my wife in heaven one day, like when you see a friend and it's been a long time, you're like, I hardly recognize this person.

It was like, it's not even going to be who I think of anymore because what I've idolized, how I remember her, isn't going to be what she's actually like. And like Lewis goes on this Whole thing. And he's like, he's going through it in that book. So, yeah, like, I think that's really relevant.

Like, it is hard to be like, if I had one more day. Well, your memories aren't necessarily gonna live up to who the person is.

But I do think one of the things this movie points out in how it depicts the grief thing that I do like, and it's gonna make me go to my whole, hey, high church is good stuff. Even though the movie is not about spirituality or religion. This was just an easy, like, way to do that in the movie was to have magic, you know?

But it points out how, like, hey, all the machines being hooked up with that, all that technology prevented him from having a proper goodbye. And that is the world we live in.

We live in a world where when you die, there's a good chance you being hooked up to a bunch of machines and no one really getting to say goodbye. That's the thing. And what I love that the church does. And that's not what this movie is about.

I want to say that I like your high churches that Observe All Souls day because it does give you a day to be like, hey, I'm going to remember them. I'm going to sit in this grief. I'm going to let this exist.

And I think we just need to have those days where we just go like, hey, you know what I'm going to remember? I'm going to sit in it. I have. My boss isn't religious. Every year on her brother's birthday, she has a I'm going to go be sad day.

And I think that's appropriate, though. Sometimes we do just take a day. And, yeah, that's going to be very different than having an actual presence with them.

But I think it is important that we remember. It's okay to just take a day to grieve, to be with them.

Even if sitting by the graveside, sitting with memories you're with, like, if you have a photo book, whatever, I think that stuff's healthy. It's good.

Taylor hates that. I call it this, but I call it the day my sister passes. I call it D Day.

I get why he hates that.

Yeah, I was like, it's D day. But I. I spend the day and I do anything I want to do. I just. I have fun. Treat yourself if I want to. Yeah, pretty much it's a treat yourself day.

If you ever watch Parks and Rec, a D day is a treat yourself day for list. Because you can't tell me no to Nothing. But that's just one of my grieving mechanisms, you know, because what. What is being sad getting?

Yeah, actually D Day is coming up. Well, I'm actually praying. Well, I think it would be very poetic.

My due date is a week before D Day, so I'm praying he doesn't come late because then I don't want to share my D day with my kids birthday. That's kind of funny, you know, but you have to laugh and grief too. That's one of like. That's how you heal.

Yeah, but yeah, that's definitely going to happen. No, that sounds. Sounds right.

We don't want them to come. It would be like a week and a half late. I would be miserable.

It is important that we take time to grieve. It's important that we take time to celebrate people's lives. Magic isn't real.

But again, like, what I love this movie does is remind us that there is an importance to being human. Ironically, I think that's a big message of the movie where there are no humans.

That sometimes we lose the magic by being so reliant on technology and sometimes just be what you were made to be. I think that's a poignant message, especially for our times today. Happy notes to end on. There we go.

What might be happier notes is when we get to recommendations. But first I'm going to let you guys know we will be doing an extra question just for subscribers.

We'll be answering, if you could add any one character from another fantasy franchise to this movie, who would it be? Any. Any fantasy. Doesn't matter. Doesn't have to be Lord of the Rings. Doesn't have to be Game of Thrones. Could be.

But before we get to that, we got to give some recommendations. Gonna recommend Scrubs. It's the only thing that exists, so you should watch it. It's great. D.J. what about you?

Really kind of, kind of difficult to recommend anything other than Resident Evil Requiem, but I can't do that because it's not out yet.

So you still recommend they try.

And now there is a fourth book as of this past year called Absolution by Jeff Vandermeer. They're great books. They're short books. They're suspenseful, tense, kind of existentially.

Horrifying.

Perfect.

They're a great read. Nice. Nice, Liz. Recommendation for everybody.

I guess the most recent thing I've been watching, so I recommend it is Jack of All Trades, Party of None. It's a anime classic. Adventurer, dungeon, anime. This guy, he can do everything and anything. Jack of All Trades.

They got kicked out of his guild, but he was like a bad booty. And so now it's just kind of like following his. His story still fairly new, so I like it.

Nice.

Yeah, I've heard. I've heard it's pretty good.

All right. With that though, guys, make sure. I also recommend that you rate and review our show. Wherever you get your podcast, Apple podcast, Spotify, wherever.

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Same website, you can get some free extra content, you can buy some merch, you can leave a one time financial gift, all kinds of stuff without becoming a member. But I do think it's worth it to become a member. It's kind of cool. And of course, we want you all to do one very important thing for us.

And remember that we are all the chosen people. A kingdom of priests.