Starring: Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Octavia Spencer, Kyle Bornheimer, Mel Rodriguez, and Lena Waithe
Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures / Pixar Animation Studios
Runtime: 107 mins. Reviewed in Mar 2020
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This American animated film is based on a screenplay written by the Director of the movie (Dan Scanlon), Jason Headley, and Keith Bunin. It tells the story of two brothers who practice a spell they think will bring their dead father back. The film is inspired by Scanlon’s personal experience of his own father’s passing away, when he was just one year old.
In the movie, two elf bothers – Ian Lightfoot (voiced by Tom Holland) and Barley Lightfoot (voiced by Chris Pratt) – live in the city of New Mushroomton and mourn the passing of their father, Wilden (Kyle Bornheimer). Wilden died before Ian was born and Ian regrets the fact that he never had the opportunity to say goodbye to him, and Barley was too young to remember much about his interactions with his father.
Ian and Barley are being raised by their devoted mother, Laurel (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who has a new boyfriend, Colt Bronco (Mel Rodriguez), whom neither of the boys really likes. They live in an environment full of elves, dragons, miniature human “bikey” bees, and a gay cyclops, where the discovery and exercise of magic have been common place. The exercise of magic, however, is severely threatened by the onslaught of technology. The world was once ruled by magic, but magic has fallen out of favour – it has gone away, and technology has taken its place.
On Ian’s 16th. birthday, to respect Willden’s wishes, Laurel gives Ian a wooden staff with a rare gem that has a magic spell which can bring back his father for a day. When Ian casts the spell, only the lower half of Wilden’s body comes back, and Wilden returns in the form of a walking pair of pants and shoes. The two brothers then embark on a journey to search for a second magical gem stone that can complete the spell so that they can interact with a “whole” father. Images of the two brothers walking and dancing with half a father are amazingly innovative and arresting.
When Ian and Barley depart, Laurel goes after them. Their journey takes them to a tavern run by a monster, Cory (Octavia Spencer), who has a map that will guide them to the gem they want. They move “onward” after a fight with Cory, who warns Laurel that their journey will expose them to a terrible curse. The curse produces a menacing stone-dragon (with a beating heart), who also wants the gem. Laurel arrives to try and kill the dragon with a magic sword, which gives Ian enough time to fully restore Wilden, providing one of the brothers, but not the two of them, with the opportunity to say goodbye to their father.
This is a computer-animated movie produced by Pixar, which has been responsible for such fantasy classics as “Toy Story” (1995), “Finding Nemo” (2003), “Up” (2009), and “Inside Out” (2015). The quality of animation is excellent. Typical of Pixar films, it has an emotionally compelling narrative, and is the first Pixar film to include LGBT-related content in its plot line – Officer Spector (Lena Waithe) is the first openly gay character Pixar has used.
Again characteristic of Pixar movies, its visual imagery is stunning, its story-line is highly adventurous, and the film is full of moral messages that are inspiring, not the least of which is the message that families really do need both fathers and mothers. A good musical soundtrack integrates the film’s action scenarios, and the film addresses real-world problems with humour.
The film is a sentimental excursion into the travails of adolescence, which includes the battle to discover one’s identity – an important theme which Pixar has developed in other movies it has made. The film is vividly coloured and imagined, and has a heart-tugging ending. As an adventure story, it is somewhat more ambitious than past movies by Pixar, and it imaginatively depicts a world where magic is needed to “enliven” human happenings. The film is a father-son story that, with the aid of magic, morphs cleverly into a tribute to brotherly love. It is Pixar near to its best.
Peter W. Sheehan is Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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