Ryan_Barbakins

Onward is a very delightful film. I found the ending and theme to be very emotional and relatable. Most of the enjoyment of the film comes from the exciting, interesting quest and emotion that glues it all together. This film was a very big relief for Disney writing wise. Recently, they have failed to craft a story that felt natural and well rounded (ie: Rise of Skywalker, Frozen 2, and even a bit of Toy Story 4). Every little detail and line of dialogue comes back to serve a greater purpose by the end of the film such as all of the magic spells Barley teaches Ian, the piece of Gweniver that Barley keeps, and just about every single interaction between the two brothers. The ending of the film is quite emotional especially if you have a brother. It explains what kind of a role an older brother plays for a younger brother. Being the youngest in my family with two brothers, I absolutely adored it. My main criticisms of the film are that it can feel a little bit too formulaic for Pixar, and surprisingly there are very few funny jokes. I assumed that this film would be much more funny considering the main cast and the way it was marketed. I also wish that the emotion was a little more spread out. There was one scene at the beginning and then the entire ending. Nonetheless, this film succeeds at being very entertaining and emotional.

Out of all of the 2010s Pixar sequels (other than the cars films which were garbage, and the toy stories which were great) Finding Dory is easily the most lackluster when compared to the original. Finding Nemo was so great for it's heartbreaking journey of a father trying to find his lost son. Finding Dory is literally just Dory thinking "hey I wonder where my parents are." I get that large amounts of emotion are triggered by its ending, but the entire film doesn't feel very necessary because of greatly finding nemo ended. But overall it is an enjoyable film with some very funny and exciting scenes. The introduction of new characters was great since they were well written. The ending scene of the film is quite funny because of its absurdity which I think is what they were trying to go for. I enjoyed this film, but will take Finding Nemo over it in a heartbeat.

Inside Out is a film about the loss of one's childhood and happiness. Filtered through a innocent children's film, it limits itself from reaching true potential with this concept, yet it still contains many incredibly real themes. The biggest of which being Joy's arc of allowing sadness to take control. Anyone who is happy 100% of the time is either lying to them self, or a sociopath, and this film acknowledges this a couple times in heartfelt scenes. The concept and world they built inside of a human brain is very broad and interesting. There is enough within it to where they could easily make a just as emotional sequel, yet I don't think they will end up doing this anytime soon. Overall this is a very emotional and real film that may or may not make you cry.