The minute everyone started to say that movies were coming to streaming services early due to the coronavirus shutdowns, I asked where Onward was—not for the children, not for families, but for myself. Pixar movies are my guilty pleasure. No … you know what? They’re my joy in this world, and when I saw Onward for my press screening, the movie’s heartwarming hijinks brought me to tears, and I couldn’t stop.
So now, Disney is letting us bring Onward home early at 8PM tonight (or wait until April 3rd to watch it on Disney+) for $19.99—a bit more than the price of a movie ticket, depending on where you live, to own Onward instead. My goal was to take my niece to see it before all this happened, and since we can’t go to the movie theaters, this helps me keep my promise.
Lots of movies are postponing their release dates altogether until they know when people might actually go to the movies again, but for movies like this that were already in theaters, we’re happy to have accelerated home releases to keep us entertained. But more than that, Onward is kind of the movie we need right now—not because the world is dark and twisted and sad, but rather, because Onward is a movie about hope. Yes, it’s about two brothers trying to see their father for a day, but it’s also about hoping for the best and searching for an answer no matter what.
Ian (Tom Holland) and Barley (Chris Pratt) go on this adventure together because they want to find a way to see their father. They have an unwavering hope (at least Barley does) that it will all work out, and even when Ian is a pessimist, he still goes with Barley because he wants his brother to be right. It’s truly something we could all use in our lives right now, in all the doom and gloom going around because of the very serious problems facing us.
I’m excited to own Onward and cry again. It’s a beautiful movie and one that I thoroughly enjoyed when I saw it in the theater, and now that I can see it at home when we’re all trying to remain safe, it just makes me feel a little bit better about everything. So why not hunker down with Ian and Barley for a little while and just share Onward with the loved ones in your family? At least it’s something to all do together in the midst of all this.
(via The Hollywood Reporter, image: Pixar)
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Published: Mar 20, 2020 12:43 pm