Trailer
Plot summary
In a suburban fantasy world, two teenage elf brothers, Ian and Barley Lightfoot, go on a journey to discover if there is still a little magic left out there in order to spend one last day with their father, who died when they were too young to remember him. Like any good quest, their journey is filled with magic spells, cryptic maps, impossible obstacles and unimaginable discoveries. When the boys' fearless mom, Laurel, realizes that her sons are missing, she teams up with the legendary winged-lion-scorpion former warrior -- The Manticore -- and heads off to find them. Perilous curses aside, this one magical day could mean more than any of them ever dreamed.
Cast
Show all 13 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Onward (2020)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Onward's story grew out of director Dan Scanlon's own life: his father died when Scanlon was a young child, and he began writing after a relative found an old cassette recording of his father's voice. The only words audible at the tape's end were "Hi" and "Goodbye."
- Onward was banned outright in Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia over a single line in which police officer Specter, voiced by Lena Waithe, mentions "my girlfriend's daughter," briefly indicating she is a lesbian; homosexuality is criminalized in three of the four countries.
- Rather than cut the scene, dubs in Russia, Poland and Hungary altered Specter's line about her girlfriend, with the Russian version changing it to "my partner's daughter" and avoiding gendered pronouns for the character altogether, citing Russia's law against showing LGBT-related content to minors.
- San Francisco tattoo artist Sweet Cicely Daniher sued Disney, Pixar and producer Kori Rae, claiming the film's magic van "Guinevere" copied the unicorn mural on her own van, "Vanicorn," which Pixar had rented for a studio event in 2018; the case was later dismissed.
- Voice actor John Ratzenberger, who had appeared in every previous Pixar feature film, did not return again until Inside Out 2 in 2024, making Onward the last entry in his unbroken streak of Pixar roles at the time.
- Onward turned out to be the last Pixar film to get a worldwide theatrical release until Lightyear arrived two years later in 2022, after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down theaters and pushed the studio's next films toward streaming.
