“I think doing a personal story is always a risk,” admits Dan Scanlon, the director and co-writer of Pixar’s latest sublime animated adventure, Onward . “You put your life out there, you put your story out there, you put the stories of your family out there and you don’t know if people will react to it or connect to it. That is its own risk.” In the case of Onward , it could not get more personal. “I lost my father when I was a year old,” the Michigan-born Scanlon explains. The year was 1977 and his dad – a chemist who worked in Detroit in the car industry – died in a car accident. Scanlon’s older brother Bill was just three. “We don’t remember him at all. We have no memories of him. And we always wondered who he was and how we were like him,” Scanlon says. The director has worked for Pixar since 2001, as a storyboard artist on Cars , creative consultant on Brave and Inside Out, and director of 2013’s Monsters University , the sequel to Monsters, Inc . When it came time to seek out a new idea, he told his mother he was at a loss. Nothing sad ever really happened to him, he said. It was she that pointed out just how sad it was to lose a father you never got to know. It was a Eureka moment for Scanlon, who realised he had a chance to wrestle with his daddy issues. “That led to this idea of, ‘What if we could spend a day with him? What if we could get an opportunity to meet him?’ And that was the jumping off point. “And then we thought, ‘Well, that could only happen in a magical world’ and that’s what really led to this story in this world.” This “world”, as Scanlon puts it, is one of elves, pixies and other mythical creatures where magic exists, or at least it did until modern life intervened and spells and incantations were rendered obsolete. Onward film review – Pixar’s magic-infused family tale is both funny and touching Now, slightly depressingly, this once magical place looks like sprawling suburban America – where schools, service stations, family restaurants and freeways dominate the landscape. The story revolves around two elf brothers, Ian Lightfoot (voiced by Tom Holland) and his older sibling Barley (Chris Pratt). Living with their mother Laurel (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), Ian is a school-age teen who lacks confidence, while Barley is a lovable nerd who drives a Transit van called “Guinevere” and likes nothing better than playing fantasy board game Quests of Yore. On Ian’s 16th birthday, he receives a gift from his late father – a wizard’s staff and a spell that, when used, can seemingly bring him back for one day. Except that when it is cast only half their father returns – the bottom half. As Ian and Barley search for a crystal to complete the spell, they’re accompanied by their father’s disembodied legs (fear not, he’s wearing trousers). “It’s kind of a weird idea,” laughs Scanlon. “But at Pixar, when you pitch stuff like that – what if the house is connected to a bunch of balloons [as in Up ], what if rats cook [as in Ratatouille ]? – there’s always a sense of ‘What?’ And then ‘All right, let’s try it!’ And it’ll be memorable. It’ll be unique and I love that the people we work with … when you pitch an idea like that they get excited by it being odd!” As bizarre as these lovable Lightfoot legs sound, it’s one of those classic Pixar notions that pays off brilliantly. “The animators really had to get a lot of emotion out of those,” says Scanlon. “I think early on, they were doing very broad things, almost like he was a clown, then they realised, ‘Well, nobody moves like that.’” Instead, they pared back his actions, lending the half-father great subtlety like a silent movie character. “Hopefully, you’re reading into him and you want to know what he’s thinking,” Scanlon says. Adding to the pleasure of Onward is the charming relationship struck up by voice actors Holland and Pratt. Scanlon claims it was a coincidence that these Marvel co-stars – who both feature in the Avengers movies as Spider-Man and Starlord, respectively – were cast. “But it worked in our favour in the sense that they knew each other, they had a friendship and Chris is like a big brother to Tom and really supportive of him,” he says. Like many films this year, Onward was affected by the coronavirus pandemic, opening in the US and other territories just over a week before cinemas were forced to close. It still made US$103 million worldwide in that short time – although it currently sits at the bottom of the box office charts for Pixar movies, even lagging behind disappointments like The Good Dinosaur and Cars 3 . In an attempt to recoup its losses, Disney released Onward on demand in early April, although there can be no doubt that the big screen is where it belongs. At least the studio will claw back some money with the release of a Quests of Yore board game (“Barley’s Edition”), spell book and graphic novel – a prequel that delves into the adventures of the Manticore, one of the fantastical creatures that help Ian and Barley. While the box office stutter will undoubtedly be crushing for Scanlon, he did get the joy of showing his family the film on the big screen. His brother saw Onward at the wrap party. “He was blown away by it and it really kind of changed our relationship even more for the better,” beams Scanlon. And then his mother went to the premiere. “She was very proud and moved,” he adds. “It’s been really special.” It brings us back to the question of just how much of a risk it was for Scanlon to expose his own childhood and the father he never really knew for the purposes of entertainment. “If people don’t respond to it, well, I wouldn’t have changed a thing. I’m proud of the movie. I’m so glad of the way that it’s affected the people it has affected and it’s a love letter to my family. And if that’s a failure, I wouldn’t want to do it any other way,” he says. The director hopes others who get a chance to see Onward on the big screen will take family members, friends, loved ones or even teachers. “There are all these people in our lives that go above and beyond … to help you become who you are,” he says. “Bring that person or at least call and thank them for everything they’ve done for you. If people did that – and some people have told us they have – that’s been our biggest reward.” Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook