Onward is the story of two elf brothers, Ian and Barley, who embark on a magical quest to meet their father who passed away when they were little.
With the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Disney announced the movie will soon be streaming on Disney+. To celebrate the release we’ve put together a list of magical facts about the animated film:
- Onward took six years to create. From idea to final effects, it took over six years to create the Onward. Head of Story Kelsey Mann has been working on the film since day one – September 17, 2013.
2. This is the first Pixar movie not to feature the credits “Disney Presents” and “A Pixar Animation Studios Film” in the opening.
3. Onward is Pixar’s first original film since Coco in 2017.
4. Filmmakers developed nearly 100,000 storyboards for this film.
5. Onward is based on a true story. Director Dan Scanlon has a personal connection to the story. Scanlon lost his father while he was very young, and Dan doesn’t have many memories of him. “The story is inspired by my own relationship with my brother and our connection with our dad who passed away when I was about a year old. That was the jumping-off point. We’ve all lost someone, and if we could spend one more day with them — what an exciting opportunity that would be.”
6. This is Pixar’s first film without any involvement from John Lasseter, following his departure as CEO of Disney’s Animation Areas.
7. Onward is the fifth Pixar film to not feature any humans, after A Bug’s Life (1998) and the Cars trilogy.
8. The popular “A113” reference is present in this film as it is in all Pixar films. The Police call that comes through near the end says “A 113 in progress”. A113 was the classroom used by John Lasseter, Tim Burton and Brad Bird at the California Institute of Arts and appears in all Pixar films.
9. This is the first Disney and Pixar film to have a digital release just two weeks after its theatrical release, due to coronavirus concerns.
10. Onward features a self-identified lesbian heroine with a girlfriend, the first-ever animated LGBT character in the Disney-Pixar universe. The character, named Officer Specter, is a Cyclops cop, voiced by openly gay screenwriter and actress Lena Waithe.
