This is the newest movie that Disney's Pixar studio has put out and it's pretty damn good! Let's take a quick step back though. Like most Pixar movies, this showing started off with a pretty fantastic short. With the merger of Disney and Fox, they have new characters they can play around with. They welcomed The Simpsons into the Disney family first with Disney+ and now with a new short before the movie. It was a cute little short that was a fun watch on its own and I can't wait to see more shorts with these characters in the future. Onward to the review now! The intro sequence to this movie was pretty epic. A huge epic adventurous score of music introduced the Pixar logo and the opening scene. We are introduced to a world that is fantastical and full of magic. The movie then shows that technology is slowly being introduced and makes things easier to do things. Magic being such a hard practice, the magical creatures slowly go towards the more simpler method to do things with the technology. Magic is slowly faded away because no one uses it anymore. Going into this movie, I did not think they would take this route. I was happy they did, although I've seen this before. It's the whole argument of tradition and practices slowly fading away because everything is moving to a modern society. Next scene moves years later and we are introduced to our main character Ian Lightfoot who is played by Tom Holland. Being his 16th birthday he is trying his best to change his life for the better. We quickly learn that his father is no longer around because he died from some type of illness. Wearing his dad's sweater he gets recognized by someone who knew his dad. This moment was really amazing because we get such a small detail about his dad that says a lot. He said that his dad use to wear purple socks. Ian asked why and he finds out that the only reason why he did it is because he was a "bold" man. This inspires Ian to stop trying to be afraid and tackle some things he wants to do like learn how to drive, invite people to his party, and talk more. A "New Me List" as he called it. This is where the movie got pretty predictable for me but I was ok with it. At this point I knew he would probably most likely fail and by the end of the movie, he would succeed. Although it seemed like the obvious road to take, the journey of the movie still left many good surprises on its way to the end. We then hear a recording of his father and he has a conversation with him based on what his dad says on the tape. It is like they were talking to each other but we know they would never be able to do that. It's the first emotional hit of the movie and it worked really well. Main plot then begins when Ian's mom introduces a gift from his dad. A magical staff and a spell to bring him back for a day is revealed to Ian. His brother, Barley Lightfoot, played by Chris Pratt knows all things about magic. With his help they slightly succeed to bring only the bottom half of their father's body. They must go on a quest to find another crystal to finish the spell and see their father. The journey of the movie had a lot of fun moments but overall it felt like the middle part of the movie was the weakest. We have all seen journey movies with characters racing against the clock many times before. I do want to say that there are some great lines throughout this movie though that stuck with me. The Manticore creature that had the map they needed use to live by the motto "You have to take risks in life to have an adventure". This is something that I personally believe in as well. That people must step out of their comfort zones, in order to experience something adventurous. Another great moment is when they finally decide to take the long dangerous way rather than the quick safe way. This is a throwback to the previous theme of people wanting to go the easier route rather than the harder one. This led them to finding exactly where they need to go. This just shows that there are many ways we can go about life but sometimes the more difficult way has the biggest reward. There was a great scene where the dad can feel the music coming from the van and starts dancing. Another bold move. He makes his two sons dance with him and it was such a great bonding moment between the three of them. Towards the end of the journey that come across a huge never ending pit. Another moment for Ian to conquer his fear and believe in himself. He uses magic to make an invisible bridge to cross the pit. His brother holding a rope (a safety net) just in case if he falls soon realizes that the rope came undone and yet Ian made it anyways. The brother said that he never needed the rope. This just shows that belief his brother has in Ian and was a great moment in my opinion. While they are closing in on the location of the crystal to bring their dad back, Barley shares something he regrets. He said that when their dad was sick, he had a chance to say goodbye but was to afraid to do so and never had the chance. This was extremely heartbreaking and Pixar does such a great job at bringing out moments like these from their characters. In the final battle Ian realizes that he must sacrifice not seeing his dad to distract the dragon that is trying to get the crystal. He tells Barley that he will distract the dragon long enough for him to see his dad and tell him goodbye like he never could before. He realized that although he never had a father he had his brother his whole life and that was good enough. This gave me so much feels in the movie theater. This movie is a magical journey throughout and although it is not one of Pixar's best one, it is still a very good watch. Highly recommend checking this out with the family and expect to get some feels in some moments.
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