Onward is a post new generation Pixar movie, which means that its goal appears to be painfully average in every way. The animation is pretty great most of the time, but the character models don't quite hit the early Pixar bar. There were times where the scenery looks almost life-like, but anything else isn't nearly as good. The story is kind of boring with far to many obvious set-ups, forced conflict, and a very unsatisfying ending, but the biggest issue with Onward is the two leads. I love Tom Holland and Chris Pratt, but neither one really meshes with their character and there was zero chemistry between them (or anyone else really). Adam (from Your Movie Sucks) mentions in his review that it feels like they wrote the lead characters for different actors than we got and it 100% feel that way. I really hate Jack Black, but Barely is clearly a Jack Black character and Pratt feels like he's doing a poor Jack Black imitation. Holland can act, but he doesn't bring anything to Ian. I'm assuming that Disney execs said "No one is going to see a movie just because Jack Black's voice is in it; he isn't big enough. Who do we have on the Disney payroll? My daughter likes that Spider-Guy; let's get him. What about Metal-Man? No, Robert Doweny Jr costs too much. Oh, my son likes the Justice League of the Space, can we get the squirrel or the tree? Well, what about Batista? Fine, I guess Space Lord will do." I wasn't invested in anything they were trying to do: the world building is half-assed, the humor is a big miss, and there are far too many lulls in the flow of the story. Onward feels like a good attempt from Illumination, but it's not great as a real movie and even worse as a member of Pixar's catalog.