History WesternAnimation / Onward

** [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014 Once again]], Creator/ChrisPratt plays a character who [[spoiler: hesitated to say goodbye to a parent as they died from a terminal illness]].

* BreakUpMakeUpScenario: Happens to Barley and Ian [[spoiler: after their quest takes them back to Ian's high school. Ian blames Barley for taking him on a fruitless quest when he should have been spending more time with his Dad and splits. He gets together back with Barley after realizing what Barley means to him.]]

** At the beginning of the movie, Officer Colt shows Laurel a video of Barley tying himself to a historical fountain in town, trying to prevent it from being demolished by a construction crew. [[spoiler: The fountain turns out to have been the Phoenix Gem's hiding spot all along.]]
** After Barley [[spoiler:sacrifices Guinevere by rigging her to drive into the side of a mountain and it gets crushed by boulders]], he picks up the car's orange reflector (which happens to look similar to the Phoenix Gem) and stores it in his pocket. Later, [[spoiler: he uses it to distract the giant dragon by tossing it into a bush and fooling the beast into thinking it's the Gem.]]

** Laurel's very first appearance on-screen has her exercising along to a workout video, quickly stepping side to side, holding a dumbbell in both hands, and declaring herself a fearless warrior as a mantra. [[spoiler: She later uses the same footwork to avoid damage while fighting the curse dragon, holds a sword in the same position she held the dumbbell, and repeats her mantra as she stabs the beast in the heart]].

* NeverGotToSayGoodbye: Barley admits to Ian that he actually has ''four'' memories of their father, but the fourth isn't his favorite. [[spoiler: When he was still little, he visited his father in the hospital to say goodbye, but the sight of Wilden hooked to life support scared him from going inside the room.]] After finishing his story, he quickly clears his throat as they approach the end of the tunnel, obviously trying not to cry in front of his brother. He even states that it was because of this incident that he decided to never be afraid of ''anything'' again. [[spoiler:At the climax of the film, [[GreaterNeedThanMine Ian tells Barley he should be the one to see their dad so he could properly say goodbye to him and get closure over his death]].]]

* OurDragonsAreDifferent: The Lightfoots have a small pet dragon named Blazey that acts like a dog. A brief scene in the prologue shows a party of adventurers battling a huge and aggressive dragon, suggesting that they were selectively bred over the centuries to be pets and used to be larger and fiercer. [[spoiler: A Dragon-shaped Golem made up of buildings and objects is brought life by a curse]].

* PlayingCatchWithTheOldMan: Ian's list of things he wants to do along with Wilden includes "play catch". [[spoiler: He ends up doing it as part of his magic practice with Barley.]]

* UnrevealAngle: [[spoiler: Ian is only able to see his fully-resurrected father from the back and at a distance, watching him and Barley interact from inside the rubble of the school, and we as the audience also only see him from Ian's POV. By the end of the movie, both Ian and the viewers still only know what Wilden looks like from the photos of him.]]

* WhamShot: Ian and Barley reaching the end of their quest, by emerging from a manhole to discover [[spoiler: they're back home in New Mushroomton, in front of their high school]].

* FaunsAndSatyrs: In the trailer, there's a female faun painting a house wall, using her goat legs to [[MundaneUtility leap and reach the high spots]].

The film also featured the first Disney-produced ''[[Franchise/TheSimpsons Simpsons]]'' short played before the feature film, titled ''[[WesternAnimation/MaggieSimpsonInPlaydateWithDestiny Playdate With Destiny]]''. It too was released on Creator/DisneyPlus.

** [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy Once again]], Creator/ChrisPratt plays a character who [[spoiler: hesitated to say goodbye to a parent as they died from a terminal illness]].

* {{Nerd}}: Barley is a massive Tabletop RPG geek, but is also loud and extroverted. [[spoiler:Wilden also apparently fits: he wore bright purple socks un-self-consciously, [[SucksAtDancing dances dorkily]], and thinks his wizard name would be "Wilden the Whimsical".]]

* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: The Japanese dub uses Sukima Switch’s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvDTkTKi5pA "Zenryoku Shounen" ("Full-Force Boy")]] as the credits theme, which is interestingly a rerelease of a song they wrote in 2005 rather than an original song written for the movie.

* PerfectDisguiseTerribleActing: Ian a one point uses a disguise spell to imitate the chief of police, but almost gives himself away through a combination of stuttering, wishy-washy demeanor, and the fact that the spell weakens every time he tells a lie.

** Barley seems to be affraid about a gelatinous cube he encouter in his tabletop game. The cube exist for reel and is one of the deadliest booby trap of the cave.

* ChekhovsGag: The A/C in Barley's van is briefly shown to be excessively powerful as a joke. During the scuffle with the pixie bikers, Ian uses it to force them out of the van.

* AnimalsLackAttributes: Several creatures and characters—namely the centaurs—should have visible genitals when viewed at certain angles, but do not.

* TheRunaway: Laurel coming in to her son's room to see it ransacked and both of them gone. She only has a note to go on, with no way to contact them and as she catches up she learns that they're embarking on a dangerous quest with a curse they have no means of defending against at the end of it.

* ActorAllusion: [[Creator/ChrisPratt Barley]] is pretty much an elven version of [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy Peter Quill aka Star-Lord]]. He's a HeroicWannabe with a fixation on his mixtape and mode of transportation, he's motivated by a parent who died from a terminal illness when he was young, and he never properly got to say goodbye to said parent because he was too scared to see their illness-ravaged bodies and them hooked up to all of the medical machinery right before they succumbed. Bonus points for the theme of this film also being about [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2 fathers, and the lead realizing who their true father figure actually is]]. [[spoiler:Said true father figure happens to have blue skin in both cases, as well]].

* AdultFear:
** Laurel coming in to her son's room to see it ransacked and both of them gone. She only has a note to go on, with no way to contact them and as she catches up she learns that they're embarking on a dangerous quest with a curse they have no means of defending against at the end of it.
** Barley is clearly trying very hard to keep himself from crying as he encourages Ian to keep crossing the bottomless ravine after the safety line comes loose.

* ActorAllusion: [[Creator/ChrisPratt Barley]] is pretty much an elven version of [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy Peter Quill aka Star-Lord]]. He's a HeroicWannabe with a fixation on his mixtape and mode of transportation, he's motivated by a parent who died from a terminal illness when he was young, and he never properly got to say goodbye to said parent because he was too scared to see their illness-ravaged bodies and them hooked up to all of the medical machinery right before they succumbed. Bonus points for the theme of this film also being about [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2 fathers, and the lead realizing who their true father figure actually is]]. [[spoiler: Said true father figure happens to have blue skin in both cases, as well]].

** After Barley [[spoiler: sacrifices Guinevere by rigging her to drive into the side of a mountain and it gets crushed by boulders]], he picks up the car's orange reflector (which happens to look similar to the Phoenix Gem) and stores it in his pocket. Later, [[spoiler: he uses it to distract the giant dragon by tossing it into a bush and fooling the beast into thinking it's the Gem.]]

** Early on, Ian gets a splinter in his hand from the magical staff. During the final battle, [[spoiler: Ian loses the staff when it's knocked from his hands out into the sea. Ian remembers the splinter still in his hand and that it has "magic in every fiber", so he uses the magic embedded in the splinter and a growth spell to form a replacement MagicStaff]].

* DinkyDrivers: The biker pixies ride full-size motorcyles. The films shows scenes of many pixies cooperating to ride, steer, shift gears, etc.

* FighterMageThief: In the beginning of the movie, a party appeared retrieving a goblet and fighting a dragon. The party consists of an Elven Knight (Fighter), a rogue Faun (Thief), and a Cyclops wizard (Mage).

** A couple references to [[WesternAnimation/{{Brave}} another Pixar movie about magic and fantasy]] appear in the Manticore's Tavern. One particular location on the map in the tavern is "The ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}'' Wilderness". Also, the "Tome of Truth" on the wall is adorned with the insignia of the Dunbroch clan.

* NeverGotToSayGoodbye: Barley admits to Ian that he actually has ''four'' memories of their father, but the fourth isn't his favorite. [[spoiler: When he was still little, he visited his father in the hospital to say goodbye, but the sight of Wilden hooked to life support scared him from going inside the room.]] After finishing his story, he quickly clears his throat as they approach the end of the tunnel, obviously trying not to cry in front of his brother. He even states that it was because of this incident that he decided to never be afraid of ''anything'' again. [[spoiler: At the climax of the film, [[GreaterNeedThanMine Ian tells Barley he should be the one to see their dad so he could properly say goodbye to him and get closure over his death]].]]

* ProductionForeshadowing: There's a [[WesternAnimation/{{Soul}} Dorothea Williams]] record on a shelf in the Lightwood house.
* ProtestByObstruction: When Officer Bronco drops by to talk about Barley's recent round of activism, he shows a clip on his phone of Barley chained to the ancient fountain protesting its destruction. A city worker with some bolt cutters quickly ends his rant.

* WhereItAllBegan: The brother's quest eventually leads them back to their hometown of New Mushroomton.
* WhamShot: Ian and Barley reaching the end of their quest, by emerging from a manhole to discover [[spoiler: they're back home in New Mushroomton, in front of their high school]].

-->'''Manticore:''' You're late, Adolphus.
-->'''Adolphus:''' [unintelligible]\\
'''Manticore:''' I understand there's traffic. You need to plan for that.\\