History WesternAnimation / Onward

* MagicAIsMagicA: Barley describes a few of the principles of spellcasting to Ian while teaching him specific ones. For starters, all spells need to be spoken "from the heart's fire", i.e. with stalwart conviction. Certain spells require total focus on the target as they're being cast, others need consistent faith that they're working or rare spell components like the Phoenix gem. Some spells depend on a combination of these things. Spells like a glamour have an ironic restriction; since it's a magical deception, casters need to maintain total honesty while using them, otherwise they'll begin to fail.

* HollywoodNerd: 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".]]

* AerithAndBob: Of all the fantastical names in the film (Barley, Wilden, Specter, the Manticore, etc.), Ian[[note]]and even then, his real name is Iandore[[/note]], Laurel, and ''maybe'' Colt are the only two that sound normal.

* CurseCutShort: On more than one occasion, a character reacts to an unpleasant surprise with "Son of a--!"

* {{Disneyfication}}: In-universe, Corey has essentially done this to herself, reducing the mighty manticore adventurer to a goofy cartoon mascot and her [[YouAllMeetInAnInn quest-giving tavern]] to a themed family restaurant for children's birthday parties. [[spoiler:At the end of the movie, she remodels it to be a more serious-seeming restaurant and regales visitors with tales of the old days--while still entertaining children.]]

* FourIsDeath: [[spoiler: Barley's fourth memory of his dad is the day the former had to say goodbye, but was too afraid of seeing the latter on life support.]]
* FriendOrIdolDecision: [[spoiler: Barley crashes his beloved van Guinevere into a cliff to cause a rockslide and block the road from the police.]]

** The brothers emerge from the final tunnel to find the trail has led them [[spoiler:right back to their own neighborhood, in front of their high school. The Phoenix Gem was hidden in their hometown all along! In a location Barley knew well!]]

* MamaBear: Laurel is your typical suburban mom...[[spoiler: until her sons are in danger, then she grabs a sword bigger than she is and goes after a dragon on her own.]]

** One particular location on the map in the Manticore's tavern is "The ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}'' Wilderness".

* RealityEnsues: The premise of the movie is that while magic exists and is quite awesome, it is also difficult to master and limited to gifted individuals. So, over time, magic has faded in favor of technology which is easier for the bulk of the population to use.

* 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.

* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:Ian and Barley's long, difficult journey was almost completely pointless, as they don't get the reunion they wanted with their dad, Barley barely gets closure with him, and neither will ever see him again. EVER.]]

* RaidersOfTheLostParody: Ian and Barley have to outrun a giant gelatinous cube, evade deadly traps, and then [[IndyHatRoll pull their father's lower torso through a closing door]].

* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: Ian and Barley try to resurrect their father, but only succeed in bringing his legs back to life.

Due to being released at the time of [[UsefulNotes/CoronavirusDisease2019Pandemic the COVID-19 pandemic]], the film had a truncated run in theaters and was released digitally just two weeks after its theatrical release concluded and on Creator/DisneyPlus just two weeks after that.

* ScienceDestroysMagic: The prologue mentions that due to the difficulty learning it, people stopped using magic as more convenient technology was invented to do the same things. Luckily TheMagicComesBack.

* TheMagicComesBack: Wilden rediscovered it before he died and the ending shows that [[spoiler:Ian is practicing and teaching it.]]

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Ian gives one to Barley after they discover that after following Barley's interpretation of the water symbol on the stone, the long journey from Raven's Point apparently took them [[spoiler:''right'' back to New Mushroomton]]. Ian lays into Barley for being a screw-up and ruining his one chance to meet his father.

** The brothers emerge from the final tunnel to find the trail has led them [[spoiler:right back to their own neighborhood, in front of their high school. The Phoenix Gem was hidden in their hometown all along! In a location Barley knew well!

* ItWasWithYouAllAlong: Two occur almost simultaneously right before the climax: [[spoiler:The brothers emerge from the tunnel to find the trail has led them... right back to their own neighborhood, in front of their high school. The Phoenix Gem was hidden in their hometown all along! In a location Barley knew well! Before he discovers this, though, and is feeling bitter, thinking their quest was pointless, Ian takes a look at what he wanted to achieve and what he actually did... and realizes the type of father he always wanted to have was with him all along -- it was Barley!]]

* BrandX: There's an ersatz Mountain Dew soda brand called "Mountain [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom Doom]]". Doubles as a reference to Mount Doom from ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''.

* SayingTooMuch: The pawn store owner, Grecklin, is willing to sell the Curse Crusher sword for just 10 dollars. But, after Corey starts extolling how it's made from a rare metal and capable of destroying curses, Grecklin naturally tacks another 3 zeros to the price, which Corey and Laurel can't afford, forcing them to steal it.