YMMV / Onward

• Alternate Aesop Interpretation: Becoming a new, better version of you isn't going to happen in one day; it takes time and effort, so don't get discouraged if it doesn't work out on your first attempt. Given that Ian does get discouraged after first trying at anything until about halfway through the movie, this could very well be straight-up Fridge Brilliance.
• Angst? What Angst?: Despite how much of a fantasy nerd he is, Barley takes it pretty well that he can't use magic.
• Cargo Ship: Barley/GWENIVR (his van)
• Cliché Storm: A Fat and Skinny duo consisting of a Socially Awkward Hero and his Big Fun older brother go on a journey to find the MacGuffin to fully restore their beloved dead father before the sun goes down. Oh, and they have a run-in with cops, have a brief Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure and after that, one of them realizes what they were looking for was with them all along.
• Crazy Is Cool: Barley's dedication to "Quests of Yore" leads them on an adventure where he uses the game to teach his little brother magic, a children's coloring menu contains a real-life treasure map, and an magically enlarged cheese puff serves as a raft.
• Crosses the Line Twice
  • Two brothers trying to resurrect their dead father and failing? Heartbreaking. Two brothers only managing to resurrect the lower-half of his body? Hilarious.
  • The fight with the pixie bikers. If the bikers were human-sized, the scene would be terrifying and likely bump up the movie's rating. The fact that the bikers are tiny pixies pushes it into the realm of absurdity.
• Cult Classic: Onward had the misunfortune of being released during the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic, causing it to be a Box Office Bomb. Following this, it was also unceremoniously moved to Disney+ before the streaming service had properly taken off. Critically, it gets overshadowed by being sandwiched between Toy Story 4 and Soul, leading it to be one of Pixar's most obscure movies. That didn't stop it from gaining a loyal fanbase that considers it one of the most underrated entries of the studio for its creative premise and heartwarming story.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Corey has gotten a lot of positive recognition, due to her interesting but incomplete backstory and enjoyable characterization.
  • The mermaid in the kiddie pool, who is prominently shown in the teaser, which translates to a short cameo in the movie's prologue. Not only does she have outlandish theories surrounding how she even got there in the first place, but she is also relatively uniquely designed.
  • For a character who was ultimately dropped from the final product, Jenny gets a lot of attention, with some fanfiction reinserting her into the story, usually as a Love Interest for either Ian or Barley.
• Estrogen Brigade: Barley gets the most attention from fangirls, with tons of flattering fanart and many Self-Insert characters being shipped with him in fanfiction. Not so surprising when one remembers that he is voiced by Chris Pratt.
• Fandom Rivalry: With Brave, Pixar's previous attempt at a High Fantasy setting. Fans are at odds over which one is considered better, given that both have similar themes of family and appreciating the things you have right now.
• Fanfic Fuel: The film ends on a rather light-weight note of And the Adventure Continues with regards to the Lightfoot brothers. However, it leaves some very open-ended questions on how society will deal with this potential resurgence of magic or that a high-school student now has access to some incredible powers or that a van is now flying over New Mushroomton. It also leaves other kinds of questions, like what if others joined the boys on their journey?
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Laurel/Corey is gaining plenty of traction, due to their great chemistry together even though it requires ignoring that Laurel and Colt are married by the end of the movie. ^note  Checking their hands during their last scene together, reveals that Laurel and Colt are now both wearing wedding rings.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: Some fans actually wanted to see the deleted characters Jenny and the villainous Sirens.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • There's some overlap with Zootopia, due to the similarities in the Alternate History setting.
  • Due to sharing some staff members (including the director), fans of Onward and Monsters University tend to get along well. The similar character designs also make things easier.
  • Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe get along with fans of Onward due to the fact Tom Holland and Chris Pratt play the main characters, and both actors play beloved characters in the MCU.
• Genius Bonus:
  • The portrayal of unicorns harkens back to the very first myths about them being aggressive and untameable, rather than graceful and magical.
  • It's only on screen very briefly but Laurel buys milk from Audumla Dairies. Audumla is an alternate spelling of Audumbla the primeval cow and one of the more obscure figures from Norse Mythology.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The casting of Tom Holland and Chris Pratt generated plenty of jokes about Marvel crossovers (see Memetic Mutation below). Then Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Laurel) joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as CIA Director Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. But her nature is very much the opposite of both Laurel and her sons' Marvel counterparts.
  • Chris Pratt voicing a chubby older brother who lives in a mushroom house? Hmm...
• Incest Yay Shipping: Much like Anna/Elsa and Hiro/Tadashi before it, the most prominent pairing in fanfiction is Ian/Barley, due to their relationship with each other being the movie's most prominent theme.
• Just Here for Godzilla: When the movie was first announced, it caught the interest of many Marvel Cinematic Universe fans because Tom Holland (Peter Parker/Spider-Man) and Chris Pratt (Peter Quill/Star-Lord) voice the main characters.
• Memetic Badass: Laurel, while already quite awesome in canon, fans love to exaggerate her feats to ridiculous degrees.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The thumbnail of the second trailer features a merman. Cue jokes related to Zoolander, or people claiming the merman looks like Flynn Rider from Tangled, or Nicholas Cage.
  • Fans coming up with increasingly ridiculous ideas of how the mermaid in the kiddie pool on the lawn even got there in the first place.
  • Ian's visual similarity to Linguini has many people calling him "Blue Linguini", "Elf Linguini", or "Remi/Linguini fusion." Others have taken the joke to its horrifying conclusion by suggesting that he's actually the offspring of Remy and Linguini (often accompanied by an out-of-context screencap of Linguini looking down, seemingly about to put Remy in his pants).
  • The casting of Tom Holland and Chris Pratt has inspired multiple memes:
    • Peter Parker (Spider-Man) and Peter Quill (Star-Lord) are reincarnated into another world after getting snapped, or this movie is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and takes place in one of the Alternate Universes.
    • Chris Pratt's voice and speech patterns as Barley are him still trying to imitate Thor.
    • Because Parker and Quill share the first name "Peter", calling the movie "The Adventures of Pete & Pete".
  • Common descriptions for the film include "Zootopia, but with mythical beings instead of furries".
  • Specter was reported as Disney's "first" openly LGBTQ character, the seventh character that's been promoted as their first, leading to people announcing themselves as Disney's next "first LGBTQ character", wondering who will be Disney's eighth "first", and proclaiming other Disney and non-Disney characters were the real first.
  • As soon as Specter's most prominent scene was available online, it became common practice to dub her over with memetic audio, such as here.
• Mis-blamed: Disney has taken flak for presenting Specter as their "first LGBT character", even though there've been others before her^note Most notably, LeFou in the 2017 remake of Beauty and the Beast was also hyped up as "Disney's first gay character"... which ended up amounting to only a few minor Ho Yay scenes and a one-off gag at the very end of the film. This was largely a miscommunication issue, as what Disney meant was that Specter was the first character explicitly stated to be LGBT in the film's dialog rather than presented as Ambiguously Gay and confirmed by Word of Gay later. However, the reveal of Specter having a girlfriend was never meant to be groundbreaking, as her voice actress, Lena Waithe, improvised the girlfriend line in order to give her character more depth and Disney didn't go out of its way to publicize they were presenting anything unique about the character.
• Moe: With his poofy hair, giant elf ears and shy personality, Ian is just adorable.
• Narm Charm:
  • The boys being left to carry around their father's sentient but disembodied legs so Crosses the Line Twice-level of hilarious that one wouldn't be blamed for wondering how effective the more emotional scenes of it will work out. Though the film takes full advantage of it for a slew of comedic moments, not only are the emotional scenes not lessened by the situation, but the fact that Wilden can't communicate verbally even heightens them. Special mention goes to the scene wherein Wilden legs confirm that he's with his sons when Barley drums on his feet and he reaches out to press his foot against Ian's.
  • The idea of a van crashing being played off as a Heroic Sacrifice while being filled with visual symbolism of a noble steed galloping off to Valhalla sounds absolutely ridiculous... and yet somehow the film manages to pull it off as a genuinely tearjerking moment. Pixar can somehow make you cry for a suburban vehicle.
• One True Threesome: For those who don't mind Laurel/Colt but enjoy the former's interactions with Corey, Corey/Laurel/Colt might be your ticket. And it's not as widespread but Corey/Laurel/Wilden is something that could have been a thing pre-movie plot.
• Padding:
  • Laurel and the Manticore having to retrieve the Cursecrusher from a pawn shop only really serves to delay the two a little more. While the two end up playing a large part in the climax of the film, nothing would've been lost if the Manticore simply still had it in her possession.
  • When our protagonists find themselves back in town, Ian chews Barley out for leading them on a wild goose chase. Trouble is, the movie had already had similar scenes (when they got stopped by the cops and disguised themselves as Colt, causing Ian to inadvertently reveal that he sees Barley as a screw-up, and when they encounter the raven statue which made them realize that "Raven's Point" is meant to be taken literally), causing this scene to feel like the movie's repeating itself.
• Spiritual Adaptation: Onward doubles as the single best Dungeons & Dragons film of all time.
• Squick: Try not to think too hard about how Laurel, who is a human-sized elf, would be intimate with her boyfriend Colt, a centaur.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Colt. The movie implies that he has a hard time adjusting to being a father to two teens, but none of the interactions he has with the brothers go beyond them not really respecting him and feeling uncomfortable around each other. In fact, removing any reference to him and Laurel being together wouldn't really change his character beyond him being the clichéd authority figure whose only role in the plot is being an obstacle for the main characters.
  • Specter was heavily advertised in promotions for the film, leading fans to assume she would be a main character. She ends up having only a few moments of screen time. Many were left upset about this, especially after the hype that she was openly gay in the film (which amounts to a single line about her girlfriend).
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The film's prologue of wizards coming to terms with how they're not needed anymore would make an interesting movie in its own right.
• Tough Act to Follow: Audiences have pretty much agreed that, while the movie doesn't hold up as much in comparison to other Pixar movies that came before it, it's still a good movie in its own right.
• Trailer Joke Decay: The exchange of Barley saying, "Dad was a wizard!" and Laurel replying, "Your dad was an accountant!" appears in an ad that was in heavy rotation on YouTube. Understandable because Disney was heavily pushing their Disney+ streaming service during the "shelter at home" caused by COVID-19 and Onward was one of its prime offerings during that period. However, the extensive repetition of the exact same ad did drive the (already weak) joke into the ground.
• Unexpected Character: The film is set in a fantasy world populated with centaurs, elves, pixies and the like. Barley even plays a D&D pastiche called "Quests of Yore" that he insists is historically accurate. Pixar goes through considerable effort to establish that this world is a loving homage to Dungeons & Dragons that it's a surprise and delight to see an actual D&D monster appear like the Gelatinous Cube.

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