Captain Conroy's Pixar 40th Anniversary Marathon (Week 11)

Written by Captain Conroy

Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9 and Week 10 here.

Alright everybody! Hello and welcome again to my Pixar 40^th anniversary celebrations, and this time we will be continuing with Onward and Soul, starting with Onward and… Huh?

“Breaking news! Disney Pixar have done it again and produced yet another masterpiece with their latest picture, Hoppers! Critics are loving it and as of March 12, 2026, it has grossed $58.3 million in the United States and Canada and $42 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $100.3 million which is already making it likely to make back its budget of $150 million!”

… hm, on second thoughts, hang on Onward and Soul, I’ll come back to you. So yes, at the time of writing, I just recently watched this movie and I decided to add it onto this one because why not eh? As it’s new, I’ll do my best to avoid spoiling it for any of you guys though. Anyways, here goes:

The story. Pixar can really keep these environmental stories coming good for sure, first there was WALL.E with the humans leaving Earth due to it no longer being habitable and now there’s Hoppers as the story is about Mabel, a young girl who loves animals and goes to extreme measures to ensure their safety and that their habitat is kept preserved with the only problem being that the mayor of the Beaverton wants the space to build his new highway, so Mabel devises a plan using the technology from her biology teacher Dr. Sam which she calls Hoppers and takes the appearance of a beaver and enlists the animals to help her save the glade.

The story may seem simple enough with a premise like that, but it’s really not as black-and-white as it seems which already is one of the many great things about this movie. It conveys the environmental message well and it showcases good and bad on both sides. What I mean is that Mabel is most definitely our protagonist, but she’s not exactly in the right all the time which is part of her character arc to be a better person, most definitely for better – not for worse. I especially found the scene where she opens up to George about being tired of feeling like a nobody and not being able to make a difference so wholesome and it has that deep level of Pixar story-telling. And Mayor Jerry, he’s not so much a bad guy per say, he has good intentions for the future of road travel and he takes good care of his mum, what’s not to like about that? It’s the classic example of he’s going the wrong way about it and he most definitely is using his position of power over Mabel but later on when the time calls for it as they both have to face the real villain (I won’t say who), they learn to put their differences aside and work together. And I like how he actually learns something by the end of the movie, it’s such a breath of fresh air when we get a politician character who learns a lesson and for the better.

The movie’s climax and resolve were really well done too I found. They were so cleverly written and I found them to be the most creative I’ve seen in any Pixar movie ever. I also like the way they have the animals living together and how George sets the Pond Rules to try and make it work for everybody. And before anybody asks about the story, while Mabel says so and Dr. Sam denies it, I would probably say the tech itself is a little like Avatar but for the overall plot, my brother made comparisons to The Emperor’s New Groove and you’ve got to admit it when you see Jerry as Kuzco and his bridge as his Kuzcotopia – he does have a point. But even so it’s not a rip-off I can confirm so don’t jump to those conclusions. Overall Hoppers has a very strong story that was well executed and I’ll certainly be enjoying it several times more once DVD and streaming releases come by.

The animation. I have to say I actually feel a little bit mixed about the animation here. I can’t emphasise enough, it is good and some of the character designs are very nice, especially Mabel and Jerry, but why does it look so cartoonish? Before anyone says anything, yes – I’m perfectly aware that Pixar has gone into cartoonish style animation before. Soul and Turning Red come to mind for me specifically, but the cartoonish style is even more prominent than before here.

I don’t know if it was just me but especially with the animals, I got quite a few vibes from animated Julia Donaldson adaptations. These two particular screenshots make it look quite uncanny doesn’t it? But on the other hand, even if it has a bit of a similar look, you can still tell which is Pixar and which is the Julia Donaldson adaptations if you were to watch them. One could even say the animation would look more at home in an Illumination movie than a Pixar movie but nevertheless, the cartoony style aside, the movie is as always to be expected from Pixar, pretty to look at and it certainly doesn’t look ugly. Does anything look out of place? Well, maybe the character designs against realistic backgrounds but I wouldn’t say anything too off-putting.

So yes, I may feel a bit mixed about it, but I still give the animation credit where credit is due. It’s nice to look at, it’s very colourful and everything at least moves smoothly, especially compared to the earlier comparison I made – but hey it was more about styles rather than the way everything moves. And speaking of styles, this is something I always enjoy about each Pixar movie. Each one definitely has it’s own unique style and it never feels like I’m looking at the same movie twice – at least if you go by franchise because of course the sequels will look relatively the same. But still, Hoppers has its own style and even if I do wish it looked a little less cartoony, it at least makes it distinctive. But still, the animation overall is nothing less to be expected from Pixar, good work all round.

The characters were another favourite aspect of mine from the movie. Mabel is our main protagonist. It’s admirable her love and care for animals and she’s a classic example as to why you should never give up. But the thing I love most is she makes mistakes, she learns from them and realises when she has gone too far. Plus there was what I said earlier about it cutting deep when she opens up to George, Mabel is proof that people shouldn’t care about a character’s gender, they should care about a well written character and that’s what Mabel is. I mean nothing would change if Mabel was a boy, I’d still feel the same way. Mayor Jerry as I already said is a breath of fresh air given he’s a politician and an influential figure in Beaverton but he actually learns something. Sometimes you get those kinds of politician characters where they’re just blind to reality and can’t read the room and thus don’t make the change, whereas he does and I praise him for that very reason. Like I said, he’s not 100% a bad guy, he just needed some guidance, especially when it came to where his highway should be located.

I absolutely love Mabel’s grandmother and what an impactful impression she leaves which is part of her driving force. It was predictable she would pass away but the impact she leaves lasts the whole movie. The animal characters are enjoyable too and I like how each one has their own monarch, insects, birds you get the idea, but the most credit goes to King George. He’s a comic relief character but yet there is so much more to him than meets the eye and Pixar do seem to have a good track record with characters like that. Characters like Dug in Up and Barley in Onward come to mind and George is by far in the same league as them. I especially love how he’s nervous about the council but he finds his courage in due time and stands up for what’s right. It especially cut deep when he said to the other monarchs that he would go and do something, when will they? Pure class writing handed to us on a silver platter.

You also get Tom, Loaf and Ellen who play the role of side characters to which I do like them, Ellen and Loaf a bit more than Tom but that’s mostly just it for them, they do help during the finale but they weren’t quite as well done as other side characters I know of. Especially Tom was used for a lot of promotional materials and advertising but no actual payoff in the movie that I could remember. Even so, Hoppers does a good job and once more upholds the long lasting Pixar tradition of giving us a memorable cast of characters to remember for years to come and as they’re such a good cast of characters too, they make us want to come and see them again at any set time.

Hoppers is nothing short of another Pixar masterpiece for me, the story is strong and well told, the animation is nice to look at even if I wish it was a bit less cartoony and a memorable cast of characters put them together and what have you got?

Well, I was more thinking along the lines of another beloved classic in Pixar’s ever-growing library but that too I guess. I can highly recommend Hoppers as an enjoyable cinema experience as well as an all-round viewing experience. Naturally if you’ve seen Hoppers yourself, do share down below what you think. O.K, now where were we?

Ah yes. This is a movie I feel so, so sorry for. Why? Well, it’s not bad at all, it’s just that remember what I said about a movie’s box office gross shouldn’t be the only thing to determine its quality? Well, this is a classic case as it came out and it had as good a chance as any other, but then the Covid 19 pandemic hit and everything including cinemas had to close, thus destroying its chances. Thanks Covid you arsehole, you screwed Onward over! But still, we all got to see it in the end and now here’s what I think:

The story is set in a magical world, well, a former one anyway. But it still has all its inhabitants, elves, centaurs, manticores, you get the idea. But magic is still around as on the 16th birthday of Ian Lightfoot, he and his older brother Barley inherit a gift from their late father which happens to be a magic staff and it even comes with a spell to bring him back for a day, but after the spell goes wrong, it’s up to Ian and Barley to embark on an epic quest to find another phoenix gem in order to complete their father and spend whatever time they can with him.

The story proves that Pixar’s creativity is truly unmatched. The idea of what is essentially a glorified D&D game but it has a modern twist was something I had personally never really seen until this movie. Least of all we all know that stories revolving around epic quests aren’t exactly original, but it’s how you execute it that makes it original and this movie’s way of executing the plot certainly makes it original and makes it stand out as its own thing that stops it from being a generic adventure quest movie. I especially love the driving force of the movie, which is Ian’s desire to meet his father and his overall character arc from being the awkward teenager to becoming brave and confident was extremely well done. And what’s nicer still is not only is Ian’s desire to meet his father well done, but similar to Coco (albeit better handled in this case) is the whole theme of family. Ian and Barley’s brotherly relationship is wholesome and Barley has his own desire to see their father again too. It especially hit so hard when Barley opened up to Ian about another memory of their father and why it wasn’t his favourite one. For a movie that’s rated Universal, those are real mature themes to tackle and it certainly prevents it from being a generic kid’s flick and god bless this movie for it.

The movie takes every opportunity to show off just how creative it is. From the clever ways some of the pieces of the puzzle fit together, to the interesting ways some of the conflicts were created to even the way the curse unfolded. True it’s not unheard of to have giant massive dragons, but it is so creative to have the red smoke unfold and destroy the school and have the rubble take on the form of the dragon, that was so brilliant and it could even be seen as a fitting metaphor as to how people actually feel about school in real life. Least of all any chance the movie could have been predictable, it manages to subvert expectations and do something different. For example, it would have been far too predictable if both Ian and Barley had gotten to see their father and talk to him when he was whole instead of just legs, plus it really helped Ian’s character arc come full circle. The story is wonderfully creative and it’s not afraid to tackle mature themes, but what’s equally nice is that it has a nice balance between being mature with its family theme and funny with some slapstick humour and funny one-liners. As per usual, the story is laden with its usual Pixar magic.

If you thought the story got creative, the animation takes the creativity to whole new heights. You have the usual Pixar standards where the animation takes full advantage of its setting and surroundings, but with Onward they take things a step further. Naturally it was written in the story how the remains of the school take on the form of the dragon but the animation truly brought it to life and to their credit, it would not have been easy and that much is obvious as even now animation is a very time consuming process but they pull it off yet again and they truly bring us many spectacular things, not just the dragon – although it would be hard to top. We get gorgeous scenery and I love how well they blend the fantasy setting and modern setting together with not once at any point does anything feel like it doesn’t belong together and it takes a lot of expressive opportunities too, like how on Earth do you get so much character out of just a pair of legs? It never ceases to amaze me what these guys can do I swear! Another visual highlight for me is this screenshot:

This just has to be the perfect visual representation to showcase how Ian and Barley completed their quest, even if Ian was watching from afar. The true light of their lives coming through once more and then the sun setting of course shows how as much as they probably would have liked it to, alas their time together was not to last. Shots like this and the school rubble dragon show again that they’re just animating to the point of showing off like I said about some shots in The Good Dinosaur. This movie out of any other in Pixar’s library has the best usage of lighting, both in the shot above and the way the magic from the staff was handled can really make one feel like they’re really there watching it happen. The bright lights give a feeling of warmth and a whimsical edge that we all associate with magic I’m sure. Whenever it comes to Pixar animation, I also have to say I always do prefer when we get the lesser cartoony styles and this for me is one of those movies. As always the animation is such a highlight and I must confess I am finding it a bit difficult to keep on talking about it in ways that don’t make me sound like a broken record and I have seven more movies to look at here.

The characters. The characters give me one of my favourite sibling relationships I’ve witnessed in anything in the form of Ian and Barley. Ian’s the one who longs to meet his father and he starts out as the socially awkward one who’s afraid for most things but as the movie progresses he truly does gain his courage and confidence as he masters his skills at magic but he couldn’t have done it without Barley who also wants to see his father but he’s the one who longs for the magic quests, yes, he seems irresponsible and not quite the straight thinking kind but the depth to him is there especially as he’s the one who was always encouraging Ian to bring out his best self and serves as his expert on magic. I also find him very relatable as I’m sure most of us may have the regret of not being brave enough to say a last goodbye to someone in our lives. This is a brotherly duo that works so well, if you’re British like me, having one without the other would be like trying to have fish without chips, it just doesn’t work otherwise.

Laurel is their mother who is certainly the usual good loving mother kind but once her boys are in trouble, watch out as there’s a lot more to her than just being the usual good loving mother kind. When the time calls, she is not afraid to leap into action and help out when needed which she does at plenty of points throughout the movie. After the loss of her husband, she acquires a new partner in the form of Colt Bronco who is a police officer and even if he was quick to make punchlines at Ian and Barley’s expense, I like how he’s a nice guy and he genuinely seems to care about the boys and most definitely he’s not another corrupt police officer. You also have Corey the Manticore who was just so much fun and was a treat every time she’s on screen. One particular part she was in that was a favourite of mine was when she gave the pawn shop owner a taste of her own medicine for charging too much in order to get her sword back.. That was so brilliant. Pixar once again bring us a great cast of characters and funnily enough they don’t need to embark on an epic quest for them, they just come naturally. But most definitely Ian and Barley are characters you want to go on a quest with.

Onward is great and once again I feel so sorry for this movie that Covid buggered its chances of making a decent profit. The story is wonderfully creative, the animation is a delightful spectacle and the characters are varied, each with their own level of depth. It’s certainly another of many in Pixar’s library I can highly recommend. It’s definitely a movie with a heavy theme on family that can easily be enjoyed by families for sure and once again, don’t let a movie’s overall box office gross determine its quality for you, just watch em’ yourself. Trust me, you’ll certainly feel better off for it.

But even with a pandemic in the equation, nothing was ever going to stop Pixar from making movies, especially as 2020 also brought us Soul, which was also a definite benefit of Disney having their own streaming service so they still had somewhere to go, even if the cinemas were closed. Naturally it was going to take a lot more than that to keep them down but the question stands, is this movie one that will make you feel a lot of Soul? Yes – laugh, I did that on purpose. Anyway moving on.

The story features our main character Joe Gardner who teaches music at a middle school and manages to secure a pretty big gig which is what he was actually aspiring for. However things take an interesting turn for him as he ends up facing a life and death scenario as he falls down a manhole and ends up in the great beyond and even the great before as he tries to escape from death. So once he’s assigned to mentor a troublesome soul known only as 22, who ends up in his body and he takes on the form of a cat. As a result, they have to work together and put things right.

Much like I said about Up being the ultimate lesson of living your best life, Soul is another fine example of that. I mean we only get so far into the movie before Joe falls down the manhole and this just shows the story isn’t afraid to hammer in a pretty hardcore lesson that we all end up learning at some stage. Life can take unexpected turns and just because we’re here today, we could be gone tomorrow, so live your life to the fullest and live every day like it’s your last. Make it count. As the story develops, it even shows how even if you’re passionate about something, there may well come a point where we’ll have to ask ourselves then what? Now what? That kind of thing and how even achieving something may not be enough sometimes and we’ll have to find a new path in life. Times like Up, Inside Out 1 and 2 and Soul really make me feel like the guys at Pixar just ultimately get life so well. Up like it’s an adventure and how another chapter always opens up, Inside Out 1 and 2 about emotions and Soul about making each day count and how you only have one, live for it. And live for it certainly is the key, especially as we learn from Dez wanting to be a veterinarian but he ended up becoming a barber instead, goes to show how even if one dream doesn’t work out, it isn’t the end right?

And if Coco’s depiction of the afterlife wasn’t interesting enough, Soul takes it to a whole new level. Here we have the elevator which brings them up to the great beyond and then they fade from there and then there’s even the great before showing what happens prior to someone being born. Once again this is not something I’d ever seen anywhere else which just proves that even if it does start getting harder to come up with new ideas, someone can still be original. And it’s interesting the way it’s done how there’s no Grim Reaper, just Terry counting the bodies like it’s a day at the bank, that is so brilliant. As per usual, Pixar are masters at story-telling and I always love how their stories are meaningful and well written. Soul has so many meaningful, heartfelt and clever scenes from 22 in Joe’s body and Dez’s talk in the barber shop, to Joe finally being able to have a serious conversation with his mother about his passion, to Joe learning that sparks in life and purpose are two different things. Soul has the kind of story that watching it can certainly help you feel like you’re truly living every minute of your life and enjoying it while you’re at it.

The animation is that same high standard of Pixar animation we all love and know and it’s funny how I said with Hoppers as cartoonish as the animation looked, it at least had a style of its own. Soul certainly has its own kind of style too. Their character designs may look quite cartoony as well but not to the same extent as Hoppers. It’s a fair bit like Up’s but different in the sense that the characters designs have even more emphasis on shapes than even Up did but on the whole you still get the realistic textures of materials, clothing, food, hair and so on but yet they still manage to fit them together so well.

I mean come on, yes Joe’s head may be shaped somewhat like a raindrop, but are you seriously telling me that you’re suddenly not craving a slice of pizza after that? Because I sure as heck am. But it’s the great before and the great beyond where the animation really gets creative as you have all the Jerries and Terry looking so two dimensional compared to everything else looking three dimensional. This following shot should show you what I’m talking about.

I mean here is Joe looking three dimensional and a realistic looking Earth and then there’s one Jerry right there looking so two dimensional. It might look a little strange to some people but personally I love it. It adds an additional layer of creativity and it really showcases the supernatural aspect to these characters. All in all Pixar’s animation always makes a nice team with their creative stories and fun characters. It especially shows during scenes where Joe plays and he’s really in his element and within the zone. Through both animation and story it really helps to show how Soul has one truly interesting and creative idea on life and how it works. Plus anytime Joe plays wouldn’t surprise me if the animators took the time to study piano playing as Joe’s playing looks so authentic and not like he’s pressing random keys like you might see in a cheesy direct to video movie.

The characters. Joe at first glance seems like our usual everyday kind of guy. He’s nice and he’s clearly the sort of teacher anyone would want but of course he learns the ultimate lesson about life after his fall and other than playing in the band at the gig, he then gets driven on getting back to his life and body which does lead to a couple of rash decisions but he truly does learn for the better and is ready to live life to his fullest. And not just as a musician either as he comes to the realisation of the difference between sparks and passion. 22 may seem like a typical annoying character at first but Tiny Fey’s performance helps and makes the character sound jerkish but at least she’s charmingly jerkish. That plus sometimes with fictional characters how multi-layered they can be. I mean 22 herself appears like a jerk but inside, she’s insecure and is constantly worried that she might not be a very good individual on Earth but she grows to learn how to live and what it’s like to be alive and whatever she does on Earth, she can make sure her life is a good one.

The Jerries are quite funny and Terry is an interesting one because like Auto in WALL.E, she’s not so much a villain, she’s only doing her job which is to keep a count of all the bodies in the great beyond and isn’t afraid to go to lengths to assure that the count is kept accurate. Plus requesting a trophy, that sure is a funny way of showing how arrogant she is and what a high opinion she has of herself. You also get the side characters like Joe’s mother, Libba who despite not appearing to, she does love her son and wants him to live his best and not go down the exact same path as his father. In the sense that she was the one paying the bills, not that his father went down a self-destructive path. Dez was quite deep for someone who wasn’t in the movie that much and Moonwind is the one who helps lost souls find their way which is deep for someone who spends most of his days spinning around a sign. Soul’s cast of characters are all very memorable I’ll say. No matter how many Pixar make, you never find the same character anywhere twice and I’m happy to say that Soul continues this tradition if you will.

Even if it wasn’t a great year for Pixar financially, 2020 was at least good for them in terms of the content they produced. After all Onward was great and Soul is yet another of many greats in their library. The story is the most creative take on life and death I’ve ever seen anywhere, the animation is delightful to watch in motion and the characters are a loveable bunch with our main characters have one of the most compelling story arcs in any Pixar movie. Soul is a classic and will be a classic for many years to come I’m sure and I’ll certainly look forward to the next time I revisit this one. Speaking of revisiting, next time I shall be revisiting Turning Red and Luca for my penultimate post on this anniversary milestone so feel free to join me along the way for those two. But until then, take care everyone.

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“Oy! Review’s over! Go home!”