Despite concerns that its recent output has favoured sequels over original movies (of its last four films, three were follow-ups), Pixar remains committed to new material. Among them is the fantasy-flavoured Onward, which arrives next year and has debuted its first two images via People. Find one above and the other lurking lower down the page.
Dreamt up and directed by Monsters University's Dan Scanlon, Onward is set in a suburban fantasy world populated by elves, trolls and sprites, where unicorns trawl through garbage cans like candy-striped possums. It offers the premise that magic was real but has long since been forgotten and replaced by modern technology, and finds two teenage brothers whose father died when they were too young to remember him. They set out into this fantasy world to spend one last magical day with him.
Tom Holland voices Ian, the younger of the two, who is gawky and reserved compared to his boisterous elder brother (Chris Pratt). And unusually for an animated film, the MCU co-stars did get to record some voice sessions together. "They are clearly friends," Scanlon tells People. "They’ve worked together before and hung out together. It was fun to sit back and watch them make each other laugh." If you're wondering what the rest of the film's story will be, we're sure Holland will let something slip soon enough.
The movie also sees A Bug's Life veteran Julia Louis-Dreyfus returning to the Pixar fold to voice the brothers' mother, and Octavia Spencer lending her tonsil talents. Onward has a US release date scheduled for 6 March next year, and while there's no UK date announced yet, we'd expect it to be around the same time, especially given Toy Story 4's day-and-date arrival next month.
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