The Pixar ball can be briefly seen as the symbol in a shield as Ian and Barley enter the Manticore's tavern. As it stands, it's 17th out of Pixar's 27 releases to date and three of those ( Soul, Luca and Turning Red) were only released in select overseas markets in the cinema where Disney+ hadn't yet launched.

But after an unimpeachable run of deeply emotional, visually daring hits, including four Best Animated Feature Academy Awards in a row for Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, and Toy Story 3, Pixar repeatedly stumbled. Its original films Brave and The Good Dinosaur suffered troubled productions and a series of telling compromises. Its bigger creative gambles, Inside Out and Coco, both won Oscars and kept the creative flames burning. But they arrived amid a long string of sequels ( Cars 2, Monsters University, Finding Dory, Cars 3, Incredibles 2, Toy Story 4) that all had their charms, while still giving the impression that Pixar was losing faith in its own original storytelling.

This is the first Pixar movie not to feature the credits "Disney Presents" and "A Pixar Animation Studios Film" in the opening. In South Korea, the movie even became the most-viewed Pixar movie of all time with six million admissions. But Pixar may just not have its old narrative power anymore. And if that turns out to be true, it’s probably fine. The studio spent its first decade or so changing the industry, inspiring an environment where this kind of original setting, creative characters, and really weird humor all feel like requirements, instead of feeling like above-and-beyond work. Maybe Pixar’s greatest achievement has been creating an original new world where Pixar movies don’t feel special anymore.

This is the first Pixar film without any participation from John Lasseter (following his departure at the end of 2018), with Pete Docter taking over producing duties. United Realms • New Mushroomton • Lightfoot House • Burger Shire • New Mushroomton High School • Path of Peril • Manticore's Tavern • Swamp Gas • Pawn Shop • Raven's Point The Brave Little Toaster (1987) • Valiant (2005) • The Wild (2006) • A Christmas Carol (2009) • Gnomeo & Juliet (2011) • Mars Needs Moms (2011) • Strange Magic (2015) • The Lion King (2019)Additionally, a gauntlet holding a gem that resembles the Time Stone can be seen at the side of the machines. The film reunites Octavia Spencer and Tom Holland, who also voice Dab-Dab and Jip from Robert Downey Jr.'s 2020 film, Dolittle. Marvel Cinematic Universe stars Chris Pratt and Tom Holland voice brothers Barley and Ian Lightfoot, a pair of purple-skinned elves whose lives have been defined by their father’s death. Barley only has a few bare memories of their father, but Ian wasn’t born when he died, and has no memories of him at all. He obsesses over his missed opportunities, up until his 16th birthday, when his mother Laurel (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) gives him and Barley a present: a magical staff and a spell that will resurrect their father for a day. But the spell only half-works, leaving the boys running around with their father’s disembodied legs in tow. They end up on a desperate quest to find a magical gem to power the staff and complete the spell before 24 hours are up and they miss their chance entirely. This is the third Pixar film to be accompanied by a non-Pixar short film and also the fourth not to be an original one, but instead based on an already-existing property.

In Barley's map, a location named "Brave Wilderness" can be seen. This is a reference to Pixar's Brave. Near the end of the film, a police dispatch saying that " a one-one-three is in progress" can be heard.This was the last Disney film overall to be released in theaters until 20th Century Studios' The New Mutants in August (and also the last Disney animated film in general to do so domestically until Walt Disney Animation Studios' Raya and the Last Dragon in March 2021), because due to the COVID-19, many movie theaters remained closed until mid-August when they started reopening. On their way to the spot where the Phoenix Gem would be at, Ian and Barley run out of gas for their van as the two stop at the Swamp Gas area to get their fuel refilled. After obtaining fuel for Guinevere, the two are chased by a hostile gang of fairies known as the Pixie Dusters who chase them via motorcycles. Eventually while escaping, Colt Bronco's police squadron members Gore and Specter notice this as they attempt to arrest Ian and Barley for speeding. Ultimately, they are able to avoid getting arrested by using a spell to disguise themselves as Colt Bronco just as Ian and Barley continue their journey via van. This is the first Disney (and Pixar) film to have a digital release just two weeks after its theatrical release, due to COVID-19 concerns. A dragon figurine from Bao can be seen in the Lightfoot residence and in the Manticore's tavern as a souvenir.

Visitation Spell - Revives a deceased relative (requires phoenix gem). - Only once is all we get, grant me this rebirth. Till tomorrow's sun has set, one day to walk the Earth Onward was first announced at the 2017 D23 Expo as "The Untitled Pixar Film That Takes You Into A Suburban Fantasy World" and was described as a story about two brothers seeking to reconnect with their late father set in a human-free world of elves, sprites, trolls, dragons and "anything else that would be painted on the side of a van in the 1970s", with unicorns being depicted as common pests and dragons are pets. The invention here is often still dazzling, the race sequences are invigorating and spirited voice work atones for the inexpressiveness of the cars themselves," wrote Geoffrey Macnab for the Independent. "Even so, this isn't Pixar at top gear." Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile.Onward was nominated for "Favorite Animated Movie" at the 2021 Kids' Choice Awards, but lost to Soul. This marks the second Pixar film to feature Julia Louis-Dreyfus in a voice role, after previously voicing Princess Atta in A Bug's Life in 1998. This is the fifth Pixar film not to have humans in it, following A Bug's Life, and the Cars movies, and therefore making it the second one not from the Cars franchise. This is also the first PG-rated Pixar film not to have humans in it.