Onward (Pixar) (2020) (1 Viewer)

[Jake Lipson]

They could probably record the commentary at people's homes

You're right, of course. I'm just glad it's on there, however it was recorded, because I'm looking forward to hearing it. We'll find out on May 19 when the disc arrives. I would guess that he probably did it around the time of the theatrical release, but if it's from his home, that's fine too.

In the meantime, those of you who really liked the movie might want to know about this graphic novel. I had it pre-ordered a while ago from Amazon for release on May 5, but apparently they published it early, because I just got a confirmation that it shipped today. It is not an adaptation of the movie but a new prequel story involving some of the Manticore's previous adventures. I'm really excited about getting this because the world of the movie is so fun and imaginative, and I think it can support a lot more cool storytelling. So I'm looking forward to spending some more time there via the comic. Dan Scanlon, who directed the movie, was involved in coming up with some of the ideas for the comic too, so that's nice and will ensure continuity with the film in a way that other tie-ins might not have.

 

[Scamp]

Jake, thanks for posting about the graphic novel as I wasn't aware of its existence. Will have to note that for a future purchase. Did you see the one they have featuring additional stories based upon the live-action Aladdin?

As an aside, I did manage to see Onward twice in theaters before their closure. Likely would have seen some more times if the virus closures hadn't happened. Have watched a few times on Disney+ already and do plan to pick up the physical disc when released, most likely the Target exclusive version.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Jake, thanks for posting about the graphic novel as I wasn't aware of its existence.

You are welcome. My estimated delivery date is Saturday, although of course some shipments are behind schedule because of the virus and there has apparently been a carrier delay, so it might be later than that. This is fine, though, especially since I wasn't expecting it until May in the first place; the release date was previously listed as May 5. Anyway, whenever it turns up I'll post about it in some more detail.

Did you see the one they have featuring additional stories based upon the live-action Aladdin?

Yes, but then I didn't like that movie at all so I gave the graphic novel to a friend. I loved Onward so am glad it got one. There is also a Toy Story 4 one from last year, but I haven't gotten it yet and don't know if it is adapted from the movie or new.

As an aside, I did manage to see Onward twice in theaters before their closure. Likely would have seen some more times if the virus closures hadn't happened.

Me too. I love that movie so much. A friend of mine visited from out of town during its opening weekend, so we were able to go together, which was a nice last movie for the time being, even though we didn't know that it was.

do plan to pick up the physical disc when released, most likely the Target exclusive version.

The gallery book in the Target exclusive editions is usually an abridged excerpt from the hardcover art-of books that Disney publishes for their major films. If it's a film I really love, I will get those books on their own, so don't personally feel the need to get the Target version. I haven't gotten the Onward art book yet because it's around ~$35 on Amazon and I am waiting for a sale, but I did get the Frozen II art book for $20 back in January after it had been out for a couple months. If you really like digipacks or don't want the whole thing of the art book, then the Target editions are worth considering. For me, I went with the Best Buy steelbook, which I think looks awesome.

 

[TravisR]

In the meantime, those of you who really liked the movie might want to know about this graphic novel. I had it pre-ordered a while ago from Amazon for release on May 5, but apparently they published it early, because I just got a confirmation that it shipped today.

Generally speaking, collected hardback or paperback books/graphic novels (everything that isn't the standard comic book) get released to comic book stores two weeks earlier than to book stores. However, it's not that rare for those books to ship a little early from the regular book stores once they've hit comic book stores.

Plus, the comic book market is currently in total shambles (the only real distributor to all stores is closed so stores can't get any new product even for mail order) so maybe the comic book companies are happy to get them out to any retailer since comic book stores are mostly closed.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Thanks, Travis. I don't read many comics so wouldn't know, but that's interesting insight.

I'm happy to get it early no matter what the reason. I thought it was kind of odd that it wasn't ready for publication when the movie came out, because obviously putting it out as close to the theatrical release as possible would increase visibility for the book. The Aladdin graphic novel that Jason mentioned was released about a month or so before the theatrical release of its movie so that it was on the shelves while the movie was in theaters. But then, nothing about Onward's theatrical release ended up being standard anyway because the pandemic cut it so short.

This book is published by Dark Horse, despite the fact that Disney of course has Marvel in-house. From a business standpoint I'm not sure why they would outsource movie tie-ins to a competitor instead of just having Marvel do it. That being said, as long as the book is good that's all that matters.

Amazon just sent me an email indicating that despite a carrier delay they indicated yesterday, the book is now out for delivery and will come today. They had indicated Saturday, so this is actually early. I have to say that for me, they've been remarkably consistent in my deliveries despite the pandemic. I'm not overwhelming them with new orders, but I am keeping my existing pre-orders that I was going to get anyway, and I've been expecting delays but thus far not actually experiencing them.

 

[TravisR]

This book is published by Dark Horse, despite the fact that Disney of course has Marvel in-house. From a business standpoint I'm not sure why they would outsource movie tie-ins to a competitor instead of just having Marvel do it. That being said, as long as the book is good that's all that matters.

I don't know why but all of the DIsney and Pixar comic stuff is handled by companies other than Marvel. Dark Horse gets the graphic novels/books, IDW Publishing gets ongoing series with the Disney characters, Fantagraphics reprints old Disney comic books & IDW gets the old newspaper strips.

Considering that Marvel is a Disney-owned comic book company, it's even odder that Disney licenses Star Wars and Marvel characters to IDW for multiple kid friendly titles rather than just having Marvel do them.

 

[Jake Lipson]

The graphic novel just came.

I'll read it more throughly this weekend, but with a quick glance through some of the pages I can tell you the art is gorgeous. It's a little strange at first to see flat drawings of the CG Manticore character from the film, but I really like the designs and colors.

There is also a forward from the movie's director, Dan Scanlon, who is also credited as a cowriter of the comic. He talks about how cool it is for Onward to be the basis of a comic book, and says he can't wait to go to his local comic shop and buy a copy off the rack. I felt kind of sad reading that because of course it's not possible for him to do that right now, and he had no way of knowing that when he wrote this. I do hope he gets to do that at some point after the virus has run its course. I imagine it would be especially gratifying to see a comic based on your work in the store.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I watched Onward again today on Disney+ and it continues to hold up. Even though the meddling virus cut its theatrical release way too short, I think history will be kind to Onward. It is such a joy to spend time in this world with these characters, and it continues to be really emotional and equally effective on rewatches as it was the first time.

For many of the other titles, they have bonus features from the Blu-ray up there; Toy Story 4 even has the audio commentary. However, as of right now the only extra for Onward is the trailer. I guess they are, for once, holding something back to encourage disc purchases.

Best Buy's website indicates that their exclusive steelbook is sold out for store (curbside) pickup and only available for shipping, which they estimate will ship by May 29, despite a street date of May 19. So apparently lots of people are still interested in buying it, or at least, enough to quickly limit the availability of the premium edition. I'm glad I reserved mine as soon as it was made available. This film is very special and deserves to be celebrated with distinction in my collection,

 

[Jake Lipson]

Since Disney never issued a press release for this title and I don't think a review was posted either, I figured I would put this post here, even though it is more related to the home release than the movie itself.

I got the movie today from Best Buy, my preordered steelbook. When I opened it up, I put the code into Disney Movie Insiders to redeem for points, then went to redeem the digital copy. I tried three different times at Vudu and Movies Anywhere and RedeemDigitalMovie.com and none of them would recognize the code, even though I know it's right because I got points with it.

Has anyone else had this experience? Thanks.

 

[David Norman]

Is your DMI/DMR already connected to MA? If so the code may have autoredeemed so site wouldn't recognize it.
I guess check your MY MOVIES and see if it's already there before going further.

I've heard of issues with redeeming prior to release date with other movies and one or two BBY exclusives that acted diffferently than the non-exclusive, but nothing I've read specifically on this item. If it's not already in MA, try again tomorrow just in case it's got a delayed activation and then contact Disney to see if they can manually push the code or exchange it for a good code

I'd say about 1/2 the codes I try directly on MA give me some sort of reject or invalid message, but the movie is in my List when I check

 

[Jake Lipson]

Is your DMI/DMR already connected to MA? If so the code may have autoredeemed so site wouldn't recognize it. I guess check your MY MOVIES and see if it's already there before going further.

Yes, they are linked, but it's not showing up in My Movies. The only thing that linking them has done in the past is that if I were to buy a digital copy with no disc attached to it (which I almost never do), then I would get points for it. But it has not, previously, put the movie into my MA account without me entering it twice: once at DMI to get points and again at MA or Vudu to get the digital copy. Since that's what I'm used to doing, I figured it would be that way again.

I sent Disney support an email via the redeemdigitalmovie.com site, so we'll see what happens.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Because I had already watched this again at home via Disney+ a couple weeks ago, I decided to play the audio commentary first tonight.

It absolutely was recorded before the pandemic; near the end of it, they talk about the film's wrap party as a future event, so the theatrical release hadn't started yet when it was recorded. They don't give a specific date, but I would guess maybe January or early February. The track features writer/director Dan Scanlon and producer Kori Rae. They talk throughout in an informative and interesting fashion about their process creating the film, focusing both on the story beats and mentioning some more technical aspects. But it's not so technical that it's difficult to understand. It's a very illuminating track, and their passion for the film comes through. This shouldn't be much of a surprise because Pixar commentaries are typically excellent, and this is another one in that class. If you're a fan of the movie, you're absolutely going to want to give it a listen.

I also went straight to the behind-the-scenes feature about the score, because I really think it is quite beautiful and I have listened to the soundtrack a lot since I bought it. This is another very good piece. Mychael Danna and Jeff Danna are a composing team who I was not as familiar with before this movie as some other bigger names. But they did wonderful work and present themselves well in the featurette. For Pixar, they previously worked on The Good Dinosaur, but I barely remember that film. I saw it once on its opening night, didn't really invest in it, forgot it almost instantly. Onward has much more staying power for me.

The set also includes a number of other featurettes and deleted scenes, which I'll go through later, and a selection of both English and foreign language trailers for the film. It's an interesting document of how the film's release could have played out, since I'm not sure if the film ever actually opened in the foreign markets which have trailers featured here. The movie Blu-ray includes trailers for Soul and Jungle Cruise both indicating releases in summer 2020, which makes sense because the disc was probably pressed well in advance of those dates shifting. But the inclusion of them here makes this a weird document of how much things have changed in a very short period of time.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I've heard of issues with redeeming prior to release date with other movies and one or two BBY exclusives that acted diffferently than the non-exclusive, but nothing I've read specifically on this item.

Disney responded to my email and said, "Thank you for contacting us. The issue you were experiencing should now be resolved. Please try redeeming your code again." So I did, and it worked this time. You might have been right about a delayed activation or something. In any case, that's resolved now.

Oddly enough, Toy Story 4, which coincidentally was the previous Pixar release, had a similar issue in reverse. It gave me the digital copy right away but took a few days before the code would give me points.

 

[benbess]

I watched Onward for the second time on Disney+ and my whole family really liked it. It's a really touching and wonderfully made movie. My opinion on it really went up the second time, and now I think I'd rate it a solid "A".

 

[Jake Lipson]

I thought I would bump this thread in case anyone else is interested in The Art of Onward book.

When it originally came out back in March, Amazon was charging +/- $38 for it. I've been waiting patiently to see if it would go down in price. Lo and behold, it has finally happened.

I just ordered it for $19.30.

I have no idea how long this price will last, so if you want it, I would grab it now.

I would post the link, but I'm not sure HTF would get the referral kickback if I post it. So, I'm just going to encourage any of you who might want it to go over to Amazon through one of the HTF links and search it. Just type in "The Art of Onward" and it will come up. I am pretty sure that the "gallery book" that came with the Target edition of the Blu-ray was an abridged excerpt from whole art book. So if you didn't get the Target exclusive, and I didn't either, I think everything in that is in the art book too, plus more.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I finally ordered the 4K for this. We'll see if I like it more the 2nd time!

 

[Jake Lipson]

We'll see if I like it more the 2nd time!

Cool. But, if you didn't like it, why would you want to have the disc? (This is a serious question, not sarcasm.)

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Cool. But, if you didn't like it, why would you want to have the disc? (This is a serious question, not sarcasm.)

I'm a Disney collector - I own everything released by Disney on disc!

 

[Jake Lipson]

I own everything released by Disney on disc!

Everything? Literally? Like, you're not missing even one thing? Or were you being more general? I have a lot and even I don't have everything.

Anyway, I hope Onward improves for you on second viewing. It's still my favorite movie so far this year. (Granted, I have seen way less new films this year than I normally would have, but that doesn't invalidate Onward's achievement because I have seen some new ones on streaming since it that would count toward my list.)

For those interested, I'll report back on the art book after I receive it.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Everything? Literally? Like, you're not missing even one thing? Or were you being more general? I have a lot and even I don't have everything.

All the animated movies.