Hey All!
On Valentine’s Day, I had the amazing opportunity to attend the Disney Pixar Onward press junket. I was thrilled to attend as I have been looking forward to this movie since I heard about it at Disney D23 Expo. In attendance was director Dan Scanlon, Producer Kori Rae, Tom Holland (Ian) and Chris Pratt (Barley). The junket started off with the inspiration and journey to making the film.
Dan Scanlon (Monsters University) shared that this brotherly tale comes from a very personal place for him. Scanlon’s father died when he was only a year old, leaving him and his brother with a recording of him saying just two words: “Hi” and “Bye.”
DAN SCALON
“That just felt like a story that was a big part of my life that I wanted to dive into.”
This film is something for “people when they think about their family history, or mysteries that they may have in their life,” the director explained. Pixar also began working on this film six years ago. It’s taken a lot to do and they are thrilled the film is finally being released. Producer Kori Rae shared that everyone took this story and production very much to heart due to it being based on Scanlon’s personal life story. They wanted to do his family story that inspired the film justice.
He also explained that this is not a movie about science and technology being bad. But it’s about finding magic outside of the technology we’ve all become so addicted to these days.
Tom Holland and Chris Pratt shared that they were thrilled to both come on board for the film, as they already had a brotherly relationship from working on the Marvel Avengers movies together. They also got to record together at times, which also made the connection come through more in their vocal performances.
Chris Pratt shared how this film is very much like his own personal life. He modeled his take on Barley after his own older brother. He has an older brother whom he claims almost raised him and taught him everything he knows. He also shared a funny story about how he would always wear his brother’s clothing in school. Being that him and his brother were in the same school, some of the school kids began to notice and he asked him to stop. His older brother was also the one that got him into acting and originally wanted to become an actor. He ended up taking a different direction, but Chris Pratt continued and became the star he is today. Not once has his brother been jealous of his career and success as an actor. He’s only been very supportive.
Holland talked about his own relationship with his brothers and being the older brother. The roles are reversed for him and he’s trying to be the good older brother and showing his younger brothers how to be a good sportsman and to not be a sore loser.
Dan Scanlon was was asked why he didn’t just create a film based on his own story. Why did he chose to tell the story through this magical world and mythical creatures. He shared that he wanted to tell a story of “What if you got to bring back your parent or someone you’ve always wanted to me?” and he knew the only way to tell this story was with magic and there had to be a magical way to bring the dad back to life for a day. This why it made more sense in a fantasy world where magic once existed. That’s the idea that embarked them on the Journey to creating Onward!
On a side note and unrelated topic from Onward, Chris Pratt really hated this couch he was sitting at and if you saw my Instagram Stories, he was ranting about it through the entire press junket. It was pretty hilarious. He also looked at me as I was shooting photos for this piece and I swear he looked straight through my soul in this photo above! I just had to share that!
I hope you enjoyed this look at the Journey to Disney Pixar’s Onward!
ONWARD IS IN THEATRES MARCH 6TH, 2020! Get your tickets now!
Check out the trailer below too!
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