Pixar announces new film Onward with Chris Pratt, Tom Holland, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus
It’s Onward and upward for Disney’s Pixar as the animation house announces its latest film. And Tom Holland, the lovable but notorious leaker of Marvel movie secrets, was the one to announce it.
The Spider-Man: Homecoming star joins his Avengers: Infinity War costar Chris Pratt, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Octavia Spencer in the voice cast for Onward, directed by Monsters University‘s Dan Scanlon and produced by Kori Rae.
“I am so excited and I’ve been trying to keep this a secret for so long and I know just can’t do it anymore,” Holland said in a video posted to Instagram.
My friends at @DisneyPixar have allowed me to make a very exciting announcement... #onward
A post shared by ✌️ (@tomholland2013) on Dec 12, 2018 at 9:05am PST
Onward, set in a suburban fantasy world, is currently scheduled for theaters on March 6, 2020.
The story centers on “two teenage elf brothers who embark on an extraordinary quest to discover if there is still a little magic left out there,” reads the official logline.
“At Pixar we try to create stories that come from some kind of personal truth,” Scanlon says in a statement. “This film was inspired by my own relationship with my brother.” Onward was initially teased at 2017’s D23 Expo, where the filmmakers revealed more plot information: After the death of their father at a young age, the boys embark “on a quest through this mundane, modern fantasy world to somehow find a way to spend one last magical day with their father.”
“The world is basically a mix of the fantastic and the everyday,” Scanlon explained at the time. “There are mushroom houses that line the streets with satellite dishes sticking out the top of them and a minivan parked in front of each one. There are no humans… but there are unicorns everywhere. They’re basically rodents, possums eating all the trash out of your bins.”
It seems safe to say that Holland and Pratt will be voicing the two brothers, but character details are still under wraps. Scanlon teases how Dreyfus “brings a warmth and loving side to her character,” while Rae says of Spencer, “We’re especially excited about the depth as well as humor that she brings to her character.”
Just announced: The next original feature from Pixar Animation Studios, “Onward,” starring Chris Pratt, Tom Holland, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Octavia Spencer, will arrive in theaters March 6, 2020! #PixarOnward pic.twitter.com/SS8RZmjYR2
— Disney (@Disney) December 12, 2018
Pixar released The Incredibles 2, Brad Bird’s long-in-the-works animated super-sequel, this past June and the film is currently in awards contention for best animated film. The Oscar favorite animation studio is also prepping for the release of Toy Story 4, but Onward marks the next original story after 2016’s Coco.
It also marks the first new Pixar title announced since Frozen‘s Jennifer Lee and Inside Out‘s Peter Doctor were named the successors of John Lasseter, who leaves his post by the end of 2018 amid several past allegations of misconduct and inappropriate work behavior.
“Jennifer Lee and Pete Docter are two of the most gifted filmmakers and storytellers I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with,” Disney Chairman Alan Horn said at the time. “Pete, the genius creative force behind Up, Inside Out, and Monsters Inc., has been an integral part of Pixar almost since the beginning and is a huge part of its industry-leading success. Jenn, in bringing her bold vision to the boundary-breaking Frozen, has helped infuse Disney Animation with a new and exciting perspective. Each of them embodies the unique spirit, culture, and values of these renowned animation studios, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to have them to lead us into the future.”
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