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. Cars 2" is currently the lowest-rated Pixar film, but even critics who panned the movie still found a few things to like about it. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile.

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. 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. It is the first Pixar film to be released on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD two months after its theatrical release (and over one month after its debut on Disney+). This is the first Pixar movie not to feature the credits "Disney Presents" and "A Pixar Animation Studios Film" in the opening. It is also shown that Barley has been given multiple parking violation forms, which he stores in the glove compartment.

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In South Korea, the movie even became the most-viewed Pixar movie of all time with six million admissions. The Pixar ball can be briefly seen as the symbol in a shield as Ian and Barley enter the Manticore's tavern. This is the first and only Pixar film to feature the short 2011 Disney closing logo since The Good Dinosaur. 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."

This is also Pixar's second fairy tale and their first film (after Brave) to take on the fantasy genre (not counting Monsters, Inc. as Disney appears to treat it more as science fiction within the theme parks than it does urban fantasy).But in the context of Elemental's release, it can only be seen as a success. It's not just that it sustained after a soft opening; it's that it proved that audiences will go to the cinema for a new Pixar movie, following a string of exclusive Disney+ titles that have almost left Disney having to recondition audiences to expect a new Pixar movie first at the cinema. In the Manticore's tavern, a book with the logo of the kingdom of DunBroch can be seen alongside the Manticore's map. Claw game machines featuring a gauntlet resembling the Infinity Gauntlet can be seen in both an arcade and the tavern. There’s nothing wrong with this model of film for Pixar. It’s exciting to see the studio finally creating a new world, and the brotherly team-up at the film’s heart feels like a new model for a collection of storytellers that have focused on unlikely found families as often as they’ve focused on flesh-and-blood families. Onward takes a few representation steps forward as well, with a female character (voiced by Lena Waithe) who casually mentions her girlfriend; a prominent role for Octavia Spencer; and a pair of middle-aged-lady characters who get some nice bonding moments together and some action scenes of their own — both a rarity in animated features. 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.