DIRECTOR'S CUT: Therapist Reacts to ONWARD
Added 2022-09-21 03:58:00 +0000 UTCIan Lightfoot (Tom Holland) is hoping the father he's never met can help him figure out who he is. His brother Barley (Chris Pratt) is still processing the grief of losing their father. Together, they learn to move ONWARD - finding closure and appreciation for the relationship they have with each other.
Licensed therapist Jonathan Decker and filmmaker Alan Seawright talk about father figures and how grief and loss affect families, and revel in the general awesomeness of another Pixar masterpiece.
Comments
I can't believe this directors' cut slipped through the cracks for me!! Onward is criminally underrated, and the story personally means a lot to my siblings and me. Onward got put on disney+ in the midst of my parents' divorce, and I remember being 19 and watching it with my sister (14) and my brother (9) in our living room. I can count on my fingers how many times I've seen my sister cry, and when we got to the "share my life with him" montage, she wept. Afterwards, I asked her if she wanted to talk about it, and she said, "Tres, it's us." Needless to say, then we were both crying, my brother was confused, and Onward is in my top 5 Pixar films.
tres π«Άπ»
2024-09-23 22:41:40 +0000 UTCIt means so much to me when Jonathan speaks about grief/loss and the life changes that come from losing someone close. I was in my twentyβs when my father passed away and I saw this movie the day after his funeral. It was so comforting to see characters that reflected my emotions and to have that experience validated by this video.
Abi
2024-05-16 15:21:01 +0000 UTCShared the YouTube video with a friend whoβs missing her dad right now, and decided to watch this on Patreon. Still need to watch the movie Onward, but such a good episode! I love the mom in the movie, thanks for sharing about your families Jono and Alan π
Lisa C
2024-02-28 01:22:33 +0000 UTCThere is nothing wrong with being happy for someone else, when they get/have what we don't - Romans 12:15 - Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
Ariza Nel
2023-06-14 03:35:08 +0000 UTCAmen. Onward is profound.
Cinema Therapy
2022-12-23 09:18:26 +0000 UTCIt's disappointing to realize a lot of people thought Onward somehow had a bad ending. I think people forget that the only real way to approach a movie like this is to set aside your preferences to focus on the story that the filmmakers are trying to tell. I would have loved an ending where both boys got to spend time with their father, but if you take that wish to its logical conclusion you might as well be angry that the movie didn't give them their full 24 hours with him that they wanted in the first place. I think one of the unspoken realities the movie touches on is the concept of not missing what you never had. Barley feels the *loss* of their father in a way that Ian never will, because he had just enough experience OF his father to actually FEEL the loss. Put more simply, it's the difference between loss and *lack*. That's not to say that children who grow up never having met their fathers don't feel a kind of loss - but it's a fundamentally different kind of pain. The point here was that Ian had the longing to meet his father, but Barley's the one who NEEDED him. As y'all point out, Ian did grow up with a father-figure who provided the things a father is supposed to. Barley's the one who truly missed out. That's the beauty of Ian's realization at the end, and his act of selflessness in letting Barley have that gift of a precious few minutes, which, it has to be said, would not have been the same experience if Barley had had to share it with Ian.
Amy Petty
2022-12-21 06:21:31 +0000 UTC
