Onward Christian Movie Review (2020)

Guidance: Talk Together

This animated adventure is warm, funny, and deeply focused on family love, brotherhood, and grief. The main discernment issue for Christian families is that its emotional core is built around spellcasting and a magical attempt to bring back a deceased parent, alongside some fantasy peril and a brief same-sex reference.

Why This Guidance Level

Onward stays within the general range of a mainstream family fantasy, but it gives real weight to magic, spellcasting, and a quest to bring a dead father back for one day. That spiritual framework, combined with grief themes, fantasy danger, and a brief same-sex reference, makes this less about surface content alone and more about the conversations families may want to have afterward.

Faith & Worldview Perspective

The film strongly reflects love between brothers, the ache of missing a parent, courage, and self-sacrifice. Those are meaningful themes, and the story lands on family love rather than selfish gain. Still, its central solution is magical power: a staff, spells, and a supernatural attempt to restore a dead father. That can blur important biblical lines, since Scripture treats attempts to access power outside God’s design with caution, and Christian hope in grief is not found in magic but in Jesus Christ and the resurrection hope He gives. Parents may want to discuss the difference between a fantasy device in a story and real spiritual truth.

Truths Reflected

• Family love and sacrificial care matter deeply.
• Grief is real, and people long for reconciliation with those they have lost.

Tensions to Discuss

• The story centers on spellcasting and a magical return of the dead, which may conflict with a biblical view of life, death, and spiritual power.
• A brief same-sex reference may conflict with a historic Christian view of sexuality and may be worth discussing plainly.

Content & Discernment Markers

Occult & Spiritual Content

• Magic is not just background flavor here; it drives the whole story. The world is built around spells, magical objects, and the idea that a deceased father can be brought back for one day through magic. For Christian families, this matters because the emotional heart of the film is tied to supernatural power outside any biblical framework. Parents may want to discuss why Christian hope is in Christ, not in magic or attempts to reverse death.
• The film also treats magic as something people once practiced but later abandoned because it was difficult and dangerous, which gives spellcasting a normal, even admirable place in the world of the story rather than presenting it as spiritually troubling.

Sexuality & Relationships

• Romantic material is light overall. A mother and her boyfriend show mild affection, including flirting and a kiss. There is also a brief line from a female officer referring to her girlfriend, which some Christian parents will want to note because it normalizes same-sex relationships without comment.

Identity Themes

• Ian is portrayed as shy, awkward, and unsure of where he fits in his own family, while his older brother is loud and confident. The story encourages self-discovery, courage, and stepping into maturity. This can open a good conversation about finding identity in God’s design rather than in personality, approval, or performance.

Violence & Intensity

• Fantasy action includes chase scenes, monster threats, creepy settings, and a climactic battle with a large destructive creature. The danger is stylized rather than graphic, but younger children may still find some sequences intense.
• The father’s partial return as only his lower half is played for humor and tenderness, but the image may feel strange or unsettling for very young viewers because it combines grief with an unusual supernatural visual.

Language & Humour

• Language is mild and mostly in the range of family-film insults and exclamations, including words and phrases such as “screw up,” “lazy,” “weirdo,” “nut,” “bonkers,” “beast,” and unfinished lines like “what the…” and “son of a…” Parents who are sensitive to teasing or mild coarse phrasing may still want to note it.

Other Content Notes

• The story is built around the death of the boys’ father and their longing to know him. That sadness is handled with warmth, but children who are processing loss may feel the emotional weight strongly.
• A comic subplot includes a character becoming jittery and overexcited after consuming energy drinks. It is played for laughs rather than as serious substance use.

Notable Moments

• Magic framed as difficult and dangerous: The film’s opening worldview setup explains why people moved away from magic, not because it was wrong, but because it was hard work and could be dangerous.

  “So, we really needed to show that it was dangerous, or not just dangerous, that it was a lot of work… That it took effort, and that there was an easier way to go.”

• Family grief at the center: The story’s emotional core is the brothers’ longing to know their deceased father and the sense of absence that shapes their family life.

  “This was loosely based on my own personal story growing up, and kind of my relationship with my older brother and questions we had about our father, who had passed away when I was just a year old and my brother was three.”

• Ian as the insecure outsider: Ian is intentionally framed as the quiet, uncertain brother trying to find his place in a loud and chaotic family.

  “We wanted to show that he loved his family, but that he was the odd man out a little bit.”

Discussion Prompts

• Grief and hope: Why do you think the brothers wanted one more day with their dad so badly, and where can we take our sadness when someone we love is gone?
  • Biblical guidance: Scripture does not ignore grief, but it points us to comfort and hope in Jesus Christ rather than trying to overcome death through our own power.
  • Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, Psalm 34:18, John 11:25
• Magic versus God’s design: What is the difference between a fantasy story using magic and what God says about seeking spiritual power in real life?
  • Biblical guidance: The Bible warns against sorcery and forbidden spiritual practices, and it teaches us to trust the Lord rather than pursue power apart from Him.
  • Scripture: Deuteronomy 18:10-12, Galatians 5:19-21, James 1:5
• Brotherhood and sacrificial love: How do the brothers grow in the way they treat each other, and what does real love look like in a family?
  • Biblical guidance: The film highlights sacrificial care, which can lead to a good conversation about putting others first and bearing with one another in love.
  • Scripture: Philippians 2:3-4, Ephesians 4:2, 1 John 4:7
• Identity and courage: When Ian feels awkward or left out, what helps him grow, and where should a Christian find identity and confidence?
  • Biblical guidance: Children need more than self-belief; they need to know they are made by God and called to grow in courage and faithfulness before Him.
  • Scripture: Psalm 139:13-14, Joshua 1:9, Ephesians 2:10