Two elven brothers set off with lost hearts and souls in an extraordinary quest with a twofold objective: to try to revive a father they never knew for twenty-four hours, while looking for the remains of the magic of yesteryear in their world numbed by progress. It is in this strange universe, populated by elves, centaurs, fairies and unicorns, that the modern tale En Avant , 22nd film from Pixar studios by Dan Scanlon ( Monsters University) is born. ).
Forward - Trailer:
A successful modern fairy tale
In this enchanted world, made of magic and spells, but which has gradually become commonplace due to the development of technologies, Olivier Delcroix du Figaro sees a "pretty parable on the omnipotence of technologies".
The universe of En avant seems to be a reflection of "a humanity (ours) dozed by the omnipotence of science, almost disconnected from nature, welded to its smartphone". Pixar thus signs a “perfectly successful modern fairy tale” , bringing together all the codes of the heroic-fantasy film.
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Exploring Brotherhood and Mourning
But Forward is not just a fairy tale. The animated film is also a “touching fable about siblings” , welcomes Olivier Delcroix. After addressing the relationship between two sisters in Frozen , "Pixar studios offer a fraternal counterpart by exploring the complex - sometimes conflicting - relationship between Ian and Barley" , the two young heroes, with totally opposite personalities.
An opinion shared by Télérama : "Everything makes sense, gently and deeply, in this family fable [...]" , writes Cécile Mury. Critics particularly appreciate that the film manages to suggest, with sensitivity , "the strength of the links between the two brothers, and everything that is built and repaired, because love abhors a vacuum".
Read also: Toy Story 4 : Pixar, extra and hard-wearing toy
For the World , "Even when it is not the best" , each new Pixar manages to offer "an observatory of family stories rarely equaled". The critic Murielle Joudet praises the capacity of the studios to deal with "virtuosity" the subjects of mourning and the end of childhood, "under the colorful and childish fantasy".
Failed graphics
But Pixar's talent for tackling such delicate subjects, as in Toy Story , Vice Versa , or more recently Coco, is not enough to catch up with the quality of the animation.
"The spectator has something to be confused by the unsightly graphics of the characters (elves with gray-blue skin and pink ears, unicorns with long teeth, a lioness with horns, wings and a tail of a scorpion ...) and by the vision of these two brothers who walk around in pants that work (their father half-returned to life, therefore) ” , we bitterly regret at the Parisian.
Théo Ribeton of the Inrocks judges that the dramatic challenges of this learning story "do not completely catch up with the failed graphics".
