This movie right here ladies and gents (alongside Elemental), is the reason I decided to make this list in the first place. Onward is an urban fantasy adventure comedy featuring the voices of Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Octavia Spencer. Released in 2020, Onward takes place in a world full of fantasy creatures with no humans living in a modern suburban world. In this film, the main protagonists are two elf brothers named Ian and Barley (voiced by Holland and Pratt respectively) who set out on a quest to find an artifact that will temporarily bring back their deceased father named Wilden for 24 hours before the time is up. The only thing they managed to resurrect was the lower half of his body. Along the way, the brothers' journey is filled with cryptic maps, impossible obstacles, and unimaginable discoveries. Sounds hilariously bizarre, doesn't it? While the film received positive acclaim from critics, Onward sadly bombed at the box office, grossing only $142 million on a budget between $175-$200 million, making this the second time a Pixar film bombed at the box office. (The first Pixar film to ever bomb at the box office was The Good Dinosaur. That film, alongside Cars 2 and Cars 3 are the only Pixar films I have never seen.)

Normally all the elements I mentioned for Onward are a recipe for a massive hit for Pixar. You got your celebrity cast who's clearly doing a great job, you got a silly premise that potentially works, you've got hilarious jokes that go with the premise, you've got your emotional and heartfelt moments that'll feel relatable, and you've got a good story. What could have caused Onward to be a box office bomb? Simple, the film was released on March 6th, 2020. By March, the coronavirus had come to America and was infecting anyone not immune to the disease. And with COVID-19 cases skyrocketing, a lot of theaters were forced to temporarily shut down for everyone's safety. So COVID-19 was the biggest contributor to Onward bombing at the box office. Onward is notable for being the last Pixar movie to ever be theatrically released until Lightyear. Soul, Luca, and Turning Red would have gotten theatrical releases, and they probably wouldn't have become Disney+ Originals had the pandemic not interfered with everything. I think if Onward had been released in 2019 instead, it would have most likely been a bit more financially successful. As I have said with the Pixar films released in the 2020s so far, I really wanted this film to succeed.

I love going to the movies, I've made it no secret of that. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was very limited with what I was able to watch in theaters. And I kid you not, the last film I ever watched in theaters before the pandemic temporarily shut down every theater was Onward. When I saw how Onward suffered at the box office, I then knew how The Iron Giant felt when it bombed at the box office despite rave reviews from critics. I enjoyed Onward. The idea of a land dominated by fantasy creatures and not humans was an interesting idea, and I really cared for Ian and Barley. I really cared that they wanted to see their father one last time, especially since both brothers never really got the closure they wanted when their father abruptly died at a young age. I'm sure anyone who's reading this who lost a father can relate to that. The film was funny and it had a lot of heart to it. It deserved better. The fact that this film suffered at the box office despite being great is the number one reason why I think Onward is the number one most underrated Pixar film in my humble opinion.

Life comes with a lot of risks. When you take risks, you will either fail miserably or succeed with flying colors. When Pixar was first formed, John Lasseter and Steve Jobs knew they were taking a massive risk producing the first CG animated movie with Disney. The same can be said with the first feature length animated movie in general. When Walt Disney announced he would be doing a feature length animated movie about Snow White back in the 1930s, a lot of people were skeptical about it. They thought the film was going to fail and nicknamed it "Disney's Folly." But thankfully Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs succeeded. And producing a CG animated film was risky, and it's understandable that some people would be skeptical about an animated film made entirely from computers. But that risk paid off for Pixar. And even when facing hardship and failure, I admire Pixar for being so willing to take the risk with their recent films and make them. And they never give up. I believe it's better to take a risk than to never take one at all and wonder what could have been. I hope Elemental becomes successful, and I hope Pixar's next film Elio succeeds.

Anyway, that's my Top 5 list. Thanks for reading and listening to my opinions. If you have a personal favorite Pixar film, don't hesitate to leave it in the comments below. Don't have a good day, have a great day!