Year: 2020
Director: Dan Scanlon
Rating: 6

Review: One thing I appreciate about the Disney/Pixar brand lately is their efforts to tell stories from other cultures while also using actors from those cultures (e.g. Moana, Coco, Soul). What I’m pretty sure I wasn’t pining for was a story combining the cultures of elves and Dungeons & Dragons.

Our two teenage Elven boys cast a magic spell to bring back their late father for 24 hours, but they only get halfway through the spell, so they only get half their dad (the bottom half). They have 24 hours to finish the spell and need to find another magic item. The ensuing MacGuffin chasing adventure lacks in the way of originality or intrigue, but the voice cast is enthusiastic and there’s a few laugh-out-loud jokes along the way.

The climax is touching and a nice change of pace from the expected ending, but I wasn’t invested enough in our characters to be as moved as I have for previous Pixar films.