Ian Lightfoot (Tom Holland) and Barley Lightfoot (Chris Pratt) in Onward.

Disney and Pixar seem to have cornered the market in “let’s teach kids about death in a bright and happy world of adventure!” While the kids hopefully learn something, the adults are the ones left needing tissues.

With the latest venture into a technicolor fantasyland dripping with heartbreaking subtext, Disney/Pixar’s “Onward” takes us to a world that blends fairy tales and reality.

We learn from an opening prologue that the world of “Onward” began like most fairy stories complete with magic and dragons to slay. But the world evolved, and now, elves, pixies, centaurs and goblins live together in relative harmony, have cell phones, day jobs, go to school, have anxiety, workout in their living room while shouting positive affirmations and some simply long for adventure.

In the town of New Mushroom Town, teenage elvish brothers Ian and Barley, voiced by Marvel alums Tom Holland and Chris Pratt, are on a quest to see if there is still magic left in their world after they are gifted a wizard staff and reanimation spell by their late father.

The spell is meant to bring him back for a 24-hour window, allowing him to see the elves his sons turned out to be.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work as well as it should, and Ian and Barley can only reanimate the lower half of their dad.

Not willing to let the magic go to waste, the brothers (and Dad’s legs) embark on an epic journey to find the gemstone that will harness the magic to complete the spell.

It’s a typical road movie mixed with the sentimentality to strike at audiences heartstrings over the power of the familial bond portrayed.

Full of genuinely funny moments with nods to popular fantasy elements including Dungeons and Dragons and “Lord of the Rings,” it has perfect moments of originality that settles itself in a world all it’s own.

The main thing that works in “Onward” is the assembled voice cast. Tom Holland is always a delight with his awkward high schooler portrayal of Ian. Chris Pratt brings his trademark lovable goofiness back from his “Parks and Rec” days with Barley. Their mother, Laurel, is wonderfully kind and supportive with Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ voice behind her.

There are, with all kids’ movies, jokes that may induce a few groans, but they are balanced with a couple of guffaw-worthy moments in a script that keeps its characterizations consistent and doesn’t use them for the sake of plot devices.

However, the biggest misstep comes at the end. Without getting too spoilery, it feels almost jumbled together. Like there was one thing the film wanted to say and do, but it got threaded into a large scale cinematic spectacle, losing the individual strands in the process. It doesn’t pull the audience out of the world, it just feels a little weird.

“Onward” is not the best thing Disney/Pixar has created, and it may not even be the best one of it’s films released this year (the studios have given their second offering, “Soul” a prime summer blockbuster release date of June 19), but it is still an engaging romp through brilliantly rendered computer fantasy landscapes with an emotional punch at the crux of it that everyone expects from the studios’ repertoire.

“Onward”

102 minutes

Rating: PG for action/peril and some mild thematic elements

3.5 stars