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Passes the Bechdel test

Onward

2020. Directed by Dan Scanlon, written by Dan Scanlon and Keith Bunin and Jason Headley.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    6 women characters. 7 of them speak.
  2. Yes 2. Who talk to each other
    In 6 scenes out of 117.
  3. Yes 3. About something besides a man
    In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.

Poster for Onward

The film

In a suburban fantasy world, two teenage elf brothers, Ian and Barley Lightfoot, go on a journey to discover if there is still a little magic left out there in order to spend one last day with their father, who died when they were too young to remember him. Like any good quest, their journey is filled with magic spells, cryptic maps, impossible obstacles and unimaginable discoveries. When the boys' fearless mom, Laurel, realizes that her sons are missing, she teams up with the legendary winged-lion-scorpion former warrior -- The Manticore -- and heads off to find them. Perilous curses aside, this one magical day could mean more than any of them ever dreamed.

Released
06 Mar 2020
Genres
Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Rated
PG
IMDb
7.3 / 10
Metascore
61 / 100
Awards
Nominated for 1 Oscar. 4 wins & 64 nominations total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Ian 382 lines, man
  2. Barley 366 lines, man
  3. Laurel 105 lines, woman
  4. Manticore 66 lines, woman
  5. Colt 41 lines, man
  6. Dad 22 lines, man
  7. Dewdrop 15 lines, woman
  8. Officer Specter 15 lines
  9. Officer Gore 12 lines, woman
  10. Grecklin 10 lines, woman
Full cast, 13 people
  • Tom Holland as Ian Lightfoot (voice)
  • Chris Pratt as Barley Lightfoot (voice)
  • Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Laurel Lightfoot (voice)
  • Octavia Spencer as The Manticore (voice)
  • Mel Rodriguez as Officer Colt Bronco (voice)
  • Kyle Bornheimer as Wilden Lightfoot (voice)
  • Lena Waithe as Officer Spector (voice)
  • Ali Wong as Officer Gore (voice)
  • Grey DeLisle as Dewdrop (voice)
  • Tracey Ullman as Grecklin (voice)
  • Wilmer Valderrama as Gaxton (voice)
  • John Ratzenberger as Construction Worker Fennwick (voice)
  • George Psarras as Officer Avel (voice)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 6% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 117

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers
ScenesWomen's linesMen's lines
1 to 307
4 to 604
7 to 91725
10 to 12632
13 to 15022
16 to 18027
19 to 21927
22 to 241837
25 to 27038
28 to 3004
31 to 33015
34 to 3600
37 to 39028
40 to 423829
43 to 4513
46 to 48025
49 to 5144
52 to 54189
55 to 57210
58 to 60063
61 to 63414
64 to 662320
67 to 69130
70 to 72211
73 to 7507
76 to 781067
79 to 81312
82 to 8423
85 to 87058
88 to 90021
91 to 93026
94 to 961319
97 to 99071
100 to 102011
103 to 10508
106 to 10801
109 to 1111146
112 to 114812
115 to 117011

The evidence

  • Straight from the script
  • Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
MANTICORE: This place used to be dangerous-- COSTUMED MANTICORE: Dangerous! MANTICORE: --and wild. COSTUMED MANTICORE: Wild!
MANTICORE: Last name "Manticore." First name, "The." LAUREL: Hold on! You're right, she has gone a little-- It's no wonder with a wound like that.
LAUREL: Oh, I'm sorry, are you an expert on minotaurs? MANTICORE: Manticores. LAUREL: --Manticores?
LAUREL: Well then you wouldn't know that when their blood is exposed to air, it makes them go bonkers. MANTICORE: I don't think that's true. LAUREL: See! She's already losing her grip on reality. So why don't you let me save her life before it costs you yours?
GRECKLIN: There you are, one garlic crusher. MANTICORE: No, Curse Crusher. It's a large magical sword. GRECKLIN: Sword, sword, sword... GRECKLIN: I mean, I got this thing.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 20 are women's.

218 lines from women, 847 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

6 women and 7 men in the cast. 7 women and 11 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 19 of 1,130. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 120 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

  • First line by a woman
  • Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 23% of the words (1,945), men 77% (6,450). Women have 20% of the lines, so their lines run longer than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Exhibit F: behind the camera

4 of the 13 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 27% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
Dan Scanlon (man)
Written by
Jason Headley (man), Dan Scanlon (man), Keith Bunin (man)
Produced by
Kori Rae (woman)
Shot by
Sharon Calahan (woman), Adam Habib (man)
Edited by
Catherine Apple (woman)
Music by
Jeff Danna (man), Mychael Danna (man)
Production design by
Noah Klocek (man)
Cast by
Kevin Reher (man), Natalie Lyon (woman)

The crew, department by department

  • Sound

    3 women, 13 men, 4 not listed

  • Production

    4 women, 2 men

  • Visual Effects

    0 women, 3 men, 2 not listed

  • Art

    1 women, 2 men, 1 not listed

  • Writing

    0 women, 4 men

  • Editing

    1 women, 2 men

  • Camera

    1 women, 1 men

  • Other crew

    1 women, 1 men

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit G: how old the stars were

Women: 48 on average. Men: 38 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Lena Waithe 35, Ali Wong 37, Grey DeLisle 46, Octavia Spencer 49, Julia Louis-Dreyfus 59, Tracey Ullman 60

Men

Tom Holland 23, Chris Pratt 40, Kyle Bornheimer 44, Mel Rodriguez 46

Exhibit H: the money

It made 71% of what it cost.

Budget
$200 million
Box office
$142 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 117 scenes and 1,130 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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