{"id":37182,"date":"2026-01-28T06:27:48","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T06:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/?p=37182"},"modified":"2026-01-28T06:27:48","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T06:27:48","slug":"i-cant-watch-it-without-sobbing-tom-holland-reveals-the-one-pixar-film-about-2-brothers-that-still-haunts-him-a-voice-role-he-calls-his-most-painful-and-most-pro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/?p=37182","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI Can\u2019t Watch It Without Sobbing.\u201d \u2014 Tom Holland Reveals the One Pixar Film About 2 Brothers That Still Haunts Him, a Voice Role He Calls His Most Painful and Most Proud."},"content":{"rendered":"

In a career defined by blockbuster spectacle and superhero resilience, Tom Holland<\/span><\/span><\/strong> admits there is one film he can barely sit through without breaking down. It isn\u2019t a Marvel epic or a dramatic live-action role, but a deeply personal animated story about two brothers searching for something they lost before they were old enough to understand it.<\/span><\/p>\n

That film is Onward<\/span><\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t watch it without sobbing,\u201d Holland has confessed\u2014calling the project both the most painful and the most proud performance of his career. Behind the pastel fantasy and magical road trip lies a story rooted in real grief, one that hit uncomfortably close to home for the actor.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Pixar Story Born From Real Loss<\/span><\/h3>\n

The emotional core of Onward<\/em> comes directly from its director, Dan Scanlon<\/span><\/span><\/strong>, whose childhood tragedy shaped the entire film. Scanlon lost his father in a car accident when he was just one year old; his older brother was only three. They grew up without any memory of their father\u2019s voice\u2014until years later, when a relative discovered an old cassette tape.<\/span><\/p>\n

On it, their father said just two words: \u201cHi\u201d<\/em> and \u201cGoodbye.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

That haunting detail became the soul of Onward<\/em>. In the film, Holland\u2019s character, Ian Lightfoot, obsessively replays a recording of his father, clinging to the sound of a voice he never truly knew. For Holland, that detail was devastating.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Fiction Collided With Reality<\/span><\/h3>\n

Unlike many voice-acting jobs, Onward<\/em> demanded emotional presence. Scanlon insisted that Holland and Chris Pratt<\/span><\/span><\/strong>, who voices older brother Barley, record together whenever possible. The result was a fraternal chemistry that felt raw, lived-in, and painfully authentic.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Holland\u2014who is famously close with his own three brothers\u2014the story unlocked a quiet fear he rarely talks about: the terror of loss inside a tight-knit family.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea that a brother could become your emotional anchor, your stand-in parent,\u201d Holland explained, \u201cthat just wrecked me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Recording sessions became moments of genuine catharsis. The vulnerability required for Ian Lightfoot\u2014his anxiety, his longing, his grief\u2014was unlike anything Holland had been asked to give in live-action blockbusters.<\/span><\/p>\n

Painful, but Proud<\/span><\/h3>\n

Released in March 2020, just as the world shut down, Onward<\/em> arrived during a collective moment of isolation and mourning. While its box office suffered, its emotional reputation only grew. Critics and fans praised Holland\u2019s performance as one of Pixar\u2019s most human portrayals of grief\u2014quiet, awkward, and unresolved.<\/span><\/p>\n

The film\u2019s ending, unchanged from its earliest storyboards, lands as an emotional ambush: a realization that love sometimes arrives through the people who stay, not the ones we lose.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Holland, that truth is what makes the film unbearable\u2014and essential.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI rarely cry at movies,\u201d he admitted during press interviews. \u201cBut this one\u2026 knowing where it came from, and what it says about brothers\u2014I just can\u2019t handle it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A Lasting Echo of \u201cHello\u201d and \u201cGoodbye\u201d<\/span><\/h3>\n

Onward<\/em> endures because it understands something simple and devastating: that a voice, even a fragment of one, can carry a lifetime of love. For Tom Holland, the film is not just another credit\u2014it\u2019s a reminder of the fragile magic of family, and the unspoken promise to never take a single hello for granted.<\/span><\/p>\n

And that is why, years later, he still can\u2019t watch it without sobbing.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a career defined by blockbuster spectacle and superhero resilience, Tom Holland admits there is one film he can barely sit through without breaking down. It isn\u2019t a Marvel epic or a dramatic live-action role, but a deeply personal animated story about two brothers searching for something they lost before they were old enough to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37182\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}