‘Onward,’ Meet ‘Homeward’

Burbank, California-based The Asylum released a trailer today for Homeward, its mockbuster inspired by Disney-Pixar’s upcoming Onward. Watch it below:

The Asylum is the studio behind the Sharknado franchise and Syfy’s Z Nation, and in 2016, they began producing animated mockbusters, starting with Izzie’s Way Home, inspired by Disney-Pixar’s Finding Dory. Since then, they’ve also released Trolland (inspired by Dreamworks Animation’s Trolls) and CarGo (inspired by Cars 3).

Their films are part of the long-running tradition of animated “mockbusters. Mockbusters often have little to do with the films they’re inspired by, but the title and logo branding are similar with the expectation that undiscriminating parents will purchase the film for their children.

Homeward, directed by Michael Johnson from a script by Aaron Witlin, takes place in a fantasy setting and features two brothers who are similarly proportioned to the stars of Onward, but besides those broad similarities, the two films don’t appear to have much else in common.

Per the synopsis, Homeward follows “a boastful elf and his prank-happy orc brother [who] must learn to work together to stop a fiendish orc gang from retrieving a magical stone that will give them the power to take over the world.” The film’s headlining voice actors are Joey Lawrence and Tom Green.

No release date has been announced, but expect this one to go straight to home viewing.