Pixar's Onward Fast-Tracked for VOD, Then April 3 Disney+ Release

More and more brand-new motion pictures are being fast-tracked for VOD and then streaming releases, now that theaters (or as I like to call them, “movie houses”) have been hermetically sealed shut by the coronavirus pandemic.

Pixar’s Onward, after barely two weeks on the silver screen, will be available on VOD/for digital purchase this Friday evening at 8/7c, for the reasonable (if you are a family of any size) price of $19.99. The animated feature, which features the voices of Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Octavia Spencer, will then get an early Disney+ release on Friday, April 3.

“[G]iven the current circumstances, we are pleased to release this fun, adventurous film to digital platforms early for audiences to enjoy from the comfort of their homes,” Onward director Dan Scanlon and producer Kori Rae said in a statement.

Fast-tracked VOD/streaming releases are becoming all the (practical) rage, as potential moviegoers find themselves confined to homes. Frozen 2 was hurried onto Disney+ last weekend — three months early — when self-quarantining first went into full effect. And like Onward, Universal’s The Invisible Man (with Elisabeth Moss) and The Hunt (with Betty Gilpin) also arrive on VOD this Friday, while Ben Affleck’s The Way Back and Vin Diesel’s Bloodshot, which both hit theaters on March 6, as well as Birds of Prey (which came out Feb. 7), arrive on VOD Tuesday, March 24.