Pixar, Nietzsche, and the End of LARP

Onward is a Pixar film about elves and brotherhood, but it is more accurately about the LARPing ‘20s. It manages to suggest the rather involute thesis that ours is the age of Nietzschean hyperreality.

Jul 17, 2025

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Onward looks backward. The apparent contradiction was immediately flagged by critics upon the film’s release a little more than five years ago. National Review called the animated feature “so reactionary it cries out for a return of the Latin Mass,” while Vulture dismissed the film as a Pixar offering that “even the ‘Make America Great Again’ crowd can …

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A guest post by

Ahmed Elbenni

Ahmed is a senior editor at Muftah and PhD student at Princeton University, where he studies the theorization and creation of “Islamic” media across the modern Near East. He graduated from Yale University with a BA in history and political science.