DETROIT — Remember the opening montage of “Up” and how it perfectly depicts the joys and griefs of married life? Or the ending to any “Toy Story” film and the feelings evoked in an “I’m not crying, you’re crying” way?

That’s what Pixar movies do. They can take you from laughter to poignancy faster than a race car goes from zero to 60.

The latest film from the animation studio does it again. Only this time, the story is inspired by the real life of a metro Detroit kid who grew up to be a Pixar director.

“Onward,” which arrived in theaters Friday, follows two teenage brothers who are elves living in a 2020 version of a fantasy medieval world. Imagine unicorns prowling garbage cans in middle-class neighborhoods, and a winged centaur cop who’s forgotten how to fly and must instead cram inside a regular-police car.

Cautious, book-smart Ian and rowdy, wizard-buff Barley (voiced by Marvel franchise stars Tom Holland and Chris Pratt) lost their father when they were toddlers. Together, they set off on a dangerous, yet often slapstick quest to bring their dad back to life for one day through a magic spell — with their loving, fiercely devoted mother (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) in pursuit.

And because Pixar always provides laughs to balance depth of emotion, Ian and Barley’s spell hits a glitch. Their father returns, but only from the waist down as a stumbling pair of legs in pants with the comic timing of Charlie Chaplin.

The result is the most personal film yet from director/co-screenwriter Dan Scanlon (“Monsters University”), a Pixar veteran who’s in the middle of a world tour for the “Onward” premiere.

Speaking by phone from Berlin, Scanlon discusses how the movie pays tribute both to the father he lost at a young age and to his dedicated mother and loving big brother.

On Sunday, Scanlon plans to attend a benefit screening of “Onward” for a charity that his mom serves as a volunteer, the Assistance League of Southeastern Michigan, at the Emagine Rochester Hills. In order to get there in time, he’ll be flying in from Madrid, then leaving to resume his international itinerary.

Scanlon’s father died when he was 1 and his brother was 3. He was an alumnus of Brother Rice High School and Lawrence Technological University and worked as a chemist for the auto industry. He was just 30 when he passed away.

Scanlon declined to talk with the Free Press about how his father died. Last week, in a story that ran after that conversation, London’s Guardian newspaper reported that he only very recently has began sharing in interviews that it happened in a car accident. He initially didn’t want to hurt his mother by talking about it, but after checking with her, she told him it would be fine.

Scanlon’s brother Bill, a computer programmer who lives in East Lansing, is more scientific, like his late father. He got a master’s degree in chemistry at Lawrence Tech (and had some of the same teachers as his dad) before switching to his current career. “It doesn’t take a therapist to realize, maybe, that he had to see that through,” says Scanlon.

Scanlon was inspired by the creativity of his mother, who now lives in Rochester Hills. “She wrote poems for people as a job. She’d write for people who had birthdays or anniversaries. I’d watch her write these comedy poems, and I learned so many about comic timing and pacing and callbacks and all this stuff.”

FILMMAKER STARTED AS AN ARTIST IN CLAWSON

Growing up in Clawson, Scanlon seemed destined to work in animation. He was making scribbles of recognizable things by age two. By the time he was 12, he was drawing caricatures at parties.

A budding filmmaker even before high school, he won several awards for his entries at the Michigan Student Film and Video Festival. In 2013, he spoke to the Free Press about the thrill of winning a prize that led to one of his 8-millimeter films being screened at the Detroit Film Theatre.

By the time Scanlon got to Clawson High School, his mother was making an hour-long trip with him to Westland for evening classes in media production. She waited patiently while he spent three or four hours focusing on the art of animation.

After graduating from the Columbus College of Art and Design on Ohio, Scanlon worked for a few years in animation in Ohio before fulfilling his dream of joining Pixar. His first animated feature as a director, “2013’s “Monsters University,” earned more than $743 million globally.

Scanlon says that early in the journey of “Onward,” there were talks about using human teens who would build a machine to bring their father back.

“But to be honest, it felt a little cold and not as romanticized as the idea of bringing someone back with magic, which felt kind of more beautiful. I think. For my brother and I, talking about our dad and thinking about our dad and meeting people who knew our dad is magical.”

He credits Louis-Dreyfus, the mother of two sons in real life, with vividly portraying the movie’s elf mom as a relatable figure who also is a courageous protector.

“My mom was everything to us. She was inspiring, supportive. The three of us were a team. We owe everything to her … . She was our mighty warrior,” says Scanlon.

As for his brother’s reaction to his cinematic version, who’s voiced by Pratt, a star of the “Avengers” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchises, Scanlon laughs.

“Barley is the least like a member of my family at all. Barley is a big, wild, crazy, chaotic metalhead guy who’s into fantasy. My brother is a very logical, smart, thoughtful, funny computer programmer.”

But Barley is also quite good at wizarding clues and is revealed to be a faithful big brother. Says Scanlon, “I remember Chris Pratt saying to me when we were recording the movie … ‘Make sure he (your brother) doesn’t walk out halfway through, because he’ll think you’re portraying him as a maniac who’s just annoying.’”

Scanlon sounds thrilled that his cartoon alter ego, Ian, is being voiced by Tom Holland, the star of “Spider-Man” franchises and “Avengers” films.

“I think the thing that Tom have in common with this character is that we were pretty shy as teenagers and pretty awkward and goofy … Also, (Ian is) a sensitive character and Tom can portray this sincere sensitivity really well.”

IN GRIEF LAUGHTER EMERGES, SOMETIMES

For Scanlon, one of the keys to the movie is the laugh-out-loud humor that comes from the father coming back to life as, essentially, a pair of legs.

“It pretty quickly takes this very sensitive and delicate topic and puts it in an uncomfortable, kind of funny place. If you really want to get to know a human being, it’s going to involve humor and discomfort and weird, awkward situations. I loved that about it.”

The situation speaks to the connection between grief and comedy. “It’s kind of like those laughs you get at a funeral, where you know you shouldn’t laugh but you can’t help it,” says Scanlon. “I think that’s when life’s at its best.”

Whenever Scanlon comes home to Michigan, he likes to rent a place in Clawson and hang out with his family there. “The city has become even more alive and vibrant and a stronger community than it was when we were there,” he says. “It always feels like a second home to us.”

Now part of his youth has been immortalized through “Onward,” albeit with a mythical setting and fantastic creatures like a manticore (a fearsome lion-like creature voiced by Octavia Spencer) who runs a family restaurant in the movie’s modern magical world.

And in a move supporting diversity, “Onward” is being touted as featuring the first self-identified LGBTQ animated character in Disney/Pixar history. Lena Waithe voices the character, a Cyclops police officer named Officer Specter.

“It’s certainly an amazing opportunity to get to do something this personal and it really says a lot about Pixar and Disney that they’d not only get behind this, but encourage me to do something personal,” says Scanlon.

He is quick to add that the “Onward” team of hundreds of people contributed their stories along the way. They helped strengthen the movie’s universal appeal.

“Everybody has lost someone. And everybody has someone in their life who’s gone above and beyond to support them,” says Scanlon. “I think those two things are reasons why anyone would connect with this film on an emotional level.”

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