Iandore Lightfoot's History
Onward
At the start of the movie, we see Ian on his sixteenth birthday. He's an awkward, nervous kid living in New Mushroomton, whose father died before he was born. He lives with his mother and his chaotic, older brother. Heading to Burger Shire to get breakfast before school, Ian meets Gaxton, a former college classmate of his father. Gaxton tells Ian stories about his father's confidence. Ian heads to school, and makes a list titled, "New Me", which includes volunteering more often, learning to drive, inviting people to his birthday party, and to "Be like Dad". But when going to invite people to his birthday party, his brother Barley pulls up in his van, dubbed Guinevere. Ian gets embarrassed and runs off. He rides home with Barley in the van.
When they get home, their mother Laurel brings a gift from their father downstairs from the attic for Barley and Ian. She said that it was a gift from him to give to the brothers once they were both 16 years of age. It was wrapped in a brown blanket, and it contained a wizard's staff, a note with a visitation spell on it, and a phoenix gem. Upon reading the note the brothers learn that in the past, their world was full of magic, but because of its challenges to master, people started using technology instead, and magic faded. After Barely tries repeatedly to use the staff, Laurel leaves to pick up Ian's birthday cake. Ian then picks up the staff himself and tries the spell. He succeeds in casting it but gets stopped halfway through, leaving his father, Wilden, as only a pair of legs.
Barley gets out his Quest of Yore game cards and decides to go to The Manticore's Tavern to get a map to find another phoenix gem from Corey. Ian and Barley head toward the Tavern in Guinevere when Ian gets a makeshift top half for his father using some spare clothes.
The three arrive at the Tavern, which has been remade into a kids restaurant. They speak to Corey the Manticore, who doesn't give them a map. Instead, she hands them a children's menu with a puzzle inspired by her map. Once Ian talks to Corey about her former glory, she burns the restaurant down upon rediscovering her love for adventure, and Ian, Barley, and Wilden leave with the menu, which tells them to go to Raven's Point.
After driving for a while, during which Ian continues experimenting with his powers, the van runs out of gas and Barley parks on the side of the road. He realizes the tank he uses to store his gas in is almost empty, so he urges Ian to enlarge the container, thus getting enough gas to fill up the van again. But when Ian attempts the spell, he fails and accidentally shrinks Barley to the size of a pixie. Giving up, they leave to find a gas station.
At the gas station the brothers buy some chips and fill up the tank, but they run into a gang of pixies. Barley accidentally provokes them by stating how they use motorbikes despite having wings, which the pixies interpret as him calling them lazy. Wilden's cluelessness and missing top half don't make the situation any better. The trio run to the van and drive onto the highway, narrowly escaping the gang of pixies, who also rediscover their ability of flight. Barley then goes back to his usual size.
A while later, the family is pulled over by two police officers for speeding. Wilden wanders out of the van, thankfully with his makeshift top body still on, much to the confusion of the cops. Ian and Barley perform a disguise spell to cast an illusion, making them look like their mother's centaur boyfriend Colt Bronco, who happens to be a police officer too. Ian manages to talk his way through, but every time he tells a lie part of the illusion falls apart. It's because of this that Barley thinks Ian sees him as a screw-up.
They drive a while in silence, during which Ian desperately tries to reassure his brother that he's not a screw-up, during which Barley simply turns up the music in the van. Barley angrily pulls over and stomps out of the van to a vending machine. During their argument over who knows best about their quest, Wilden starts dancing to the music (somehow). All is forgiven, and the three laugh together before Ian finally agrees to take the "Path of Peril", a winding road through the wilderness that Barley believes is the correct one, instead of the highway.
During their journey they came upon a bottomless chasm which had a drawbridge and its lever on the other side. Barley told Ian to cast a spell which creates an invisible bridge that only works if you believe in it, tying a long rope to him to reassure him. After a terrifying fail at the first attempt, the second time it worked, and Ian happily walks towards the other side, unaware that the rope has fallen off halfway there. As he turns he sees the rope in Barley's hands, and he almost falls into the void, catching on to a rock and climbing onto the other side. Mildly traumatized, Ian lets down the bridge, and Barley drives the van across.
Suddenly, Colt Bronco appears, driving across and ready to take them home. The brothers drive away, determined to fulfil their quest. With cops chasing them, the brothers drive onto a narrow mountain path, and Ian attempts to block off the path with a blast of lightning, but he can't do it. Mournfully, Barley gets a rock and places it on Guinevere's gas pedal, then aims the van and unleashes it. Guinevere gallops down the path, parking tickets streaming out the windows like wings, and the van flies into the air, ramming into the massive boulders and blocking the path, being buried under the rubble. Barley sadly leads on.
Following the massive raven statues, the family finds an underground river, which they go through using an enlarged chip. Along the way, Barley talks about his memories of their father and the reason for his brash recklessness.
When their father was sick and dying, Laurel and Barley were supposed to go in to see him and say good bye. But Barley was scared by the way he was "hooked up to all these tubes, and he just didn't look like himself." And he didn't go in. So he decided that he was never going to be scared again.
After the river came to its end, the trio walked through a long tunnel. After escaping a Gelatinous Cube and swimming up another tunnel, they surfaced to see...New Mushroomton. Infuriated, Ian shouts that they wasted hours on the Path of Peril and the gem was actually in the mountain, which they could've gotten to way earlier using the highway. He angrily rants that Barley is a screw-up and that he's taken the only chance at the one thing he never had. Taking Wilden, he stomps away.
Not giving up, Barley desperately continues searching for the Phoenix Gem, which he finally finds in a fountain that was about to be torn down. He takes the Phoenix Gem triumphantly, but the curse of the gem summons a red gas, which transforms into a massive dragon. The Manticore and Laurel appear to fight the dragon, but they are outmatched and defeated.
Barley decides to distract the dragon while the Wilden is restored, but Ian stops him, saying "I never had a dad...but I always had you." He leaves to battle the dragon using all the magic spells he's accumulated through the quest while Barley gets to finally say good bye to Wilden. Upon the dragon's defeat, Ian gets a glimpse of his father for the first time, seeing him embrace Barley before fading once more.
After the ordeal, things mostly go back to normal. We see Ian telling his tale in class, becoming a very popular kid and even painting Guinevere 2. The movie ends with Ian levitating the van and flying with Barley to the park.
