The Good Dinosaur
Year: 2015
Director: Peter Sohn
Starring: Jack Bright & Raymond Ochoa
Runtime: 94 mins
BBFC: PG
Published: 27/03/23
Director: Peter Sohn
Starring: Jack Bright & Raymond Ochoa
Runtime: 94 mins
BBFC: PG
Published: 27/03/23
Cars marked the first time that Pixar kind of dropped the ball. A studio that until that point had consistently delivered outstanding story and incredible visual fidelity in their animated films. Whilst Cars’ story fumbled, the technology didn’t, and I think that’s what saved it from being considered a failure. Pixar would go on to make an even bigger mess of Cars 2, with it firmly residing at the bottom of pretty much every ranking list of Pixar’s filmography. But usually just above it can be found the often forgotten The Good Dinosaur. Another case of technology over story, The Good Dinosaur should probably have been shelves by Pixar at the first signs of trouble, as it clearly proved to be more problematic than most other films they’ve ever made.
Apatosaurus’ Henry and Ida (Jeffrey Wright and Frances McDormand) are corn farmers. When they have three children, Libby (Malraux Padilla), Buck (Marcus Scribner), and Arlo (Raymond Ochoa), they instil in them the value of hard work and making their mark on the farm. Arlo suffers from a crippling fear of basically anything, and when trying to ‘make his mark’, he chases down a human ‘critter’ who has been stealing corn from the silo.
Swept away by a strong water current, Arlo and the critter, named Spot (Jack Bright), must follow the river upstream to return home, but along the way Arlo must conquer a number of his fears.
Apatosaurus’ Henry and Ida (Jeffrey Wright and Frances McDormand) are corn farmers. When they have three children, Libby (Malraux Padilla), Buck (Marcus Scribner), and Arlo (Raymond Ochoa), they instil in them the value of hard work and making their mark on the farm. Arlo suffers from a crippling fear of basically anything, and when trying to ‘make his mark’, he chases down a human ‘critter’ who has been stealing corn from the silo.
Swept away by a strong water current, Arlo and the critter, named Spot (Jack Bright), must follow the river upstream to return home, but along the way Arlo must conquer a number of his fears.
The Good Dinosaur is such a weird Pixar film, primarily because it doesn’t feel like a Pixar film at all. Pixar stories usually appeal to all ages because of their incredible depth, they appeal to kids because they’re colourful and fun and have a compelling narrative to follow, but they appeal to adults because of the level of depth offered to the worlds and characters which other animated films rarely provide. The Good Dinosaur feels as though it’s tailor made specifically for younger children, aged seven and under (although then again not for reasons I’ll get to shortly). Arlo is the shallowest lead character Pixar has ever written, as his entire character is just scared dinosaur who wants to make his way back home, he doesn’t think or feel in the way other Pixar characters do, and he doesn’t meaningfully interact with the world in any way. His journey can be boiled down to walking upstream and meeting a few quirky characters along the way that teach him in various ways that being scared isn’t actually such a bad thing.
The whole thing feels kind of pre-school because of how shallow it is. Yet The Good Dinosaur is also oddly violent for a Pixar film. The more perilous sequences are genuinely frightening, and there are some key moments involving pterodactyls that showcase some surprisingly brutal deaths. These moments tonally don’t fit with the rest of the film, and they all kind of come out of nowhere. It’s so surprising and strange when they do happen and it makes me wonder who Pixar thought the target audience was for this film.
The plot is totally predictable too. All the major developments are telegraphed a mile away, and aside from the handful of dark moments the film has, nothing will come as a surprise. It’s all very fun of the mill stuff, and we’ve seen better versions of the same story elsewhere many times before. The title doesn’t really make any sense either, because none of the dinosaurs in the film are ‘bad’, and Arlo doesn’t do anything that’s objectively good either.
The whole thing feels kind of pre-school because of how shallow it is. Yet The Good Dinosaur is also oddly violent for a Pixar film. The more perilous sequences are genuinely frightening, and there are some key moments involving pterodactyls that showcase some surprisingly brutal deaths. These moments tonally don’t fit with the rest of the film, and they all kind of come out of nowhere. It’s so surprising and strange when they do happen and it makes me wonder who Pixar thought the target audience was for this film.
The plot is totally predictable too. All the major developments are telegraphed a mile away, and aside from the handful of dark moments the film has, nothing will come as a surprise. It’s all very fun of the mill stuff, and we’ve seen better versions of the same story elsewhere many times before. The title doesn’t really make any sense either, because none of the dinosaurs in the film are ‘bad’, and Arlo doesn’t do anything that’s objectively good either.
In fact unless you’re interested in animation technology it’s hardly worth watching The Good Dinosaur. But if you are then The Good Dinosaur features perhaps the single largest technological leap in Pixar’s history, and finally puts the Presto animation engine through its paces.
Whilst the character models leave a lot to be desired, looking similar to Monsters University characters with their overly smooth skin, the environments are nothing short of stunning.
Borderline photorealistic in many places, the world of The Good Dinosaur has no right looking as good as it does. Grass and soil have intricate texture work, the way light interacts with environmental objects and casts natural looking shadows and colour temperatures, and the way water moves and changes texture properties of the environment are all just incredible.
In many ways, The Good Dinosaur remains Pixar’s most visually impressive film even almost ten years after its release, matched only in visual fidelity by Toy Story 4 (which even then doesn’t quite stack up to what’s seen here, even though it is outpaced by it in other areas).
There are a number of moments in The Good Dinosaur that Will genuinely take your breath away, and I’m sure that this would look great in an IMAX format to allow for some of the stunning environmental shots to really be appreciated. But this isn’t enough to save The Good Dinosaur from being a disappointing film.
Very clearly a case of style over substance, The Good Dinosaur was in development since 2009 with multiple complete story rewrites over the years. Writer and director Peter Sohn stated that the story went through countless iterations over the years and that nobody could ever agree on how the film should end. The result is a film that does end rather abruptly, without ever feeling like it actually did anything.
The Good Dinosaur is hardly worth seeking out, even by the most die hard of Pixar fans. Whilst there is credit to be given to how visually impressive the film is, the story is so unbelievably underwhelming that no matter how good the film looks it just fails to be engaging.
Little more than a tech demo for Presto, The Good Dinosaur is simply not worthy of your time.
Whilst the character models leave a lot to be desired, looking similar to Monsters University characters with their overly smooth skin, the environments are nothing short of stunning.
Borderline photorealistic in many places, the world of The Good Dinosaur has no right looking as good as it does. Grass and soil have intricate texture work, the way light interacts with environmental objects and casts natural looking shadows and colour temperatures, and the way water moves and changes texture properties of the environment are all just incredible.
In many ways, The Good Dinosaur remains Pixar’s most visually impressive film even almost ten years after its release, matched only in visual fidelity by Toy Story 4 (which even then doesn’t quite stack up to what’s seen here, even though it is outpaced by it in other areas).
There are a number of moments in The Good Dinosaur that Will genuinely take your breath away, and I’m sure that this would look great in an IMAX format to allow for some of the stunning environmental shots to really be appreciated. But this isn’t enough to save The Good Dinosaur from being a disappointing film.
Very clearly a case of style over substance, The Good Dinosaur was in development since 2009 with multiple complete story rewrites over the years. Writer and director Peter Sohn stated that the story went through countless iterations over the years and that nobody could ever agree on how the film should end. The result is a film that does end rather abruptly, without ever feeling like it actually did anything.
The Good Dinosaur is hardly worth seeking out, even by the most die hard of Pixar fans. Whilst there is credit to be given to how visually impressive the film is, the story is so unbelievably underwhelming that no matter how good the film looks it just fails to be engaging.
Little more than a tech demo for Presto, The Good Dinosaur is simply not worthy of your time.