The Good Dinosaur
Directed by: Peter Sohn
Written by: Meg LeFauve
Voices by: Raymond Ochoa, Jeffrey Wright, Frances McDormand, Steve Zahn, Sam Elliott, Anna Paquin, A.J. Buckley, Marcus Scribner, Jack Bright
Animation/Adventure/Comedy - 100 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 24 Nov 2015
Written by: Meg LeFauve
Voices by: Raymond Ochoa, Jeffrey Wright, Frances McDormand, Steve Zahn, Sam Elliott, Anna Paquin, A.J. Buckley, Marcus Scribner, Jack Bright
Animation/Adventure/Comedy - 100 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 24 Nov 2015
In the long history of Planet Earth, an asteroid smashed into our orbiting rock 65 million years ago wiping out the dinosaurs. The whole sequence is quite advantageous to you and me, for without it, we would not be here right now. In Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur, the asteroid misses. The dinosaurs look up and see a bright light in the sky, but then quickly go back to eating. In a The Land Before Time meets The Croods scenario, humans now exist alongside dinosaurs but it is the lizards that farm and ranch. The few humans we see scavenge and try to stay the heck out of the way. The Good Dinosaur is a rare second Pixar offering in a year we already had one, Inside Out. Unfortunately for The Good Dinosaur, Inside Out is by far the greatest animated film this year. However, it is witty, involving, and would be a good first film for a little one.
A pair of herbivore farming dinosaurs eagerly awaits their three eggs to hatch. The first two produce sprightly and virile offspring, the third is the runt of the litter. Arlo (Raymond Ochoa) is wobbly kneed, feet shorter than his siblings, and is scared of the chickens he must feed during his daily chores. Poppa and Momma dinosaur (Jeffrey Wright and Frances McDormand) do their best to encourage Arlo but his inability to follow through on simple tasks and be a team player on the farm affects productivity and even safety. While Poppa and Arlo chase down one of Arlo’s mistakes outside the farm, a storm strikes spelling the end of the paterfamilias.
A pair of herbivore farming dinosaurs eagerly awaits their three eggs to hatch. The first two produce sprightly and virile offspring, the third is the runt of the litter. Arlo (Raymond Ochoa) is wobbly kneed, feet shorter than his siblings, and is scared of the chickens he must feed during his daily chores. Poppa and Momma dinosaur (Jeffrey Wright and Frances McDormand) do their best to encourage Arlo but his inability to follow through on simple tasks and be a team player on the farm affects productivity and even safety. While Poppa and Arlo chase down one of Arlo’s mistakes outside the farm, a storm strikes spelling the end of the paterfamilias.
As soon as I saw this was a strong, nuclear dinosaur family, I had a feeling we were in for a Lion King culling. Poor, imbecilic Arlo could never grow and come into his own if his all-knowing father remained in the picture. Soon after Poppa is ushered off screen, Arlo has another accident and is himself washed far down the river with an incredible journey of sorts between him and home. As Arlo plods home, we’ll meet curious creatures, friends who may be enemies, and enemies who may be friends. In pre-historic times, one never knows who eats whom.
Arlo picks up a friend, and more importantly, a protector on his trek. A tiny, feral human he names Spot tags along. Spot skitters around on all fours, has more than a few canine characteristics, but is human through and through. Spot knows how to acquire food, how to fight predators, how to stay out of sight, and do everything better than Arlo. This odd couple is one of the more intriguing aspects of the whole premise. The pecking order is inverted. The dinosaurs are civilized and the humans are savages.
Gizmodo had Neil deGrasse Tyson, America’s most famous astrophysicist, imagine a world where humans and dinosaurs could coexist. There are many ifs, including dinosaurs being confined to one continent so humans have a chance to evolve, but it’s a good time listening to him ramble on about it. There are folks out there who still believe humans lived alongside dinosaurs, so they will shoulder aside the whole evolution discussion anyway, but notice how a plot as simple as talking dinosaurs can spur such a conversation.
Written by Meg LeFauve, who also co-wrote Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur went through years of turmoil in its production process resulting in the loss of its original director quite late in the game, and getting pushed back a full two years from when it was supposed to be released, hence why for the first time ever, there are two Pixar films in one year. This Jurassic world looks remarkably realistic and I bet it would look even better without the 3D getting in the way. The characters are caricatured inside a photorealistic environment. If the story was half as good as the way it looks, Inside Out might have some real competition.
I would love for The Good Dinosaur to be my son’s first film. He wouldn’t get most of the jokes, but what an introduction to what animation can look like on a massive IMAX screen. The kids in my theater laughed the most when someone or something ate something disgusting lower than them on the food chain and didn’t know why they were laughing when Arlo and Spot obviously get stoned after eating some wild berries. If nothing else, check out The Good Dinosaur to see a kid lizard and a kid human get high on nature.
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