Imagine a world in which a giant asteroid never hit the earth, and the dinosaurs survived the prehistoric era for millions of years… would they have evolved? Would they have figured out how to build more traditional homes? Perhaps become farmers growing their own food? Well, probably not, but that’s the basic plot of the new Disney/Pixar cinematic effort THE GOOD DINOSAUR. Directed by Peter Sohn (who previously helmed the PARTLY CLOUDY short), this is a world where dinosaurs all talk, and humans are still just grunting cavemen and women.

After the opening, in which we see the infamous asteroid has missed The Earth, we catch up with Poppa (Jeffrey Wright) and Momma (Frances McDormand), two elder Apatosaurus who are welcoming three children. Buck, Libby and little Arlo hatch from their eggs with enthusiasm, and grow to be good family workers on their farming land – these dinosaurs till the ground and plant corn, just like modern day human farmers. Arlo (voiced by Raymond Ochoa) is the runt of the litter, but hopes to gain the respect of his patient father. When some critter appears to be pilfering the family’s food supply, Poppa sees an opportunity for Arlo to prove himself worthy by capturing the offender. But when the moment comes, Arlo can’t deliver the finishing blow, and the little nuisance (a young feral boy) escapes. Despite his failings, Poppa still believes in Arlo, and the two take a journey toward the mountains along the river. When a massive storm hits, the river rises fast, and Poppa hurls Arlo to safety while he perishes in the flooding. With the family father now gone, things aren’t looking good for the brood, and food is running out. When Arlo spots the young feral boy in their food supply once again, he chases him into the wild out of anger, but winds up knocked out. When the young dinosaur comes to, he realizes he’s now lost, and the young boy (who Arlo eventually calls “Spot”) may be the only friend he can rely on for safety. This begins an adventure that will change young Arlo, introduce him to new friends, and teach him how to be brave and live with purpose.

Much of THE GOOD DINOSAUR is fairly predictable, or at the very least familiar, but the overall ride is still fun to take. Some may draw comparisons to THE LION KING or even the previous Disney animated film DINOSAUR, but the most unexpected aspect of this effort is how it’s pretty much a Western motif. The farming scenes at the beginning are like a modest family in a Western trying to tend to their ranch, and there are more obvious scenes that clearly mean to feel like a classic cowboy movie – one scene in particular with a T-Rex family led by the grizzled Butch (voiced by Sam Elliott) involves them wrangling large buffalo-like creatures just like ranch hands, while Jeff and Mychael Danna’s score beautifully rambles behind them. It’s a fun and unexpected take on the world of dinosaurs, and really gives the film a signature look and feel.

The voice cast is fairly inspired as well, spotlighted by Raymond Ochoa’s soulful and sympathetic voice as Arlo. Jeffrey Wright is great as Poppa, and Frances McDormand is superb as the loving Momma. Jack Bright has the hardest voice role as Spot, having to convey a wide range of emotions with nothing more that grunts and growls, and yet it somehow really works. Steve Zahn, Anna Paquin and A.J. Buckley also contribute nice work in the quirky cast of characters. But it’s Sam Elliott who becomes the most endearing of the cast, making the most of his brief scenes and becoming one of the best characters in the film.

There’s also some rather refreshing moments throughout the script, such as a strange creature that looks like something out of a fever dream, Arlo and Spot seeing loopy things after eating bad berries, or even the ending that doesn’t necessarily wrap things up in a perfect way. To put it simply, THE GOOD DINOSAUR plays it safe as a family film while taking risks and doing unexpected things. It also has some of the more heartbreaking emotional beats of any recent Disney/Pixar production, including two back-to-back scenes toward the end that had me wiping away a LOT of tears. This is the second effort to come from the Pixar family this year, the first being the somewhat polarizing INSIDE OUT. Unlike that film, THE GOOD DINOSAUR is more of a easygoing and accessible production, and will likely be received better as a result. I wouldn’t call it my favorite Pixar movie to date, but it’s definitely a very satisfying entry for the studio.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 
•