The Good Dinosaur [2015]

Starring: Raymond Ochoa, Jeffrey Wright, Frances McDormand & Sam Elliott
Directed by: Peter Sohn

Animated by: Walt Disney & Pixar
Release Date: November 2015
Running Time: 93 mins

16th Film from Pixar Animation Studios

Synopsis: When a rainstorm washes poor Arlo downriver, he ends up bruised, battered and miles away from home. Good fortune shines on the frightened dinosaur when he meets Spot, a Neanderthal boy who offers his help and friendship. Together, the unlikely duo embark on an epic adventure to reunite Arlo with his beloved family.

Widely considered to be Pixar’s first box-office flop, The Good Dinosaur is a difficult film to review as combines fantastic photo-realistic CGI visuals with a stilted, sub-par storyline. A curious hybrid of The Land Before Time, Finding Nemo and The Lion King, the plot of The Good Dinosaur revolves around a cowardly Apatosaurus called Arlo attempting to find his way back home to his family’s farmstead. Yes, I said farmstead. In this alternate history where dinosaurs survived the asteroid that made them extinct, dinosaurs have evolved into frontier farmers with cornfields and cattle to look after. It’s an odd juxtaposition, but suits the film’s tone of survival against nature. Humans have yet to fully evolve and are instead considered ‘critters’ that feed off the farmlands – it’s a fun role reversal with the feral cave-boy acting as a pet to the intelligent dinosaur, Arlo.

As mentioned before, the realism behind the CGI visuals are absolutely staggering with some truly impressive landscapes. The film frequently emphasizes these mountains, rivers and open plains; especially in the opening and closing credits, making the film seem more of a showcase for the latest developments in computer animation rather than a story in its own right. Another juxtaposition for the film is the ultra-realism of the world versus the cartoon exaggeration of its lead characters, with Arlo and the other dinosaurs given simple designs to appeal more to a younger audience. This disjointed approach also extends to the tone of the film which veers from goofy-to-scary within the space of a scene. This can be effective in certain scenes, such as the introduction to the pterodactyls, but it leaves the overall film feeling tonally uneven.

The Good Dinosaur suffers from the legacy of previous Pixar movies as it lacks the same emotional resonance as the studio’s other works, most notably Finding Nemo, with which it shares the most narrative beats. In Finding Nemo, Marlin’s search for his son Nemo is rife with emotion and he meets numerous colourful characters on his odyssey that help him and enhance the story. In The Good Dinosaur, the supporting characters are forgettable and bland – one of them literally blends into the background. While the twist behind the Pterodactyl’s true motives stands out as a brilliant subversion of the typical silly sidekick role seen in these types of films, the T-Rex family are predictably type-cast as the “friendly meat-eaters” who guide Arlo towards becoming more assertive. Perhaps freed from the shadow of Pixar, The Good Dinosaur would hold up against scrutiny better, but it certainly feels flatter than the studio’s typical output, and the background drama behind-the-scenes might account for this drop in quality.

Initially announced in 2011, four years ahead of its actual release, The Good Dinosaur underwent numerous rewrites and character design changes – most notably Arlo changing from an adult dinosaur into a teen – and even saw a complete recasting of its voice actors, losing the likes of Neil Patrick Harris, John Lithgow, Judy Greer and Bill Hader. The legacy of these rewrites is evident in the uneven nature of the script, particularly its ending which feels abrupt and unfulfilling – sure, Arlo returns to his family but it doesn’t negate their earlier problems with finding enough food for the winter, which if anything is exacerbated by losing one of the children for most of the autumn. It’s a surprisingly low-key and downbeat ending, which is further underscored by the slideshow of landscapes that accompanies the end credits.

One of my biggest issues with The Good Dinosaur was the treatment of the family’s patriarch, Henry, who gets the “Bambi’s mom” treatment fairly early into the film. It is a shocking moment, sudden and brutal, but it also robs the film of a fulfilling ending. I was convinced that his father had survived the storm and would be found at some part of the journey by Arlo, or perhaps would be waiting for him back at the homestead for an emotionally satisfying conclusion. Instead, he reappears as part of Arlo’s imagination to inspire him to fight to save his cave-boy companion. His death adds an extra layer of misery to the film that doesn’t need to be there, and removes the opportunity for Arlo to prove himself to the father who had faith in his abilities. Sure, it reinforces the dangerous environment that Arlo lives in, but as a narrative tool, I think Henry would have been better served as a living embodiment of Arlo’s redemption arc.

Definitely flawed and in need some of intense script reworking, The Good Dinosaur just doesn’t feel like a Pixar movie with his hollow plot and lackluster characters. Sure, it has the pioneering computer animation that made the studio famous, but it lacks the same charm inherent in its previous movies. A troubled production and weak central hook of ‘farmer dinosaurs’ doomed this project to failure from the outset, and Pixar certainly learnt from its mistakes with its subsequent releases – putting characterisation and story ahead of impressive CGI graphics. If this was a DreamWorks or 20th Century Fox animated production, it would be been perfectly suitable, but the Pixar brand (much like Studio Ghibli) implies a level of quality in storytelling that The Good Dinosaur fails to achieve. Based on the plot only, I would give the film just 2½ stars, but the impressive life-like visuals of the American Midwest deserve an additional ½ star.

However, I should point out that my two-year old daughter absolutely loves the film and has watched it about ten times in the past week, so what do I know?