Review of The Good Dinosaur (2015) by Sanserif — 01 Dec 2015

I admit this review might be sort of unfair. Why? Because I fell asleep somewhere in the middle. But hey-- that's not a great sign is it??

What makes this film unique and interesting? It starts and ends with the premise. "What if the Dinosaurs survived? What happens then?" Apparently, not much! I don't even know how the premise relates to the actual story... If altering the course of the earth and creating a parallel universe was all just so some little kid could meet up with a dinosaur and become 'sorta friends'.. then I'm sorry, that's just a total waste of a premise.

From there on, you can approach this film two ways: Frustratingly illogical... or just incredibly bland and repetitive. I understand the production underwent a lot of revisions/problems and there were probably 30 uncredited writers on the film. It definitely shows. It feels safe and at times lacking strong direction or purpose. Why's the main character the 'Good' Dinosaur anyway? What did he do that was so good? And why the hell are they farming?? How the hell did they figure out how to farm? How many animals are smart enough to start farming? Why not give them blue jeans and eyeglasses while you're at it?

The worst was the last scene, that was begging to be a tear jerker; in the end the dinosaur and the kid can't be together. The kid needs to be taken in by some RANDOM FAMILY THAT HE NEVER MET IN HIS LIFE. Why would you leave this kid with a bunch of strangers, that for all we know could be cannibals?? Why can't he just stay with his dinosaur friend? Because they don't look the same? Isn't that called segregation?

Ohhh I know. Because they want to make it all sad and touchy-feely. Fine. Whatever. I'm tearing up because of how hard it's trying. It's pathetic. And it's just a terrible message.

Aside from the story, I was not very impressed with the characters designs (aside from maybe the little cave boy) or art direction. They just felt super basic and unoriginal. A lot of the secondary characters felt like they were lifted right out of Ice Age. Sure, the environments felt super realistic and golly gee whiz, that sure is a great accomplishment. Technically. But c'mon.. how about being creative with things? If I want to see a photo realistic flower... I'll watch National Geographic. You just spent millions of dollars trying to make a 3D tree look like a real tree... why not just shoot video of a real tree if that's what you want. Ugh.

The Croods (2013) may have had it's flaws, but it was so much better on every level. Go watch that instead.