Review of The Good Dinosaur (2015) by Jack F — 16 Sep 2016

By this point, we're so used to perfection (or close to it) coming out of the Pixar studio that it can be a bit difficult to address an offering that doesn't quite reach that level. By all accounts, "The Good Dinosaur" is a charming, heart-warming movie, and had it been released by any other studio, I imagine it would have been viewed with the utmost regard.

Buuuuut...Pixar isn't any other studio. They're the grand champion of all-ages approved family fare. They're the wizards whose animated work has (rightfully) occasionally been nominated for the Best Picture of the Year Oscar. They're the filmmaking giants with a track record that's nothing short of immaculate. So when they release an offering that could be deemed as minor in comparison to their other works, the disappointment stings just a bit more.

To be perfectly clear, I rather liked "The Good Dinosaur" and I recommend seeing it. And it is unfair to compare a movie to other movies to which it has no relation other than the same distributor and some of the same production team. But when we're talking about a studio that has been as consistently great as Pixar, such comparisons are inevitable, and "The Good Dinosaur" doesn't come close to the lofty standards set by other entries of the studio's output. This fact looks even more glaring when the film is compared with the enormously creative "Inside Out," which was released just a few months before it.

But even so, lesser Pixar is STILL Pixar, so you know there's always going to be a certain level of quality (even though I'd probably rank this one at the bottom of the pile, even below other lesser Pixar films like "Cars"). The technical aspects are all top-notch, with stunningly beautiful animation and a lovely score. The colorful characters are memorable. But the storyline's a bit derivative, hitting many of the same beats we've all seen in numerous other films. (In particular, anyone who's ever seen "The Land Before Time," the 1988 animated dinosaur movie helmed by former Disney employee Don Bluth, is going to experience déjà vu on more than one instance.).

The story revolves around Arlo (voiced by Raymond Ochoa), a young Apatosaurus who is constantly living in the shadow of his older siblings. More than anything, he wants to impress his parents, mother Ida (voiced by Frances McDormand) and particularly father Henry (voiced by Jeffrey Wright), and prove his worth to the family. Tragedy strikes, however, and Arlo finds himself lost in the wild with only a feral human boy, whom he names "Spot," for a companion. The unlikely duo then set off on an epic adventure to get back home.

Yeah, not the most original of stories. But even so, it's told with liveliness and flair, and the character of Spot is a lot of fun. As his name would suggest, he more or less acts as Arlo's guard dog, barking and growling and attacking those who would do him harm.

Additionally, even though the underlying story is rife with clichés, the movie is not without the trademark Pixar imagination. For starters, the film seems to take place in some kind of alternate universe in which that asteroid never struck the Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs. As such, as time went on, they evolved to the point in which they're the dominant species on the planet, and most of them have become domesticated. Arlo's family, for example, have become farmers, and a trio of Tyrannosaurs we meet later (voiced by Sam Elliott, Anna Paquin, and A.J. Buckley) are essentially prehistoric ranchers, rounding up and protecting cattle. (In a nice visual touch, the animators have designed these dinos so that, when they're running, it almost appears as if they could be riding horses, with their short forearms holding the reigns.).

People, on the other hand, are still a relatively newer species to the planet and, as demonstrated with Spot, are seen as this world's wild animals. Meanwhile, the dinosaurs who haven't been domesticated, like a group of would-be cattle-thieving velociraptors, are like the modern-day criminals or outlaws.

It's these aspects that allow "The Good Dinosaur" to elevate itself above some of its more routine characteristics, and that's what it makes it worthwhile. It does not belong on the same tier as the Pixar Greats, and unlike so many other offerings from the studio, adults likely won't be in any great hurry to view this one multiple times. But in that regard, the film has something in common with its main character: they're both underdogs living in a stable filled with greatness, constantly being compared to all that came before them. And even though they may not necessarily be "great," there's truly nothing wrong with being "good.".

And dang it, even with all its predictability, the film still managed to hit me in the feels on a couple occasions. The Pixar crew is just so good at making genuinely moving pictures. And so "The Good Dinosaur" succeeds without being an out-and-out success.