Review of The Good Dinosaur (2015) by Stuart M — 31 Mar 2016

There's a good idea here, and the story that attaches to it makes sense, so it's a little hard to say what's missing to make this more than an average film. And let's face it, for a Pixar film to be no better than your average film makes it a pretty bad Pixar film. The basic story is about survival and man vs. wild, although the twist is that "man" is actually a dinosaur. They throw in a boy and his dog motif (with the dog being a boy and the boy being an apatosaurus), which makes sense given the main plot and the themes it is confronting. The whole film is largely a one-man play, and given that the one man is a young boy that puts a lot of pressure on such an inexperienced actor. Fortunately the kid nails it. The scenery is amazing, and some of it actually looks photo real, especially the water effects (always difficult to pull off). Actually, it probably looks too real. It sometimes seems very odd to see such a real world interacting with our very cartoony protagonists.

But what this film is really lacking I'd say is heart. I never felt any tugs on my heartstrings, which is a first for a Pixar film. When we get our first big emotional moment I couldn't help taking a detached and analytical view to it. Part of that was that there was no set up and no tension, but it was also just so damn stereotypical and, well, Disney. The big death was also damaged by the climax of the film where our protagonists survive much worse. The realistic acknowledgement that in the wild it only takes a little thing to kill you is thrown aside for a grand climax where our hero, after having previously struggled to survive getting his foot caught under a rock, is now miraculously immune to the worst that nature can throw at him.

The main internal conflict is about overcoming fear, and this is something that isn't developed as effectively as it could be. There are two levels to this: the shyness and caution brought on by a lack of confidence and the sheer terror brought on by a traumatic event. The former isn't handled too badly. While they really could have done more with it, this is fairly basic coming of age stuff. The resolution of the second level of fear is handled very perfunctorily, and (as I mentioned earlier) leads to a scene that diminishes the earlier scene that created the trauma. It just feels like the emotional journey was never properly integrated into what ended up being a rather episodic series of adventures. You never really feel a part of his journey.

It's also unfortunate that they never really explore this wild new world that they establish. There seems like a lot more they could have done with the premise of a world where dinosaurs survived and evolved into intelligent beings while people just stayed as feral animals. They show some of it in the beginning with the family farming using some decidedly unorthodox methods, but for most of the film Arlo's alone. When we do see other dinosaurs they're slotted into stock Western roles like ranchers or poachers. Are these guys on the outskirts of civilization (Arlo seems to wander through Yellowstone) or is this it for dinosaurs? Some kind of idea about what sort of society these dinosaurs have carved out for themselves might have helped. I rather wonder if this setting wouldn't have been better served telling a different kind of story. Making it a basic sort of survival yarn doesn't take the best advantage of the unusual premise.

There's a lot to like about this film. It's got some beautiful animation, a unique setting, some entertaining characters, and a lot of survival themes. But it's lacking that spark that sets Pixar above the rest. It's eminently watchable, but it's also eminently forgettable. Which is a shame because you can see a lot of the potential it never achieved.