Review of The Good Dinosaur (2015) by Lovro H — 07 Feb 2016

I've heard things about this movie being one of Pixar and Disney's worst movies and that it's way too mature to be a children movie. I have to strongly disagree. The Good Dinosaur is set in a world that would've been if the meteor that destroyed the dinosaurs never hit Earth, and it follows a dinosaur, Arlo, who lives with his family on a small farm.

One day, Arlo and his father are trying to catch a human that's been eating their crops and something really sad, but also cliched, happens. Angry with himself, Arlo tries to catch the human by himself and as a result he falls into a river which takes him far away from home.

Now, with the help of the human, now called Spot, Arlo must get back to his family. The movie is very cliched at a few parts, but it works! I've nothing against cliches if they're done right, and here they're done very well and don't feel like cliches, to be honest.

The story isn't the best Disney & Pixar have to offer, but it's very enjoyable. The characters are cute and likeable. I really loved how this movie portrayed the dinosaur-human relationship.

In this movie, it seems as if the dinosaurs are the humans and vice versa. Spot constantly acts like an animal and Arlo constantly like a human. This movie could've easily been done if the roles were reversed, but this just makes it special.

The animation is very beautiful, and even though the dinosaurs are highly cartoonish and the backgrounds are highly realistic, it didn't bother me a lot. There's lots of intense scenes and scenes that might be too much for a child.

There's constant peril and danger, as well as some truly depressing scenes and I will not lie, I cried quite a bit at a few of them. But, on the other hand, it also has great, positive, messages about life and children could benefit from watching the movie, but probably won't find it very enjoyable as there's rarely any humour in it, which is also what I liked about it.

They didn't try to force funny scenes in the movie, like most of these movies tend to do. All in all, a great animated movie with amazing animation, great messages, and although cliched, very emotional and touching.

I would highly recommend this movie to animation and Disney/Pixar fans, but not to very young children.