The Good Dinosaur (2015): Gorgeous Alternate Universe à la Pixar

For fans of Pixar feature films (of which I am a card carrying member), The Good Dinosaur is well worth the price of admission, particularly for the incredibly realistic and beautiful rendering of the natural world in which the story is set. The characters and story – about the adventures of a somewhat runty, shy and timid young Apatosaurus (or “Brontosaurus” to those of us in the Medicare generation) named Arlo, who becomes separated from his family, finds a friend/pet in a feral, spunky proto-human boy (called Spot!), and struggles to find his way home in a dangerous world - are also good, although not so exceptional.

Of course, humans did not actually live in the age of dinosaurs; so The Good Dinosaur imagines an alternative universe - in which that big comet did not smash down in Yucatan sixty-five million years ago, and the big lizards continued to evolve and thrive for millions of years.  The herbivores, including Arlo’s family, took up agriculture, and the big carnivores became ranchers – amusingly portrayed in the movie as cowboy-like Tyrannosaurs, headed up by rough, tough Butch (voiced, naturally and beautifully, by the great Sam Elliott).  

Arlo’s adventures include amusing, then scary run-ins with velociraptors (led by the charming but vicious Lurlene (Bay Area actress Carrie Paff) and some very scary pterodactyls – introduced in an initially lovely sequence in which we see only their wingtips slicing through the underside of a cloud bank, like shark fins cutting through an inverted sea. There’s also danger in natural hazards, such as thunderstorms, raging rivers and flash floods. 

Some of this stuff may be too scary for small children, e.g. those under age eight or nine.  A youngster at the afternoon performance I attended started to cry at one point. It’s not just that an important character dies (after all, Bambi’s mother died and we survived that), but the tone changes between lighthearted, funny scenes and the frightening, scary ones can be surprisingly abrupt.. Overall, though, The Good Dinosaur is entertaining.  And it has a warm, fuzzy ending that will appeal to kids and soft-hearted adults alike. (It is a bit schmaltzy, but hey, it’s a cartoon!)

Director Peter Sohn (Pixar’s short film Partly Cloudy) and his artist collaborators chose to juxtapose two contrasting animation styles in the creation of this film. Arlo and most of the creatures are a cross between the evolved Pixar stylized characters of Toy Story 3 (2010) and Brave (2012); but the environment in which they live and breathe is ultra-realistic – breathtakingly so, to the point where I wondered at times whether I was actually watching an animated facsimile of the world or the real thing. Sohn and his crew are justly proud of their achievement in this area, and show off their renderings at every opportunity.  If you’re a fan of animation, you have to see this. I saw it in 3-D which was nice, and the Dolby 7.1 sound was pretty phenomenal.

The character of Spot also deserves special mention. He has no words only grunts, growls, murmurs and an amazing set of alive expressions. Where Arlo is naive and timorous, Spot is a force of nature –bold, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed,  captivating, alive,   I’m hoping for a sequel featuring this character.

In wide release.