What’s this? Two Pixar films in one year? Yes folks, for the
first time ever, the animation giants have achieved the feat of having two new
films open up in the same year. Of course back in June we got the truly amazing
‘Inside Out’, which was easily the company’s best film of the past few years, and
now here in November, we have Pixar’s second 2015 effort, ‘The Good Dinosaur’.
However, the reason why this film ended up getting released the same year as ‘Inside
Out’ could be regarded as a rather troubling one. For you see, this film was
originally supposed to be Pixar’s 2014 release directed by Bob Peterson AKA the
voice of Dug the talking dog in ‘Up’. However, in August of 2013, it was announced
that Peterson had been removed from the film and that it was being completely
reworked after he had been having trouble with the final act, with fellow Pixar
employee Peter Sohn (AKA Emile from ‘Ratatouille’) taking over as the new
director. Now for the record, this isn’t the first time that this has happened
with Pixar. Production of the first ‘Toy Story’ was briefly shut down after the
edgier take on the story suggested by Disney’s then-chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg
proved to be a disaster. Its first sequel, ‘Toy Story 2’, was not only reworked
from its initial direct-to-video state but the final product was completed in
just nine months. But from today’s perspective, pair all of that production
turmoil with the middling reception of Pixar’s post ‘Toy Story 3’ run and
basically you have a lot of people predicting that this film was going to be a
disaster. But in the end, ‘The Good Dinosaur’ very much proves its critics
wrong because while it may end up being one of Pixar’s simpler stories, it’s
still a very charming and beautiful effort from the studio.
‘The Good Dinosaur’ sets up a world in which the infamous
meteor that resulted in the extinction of all dinosaurs ends up missing Earth
entirely, allowing the dinosaurs to live on and further evolve. 65 million
years later, a young Apatosaurus named Arlo (Raymond Ochoa) lives on a farm
with his family; his father Henry (Jeffrey Wright), his mother Ida (Frances
McDormand), and his siblings Buck (Marcus Scribner) and Libby (Maleah Padilla).
But because of his fearful nature, Arlo continually finds it difficult to help
his family around the farm so that he can truly earn his ‘mark’ (a mud-print on
the farm silo). His father tries to help him overcome his fears by giving him
the job of dealing with pests that try to steal their food. But after a flash
flood in which Henry is tragically killed, Arlo ends up getting washed far away
from home when he falls into the river right next to the farm. Remembering what
his father told him about ‘using the river to find his way home’, Arlo soon
comes across a feral cave-boy who he names ‘Spot’ (Jack Bright), who ironically
happens to be the same pest that Arlo was trying to stop and was inadvertently
responsible for the events that led to Arlo’s father’s death and Arlo getting
swept away from his home, and the two become friends as they brave the
wilderness and all sorts of potential threats, including a group of carnivorous
pterodactyls, as they try to get back to Arlo’s home.
To be perfectly frank, ‘The Good Dinosaur’ is a much simpler
story compared to some of Pixar’s other films. It’s basically just a story
about the main character trying to get home. But even with that said, I feel
that there’s much more to this film than just that. For one thing, it genuinely
is a very unique take on the classic ‘boy and his dog’ story, except in this
case the boy is ‘the dog’ and the dog, in this case a dinosaur, is ‘the boy’. But
then it also carries some really strong themes, mainly the idea of being able
to overcome your fear, resulting in a great character arc for Arlo as he very
much finds himself outside of his comfort zone. Though at the same time, the
film also stresses that fear is a natural thing and as one character puts it, “If
you ain’t scared… you ain’t alive.” There have been some who said that the film
is too ‘kiddie’, that it’s the first Pixar film that’s ‘just for kids’ (which
therefore gives me the assumption that they apparently forgot about ‘Cars 2’,
which was the ‘real’ first Pixar film to get that ‘description’ by critics).
But quite frankly that’s far from the truth as this film is a great
‘coming-of-age’ story that gives us a great friendship between the two main
characters, Arlo and Spot, even though it starts out with Arlo being angry at
Spot for getting them lost in the first place. But as time goes on, the two
grow closer as they look out for each other in this dangerous world of
dinosaurs and, without giving anything major away, this leads to some very
emotional moments as one would normally expect from Pixar films.
This film feels very much like ‘Wall-E’ in that it focuses more
on visual storytelling than it does with dialogue, especially in a great scene
in which Arlo and Spot lament about their lost families. And of course, the
animation is the usual Pixar level of excellence, even though there have been
some who felt that the more cartoony characters don’t mix very well with the
photorealistic environments, something that I didn’t really have any major
problem with. The film’s voice cast was another element of the film that got
redeveloped along with the story. Initially, the film was going to star, among
others, John Lithgow, Neil Patrick Harris, Bill Hader, and Judy Greer. But from
this initial cast, only Frances McDormand stayed on as the voice of Arlo’s
mother while Lithgow was replaced by Jeffrey Wright as Arlo’s father and Harris,
Hader, and Greer’s characters, Arlo’s original three siblings, were replaced in
favor of just two siblings, his brother Buck and his sister Libby. But just like
how the film works great without a whole lot of dialogue, the film’s small voice
cast is, in a way, able to stand out more because of it. Arlo was originally
voiced by Lucas Neff before the filmmakers switched him with Raymond Ochoa to
give Arlo a younger voice and that’s definitely a good idea because it better
reflects how the character matures over the course of the film. Wright and
McDormand are great as usual in their small roles as Arlo’s parents and the
film features some very memorable side characters, including director Peter
Sohn as a Styracosaurus named Forrest Woodbush who ‘owns’ a bunch of animals
that reside on his horns and Sam Elliott, Anna Paquin, and A.J. Buckley as a
trio of T-Rex ‘ranchers’.
Given the film’s current rating of 78% on RT, this is
definitely going to be one of the more polarizing entries in Pixar’s lineup
alongside films like ‘Brave’ and ‘Monsters University’. Some have accused this
film of being ‘simplistic’ and that it’s only ‘for kids’, which is an argument
that unfortunately has been made from time to time over the years by certain
people when it comes to animated films. But I’m going to concur with an
argument made by my friend Kyle over at ‘Kyle’s Animated World’; what’s so bad
about Pixar making a film that isn’t a complete masterpiece? I’m not afraid to
admit that I don’t ‘hate’ ‘Cars 2’ and feel that both ‘Brave’ and ‘Monsters University’
are solid efforts from the company even if they aren’t amongst their absolute
best. ‘The Good Dinosaur’ is another fine case of that. Yes it’s one of the simpler
affairs from the studio but there’s more to it than what some may claim. As a
film that’s more about visual storytelling than dialogue-based storytelling, it
perfectly executes its themes of courage and friendship through the main
character Arlo’s main story arc and his overall relationship with the feral
cave-boy Spot. And of course like many Pixar films, it features amazing
animation and some genuinely emotional moments that I guarantee are going to
make you tear up. Similar to how Marvel managed to overcome some production
troubles with this year’s ‘Ant-Man’, ‘The Good Dinosaur’ managed to overcome
its initial production troubles to become yet another great effort from Pixar that’s
great for the whole family and not just for kids as some of its critics claim
it is.
Rating: 4.5/5
For those who have
already seen the film, please check out my friend Kyle’s ‘spoiler’ review of it
in the link provided below;
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