Pixar Tells an Emotional, Lesson-Filled Story with ‘The Good Dinosaur’

By Josh Cage
Published: November 26, 2015

It isn’t the best film Pixar has put out, especially not this year. However, ‘The Good Dinosaur’ takes a different direction than the rest of the Pixar movies keeping up with their latest trend of strong (and somewhat sad) messages, starting with ‘Inside Out’ earlier this year. If you are a parent or an older sibling to a child who has not yet had the significance of death in the family explained to them, this movie will pretty much do it for you. Think of the emotion you felt as a child when Mufasa died and Simba tried to wake him up. Now multiply that by about five times and that’s how heart-rending this movie can be at times. There were many kids crying in the theatre, and even a father too. Death and separation is one of the predominant elements of this movie.

‘The Good Dinosaur’ directed by Peter Sohn is unlike its Pixar counterparts. It was serious and intense for a ‘child’s movie.’ There weren’t many laughs in this movie unlike ‘Cars’ or ‘Finding Nemo.’ The movie starts by showing the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago near missing the planet as grazing dinosaurs watched in the night sky. It introduces us to the family Poppa, Momma, Libby, Buck, and the main character Arlo (who was born in a bigger egg than his siblings, but ironically turned out to be smaller than them.) Arlo finds himself in a bind after encountering a human child (who he later names Spot) that is rather dog-like in character, walking on all fours and howling. The two find themselves lost together in the wilderness as they become companions and learn that they have something in common. They have both lost their families. They travel as Arlo, voiced by Raymond Ochoa, is trying to find his way home as he and Spot, voiced by Jack Bright, encounter other dinosaurs and creatures of which some are dangerous and threatening while others aren’t so much. Many of the other creatures that they run into are for the most part, a bit southern, with accents and behaviors similar to cowboys and rustlers. They even come across people too (who are also dog-like.) And more than one possible death situation which for a ‘child’s movie’ is the most I’ve ever seen death so prevalent.

The animated world in this movie was brilliant and at times looked extremely realistic, maybe even better than our real world. This was also the first time Pixar used three-dimensional clouds in one of their films which was a fantastic choice as the weather played a big role for most of the movie and it made the world feel alive. Considering this movie was drawn up and written by one director, then trashed, almost completely re-written, re-casted and delayed with a new director all within a two year period, it was a near home run that hit the wall in the right field gap for a triple. Almost great but not quite enough power behind its swing.

This wasn’t the greatest or most upbeat Pixar film has ever made. However, it’s the kind of film (along with ‘Inside Out’) that years from now when we all look back on it will possibly be the pioneer for literal and direct storytelling towards children where writers started to address the harder subjects to talk about with young children. For the first time, Pixar produced two movies in one calendar year. They both had equally strong messages. For that I must commend Pixar, their consistency with producing quality films is impeccable and ‘The Good Dinosaur’ is worth your time to go and see. It did not disappoint.