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Poor Disney Pixar. Through no fault of their own (if making fantastic movies can even be considered a fault), they’ve made a rod for their own back.
For every new film from the world’s finest animation studio bears the weight of great expectations and endless comparisons with their own masterpieces of the past. As soon as it drops, it’s instantly ranked against its predecessors, and in the context of classics such as Toy Story, The Incredibles and Finding Nemo, The Good Dinosaur is unfortunately somewhat lacklustre.
It bears the Pixar hallmarks of a heart-warming story with a coming-of-age theme, emotionally-charged moments and the most beautiful, crisp animation ever put on film, but the story seems to be in service of the visuals in this movie when it should be the other way around.
The concept of the film is clever on paper. It’s set in prehistoric Earth, but in an alternate timeline where the asteroid that caused the dinosaurs’ extinction narrowly missed the planet instead of crashing into it.
This led to evolution directing life into different biological avenues than we’re used to, with the giant lizards learning language, supreme intelligence and most important of all, the ability to co-exist with humans.
Our hero is an Apatosaurus named Arlo (Ochoa), the runt of the litter who is given the menial tasks on his parents’ farm. One day, he becomes separated from his family (cue the terribly sad music and the opening of the tear ducts) and ends up meeting a feral human child called Spot (Bright).
The rest of the film follows the two as they try and make their way back to Arlo’s home across the unforgiving wilderness, navigating religious zealot search-and-rescue pterodactyls, T-Rex cowboys, raptors who rustle longhorn cattle, and the most dangerous force of all, Mother Nature.
Arlo and Spot’s relationship is the high point of the movie, with the human becoming the dinosaur’s protector. It’s a fascinating twist on the ‘boy and his dog formula’, as it’s actually Arlo the animal who takes on the traditional role of the lost boy who finds a guardian and companion.
The two bond gradually over time, with Spot’s dog-like antics stealing every scene he’s in with its cuteness and hilarity, and the conclusion will have even the most stoic adults struggling to maintain their composure.
On a technical level, The Good Dinosaur is absolutely gorgeous, with its fantastic and almost photo-realistic landscapes. From the ice covered mountains to the rushing rivers, the advancements in computer-generated animation are as profound here as they’ve ever been.
It’s a shame that the rest of the film feels so familiar. You can almost picture director Peter Sohn with pickaxe in hand as he mines the company’s back catalogue for tropes and elements that he can repeat with a different group of characters.
There’s no doubt that it’s well-executed, but it would be nice to see Pixar try something else other than the ‘find your courage’ angle that simply re-treads an overused narrative and familiar thematic ground.
Also, don’t be fooled by the PG rating. If you’ve seen any of the Pixar films, you’ll know that nobody captures and exploits trauma quite like them, and here it seems to have been ramped up further.
There are moments where the The Good Dinosaur is genuinely terrifying and might be too extreme for the youngest ones, with the film constantly reminding us that death is always around the corner in this setting with a steady stream of deaths (only some of which are played for laughs too).
Ultimately, this is a solid-yet-unspectacular effort from a company who sets the highest of standards. The visuals are some of the best ever, but the story beats seem to take the action to various places just to showcase a different type of terrain rather than actually following logic.
The starring duo are fantastic and have an extremely endearing relationship that makes this worth a watch, but the themes and scenarios they find themselves in are just repeated from previous, and better, efforts.
Showing at Novo Cinemas, Cineco, Seef II, Saar, Al Jazira, Dana Cineplex
Rating: 3/5
