The Good Dinosaur

If you can make it through the tedious first third, it's not a bad little movie. The interplay between Arlo and Spot is generally enjoyable (the first really good scene is Spot trying to feed Arlo). The movie can be quite funny, somewhat thrilling, and occasionally touching.

So basically, if this was some kids cartoon from some lesser studio, this would be pretty good. For Pixar though, it's a big disappointment.

One of the film's biggest flaws is also one of its greatest strengths; the animation. On the one hand, the landscapes - forests, rivers, fields - have an amazing photo-realism that mark them as an incredible achievement in animation. But this hyper-realism makes the main dinosaur breed look terrible; they are about as realistic as the cars in Cars, and it's like someone filmed a sock puppet show in the Grand Canyon. It's the thing most reviewers seem to talk about, so it's rather amazing that Pixar didn't see the problem themselves.

It's not that the dinosaurs needed to look real, but the insistence on those giant, soulful eyes made the heads misshapen, and the colors are too clean and shiny to meld with the environments. Other breeds of dinosaurs and insects have an acceptable cartooniness, but Arlo is just annoying in design, creating a constant de-immersion signal.

The story is conventional and predictable, the emotional moments feel manipulative, but still, it's not bad as kid's cartoons go. But it sure isn't what we expect from Pixar.

Although The Good Dinosaur features a simple storyline that wont blow you away, it remains endearing and heartfelt, with messages that will surely resonate with its target audience. As we follow Arlo's self discovery through grit and grind adventures with his new pal, Spot, there is a lot of excitement in every rough and tumble. There is also a great deal of laughter in each new character they cross paths with, with a trippy moment to boot ;).

This film, has as well, the most beautiful landscapes ever seen from a Pixar film, hands down. From lush forests, flowing rivers & serene sunsets, each was photorealistic and each was a visual attraction. Pixar kept its characters cartoonish however, and that contrast was a wise move which absolutely worked.

Sure, naysayers used to Pixar's imaginative storylines will have negatives to say for TGD, however, I find the family friendly plot has its charms and is well told. With likable characters (Spot, you are brilliant!) and fantastic backgrounds for an adventure-fueled film, there is definitely enough good here.

This film tells the story of a cowardly young dinosaur, who lost his way home after a storm. He befriends a young human being in prehistoric times. They navigate the treacherous lands in search of their respective homes.

The visuals in the film are quite stunning. The colours are vivid and bright, while the backdrop is always beautiful and at times even breathtaking. It's interesting to see a talking dinosaur, while the young human being behaves more like a dog, which is further reinforced by the name spot. I enjoyed the exciting and on occasion dangerous adventure they share together. It's an inspiring story to help children and adults find courage to conquer difficult times.

... which is the impression I got when I saw the DVD cover art, the title, and the trailers.

It came on one of the pay channels the other day and I sat down to watch. What I found was a whacked out "what if" view of natural history plus a tale on facing your fears and finding friendship where you least expect it.

The movie starts with a bang - literally. Dinosaurs are eating in a field 65 million years ago as an asteroid comes tumbling towards earth. The dinosaurs look up. The asteroid passes harmlessly overhead. The dinosaurs continue eating. So the mass extinction never happens.

Millions of years pass and the dinosaurs evolve. The "vegi-sauruses" become farmers. The "meat-asauruses" become ranchers. One humorous turn introduces us to a timid Styracosaurus who has evolved into a terrified animal that puts small animals all over his horns to protect himself from all kinds of threats that grow out of his neurotic fears.

At the core of it is a family of Apatosaurus farmers with three children. The smallest is Arlo, who is afraid of his own shadow. His nemesis is "Spot" a human child that keeps getting into the family silo and eating the crops. But these two have to team up when a natural disaster sweeps Arlo far from home and he is forced to face his fears.

I thought the idea of evolving dinosaurs living alongside the dawn of man at the point where man is just at "dog level"-a mute primitive creature - was intriguing enough to keep the adults engaged while Arlo's story is enough to keep the children around along with the unique sight gags I've come to expect from Pixar. Highly recommended as an unexpected treat, at least from my perspective.

The fact that this movie still holds a score of a 6.8 with hundreds of 1/10 scores shows you just how good it is. I'm not here to preach that it's an awesome movie, but give it the score it deserves. (It's not PIXAR's best, but still fits the bill of a good movie.)

Honestly the highly negative scores are just because people were not BLOWN away. A PIXAR movie sets the bar so high, so the fact that this one isn't an A+, people are bashing just to bash.

I watched this with my cousins, all at the time were under 10 ( 7 & 9 ) and nothing was too scary. Could it be over the top for 4 or 5 year old, of course, but it's not that bad. The Lion King is regarded as one of the BEST Disney films ever and there are similar scenes with death, scary bad-guys, hard times, etc.

Give it a watch.