THE GOOD DINOSAUR
Director : Peter Sohn
Cast : (The voices of) Raymond Ochoa, Jack Bright, Sam Elliott, Anna Paquin, A. J. Buckley, Steve Zahn, Jeffrey Wright, Frances McDormand
Genre : Animation
Run Time : 101 mins
Opens : 26 November 2015
Rating : PG
Pixar transports us back to an era when dinosaurs ruled the earth. Oh,
and there are humans there too, no big deal. In an alternate version of
prehistory, the asteroid missed the earth and the K-T Extinction that wiped out
the dinosaurs never happened. Arlo (Ochoa) is the youngest in a family of Apatosaurus, living with his siblings
Buck (Marcus Scribner) and Libby (Maleah Padilla) and their parents Poppa Henry
(Wright) and Momma Ida (McDormand) on a farm. Arlo lacks self-confidence and
while attempting to face his fears, he gets swept away by a strong river
current, separating him from his family. A young caveboy named Spot (Bright)
has been stealing corn from Poppa Henry’s silo, and while Arlo starts off viewing
him as a nuisance, he gradually comes to befriend and care for Spot as they
traverse the wilderness together. Among the characters they meet on their
travels is a family of Tyrannosaurus,
comprising Butch (Elliott) and his children Ramsey (Paquin) and Nash (Buckley).
Arlo and Spot must survive the elements and hostile critters to make their way
home safe and sound.
The Good Dinosaur is the second Pixar film this year after Inside Out, making 2015 the first year
in the studio’s history in which they’ve released two feature films. The Good Dinosaur is a straight-forward,
kid-friendly adventure film packed with breath-taking, realistically rendered
environments and several cute character moments. However, we’ve come to expect
more from this studio and the film lacks the wisdom and nuance that
characterises some of Pixar’s best work. The film was originally intended to be
released in 2014, and issues with the third act led to an overhaul, with Peter
Sohn replacing Bob Peterson as director. The end result is largely safe, the
coming of age story well-trodden territory for family films. There are story
beats that seem lifted wholesale from The
Lion King and there are no surprises as the narrative progresses.
The film is a take on
the ‘boy and his x’ trope, except in this case the boy is a young Apatosaurus and the ‘x’ is a feral
caveboy. Tales of cross-species friendship have long been fixtures of cinema
and the example that leaps to mind in recent animation is How to Train Your Dragon. The bond between Arlo and Spot does
possess a certain sweetness about it, but it doesn’t tug on the heartstrings as
strongly as the connection between Hiccup and Toothless did. The generally high
standard set by Pixar is its own undoing here. The environmental effects are
expertly executed and the film has its share of colourful, eye-catching
visuals, but the character design comes off as a little unsophisticated, like
something that one would see in a typical children’s picture book. There is no
shortage of neat physical humour, but the emotional through-line is undercut by
the film’s episodic road trip nature.
Child actor Ochoa does
capture the vulnerability of Arlo, but there is little to the character that
adds to the stock underdog protagonist seen in many an animated movie. He’s
picked on by his siblings and feels a need to prove himself, thrust into a journey
in which he must discover “the strength that lies within” and all that. Bright
must have had a ball of a time growling and yelping into the microphone as
Spot, and there is a dynamism to the size contrast between the two lead
characters. Wright’s kindly authority figure is reminiscent of a gentler Mufasa
from the afore-mentioned The Lion King.
The casting of Elliott, known for his roles in Westerns, as a cattle baron-type
does feel more like a Dreamworks move than a Pixar one, but it’s still an
amusing performance. The way the T. rexes are animated galloping comes off as
jarring; it’s meant to evoke cowboys but it doesn’t quite work. The incidental
characters include a pack of Velociraptor Rustlers that are, for all intents
and purposes, the trio of hyenas from The
Lion King.
The Good Dinosaur is touching and funny on occasion, but the
maturity beneath the surface and the profundity displayed in the likes of WALL-E and The Incredibles is mostly absent. This will sound harsh, but
especially in comparison with Inside Out,
The Good Dinosaur feels like it was
assembled by Pixar’s B-team. The wide open American Northwest landscapes are
rendered with technical polish, and enhanced by Mychael and Jeff Danna’s Appalachian-tinged
score, but the plot is formulaic to a fault. The predictability of the story is
rescued by flashes of heartfelt sweetness, but The Good Dinosaur is ultimately an average animated film from a
studio known for delivering masterpieces far above the average.
Summary: There’s
nothing fatally wrong with The Good
Dinosaur, but we’ve come to expect far greater things from Pixar than this
pleasant but formulaic effort.
RATING: 3 out of 5 Stars
Jedd Jong
