The Good Dinosaur (2015) Review

Lucas Versantvoort / 2 Dec 2015

Remember when the Coen brothers released Burn After Reading right after No Country for Old Men? Remember how Burn After Reading subsequently didn't become the hit people were hoping for? I believe the word 'overshadowed' was used. This is what's happened with Pixar, which has decided to release Inside Out and then serve up The Good Dinosaur, which unfairly--but inevitably--comes across as the dessert to Inside Out's main dish, albeit a very fine dessert whose only faults lie with predictability, a feeling of been there, done that.

The film opens with the meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs, except here it barely misses Earth. We're introduced to a couple of dinosaurs that own a farm near a looming mountain range. They have three babies, including the tiny Arlo who's a bit of a scaredy-cat. They grow up and do their chores. Dad makes a make-shift silo to store the food and tells the kids that if they work hard, they can literally make their mark on the silo (i.e. putting a muddy footprint on it). Eventually, Arlo is the only one who hasn't made his mark due to his anxiety issues. Dad tries to encourage him, but tragedy inevitably strikes and Arlo is swept along the river and wakes up in a place unknown to him. So begins his journey to maturity.

This is the first Pixar film where I was reminded more than a few times of other Disney films, particularly Bambi and The Lion King. If you've seen those, you've seen The Good Dinosaur. When a herd of longhorns come running, it can only remind one of the famous bull charge in The Lion King. But the similarities extend beyond a few winks and nods. The entire nature of the story, Arlo's maturation, is right out of the book according to Bambi. All that's missing is a 'circle of life' metaphor.

That being said, The Good Dinosaur is really well made. It takes a while to set things up, but it's quite engrossing once it really gets going. It's quite dramatic at times, though Pixar is careful to avoid showing any explicit deaths (despite the 'survival of the fittest' theme). 

One of the film's greatest achievements is the mute human boy, Spot, who Arlo ends up befriending. The keyword here is 'mute'. Pixar manage to fully realize this character, convey his thoughts and emotions, solely through facial expressions and movement, like they did in the first act of Wall-E. 

This single character made me wonder how impressive the film would've been had there been exactly zero dialogue. Pixar obviously knows how to tell a story and convey emotions in purely visual terms. In fact, some of the most gripping scenes here have no dialogue. A story about a dinosaur having to learn to survive and be responsible lends itself so well to visual storytelling and would reaffirm the power of animation. But I guess it would make Arlo's tale even more dramatic and we don't want to scare away the kids now do we...?

The Good Dinosaur is a well-crafted play on familiar themes. Overall, it's pretty clichéd and predictable, but effectively told. It's got some creative humor and even though you see it coming, it still tugs at your heartstrings. Not one for the ages, but The Good Dinosaur definitely makes true on the 'good' part.