2015 | Dir. Peter Sohn | 100 Minutes
"Sometimes you gotta get through your fear to see the beauty on the other side."
In an alternate world where dinosaurs and humans exist side-by-side, a young dinosaur named Arlo is separated from his family after chasing a wild human boy that steals food from their farm. Stranded in the wilderness far from home, Arlo and the boy learn to survive together as they fend off predators and endure the perils of nature to find their way home.
The Good Dinosaur is another innovative technological marvel crafted by Pixar Animation Studios that is heavy on themes of family, featuring a strange but not unpleasant mesh of stunningly animated natural environments that are virtually photo-real inhabited by decidedly-cartoonish characters. At the forefront is the relatable and heartfelt story of Arlo’s struggle to overcome his fear, made more severe by a tragedy early in the film, and his quest to accomplish a task that is greater than him alone. Amusingly and unfortunately, there isn’t much development for Spot, the feral human child Arlo learns to forgive and befriend. While the world established in the film is populated by other intelligent dinosaurs with colorful personalities, where the film truly shines are in its quieter emotional moments shared between Arlo and Spot.
Young actor Raymond Ochoa does a lot of emotional heavy-lifting as Arlo but manages to pull it off in spades with a vocal performance that carries the film, supported by Jack Bright as the grunting and howling Spot. Jeffrey Wright plays Arlo’s poppa with a stern but kind guiding tone. Sam Elliott is featured as the patriarch of a family of ox herding tyrannosauruses with his signature grumble, with Anna Paquin and A. J. Buckley as his rowdy children. The featured antagonist of the film is a slightly unhinged pterodactyl played by character actor Steve Zahn. The film also features, Frances McDormand as Arlo’s momma and director Peter Sohn in a brief but memorable turn as a crazed styracosaurus named Forrest Woodbrush.
Like all of the best Pixar films, The Good Dinosaur pushes emotional buttons that are universal, offering a mixture of funny visual gags without relying on topical humor and a genuine emotional core at its center. Though it may not have the most complex story to tell, it is told with beauty and technical magnificence.
JOHN RATZENBERGER AS…
- Earl the Velociraptor
007 CONNECTIONS
- Jeffrey Wright (Felix Leiter in Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and No Time To Die)
