The Good Dinosaur

Dir: Peter Sohn

2015

*

In 2015 Pixar, for the first time in its history, released two films in the same year. The first was the amazing Inside Out and the second was The Good Dinosaur. Inside Out was one of 2015's best films, while I'm afraid to say, The Good Dinosaur was one of the worst. It's hard to believe that this is the work of the great animation studio. The first problem I had was its accuracy. Dinosaurs and humans didn't live at the same time, I'm happy to overlook this to be honest but to then read subsequently that the story is set in a world where Dinosaurs didn't become extinct just felt a little bit lazy to me. What really bugged me however is that the dinosaur family at the heart of the film are farmers. This is the stupidest thing I've seen in a kid’s film for a while. I have issues with animals with humanistic traits in kids films as it is, the way I see it; it's is fine for Goofy and Pluto to both be dogs, one wears clothes, speaks and drives a car while the other is naked, barks and walks on all fours. Anything in-between I have issue with. I don't understand why dinosaurs need to farm but I’ll move on. The 'Good' dinosaur of the film's title is Arlo, the runt of a family of five Apatosaurus'. Arlo finds life as a farmer difficult (ugh) and unlike his two siblings who excel at it, he still hasn't been able to 'make his mark' (make a muddy footprint on the family's silo) or prove himself somehow worthy of being a farmer or dinosaur or something else as tiresomely derivative. Arlo's big chance to prove his worth comes when his father asks him to kill a young human that he has caught eating their winter supplies. Now I'm no Palaeontologist but I'm pretty sure the Apatosaurus was a docile herbivore that would forage off the bountiful land. Also, what makes a bad dinosaur while we're at it? Still, Arlo's dad soon gets his comeuppance but Arlo soon finds himself far from home and has to somehow find his way back, thus proving his worth, or luck, or bloody mindedness, I'm not sure and stopped caring fairly early on. It's unfortunate that this tired old story hasn't become extinct. Arlo and his pet human are fairly cute but that is about as good as the film gets. The background animation is superb but it is ruined by the shocking simplicity of the characters. It looks like a cheap cartoon in a live-action setting but nowhere near as great as Who Framed Roger Rabbit ever was. Pixar are famous for their attention to detail, not just in visuals but in ideas, but everything that makes them great is absent without leave here. Something obviously went very wrong alone the way. It's okay for a studio to make a mistake, we all do it, but this one is quite the shocker and no amount of cuteness can make up for it.