Primal Pixar

The Good Dinosaur

2015

D: Peter Sohn

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Pros: Design, Animation, Suspenseful tone

Cons: Questionable Villain Death

 

 

         The Good Dinosaur is cited as one of Pixar’s weakest films.  However, it does have its strengths in design, and the suspenseful premise.  It departs from the company's usual approach of creative high concept premises, but I sometimes find the simple Don Bluth way of “earn your happy ending” to be refreshing.  For this reason, among others, I'm compelled to defend this film.

        The story takes place in an alternate reality in which the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs was diverted, allowing them to evolve human-level sapience.  A family of Brontosauruses (yes, we can use the term, even though it’s probably moot at this time in-universe), has a farm.  The mother (Frances McDormand) and father (Steven Wright) have three children: the tough Buck (Marcus Scribbner) and Libby (Maleah Padilla) and the gawky, shy Arlo (Raymond Ochoa).  Arlo’s design is lovably cute and goofy, while emphasizing his vulnerability and isolation from his family.  I absolutely love it, and it makes me wonder what people see in the Minions.  Characters convey emotions well, except for the moments when Arlo is lethally furious at Spot after his father's death, which come off too comical. The backgrounds are beautifully rendered; many people think it clashes with the cartoony characters, but it works.  Despite the photorealism of the scenery, the movie transitions well to stylized monochrome during some darker scenes.  I also like the design of the Velociraptors.  Most shy away from the feathered designs, but the movie takes the crazy meth-head look and uses it to its advantage.  I'm not sure the comparison was accidental, considering how easily one loses a tooth in battle and how another one is scratching herself compulsively.  The score by Mychael and Jeff Danna is effectively emotional and occasionally ominous.  It fits the movie quite well. 

       Near the beginning of the plot, the father dies, and the Arlo's crippling guilt is compounded by the family’s inability to manage the farm sufficiently without him.  Thankfully his family doesn't abuse him over this, but that would have been believable.  Granted it was the father's fault, even though he realized it at the last second.  In a misguided attempt to help Arlo overcome his fears, he tasks him with killing the "critter" who's raiding their food.  That may be an important duty on a farm, but it's unfair to be so abrupt.  When Arlo spares the animal, a human child named Spot (Jack Bright), Poppa angrily leads head to the river in a storm, causing his own death.  Eventually Arlo is lost once again under similar circumstances, and befriend Spot in the process.  The movie does a great job making you feel sympathetic for Arlo for all his struggles and injuries, but this kid sustains so much blunt head trauma he should have been dead numerous times over.  Still, the pathos is well-executed, and the direction brings it out well.  Our hero overcomes crippling fear and risks his life to protect Spot from the villains.  Besides, I'm a real sucker for reunion scenes.

        On the first viewing, the villains, a gang of pterodactyls led by Thunderclap (Steve Zahn), seem far too sympathetic.  Essentially a group of half-starved homeless people, they're desperation is understandable.  However, their actions are truly antagonistic.  They introduce themselves as friends to Arlo, but doggedly try to take Spot from him for food.  They fight each other for food.  Their attempt to steal a "pet" that’s already spoken for is ambiguous.  What makes Arlo's actions right is that Spot, despite his ambiguous anthropomorphism (yes, I know he's the human, you have to acknowledge a movie's internal logic, though) displays evidence of personhood.  He goes out of his way to help Arlo even when the latter attempts to kill him to avenge his father, which may even be motivated by guilt.  He also understands abstract concepts enough Arlo to communicate with him despite the language barrier.  The movie's biggest problem is the disturbingly cold-blooded way by which Thunderclap is killed.  When he is wounded and fleeing in panic, Arlo throws a branch at him with absurd accuracy, causing him to fall into the rapids and drown.  And people complain about Superman’s obviously justifiable killing of Zod in Man of Steel.  The cult-like beliefs of this gang also, whether intentionally or not, effectively indict forms of faith that emphasize amoral justification. 

         Despite this, I found The Good Dinosaur enjoyable, and it gets a bad rap.  It does a great job with suspense and sentiment, and that's what many movies are for.  The cast also includes John Ratzenberger, director Peter Sohn. and Dave Boat.  Sam Elliot, Anna Paquin, and A.J. Buckley star as a group of friendly T-Rexes who herd “longhorn” dinosaurs and provide a proportion of the movie's humor.  I was also impressed by the the lack of pervasive comic relief, let alone bad stuff.  That's impressive in the MCU era.  

 

 

QUOTES

         

BUTCH: I got a job for you.

ARLO: I’m not really good at jobs…

BUTCH: I need you to keep on the dodge and sidle up the loblolly, past them horn-heads, just hootin’ and hollerin’ and score off them rustlers.  We’ll cut dirt and get the bulge on’em.

ARLO: What?

RAMSEY: He just wants you to get on that rock and scream.

ARLO: Uh, but who’s out there?

BUTCH: They’ll come right at ya.  You hold your ground.  Don’t move.

ARLO: Don’t move?  But what if they have claws and big teeth?

BUTCH: Don’t overthink it.