Pixar’s latest 3D animated movie begins with the question “What if?” What if a meteor did not hit Earth thousands of years ago and dinosaurs had not become extinct?
In this imaginary world we meet a cute Apatosaurus family of Poppa (voice of Jeffrey Wright), Momma (voice of Frances McDormand) and their three children. Arlo (voice of Raymond Ochoa) is the weakest of the lot, relegated to feeding the chickens while his brother and sister are entrusted with important tasks like irrigation (they spray water from their mouths) and plowing (they dig their noses into the earth).
Arlo loses his way when he chases a critter stealing the family’s stock of corn. Thus begins a journey of healing, discovery and growth. The theme of The Good Dinosaur is contained in Poppa’s words of advice to Arlo: “Sometimes you got to get through your fears to see the beauty on the other side.” Lost and far from home, Arlo encounters a wise T-Rex, befriends a feral child whom he names Spot, overcomes his fear of water, and fights off a group of pterodactyls led by Thunderclap (superbly voiced by Steve Zahn). Another fabulous creation – and this is vintage Pixar – is a Styracosaurus (voiced by the movie’s director, Peter Sohn) who collects pet, including a bird named Dreamkiller, who, he says, “protects me from having unrealistic goals."
After the edgy Inside Out and the superb short film Sanjay’s Super Team that precedes the main feature, The Good Dinosaur is disappointingly unadventurous. Peter Sohn designs the film like an American Western, but the coming of age story is a familiar one. The movie is sure to the kids with a warm and fuzzy feeling and perhaps even with food for thought on the relationship between human and nature and the natural wonders of the planet. What does stand out is the animation, especially the realistic depiction of flowing rivers, raging storms, placid lagoons, geysers and thermal pools. And the Apatosaurus are cute too.