About the Movie
“The Good Dinosaur” asks the question: What if the asteroid that forever changed life on Earth missed the planet completely and giant dinosaurs never became extinct? Pixar Animation Studios takes you on an epic journey into the world of dinosaurs where an Apatosaurus named Arlo (voice of Raymond Ochoa) makes an unlikely human friend. While traveling through a harsh and mysterious landscape, Arlo learns the power of confronting his fears and discovers what he is truly capable of.
Directed by Peter Sohn and produced by Denise Ream (“Cars 2”), Disney•Pixar’s “The Good Dinosaur” opens in theaters on Nov. 25, 2015.
An Apatosaurus named Arlo and his unlikely human friend travel through a harsh and mysterious landscape, where Arlo learns to confront his fears, discovering what he is truly capable of.
Notes:
- Peter Sohn made his directorial debut with the Pixar short film “Partly Cloudy.” He has worked in the art, story and animation departments, and also has voiced the characters of Emile from Academy Award®-winning “Ratatouille” and Scott “Squishy” Squibbles from “Monsters University.”
- Denise Ream produced the Golden Globe®-nominated film “Cars 2” for Pixar Animation Studios, and served as associate producer for Disney•Pixar’s Academy Award®-winning film “Up.” She also has an extensive background in producing visual effects and animation for live action films.
A Take on the Movie
I gave a friend the opportunity to review The Good Dinosaur for me on Dad of Divas, these were her thoughts:
Iwas given the opportunity to attend a viewing of The Good Dinosaur with a guest. Because my 11 year old son had seen the trailers and really wanted to see it, I asked him to join me.
The plot of the movie is rather simple. A sweet little dinosaur is born to a loving mom and dad dinosaur, along with a brother and sister. Brother and sister dinosaurs excel in the family expectations but young dinosaur (Arlo) seems to fall short. His father has each of them make a “mark” in a tree when they’ve done their part to contribute to the family. Arlo’s brother and sister make their mark, but Arlo is scared of everything and gets teased for his fearfulness and therefore does not achieve his mark. As Arlo tries (and fails) to make his mark in a special way designed by his father, he meets “Spot” which is essentially a baby cave person. Through chasing Spot, Arlo’s father is killed in a storm and Sad Arlo returns to his home. A little later as the family is trying to cope without Dad Dinosaur, Arlo again spots Spot and starts chasing him seeking revenge. Through the chase, Arlo gets separated and swept away from his home. The remainder of the movie is a mixture of Arlo and Spot becoming friends and facing challenges to try to return Arlo home. During the journey, Arlo grows from being afraid of everything to being able to face his fears and protect himself and others.
The movie was a classic “coming of age” story for Arlo. I asked my son what his thoughts were when the movie was finished. Here were his thoughts:
“It was kind of good and kind of bad. There were too many storms. There were some funny parts but why did the dad have to die? Couldn’t Arlo have gotten his mark by protecting Spot without the dad having to die?”
His concise thoughts were pretty close to my own. There were a few moments where I laughed out loud and the creatures all the way throughout were absolutely adorable with their big innocent eyes. I agreed 100% about the storms though. By the time the third storm came, several people around me said out loud, “Again?” and I was thinking too that couldn’t there be other ways to create conflict? When Spot meets up with his family close to the end, it is a sweet moment but lasts much longer than the actual reunion of Arlo when he reunites with his family, which makes me wonder with which story we were supposed to more closely connect.
The movie had quite a few intense scenes which could be scary for very young children but they always resolved nicely at the end of each one.
The cinematography of this film was beautiful. So many scenes looked as if we were watching photographs rather than animation and I could actually imagine myself looking down the mountain or being rushed away in one of the multiple floods.
The Good Dinosaur was a fun film to see with my son. I asked him if he would want to see it again and he said he wasn’t sure. I’m not quite sure either. Disney/Pixar outdid themselves with the beauty of the film and it was a fun night out but I’m not sure it is one that I would want to watch over and over again.
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