Pixar is the juggernaut of the animation world.
The studio has released not only some of my favorite animated films, but some of my favorite films period. There’s Toy Story (and its impeccable sequels), Wall-E, The Incredibles, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, Inside Out, and the list goes on and on. Each release is flawlessly crafted and the end result is universally appealing. Everybody can watch them and relate in some way.
Inside Out, Pixar’s first release of 2015 was amazing. It was engaging, touching, thought-provoking and had me blubbering like a fool (RIP Bing Bong). It really revitalized my hope for the company, considering their last three releases weren’t really up to the standards of what I had expected. 2013’s Monsters University was a fine film but didn’t hold a candle to its predecessor. Brave felt like a good DreamWorks release and ultimately didn’t seem like the same film its trailer advertised. Cars 2 was more concerned about selling toys than having an interesting story to tell.
So after Inside Out, my expectations were relatively high for the studio’s second release this year, The Good Dinosaur. Reading about how the film had been (in original star John Lithgow’s words) “completely reimagined” after initial production with the entire voice cast being changed, director Bob Peterson being swapped for Peter Sohn and the story being retooled, the film stuck in the back of my mind, but the trailers released were gorgeous and the story seemed interesting. My faith of getting two excellent Pixar releases in one year wasn’t broken.
Unfortunately, the film wasn’t a classic.
The Good Dinosaur imagines what happened when the meteor that wiped out dinosaurs missed the earth and they were still alive. The protagonist is an anxious dinosaur named Arlo (Raymond Ochoa). Arlo is the runt of his family, isn’t particularly good at anything and is desperate to show his farm-owning family his worth.
After many failed attempts, his dad (Jeffrey Wright) gets him to protect the family’s silo, as a critter has been stealing their corn, which the dinosaurs need to survive the winter. Arlo catches the critter, a caveboy with the mannerisms of a dog, but doesn’t want to kill it like his dad suggests, instead letting it free. His disappointed dad goes with Arlo to track it down, but when they go too far from camp, heavy rain causes a flash flood which kills Arlo’s dad and sweeps Arlo far away from home. Arlo finds the caveboy and after initial resentment for contributing to his father’s death, he learns to love him like a pet.
The entire film is about their journey home, Arlo trying to overcome his fears, and their encounters along the way. The two run into a colorful Styracosaurus, which doesn’t serve much of a point other than giving the caveboy his name, Spot. They meet some crazy pterodactyls who want Spot as a snack. Arlo and Spot also team up with T-Rexes to help them locate a Buffalo herd in order for help home (a big part of which could have been cut entirely).
Their journey is scary and weird. Kids were crying in the theatre because of how frightening the pterodactyls were (they kill some small animals on screen). I’m not against violence or death, but it definitely caught me by surprise. The film also bizarrely features the two tripping out after eating some wacky berries. Tonally, it’s a little out of sync. These parts may appeal to adults, but to me, they were out of place.
Eventually, the duo encounter the pterodactyls again, who take Spot and separate the two of them. But Arlo defeats them when he finally finds the courage. He eventually returns home and everyone gets a happy ending. (more details below on Spots fate)
This character was barely in the movie
A big problem with The Good Dinosaur is that it creates an intriguing world where dinosaurs are still alive and anthropomorphic, but doesn’t explore that concept at all. Yes, Arlo’s family farms and the T-Rexes herd sheep, but that’s all the plot does with this storytelling device. Also, for a dinosaur film, there are barely any dinosaurs in it. There were some cool opportunities to do some unique things, but Pixar went a very linear and safe route in terms of world building. There are no real surprises or inventiveness from a company known for innovation.
That’s not to say this is a bad film. It’s absolutely gorgeous, and while the dinosaurs are designed to look somewhat cartoonish, the landscapes look 100 percent real. It also has some signature Pixar gut-wrenching moments. When Arlo realizes there are other humans and Spot starts to notice there are others like him, the scene where he returns him to his own kind is heartbreaking. There’s a real bond between the two.
The Good Dinosaur is a totally watchable film, but it’s one of Pixar’s weakest releases. It’s not Cars 2, but it could have been so much more.
Pixar is still turning out watchable films, but outside of Inside Out, producers haven’t made the great animated films we’ve been accustomed to getting. The pre-2010 films (outside of Cars) have been nearly flawless. The studio set the bar so unrealistically high and continued to exceed it over and over. But since then, we’ve gotten one great film out of five. It may be time to stop expecting consistently great films from Pixar.
It’s hard to knock the company for investing too much time in sequels since they’ve made three great installments of Toy Story, but Pixar’s upcoming slate only features one original concept. On its docket include a Finding Nemo sequel, Cars 3, Toy Story 4 and The Incredibles 2. The only original production in development is a Dia de Los Muertos inspired film called Coco.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m down for sequels to most of those films. But Pixar has been a master at telling unique stories, yet its track record for sequels outside of Toy Story is just OK.
With all that said, Pixar isn’t doomed. The studio is still at the top of its field and will continue to produce good, and occasionally great, animated films. But as The Good Dinosaur, and some of these more recent releases have showed, we need to dial down our expectations. Not every release can be a masterpiece.
