The Good Dinosaur Filmyhit
Gundenia Ransbottom
Over thecourse of their first fifteen features, Pixar has made some great films (suchas the "Toy Story" series, "Ratatouille" and "InsideOut") and some not-so-great ones (such as anything with the word"Cars" in the title). However, the best of them are the ones that intrigue an initial idea and elaborate upon it with the kindof well-developed characters, ingenious plots and emotional resonance that israrely seen in films aimed atfamily audiences. The problem with their latest effort, "The GoodDinosaur," is that it has the intriguing initial idea but then seemscuriously unsure of how to pursue it. The end result is a film that has somepromising elements and which often seems as if it is on the verge of evolvinginto something wonderful but never quite manages to turn that particularcorner.
Whilestruggling to help his mother bring their crops in before winter arrives, Arloruns across that same child, who he blames for the death of his father, andwhile pursuing him, the two fall into the river and are swept many miles downbefore washing ashore. At first, Arlo hates the kid but the boy, who not onlyacts like a dog but soon responds to the name Spot, eventually grows on him andthe two become friends as they discover they have more in common than one mightthink. As Arlo and Spot begin the long and perilous journey upstream to Arlo'shome, they encounter such dangers as a giant cobra and a trio of pterodactyls(whose leader is voiced by Steve Zahn) whose seemingly laid-back attitudestands in marked contrast to their desire to savage anything they can get theirtalons on. Somewhat friendlier are a trio of T-Rexes (with the voices of SamElliott, Anna Paquin and A.J. Buckley) who are, oddly enough, buffalo rancherstrying to rescue their herd from some rustling raptors.
There aresome good ideas in Meg LeFauve's screenplay, such as the idea of inverting theclassic boy-and-his-pet narrative so that the boy is the pet, and the way thatit threatens to become a full-blown Western with the introduction of theT-Rexes (including a campfire scene complete with someone playing a mournfultune on a "harmonica"). But once it introduces them, the film tendsto abandon them in order to tell yet another variation of the tale of a seemingmisfit who learns to pulls himself together, and use his gifts to save the dayand make his mark on the world. Much of it feels cobbled together from elements thatwill seem very familiar to anyone who saw the likes of "The JungleBook," "The Lion King" and "How to Train a Dragon." The lack of a unique story might have been overcome if the characters hadbeen compelling but alas, neither Arlo nor Spot are especially interesting.
Visually, "The Good Dinosaur" is a stunner throughout, with one breathtaking composition after another that combines gorgeously renderedphotorealistic backgrounds with the more overtly cartoony characters in anunexpectedly lovely manner. There are also a number of inspired moments wherethe film threatens to break its shackles and go off into strange areas, like an encounter with a styracosaurus (whose deadpan voice is supplied by thefilm's director, Peter Sohn) who is festooned with a number of comfort animals.In another scene, Arlo and Spot eat some fruit with hallucinogenic propertiesthat are depicted in amusing visual detail. The aforementioned campfire scenegets especially weird when it turns into, of all things, one of the most famousscenes from "Jaws." There is even one beautifully low-key moment inwhich Arlo and Spot, despite the lack of a shared language, manage tocommunicate and commiserate with each other over the loss of their respectivefamilies in a genuinely heart-tugging manner. (This moment is so strong that Iwouldn't be surprised to learn that it was the initial inspiration for theentire project.)
As thosewho pay attention to such things already know, "The Good Dinosaur"had a famously troubled production that saw its original director and most ofthe original voice cast replaced, and a number of major script rewrites added inan effort to save it. With that much behind-the-scenes chaos, it is probablynot a surprise that the end result is as uneven as it turns out to be. The filmwill satisfy younger viewers, I suppose, but unless your kids are especiallygaga over dinosaurs, my guess is that even they will recognize that it islacking a certain something that separates the great films from the ordinaryones.
A moderately insightful critic, full-on Swiftie and all-around bon vivant, Peter Sobczynski, in addition to his work at this site, is also a contributor to The Spool and can be heard weekly discussing new Blu-Ray releases on the Movie Madness podcast on the Now Playing network.
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