The Good Dinosaur

Pixar’s second release in 2015 may not be on the same level of “Inside Out” but “The Good Dinosaur” however is still an enjoyable film.

The animation was probably the best at the time and you get emotionally involved, the film has its work cut out for it in a way that it can attract their audiences of every age while maybe retelling more of a classic storytelling way other than anything rebellious or original.

The story tells of a young Apatosaurus named Arlo (Raymond Ochoa), who sadly loses his father (Jeffrey Wright) in a rainstorm and becomes distant from his family in a flood, as he tries to make it home to his mother (Frances McDormand) with an unlikely friend in a scruffy Neanderthal boy named Spot (Jack Bright) for partnership.

The friendship that is made will help both dinosaur and human boy go up against some apparently dangerous tasks, whether it’s dangerous grounds and weather, or the other dinosaurs that walk the earth.

Directed by Peter Sohn, whose directorial debut with the Pixar short “Partly Cloudy,” “The Good Dinosaur” takes a lot from the sad children’s films like “The Lion King,” “Bambi,” “The Land Before Time,” “City Slickers” and even “Dinosaur” and “Finding Nemo” but, thanks to its amazing animation, still manages to keep an identity of its own.

The film is like a painting you want to keep looking at, whether it’s seeing Arlo and his father walk through the fields at night of fireflies or Arlo and Spot running through a stampede of buffalos with three T-Rex in drag.

Rob Carnevale stated in his review, “Hence, no matter how generic certain plot beats become, Sohn always has another arresting image to put on the screen… and it’s undoubtedly here that The Good Dinosaur yields its greatest rewards.”

However, the characterization works as well, with Arlo and Spot becoming friends that looks realistically recommending, whether you laugh with them on their mistakes or feeling just as sad as them with what they have to face. The climactic parts of the film, especially, are honestly emotional.

I agree with Carnevale when he said, “The set pieces, on the other hand, are often thrilling and delivered with an intensity that may leave younger viewers searching for the comforting embrace of their parent. But like Disney classics such as Bambi and The Lion King before it, such emotional highs and lows come with the territory for this kind of tale – and this is a world inhabited by some fierce creatures after all!”

Therefore, though lovers of Pixar’s most creatively admiring films (Inside Out/WALL-E, etc.) may tell a more straightforward story of “The Good Dinosaur,” that still shouldn’t take away from what it succeeds. Sohn made a film that is visually successful that makes you feel good and attracts audiences of all ages.

Like I stated before, I understand the story was not the best ever done by Pixar and it was clichéd, but it still was a good movie to check out. I saw a morning showing of this at the theaters with my mom, siblings, and one of my younger cousins. From what I can recall, I believe there were parts where a few children were crying, which is the right reaction from kids who watch this. After the movie was over, children were applauding this movie, I stood up, turned around, and the entire theater was filled with children. I tapped my mom’s shoulder and told her to look behind us, and everyone saw how many children had filled the theater that morning. Overall, the animation was the best Pixar ever did, and even though the story is something that is been told in children’s movies time and time again, I still think it was a good movie to check out. I don’t like people hating this when they should look at everything it did so well, so I would definitely say to watch this because it’s still one of the good Pixar movies.

Alright everyone, I will be going to see the new “Star Wars” movie today, which I’m really excited for. Check in later today for a review on that. I especially feel like I need to see this, not only because I’m a diehard “Star Wars” fan, but because I’m also sad over the sudden passing of the great Carrie Fisher. Review to come later today.