The Good Dinosaur

Originally posted at the DL December 2015

Hey so this movie is not one where you just kinda know everything about it going in.  At least I didn't.  I knew something something there's dinosaurs and a little toddler thing and yeah that's what we got.



It's basically a western with a bunch of boy and his dog.  Except the dinosaurs are the people and the dog is a four year old.
That's just so odd I dunno if they were shooting for that or... if they like had to swoop in and rescue a movie with four or five distinct 'parts' and that's how they made it all fit.  I have to say though, it's very different so hey, props there.

And they do a pretty good job of playing against your expectations for "dinosaur movie" and incorporating elements of the whole western motif.  The core plot is "main character gets swept downriver while trying to work out some trauma via revenge and adventures home", and unsurprisingly at one point becomes hopelessly lost.  So trying to run away from some flying asshats, he tries to call out for help to another sauropod... which turns out to be a pair of T-Rexes!  Who turn out to be entirely well-meaning and helpful!  And are ranchers.  And they run like they're riding a horse, like go look up that footage if you don't want to watch the rest of the movie, I love how well they capture the gait of that despite it being them running.

They also have approximately three really good scenes of the Pixar style.  If a character is drawing a circle, you are permitted and indeed encouraged to respond with tearbending.

In spite of all that you can really see the seems in the movie, and it's sorta distracting.  Aside from the main character himself, who is a nobbly-kneed little goober and I kinda love it, I'm not really feeling a lot of the designs despite a lot of technical achievement (they shot shit like bruises and scraps extremely convincingly).  The whole OH GOD A FLOOD KILLED MY PA thing is almost depressing in its obviousness, although they have a lot of shared visual cues with the Lion King so at least they're aware of how cliche and obvious they made it.  The way they portray the main character's traumas are a bit overwrought for me as well, but I can let that slide because I think he's supposed to be basically 12 (although the way the movie frames it the dinosaurs are like born in the spring and halfway grown come winter).

Rating- 7/10.  Not the best Pixar movie, but solidly worth watching.