The Good Dinosaur (2015)

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In an alternate reality where dinosaurs didn’t go extinct, a young Apatosaurus named Arlo is separated from his family and must find his way home with the hope of a feral human child he dubs “Spot”. Along their journey together, the two develop a bond, get roped into helping a trio T-Rexes herd their buffalo, and entangle with a dangerous group of winged Pterodactyls who worship storms and chaos.

Like any good Pixar movie, there’s an emotional arc to The Good Dinosaur that distinguishes and elevates the material. It’s basically a ‘boy and his dog’ story, with the mute, snarling “Spot” playing the dog to Arlo’s more human-like character. Arlo grows from resenting Spot to loving him, and wanting to take care of him forever. But when other human characters enter the story, Spot is pulled to them and Arlo has to decide whether or not to let Spot go.

The Arlo/Spot relationship is the beating heart of this movie. It made me cry more than once, thanks to the Pixar team’s uncanny ability to mine genuine emotion from universal human truths without succumbing to cloying sentimentality. One of the marks of great writing is when emotion is conveyed without words: ‘Show,’ don’t ‘tell.’ In the most powerful scene from The Good Dinosaur, Arlo shares the death of his father with Spot, and Spot reveals that he is an orphan. All of this is conveyed in a powerful, but simple visual, and very few words.

The plot, in comparison, is much less interesting. The concept of dinosaurs and humans living side by side is not a compelling one on its own. It gets goofy at times. The episodic adventure elements are hit-and-miss. I liked the Pterodactyl zealot characters, the leader of which is voiced perfectly by Steve Zahn. But the herding T-Rex characters were a bridge too far for me. Sam Elliot is well-cast as their patriarch, but I guess I prefer my T-Rexes more terrifying than silly — even in a family film. Fortunately, the Arlo/Spot relationship is always at the forefront through every turn of the adventure — enough to maintain our interest to the end.

The Good Dinosaur is also an extraordinarily beautiful film. Despite characters that are cartoonish in design, the backgrounds are often photo-realistic, capturing light, water and atmosphere in ways that keep advancing with every Pixar movie released. This effort is especially striking in the 3D version of the film.

With the voices of Jeffrey Wright, Frances McDormand, Anna Paquin, and John Ratzenberger. Directed by Peter Sohn (Elemental).