This weeks rental was Disney Pixar movie The Good Dinosaur and we didn’t know what to expect!
Pixar films used to be a sign of quality but now can be indifferent, whilst we have some sure fire epics like Inside Out, the film prior to this won a best animation Oscar, other hits we love, probably as you do, to name a few are Up!; The Toy Story trilogy; WALL-E; Monsters Inc as well as our personal favourite Finding Nemo however of late, films like Cars; Cars 2 and whilst we enjoyed it, its prequel Monsters University didn’t wow us as much as the original movie, despite all our favourite characters returning.
I am pleased to report the Good Dinosaur, is well err good! It’s certainly not Pixar’s best, but this in part is down to the story being down in may different ways before, most notably Ice Age.
Aldo, the good dinosaur of the title, is born to Dino Farmers Henry and Ida, along with a brother Buck and a Sister Libby. Buck and Libby are faster to grow and find their mark early on in life, this in return allows them to mark their food storage container with their footprint.
Aldo, who is scared of everything, extremely shy and under developed for a dinosaur, struggles to make his Mark! Henry tries to help his son grow by setting him a task to catch a predator that is eating their food supply. Aldo manages this but fear lets the capture, a feral cave boy, get away.
Henry is unhappy at Aldo and demands he pursue the caveboy with him. This results in tragic consequences as falling rocks due to weather, see Henry fall to his death!
Time moves on, and Aldo still has not changed, possibly he is even worse for the lose of his father. A chance encounter sees him see the caveboy again, and after chasing him, falls into the sea and gets washed away, lost from home.
The film now starts a journey where Aldo must beat his fears, befriending the caveboy that he deemed to be his enemy and make his mark on the world.
It is a great prehistoric tale but you can’t help but feel you’ve seen it done before, from the aforementioned Ice Age, to The Croods, Walking with Dinosaurs 3D; The Land Before Time and even Disney’s own 2000 film Dinosaur.
Where the film struggles for me is Aldo needs a better sidekick than the caveboy, who he names Spot! They have a great relationship but the film’s best moments are when they come across the other characters they meet; A styracosauraus (voiced by the director Peter Sohn) who wants to add Spot to the collection of animals living in his horns; A Pterodactyl gang led by Thunderclap (Steve Zahn) and a group of T Rex led by Butch voiced by Sam Elliott) all provide some of the films more memorable scenes.
For a pixar film, the animation as you would expect, is beautiful, although Aldo and family are very much a cartoon dinosaur, which really shows when they face the other creatures.
The landscapes are fantastic, from the rushing waters to the mountain tops, it’s a journey that you will enjoy being on but overall the title sums the film up, this is a good dinosaur not a great dinosaur. We will hope Pixar are back to unmissable form with Finding Dory, the sequel to Finding Nemo which is up next.
in the meantime, we are going to enjoy our Good Dinosaur cupcakes which we made from a cupcake making kit available at most good stores!
Did you enjoy The Good Dinosaur? What”s your favourite Pixar movie, we would love to hear from you here at Barking Mad about Films
Never miss a BMAF blog. Receive email notifications when new posts are published by entering your email address in the subscription box on the top right-hand side of this page.