The Good Dinosaur

If you can make it through the tedious first third, it's not a bad little movie. The interplay between Arlo and Spot is generally enjoyable (the first really good scene is Spot trying to feed Arlo). The movie can be quite funny, somewhat thrilling, and occasionally touching.

So basically, if this was some kids cartoon from some lesser studio, this would be pretty good. For Pixar though, it's a big disappointment.

One of the film's biggest flaws is also one of its greatest strengths; the animation. On the one hand, the landscapes - forests, rivers, fields - have an amazing photo-realism that mark them as an incredible achievement in animation. But this hyper-realism makes the main dinosaur breed look terrible; they are about as realistic as the cars in Cars, and it's like someone filmed a sock puppet show in the Grand Canyon. It's the thing most reviewers seem to talk about, so it's rather amazing that Pixar didn't see the problem themselves.

It's not that the dinosaurs needed to look real, but the insistence on those giant, soulful eyes made the heads misshapen, and the colors are too clean and shiny to meld with the environments. Other breeds of dinosaurs and insects have an acceptable cartooniness, but Arlo is just annoying in design, creating a constant de-immersion signal.

The story is conventional and predictable, the emotional moments feel manipulative, but still, it's not bad as kid's cartoons go. But it sure isn't what we expect from Pixar.

I sat down to watch "The Good Dinosaur" with my family, that being wife and 6 year old son, and I didn't really have any idea that I would end up being as entertained by this animated movie as I was. I had thought that this would just be another one of those mass-produced generic animated movies aiming for the kids.

The story in "The Good Dinosaur" was actually surprisingly good, and it was told in a very entertaining way, and also in a way that kept the movie progressing at a constant good pace. There weren't really any dull moments throughout the course of the movie, and even the slower moments in the movie were good and had crucial parts to the overall storyline.

The CGI, style and textures in "The Good Dinosaur" were all very impressive. But of course, Pixar is well-known for that, and they didn't disappoint by any means with this 2015 release. The entire animated world was rich in color, details and very lovable.

As for the characters portrayed in "The Good Dinosaur", well there is something for everyone here. I dare say that much. Of course you have someone brave, someone lovable, someone daring, someone clumsy, etc. etc. It was all here. And they had managed to get together and impressive group of voice actors and actresses for the various roles. And for an animated movie, then the voice acting is essential.

"The Good Dinosaur" is the kind of story that you take to heart immediately and you will be entertained right up to the very end of the movie, that is for sure. And although you already know how the movie will end, it is still a good story to experience and an entertaining movie to watch.

This 2015 animated movie, like most Pixar movies, is of the type that you can watch more than just a single time. And it does stand out from many other Pixar movies, mainly because of the setting of the age of dinosaurs and the characters.

"The Good Dinosaur" scores a solid six stars out of ten rating from me, as it is a movie that has that ability to make you feel good, feel entertained and make you laugh all at the same time.

The fact that this movie still holds a score of a 6.8 with hundreds of 1/10 scores shows you just how good it is. I'm not here to preach that it's an awesome movie, but give it the score it deserves. (It's not PIXAR's best, but still fits the bill of a good movie.)

Honestly the highly negative scores are just because people were not BLOWN away. A PIXAR movie sets the bar so high, so the fact that this one isn't an A+, people are bashing just to bash.

I watched this with my cousins, all at the time were under 10 ( 7 & 9 ) and nothing was too scary. Could it be over the top for 4 or 5 year old, of course, but it's not that bad. The Lion King is regarded as one of the BEST Disney films ever and there are similar scenes with death, scary bad-guys, hard times, etc.

Give it a watch.

So this movie is probably a lot better than what you might have heard. But some parents may have some issues with the themes and things portrayed in here in general. It may be a bit too much for their children to watch. There are some adult situations here (as in life happens and the "brutality of it", without getting explicit), some dramatic moments that may stay in ones mind.

Having said that, you could say, that this is challenging and if you really think about it, animated movies in the past that are considered classics, had some horrible moments in them (without spoiling the moments, just two examples: Bambi and Lion King). Even the Last Unicorn had some dark themes in it. So maybe we try to overprotect children, where they don't need to be protected? It's a fair question though, but the movie handles it very discreetly and to the point.

... which is the impression I got when I saw the DVD cover art, the title, and the trailers.

It came on one of the pay channels the other day and I sat down to watch. What I found was a whacked out "what if" view of natural history plus a tale on facing your fears and finding friendship where you least expect it.

The movie starts with a bang - literally. Dinosaurs are eating in a field 65 million years ago as an asteroid comes tumbling towards earth. The dinosaurs look up. The asteroid passes harmlessly overhead. The dinosaurs continue eating. So the mass extinction never happens.

Millions of years pass and the dinosaurs evolve. The "vegi-sauruses" become farmers. The "meat-asauruses" become ranchers. One humorous turn introduces us to a timid Styracosaurus who has evolved into a terrified animal that puts small animals all over his horns to protect himself from all kinds of threats that grow out of his neurotic fears.

At the core of it is a family of Apatosaurus farmers with three children. The smallest is Arlo, who is afraid of his own shadow. His nemesis is "Spot" a human child that keeps getting into the family silo and eating the crops. But these two have to team up when a natural disaster sweeps Arlo far from home and he is forced to face his fears.

I thought the idea of evolving dinosaurs living alongside the dawn of man at the point where man is just at "dog level"-a mute primitive creature - was intriguing enough to keep the adults engaged while Arlo's story is enough to keep the children around along with the unique sight gags I've come to expect from Pixar. Highly recommended as an unexpected treat, at least from my perspective.