The Good Dinosaur Review
- Director: Peter Sohn
- Starring: Raymond Ochoa, Jack Bright, Jeffrey Wright, Frances McDormand, Sam Elliott, Anna Paquin
- Released: November 25, 2015
- Rated: PG
- Runtime: 93 min
The Verdict
- It’s the best-looking movie Pixar has made, with scenes so real you forget it’s animated. Spot, the human, steals the show and earns real emotion without saying a word.
- The story is unoriginal and follows a cookie-cutter animated formula, with beats that will remind you of The Lion King. It doesn’t hold up next to Pixar’s best.
Synopsis
Full Review (Spoilers)
Overall Thoughts
The Good Dinosaur is a decent movie but it doesn’t hold up when put next to the other Pixar movies. I’m just going to mention this from the start instead of noting the great things about this movie. You have a storyline that’s quite unoriginal and unfortunately it follows the “cookie cutter” recipe for animated movies. The one story that comes close to this movie for me is The Lion King, think about it.
- You have the Dad dying in the beginning of this movie by a ton of water.
- The protagonist is lost and befriends a person who’s used to the wild.
- They both run into dangerous characters on their way back to home.
- Protagonist dreams about their dead father while realizing their strength.
- Comes back home to be cheered as a success on arrival.
Visually this movie is amazing. The Good Dinosaur made you forget it was an animated movie for some of the scenes. There are some great shades that remind you of real life places. Kudos to the animation team for brings awesome graphics to this movie. It is by far the best visually looking movie Pixar has put out to date.
Spot aka the human was an enjoyable character. He didn’t really speak at all but conveyed a lot just through body movements. He was the best character for this whole movie. Everyone else seemed slightly weird while Spot inspired some emotion from the audience. There are a few scenes where you almost cry or cheer your butt off when Spot appears on the screen.
One of the messages from The Good Dinosaur is to avoid all forms of water. You didn’t have a clear villain for the movie except for the water. It took away Arlo’s dad, destroyed the Pterodactyls and put the fear into our protagonist. Every time you turned around water just killed another person.
Final Grade -> 69%
The Good Dinosaur (2015) Cast and Details
The Good Dinosaur (2015) is directed by Peter Sohn and stars Raymond Ochoa, Jack Bright, Jeffrey Wright, Frances McDormand and Sam Elliott. It runs 93 minutes and is rated PG. You can look up the full cast and crew on IMDb. You might also like my The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened? review.
DC's Hypothetical Corner
Let’s say I change one thing. Maybe that one thing will make this movie better or more watchable.
More reviews
