The Good Dinosaur

As I previously stated, The Good Dinosaur was supposed to be Pixar's family event of Summer 2014. But it went back to the drawing board to revise its story, plot and even its cast. The end result is admirable even if the tone is questionable.

65 million years ago, a meteor zipped by Earth. The Dinosaurs went on with their lives. In the present day, Arlo the Apatosaur and his family run a good farm. Arlo wants to earn the right to put his paw-print on the family corn silo. He'll earn the right when he catches the "critter" eating their corn. He chickens out when he sees the critter, a feral human boy, and lets him escape. So Arlo is forced to join his Poppa Henry on a quest to find the thief, but a storm hits and Henry is washed away by the river.

Arlo's farm goes downhill without Henry around. When he next sees the thief, he chases him down to the river and they're both washed away. Far away from home, Arlo's only companion is the thief, who he doesn't like at first. But overtime, Arlo and "Spot" become best buds on a quest for survival.

Director Peter Sohn was brought in to replace Bob Petersen when the film stalled. He also voices the film's best bit-character: a weird Styracosaurus named Forrest Woodbush. The animals that rest on his horns are all amusing characters on their own. The film's best laugh is when Woodbush introduces one animal, but forgets her purpose for being there.

The animation department delivers on their Pixar quality. The cartoony characters can say as much with their eyes as they do with their mouths. That makes the Arlo and Spot interaction scenes easy to get behind. The digital scenery is some of the most photorealistic work Pixar's ever done. Woodbush's entrance, in which he appears camouflaged in a forest, is amazingly rendered. It's another artist's delight on-screen.

Unfortunately, the expressive animation gets too expressive when characters get hurt. It gets downright uncomfortable watching Arlo bruised, limping or getting conked on the head with rocks. On the writing side, the film goes from light-hearted to touching as Arlo and Spot bond. There's that scene where they trip out on berries ... weird. The film's physical antagonists, a trio of Pterosaurs, are so subdued and weird that they're frightening when they reveal their true colors. Inside Out knew what it wanted to be at least.

The Good Dinosaur is finally here after much uncertainty. It's not the best Pixar film, but it's an admirable effort that knows how to express itself. Just be prepared for a weird emotional roller-coaster.

The much anticipated short Sanjay's Super Team opens the feature. In it, a young Indian boy's love of American cartoons and his Hindi heritage culminate in a colorful daydream. It was an achievement of art design and made the feature worth it.