Title: The Good Dinosaur
Year: 2015
Director: Peter Sohn
Genre: Family
Date Watched: January 14, 2017
Category: Animated movie for children
I’ve been pretty excited about this since I heard about it at least a year ago and now, lucky for me, it’s on Netflix.
Let me start by saying I really did love this movie and it was very cute and touching. Perhaps I didn’t cry quite as much as I did watching Inside Out but there were a few tears.
However, if you’re someone who gets annoyed by total inaccuracies even in kids movies, this might not be the one for you. Right from the start I was a little annoyed at just how ridiculous the basic plot was. A bunch of dinosaurs who have a farm where they grow corn and tend prehistoric chickens. Okay sure.
Arlo is the child of these farming dinosaurs but he’s much smaller than his brother and sister and terrified of everything. At least until he gets washed away by a stream while fighting with the little neanderthal boy who keeps stealing their corn.
The rest of the film is all about Arlo’s journey home and burgeoning friendship with the little neanderthal boy he calls Spot. Who oddly enough acts very much like a little dog.
I would say the film is a little on the scary side for younger children so maybe watch through first and decide for yourselves. It’s also a little bit too formulaic for my liking, particularly when there have been so many great Disney/Pixar movies in recent years with fantastic fresh storylines. It’s yet another Disney movie where a child’s parent dies, another film about the main character revising an initial assessment of a character.
While I did like the movie I actually expected more from it than what I got. Don’t get me wrong there’s some great moments in it and it’s definitely worth a watch but I think it got a lot more hype than it deserved and didn’t offer a particularly new or fresh experience.
Rating: 3.5/5
Middle Earth to Wonderland 
Cool review! I personally was disappointed when I watched this film and was hoping for something much more! Then again, the film did have a lot of production history problems, so I can definitely see that in the final cut.
LikeLike
You’re right, and in some ways the amount of time that it took the whole project to get completed perhaps explains a lot about the story itself, it’s very similar to the films that came out around the time it was originally scheduled.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good to hear your thoughts on this! I was a little let down by this as a Pixar movie, but the animation was still 10/10! Have you written on any movie sites before?
Samuel
LikeLike
Hi Sam,
No, I haven’t written on any other sites before. I just started this blog to chronicle my Film and Book challenges for the year.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh cool! Well if you’re ever looking to share your writing on any movie sites, let me know 🙂 Would love to help get some writing onto moviepilot! Samuel.harries@moviepilot.com
LikeLike