Pixar's latest fails to impress

Despite an original spin on the classic ‘Boy & His Beast’ trope – in this case, the dinosaur is the boy, and the human the beast – Pixar’s latest, The Good Dinosaur, felt rather childish. And yes, I know it is a children’s film, but that doesn’t mean it has to be childish. The fair amount of violence on screen, however, leads to a confusion as to whom the film was truly aimed at.

The story follows a young, fearful dinosaur named Arlo (Raymond Ochoa) who gets lost far away from home, and must make his way back on a perilous – if not somewhat disjointed – journey. During this trek home, he ends up befriending a ‘critter’, who is actually a primitive human boy (Jack Bright).

A thin plot with an underlying message that is neither original nor subtly put, on the whole the story has little direction. Focusing on the fear of the unnoticed child in a family, the film goes little further than to say that even the brave are afraid. That is not to say that genuine sentimentality did not feature; it did, but just not when they were trying to force it upon you. The addition of a some strange choices in the story, not least the small drug-trip scene that featured (yes, you read that right), made for, on the whole, a slightly jarring experience.

A thin plot with an underlying message that is neither original nor subtly put, on the whole the story has little direction

It wasn’t all mediocre though: the CGI landscape was more detailed and gorgeously rendered than any animated film I have seen before (and I have seen a lot). With the entire film set in the open, there are plenty of immensely beautiful shots that I could’ve stared at for ages, and the reason this is so important is because Nature has an extremely large role to play – the true antagonist of the film is not a dinosaur, but all of Nature. The daunting presence of the highly realistic storm clouds and crashing rivers contrasts with the cartoonish look of Arlo, making him seem even weaker than he was before.

With enough humour, warm-heartedness, and spectacular scenery, The Good Dinosaur is still an enjoyable film, but unfortunately for Pixar it is nothing more than that.