By: Declan Hertel Entertainment Editor
Pixar’s latest film, “The Good Dinosaur,” is a curious little piece. It’s quite a good little piece, but it is definitely curious.
It holds the distinction of being the second Pixar film this year; “Inside Out,” which was released in June, was great, but this is a first for Pixar, who has never released more than one film in a single year.
It’s clearly a “kids’ movie,” as opposed to a “great kid-friendly movie,” like the rest of Pixar’s repertoire. It’s an intriguing step for Pixar, especially as we look ahead to their faster release schedule for the coming years.
Firstly, let me say that “The Good Dinosaur” is jaw-droppingly gorgeous. The vibrant landscapes, the fluidity of movement, the detail on the characters, it’s all stunning.
I mentioned two weeks ago that “Toy Story” still looks really good 20 years later, and it does, but it looks like a B-grade student project next to “The Good Dinosaur.”
There’s hardly a frame in this movie that couldn’t stand on its own merit, visually speaking.
But this leads us to one of the curiosities: sometimes the movie comes off as experimental in animations that were strung together to create a movie.
This is reinforced by the episodic structure of the movie; it’s more of a series of islands than an A-to-B progression, highlighting that this might not have been a grand-concept picture from the get-go like “Finding Nemo” or “The Incredibles.”
This method of storytelling is not inherently a bad thing at all, and actually makes for an interesting feel for “The Good Dinosaur,” which is to say that it is is a “boy and his dog” story in the American South, but with dinosaurs.
This is weird, but ultimately really cool, and allows southern baritone Sam Elliott (the narrator in “The Big Lebowski”) to voice a giant T. Rex, which is just tops.
Elliot’s character, Butch, brings up another strange part of “The Good Dinosaur:” it couldn’t decide how grown-up it wanted to be.
It had all the goofy antics one would expect from a movie like this, but also features, among other moments, Butch telling a story about how he drowned a crocodile in its own blood.
There were several moments that could be genuinely unsettling to a small child, and several were unsettling to me (though the child two rows behind me seemed to thoroughly enjoy the movie).
It’s almost unfortunate that Pixar has such a great overall track record: we expect greatness from them now, so a film like “The Good Dinosaur” that is just “solid” will likely get overlooked. It’s definitely worth a watch, but it is especially worth your time if you’re a diehard Pixar fan like your faithful author.
It keeps that innovative spirit that Pixar is known for, yet features many “kid flick” clichés. It feels familiar, yet is a fundamentally different movie than they have ever released before. It’s greater than the sum of its parts, but in an odd way.
All I know for sure is that it’s immensely interesting. Watch it, and if you see me around, let’s talk about it.
