Dinosaurs have been a pretty big part of the animation world for a long while now, whether you look all the way back to The Flintstones and The Land Before Time or think of more recent movies like The Croods or Ice Age, but Pixar and Disney manged to feature them from a completely different standpoint in The Good Dinosaur. Having tackled the inner workings of the mind in Inside Out its second 2015 challenge was a “what-if?” concept on the extinction level event that befell the dinosaurs looking at a timeline in which the asteroid narrowly missed.
Though the science is a little on the creative side (visit the University of Alberta’s dinosaur page for more on the facts), the bright colours and vivid characters that we’ve come to know and love from Pixar appear to be a big part of the movies. Check out the trailer below to see a few snippets of what to expect from the film.
Release date
Cinema: The Good Dinosaur has been confirmed for a UK release date of the 27th November 2015, following on from the US cinematic release on the 25th November. It will be the first time in Pixar’s twenty year movie history that they’ll be releasing two films in the same year with Inside Out already out in cinemas in the US and due for release in the UK on the 24th July 2015. However, they’ve both got the makings of classic Pixar genius, so they’re a long way away from volume over quality. Visit our movie release dates page to see what else will be making its way to the big screen in the next year.
DVD, Blu-ray and digital download: It was released on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download on the 21st March 2016 in the UK. The US home entertainment release date was the 23rd February 2016.
Story
Prehistoric animated movies are often about journeys for some reason and that’s the case again here as it centres on a little Apatosaurus called Arlo, who finds himself having to travel the unforgiving land after a traumatic event with his family sees him stuck out in the wilds. However, this is no ordinary dinosaur timeline with the asteroid missing the planet, so dinosaurs have remained as humans started to evolve. In this altered Earth Arlo makes friends with a feisty human boy and the two of them travel together to find the safety of home once again, tackling danger and adventure together along the way.
Cast
The Good Dinosaur cast doesn’t have much in the way of big names, but then you could say the same for Up and that turned out to be another classic from Pixar. The main role of Arlo the Apatosaurus is being played by 13-year-old relative newcomer Raymond Ochoa, who’s previous work has been in US mockumentary TV show 10 Items Or Less and voicing a young Anakin Skywalker in Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode III. He’s joined by an even younger entrant to the animated movie scene in Jack Bright, along with Jeffrey Wright (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire), Frances McDormand (Moonrise Kingdom), Steve Zahn (Dallas Buyer’s Club), Sam Elliot (Tombstone) and Anna Paquin (X-Men: Days Of Future Past).
Production
Leading the Pixar and Disney movie train for the film is director Peter Sohn, who’s last outing for them was Monsters University where he voiced Scott “Squishy” Squibbles. However, he’s also previously worked as production artist on Toy Story 3, a storyboard artist on Up and story artist on WALL-E, as well as having similar responsibilities on Ratatouille, The Incredibles and Finding Nemo, so he’s had a lot of Pixar Animation experience to draw on. This was added to by Denise Ream, who’s past credits include Cars 2, Up and Brave.
DVD, digital download and Blu-ray extras
DVD special features:
- Theatrical short film – Sanjay’s Super Team
Digital download special features:
- Just Listen – The development of the sounds that have been created to make The Good Dinosaur such an immersive experience
Blu-ray special features:
All DVD extras plus…
- True Lies About Dinosaurs – Learn more about what separates the fictional world of The Good Dinosaur from what scientists know about real dinosaurs today.
- Recyclosaurus – The film crew at Pixar battle it out to create the best dinosaur out of discarded items from the studio’s leftover junk.
- The Filmmaker’s Journey – Director Peter Sohn and his fellow filmmakers on the project talk about their emotional experience of making the movie.
- Every Part Of The Dinosaur – Looks at the special animation challenges of of the film.
- Following The T-Rex Trail – The family inspiration behind the T-Rex ranchers in the film.
- Commentary – from director Peter Sohn, story supervisor Kelsey Mann, supervising animator Mike Venturini, director of photography/lighting Sharon Calahan, and supervising technical director Sanjay Bakshi.
- Dino Bites – Original animated snippets produced to promote the film.
- Hide And Seek – Short animated clip created for the promotion of the film
- Deleted scenes
First impressions
You literally can’t not like an animated dinosaur movie and The Good Dinosaur is already shaping up to be up there with the best. However, initially there wasn’t that much to go on from the look of the teaser trailer below, but following following the UK release of Inside Out, Disney Pixar has also put out its full length, official trailer for The Good Dinosaur and all signs continue to point to it going on to be another modern day classic from them.
The premise is strong, with a plot that’s sounds part Lion King and part The Land Before Time with a little The Croods and Ice Age humanity thrown in for good measure. It should be a fun filled adventure with a poignant storyline that will tug at your heartstrings – although, hopefully not quite as much as The Lion King or Up – with some cute animation and characters, alongside a prehistoric backdrop. If this isn’t a smash, we’ll be very surprised.
