Ugh. Arlo

The Good Dinosaur is a very interesting effort by Pixar, as an animated western with beautiful animation and themes like understanding love, death and empathy, with some comic scenes that touch on bizarre. If I had to make a criticism is whether it tried to much to have its cake and eat it too. It could have chosen one way or the other and either been an almost entirely dialog-less film all about the visuals and unspoken dialog, or it could have tried to be Finding Nemo. By being the type of film that has one foot in this visual empathetic Western, but also tries to throw in some conventions like the comic side characters and have its big save Spot climax scene, it may have handicapped its chances to be relevatory at either.

Finally, a valuable and worthy comment about the film, analyzed from a different perspective.

A silent Arlo would have solved most of the problems.

It's just boring and adds nothing new to anything. It's simply an animated film that exists.

What? The Good Dinosaur might not be the best Pixar movie, but it does try a lot and it's very ambitious in its themes. Even if you hated it you have to acknowledge at least that.

Everything feels lifted from other animated movies. The Lion King especially. And Finding Nemo. And the other dinosaur animated films that exist. And Ice Age. And the Croods. And Monsters Inc. Arlo is a stock scared character, Spot is a stock cute character, and all the other characters have not enough screentime to make any impact. Forrest Woodbush I guess is a little memorable.

Basically everything is lifted from something that came before. Not even The Bible is original and it had a 2000 year headstart compared to modern stories.

He won't understand, it's hard to rationate with someone who thinks the Shrek franchise is the best animated thing ever created

It's infinitely better than the Good Dinosaur because the characters are actually likable and memorable, its funny, action packed and meaningful. In ways its like an anti-Beauty and the Beast because instead of the Beast turning handsome, the beauty turns beastly and they both realize their love is what's important, and that looks don't matter.

Arlo is yet another runt who doesn't live up to the family name (How to Train Your Dragon), has his father killed (The Lion King, every Disney movie where the parents are killed) goes on a journey meeting a collection of kooky characters (Finding Nemo)...

LOLOLOL do you really think Beauty and the Beast is about the attractiveness that matters?

This is completely true. The scenes just between him and Spot where Arlo isn't whining his ass off are actually fantastic.

The Beast turning attractive at the end undermines the films message.

omfg, no. You have no fucking clue.

Still pretty to look at. Still a terrible story with terrible characters beyond the T-Rexes.

The Good Dinosaur

This is not bad. It is a sweet and delightful little film. Much better than Brave and Up, that's for sure. This type of story has been done many times before (youngest of the group goes on a character building journey, father dies, befriending an unlikely partner etc.), and the animation of the dinosaurs and humans is not very appealing (neither is the use of voiced dinosaurs), and it is a very safe and friendly film with very little humour, but there is something intrinsically beautiful about Arlo and Spot's relationship, communication, and humanity that grew on me over the course of the film, and the CGI landscape is sensationally done. A film such as The Good Dinosaur is not as immediately appealing or funny because there is no surroundings or characters that we can relate to, but I found that sort of refreshing, and this is the type of risk that Pixar should be taking. I hope to see more non-sequels from them in the future, I just hope they sometimes go for funny over pure-of-heart timeless themes, because that can become grating over time.

B

Oh, Arlo fuck yourself!

Wow, you're a harsh bastard. Arlo is just a child.

This is how I saw it too, because Spot stated that there was three in his family, and that family already had four.

Well, the dinosaurs hung around long enough to evolve into speaking creatures. I think that's it.

So, presumably, you want realism in an animated movie for kids, right? Well, you got it (there are children out there that are afraid of lots of things - Arlo is a child if you hadn't guessed from his voice), and you're still unhappy.

Spot was a human. Sure, he often mimicked a dog, but then what would you have him mimic instead....a fucking bird? or a whale? or maybe a unicorn? Don't be stupid.

Between this and Angry Birds, it is clear Algren has the worst taste in animated movies in the history of mankind.

Which animated films would one need to like in order to have good taste?

Up and Finding Nemo.