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The Good Dinosaur (2015) - Review


The Good Dinosaur is the second release from Pixar in 2015 (Other one being the amazing 'Inside Out'), and I was really looking forward to watching it because, well, It's Pixar, CMON!!

The movie takes place in a setting where the asteroid that killed all the dinosaurs missed earth, resulting in them to keep on living for millions of years more. Now this is a really interesting premise and they could have done so much with it, but sadly we only get a buddy-up adventure type movie. Not that there is anything wrong with those types of films, they can be pretty fun but I just can't help but feel like a huge opportunity was wasted here just because of that approach.

Anyway, so the movie focuses on a child dinosaur in a family of dinosaurs, which are obviously sauropods (But not sure which one, eh who cares), and are living on a farm because I guess dinosaurs not dying out have evolved them a bit more. Some stuff happens and the child dino now has to find his way home while being accompanied by a human child, and now we have our buddy adventure story.

Now the movie does some things really great. The animation quality of the environments and surrounding are simply gorgeous. Photo realistic beauty. The level of detail in some areas was so great that you almost forget that you are watching an animated film. Along with that, there were some truly genuine great moments/scenes in the movie that you have come to expect from Pixar's brilliance. They were beautiful, tugged on my heart strings and I wanted more of them. The Soundtrack was also pretty good.

But then there is the other side; the story was lackluster, the secondary characters weren't anything special and the movie wasn't particularly funny/humorous, which isn't bad per say but to have a serious movies, you need a better story, which this was certainly lacking. The overall execution just didn't felt right, made the movie to not naturally flow between scenes of brilliance. Also, what's up with the weird dino design. They looked off to begin with but then coupled with the gorgeous surroundings, the contrast just became too profound. Wish they did em like dinos from 'Dinosaur'.

The couple of amazing moments give you hints of something that could have been another pixar hit, but the less than stellar scenes in between strung together with a lackluster story made for an experience that, although not low enough to be called mediocre or even bad, still ends up being a disappointment. For all intents and purposes, this is not a bad animated movie overall. It is just not a great one either. It is simply normal, which was a disappointment for me as I was expecting a lot more from the premise and from Pixar. I would still say it is a worth a watch it if you like animated movies.

7/10
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