Arlo and Spot Leave an Imprint in Our Hearts

The Good Dinosaur Review

Credit: Pixar

What if the asteroid never hit Earth, what if dinosaurs reined supreme, and life as we knew it was completely different? In this charming but at some times strange film that is exactly what happens. The Good Dinosaur, produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures explores the themes of family, loss, and love.

The film is slow to start, depicting two Apatosaurus protagonists as farmers. They are waiting for their eggs to hatch and the scenes of the babies hatching are humorous. The baby Apatosaurus named Buck grabs a stick and hits the egg of Arlo, trying to break it open. The father, Henry, scolds Buck and then they watch as the egg hatches. Out comes a diminutive Apatosaurus, smaller than even Libby, the female baby.

After the initial scene, the movie shows the baby Apatosauruses now grown tending a field. They are helping their parents water the crops, gather them and put them in the silo for storage. While Buck and Libby do not appear to have any trouble with their chores, Arlo, has trouble with his task. He is instructed every day to feed their chickens. However, Arlo is deathly afraid of the livestock and runs away screaming any time they get near him. He is often made fun of for his cowardice and his father notices this. He takes him away, telling him he can make his mark by doing a certain task. In the movie, making his mark means that Arlo can put his footprint on the silo, thus proving that he is worthy of taking care of the farm and himself. By this point in the movie, both Buck and Libby have already made their marks along with the parents. Arlo feels inadequate and jumps at the chance to be able to make his mark.

The task that is given to Arlo is to catch the critter that has been stealing their food. His father shows him how to make a trap, how to use it, and how to kill the critter with a large stick. His father then leaves him. Arlo paces back and forth often talking to himself cockily as he waits. Suddenly the trap begins to wiggle back and forth, having caught the critter. Arlo cautiously walks up to the trap, frightened by what could have been possibly caught. Inside is a small caveboy. He growls and attempts to get out of the trap, hitting it with his body full force. Arlo attempts to kill it but becomes frightened when it hisses at him. He frees the critter and it runs off into the distance. Arlo’s father sees the critter running off and scowls, telling Arlo that he had one job to do. He is disappointed but makes him go after the creature.

The two of them travel through torrential rain that only becomes worse the longer they traverse through it. Arlo has a hard time keeping up and tells his father to slow down. His father tells him to move faster and keeps plowing forward. Arlo stumbles then, falling down and hurting his knee. His father goes over to him and tells him that it’s OK they can go back. They are about to head back when a large wave of water comes flowing toward them. His father saves him but with a price. His life.

There are two problems with the beginning of this movie. The first one is that it is extremely slow to start. I myself felt a little bored and wondered where the movie was going. The second one being that I thought it was a little strange how the dinosaurs acted like humans and had their own culture. It seemed a bit far-fetched to believe that dinosaurs would be superior to humans. I thought the movie really kicked off when the pterodactyls appeared after the storm. Before that point I thought the movie had no direction or storyline to speak of. It felt like the interactions with the caveboy, Spot, and Arlo could have been shortened. Prior to the pterodactyls appearance, there were no villains to speak of and the movie did not seem to have a purpose. Once the pterodactyls appeared though, the story appeared to kick off. They added a danger that gave direction to the movie. They were both funny and charming despite being villains. The humor in the movie really shined through and I found myself laughing along with the audience.

I am giving this film a 3 out of 5 because of the slow start and because of the incontinences within the movie. Dinosaurs did not live with humans and the caveman was not as dumb as they portrayed him. The incontinences could give children the wrong idea about how the world works and how dinosaurs existed. While it was a cute and engaging movie, it had its problems like everything else. I do recommend seeing it though. I warn you though, be prepared to have to muddle through the beginning.