Pixar’s second feature release of 2015 bears the scars of its troubled production. Having struggled to solve fundamental story problems, original director Bob Peterson was removed and extensive rewriting, restructuring and rerecording ensued, with most of the original cast (including John Lithgow and Bill Hader) being replaced. Now the long delayed film finally arrives on the coat tails of Inside Out, arguably Pixar’s most perfectly realised production, a juxtaposition that merely accentuates its story shortcomings.
Naturally, there are some breathtaking visuals, the sweeping landscape vistas providing sumptuous delights as Earth dodges an extinction-level asteroid event in the film’s opening (and best) “what if?” gag. This sets the scene for a role-reversed rites-of-passage tale in which an evolved apatosaurus named Arlo teams up with less-evolved human dog-boy Spot as both search for home – and, inevitably, something more. While the ’toony nature of the characters jars with the photorealist landscapes, there’s soppy fun to be had as we wander hither and yon through western cattle-rustling pastiche and Incredible Journey-style adventure, buoyed up by Jeff and Mychael Danna’s lovely score. But however much it may delight on a scene-by-scene basis, The Good Dinosaur never comes together as a coherent whole, a crucial flaw for a film by Pixar, which has always put story first.
