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DokBrowne [ 8.5 ]
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The Pixar western!
Or: it's Pixar's "City Slickers"! Kinda like how "Cars" was repurposed "Doc Hollywood", this is Pixar's more kid-friendly, anthropomorphic take on another early '90s comedy with universal appeal, in this case Billy Crystal's popular midlife-crisis-on-a-dude-ranch epic. Someone with no outdoors skills gets lost in the wilderness when his father figure dies, befriends a small animal, goes on a long adventure braving nature and its setbacks (as well as colorful encounters with members of his own species), gradually adapts to his surroundings and starts to have a good time, bonds with the animal, then saves said animal from a scary river current leader to an "is this the biggest cliche in movie history" impending waterfall. Boom, "City Slickers"!
Based on the trailers, I was worried about the contrast between the photorealistic backdrops and the brightly colored, playdough-textured dinos. Would the difference be too jarring? Would this be like "Titan A.E." all over again? But it works, somehow. Maybe because Pixar has the high-standard expertise to make sure these Saturday morning cartoon-style dinosaurs are seamlessly integrated into said landscapes so they don't seem like they're just pasted on top. They interact fluidly with the uncanny scenery, so the visual dissonance fades away right quick. And despite protagonist Arlo's simplified brontosaurus design, there's much nuance added to his legs, skin, and body language, so it doesn't feel like the animators were necessarily taking the easy way out with this approach. Nevertheless, it's this natural world around him that's the real triumph of the movie's tech department. It's absolutely stunning. In terms of advancements in film animation, to my eyes this is the most show-stopping leap since "The Lion King" (you'd know what I mean only if you were around to see it for the first time in 1994). Whatever re-adjustments they made to this movie during its year-plus release delay (for one thing, they ditched an entire voice cast that included John Lithgow, Neil Patrick Harris, Judy Greer, and Bill Hader) probably didn't include the world graphics; it's hard to believe they could've scrapped most of the old material and put together a movie this beautiful in so little time. If anything they probably set the animators to refine the already-prepped landscapes during the prolonged down time, and maybe that's how this turned out so amazingly.
As a narrative, this won't win awards for innovation or sophistication; it's not audacious and surprising like "Inside Out" or "Wall-E" or "Up", and not an impeccable fusion of artistry and entertainment like "The Incredibles" or "Finding Nemo". But critics have given it an unfairly short shrift so far. From scene to scene, Pixar coaxes heartbreak, excitement, joy, laughter, wonderment, and pathos from very familiar emotional beats and old-hat plot markers. Most of their movies do the same thing, spinning fresh sensations from ancient movie formulas and tropes; I think "The Good Dinosaur" just isn't winning people over as much because its premise, while really just as novel as "Inside Out"'s or "Wall-E"'s or "Up"'s – it's a classic western saga with dinosaurs instead of cowboys, in an alternate reality where they never went extinct and humans became primitive wildlife instead; c'mon, how much more high concept can a movie get?? - is inherently dorkier than those other movies. And as someone wrote somewhere (sorry, forgot who), it's like watching "Finding Nemo" entirely from Nemo's perspective instead of Marlin's, so there's a sense that this is aimed more directly at kids then other Pixar joints, which usually feature adult POVs.
That might be a stretch, but this movie is a winner replete with pleasures, rewards, and virtues, and it deserves a better reputation (66 on Metacritic? 76% on Rotten Tomatoes?). It's one of the most incredible looking movies you'll see in 2015, it's funny and sweet and delightful, and if you're not too jaded, it'll make you cry a few different times. In other words, it's Pixar and they've done it again
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| Weighted Rating | : 7.0 |
| No. Ratings | : 1 | |
| No. Reviews | : 1 | |
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