Pixar's "The Good Dinosaur"

[scallenger]

I'm surprised there hasn't been a thread about this yet! It's been announced for some time (a year, I think), and the more I hear about it the more interested I am. More details of it were released today, along with some concept art.

http://www.hypable.com/2013/08/09/the-good-dinosaur-details-charactersactors-scenes-monsters-university-short-film/





http://screencrush.com/the-good-dinosaur-plot-cast-footage-d23/







The Cast:

Arlo – Lucas Neff
Poppa – John Lithgow
Mama – Frances McDormand
Forrest – Bill Hader
Cliff – Neil Patrick Harris
Ivy – Judy Greer

Plot: What if the cataclysmic asteroid that forever changed life on Earth actually missed the planet completely and giant dinosaurs never became extinct? The story follows Arlo and his "pet boy" on an adventure to save their collective worlds. Arlo lives in a farming community where nothing ever changes, and one that's overrun by "giant prehistoric bugs." Arlo is fascinated by them, and upon further investigation comes to find that one of these bugs is actually a young caveman named Spot, who's just wearing a bug costume for, presumably, protection. Spot, gets his name from the three spots on his forehead. He's all alone in the world. He's a tough kid who's not afraid of anyone, but he's also really endearing.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/63644

Details on footage that was shown: This clip showed a gorgeous star field. Camera pans down (a lot like Star Wars, actually) to an astroid belt. One small asteroid bumps into a larger one, which bumps into a huge one, sending it out of the belt and into the emptiness of space. Of course we know where it's going and shortly enough we see it tumbling towards Earth. The music swells at it gets closer and closer, reaching a crescendo as it starts to burn up in our atmosphere.

The ominous music abruptly cuts to silence as we see the asteroid passing over the planet. We see a bunch of herbivores look up as it passes like a shooting star in the night sky before going back to eating leaves. It was a dark shot, with the dinos in silhouette, but they looked very real, not at all cartoony like the rest of the movie.

And that's not a dig on the look of the rest of the stuff we saw. Yes, it looked like a cartoon, but in the same way all Pixar's films look like cartoons.

The basic set up is that dinosaurs are now evolved to being great farmers. Triceratops are natural bulldozers, stegosauruses use their tails to cut crops, ankylosaurs haul materials and Apatosauruses use their long necks in a unique way... they till the earth by jamming their heads into the dirt and walk forward, making long rows of soil to grow greens.

One of these families of farming dinosaurs are a brood of Apatosauruses... [including] Arlo [who] is excitable and curious. We were shown a scene where he discovers a weird bug. Giant pre-historic insects are the pests the dinos have to deal with as they try to raise crops. All the dinos hate them, but Arlo is fascinated by them.

He's out alone one day and one particularly weird one catches his attention. It has a brown shell with some weird colorization. He flips the shell and it's revealed to be a shield of some sort... for a little human kid. He's a bit feral, has three spots of paint on his forehead and carries a spear, which he promptly chucks at Arlo, stabbing Arlo right in the nose.

The kid jumps on this dino's head and bites his eyelid, starting a comical tussle as this little guy with a strong Napoleon complex keeps attacking this dinosaur which is a few hundred times bigger than he is. Arlo gets the kid in his mouth, closes him in and mumbles that he'll let him out when he calms down... Naturally, this kid sees the dino's uvula and attacks it, causing the dino to spit him out.

The human kid's name is Spot... and my understanding is this becomes something of a buddy film between the dinosaur and this small warrior child.

Footage looked good and the relationship between the two main characters could already been glimpsed in this early scene. Could be really good if they can keep the cute and humor as balanced as this scene.

[tyrantqueen]

Looks cute, but too stylised and kiddy for me to really pique my interest. No offense to anyone at Pixar, they're all really talented people.

Just not my cup of tea.

[scallenger]

I do kind of agree, actually. I'm not like REALLY excited for it. I'm less excited for this than I am for Walking With Dinosaurs (in name only) 3D, for example. But I do think it has a cool premise for a dinosaur-related film, despite it's style.

[Gwangi]

The farming dinosaurs concept sounds a lot like "The Flintstones" to me. I'm sure it won't be very much like "The Flintstones" and I hope not because I was never a fan of that show. I agree that it also looks a little childish, I would have preferred some level of realism in the animation style, maybe like "Finding Nemo". Still, I am generally a fan of Pixar's work so I'll give it a chance unless the reviews for it are terrible.

[postsaurischian]

  I'm a Pixar fan and I can't wait to watch the movie.
I haven't read anything about it (on purpose!). I hate to know what happens in a movie before I watch it the first time, it spoils my enjoyment of it a bit.
Except for 'Cars' () I'm excited about every new Pixar movie and I have the feeling that this one will be a good one (... no, I haven't read anything of the first post's movie description ).

[Takama]

I already started a thread about this on here.  http://www.dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php/topic,327.0.html   Dan said Pixar was actully shopping from him, and they were looking for very specific species.   One of the figures was a Papo T-Rex



Wow.  That is terrible.  those feet.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Keep telling yourself it's just concept art .

[HD-man]

Keep telling yourself it's just concept art .

I'm guessing it is, given the difference in Arlo's proportions btwn the different images.

[Seijun]

On the bright side, at least the nostrils are correctly positioned!

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Honestly it looks like it will be a fun kid-oriented dinosaur movie..might even remind us of we thought about dinosaurs when we were younger as some of Pixar's films have done with other subjects. 

I do wonder if we'll see any theropods at all though  ?

[Brontozaurus]

I do wonder if we'll see any theropods at all though  ?

If there are I'll bet you anything that they'll be the bad guys.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I do wonder if we'll see any theropods at all though  ?

If there are I'll bet you anything that they'll be the bad guys.

That would be about par for the course wouldn't it ?

[CityRaptor]

Maybe they are Farmers, too. Just a different kind of Farmer:

I can actually see it as a reason, why that little Monkey comes around...

Wow.  That is terrible.  those feet.

Not just the Feet, the whole creature.

Okay, let's get it straight:
Non-Avian Dinosaurs never went extinct.  Fine!
They developed Agriculture. Also fine with that. Actually expect sapient herbivorous or omnivorous Dinosaurs to do so. ( Carnivores would probably raise herbivores as a food source. )
They became grotesque parodies of themselves. Terrible!
Sauropods are clearly stupid due too much ramming their heads into the ground...Ehhhh.....
The Main Character gets attacked by a feral beast and does not kill it in self-defense ? Seriously?
He gets a Mammalian Sidekick, a Primate to boot. Horrible.

Yep, this can only end horrible. Especially given the track record Pixar and Disney ( who owns Pixar ) have with Dinosaurs....

[Balaur]

I was excited for this film, but now I'm just disappointed. It really could have been better done. I love Pixar to death, but this is not the movie I'm going to be seeing at the end of the year. I actually am way more excited about Walking with Dinosaurs 3D at this point.

[Gwangi]

I do wonder if we'll see any theropods at all though  ?

If there are I'll bet you anything that they'll be the bad guys.

That would be about par for the course wouldn't it ?

You mean like the sharks from "Finding Nemo"? Oh...wait.

Yep, this can only end horrible. Especially given the track record Pixar and Disney ( who owns Pixar ) have with Dinosaurs.

And what track record is that? Disney has made only one dinosaur movie, Pixar was not attached to that film. Other than that we have a scene in "Fantasia" that includes dinosaurs which was actually really good. That's it...hardly a track record.

I cannot believe the level of hate I'm seeing based on a paragraph describing the premise and a few pictures. Granted, it is not what I thought it would be but I'm not about to say "this can only end horrible" based on how little we've been given. Pixar generally has a good track record. Even their weakest films are typically better than anything the other companies are churning out for kids these days. At least see a trailer of the film before you guys completely discount it.

[tyrantqueen]

I do wonder if we'll see any theropods at all though  ?

If there are I'll bet you anything that they'll be the bad guys.

That would be about par for the course wouldn't it ?

You mean like the sharks from "Finding Nemo"? Oh...wait.

Yep, this can only end horrible. Especially given the track record Pixar and Disney ( who owns Pixar ) have with Dinosaurs.

And what track record is that? Disney has made only one dinosaur movie, Pixar was not attached to that film. Other than that we have a scene in "Fantasia" that includes dinosaurs which was actually really good. That's it...hardly a track record.

I cannot believe the level of hate I'm seeing based on a paragraph describing the premise and a few pictures. Granted, it is not what I thought it would be but I'm not about to say "this can only end horrible" based on how little we've been given. Pixar generally has a good track record. Even their weakest films are typically better than anything the other companies are churning out for kids these days. At least see a trailer of the film before you guys completely discount it.

I'm not saying it will suck..Pixar films are usually very good. But I just won't go out of my way to watch it- the last Pixar film I saw was Toy Story 3, and I went to see it because of childhood nostalgia. It's just not to my tastes I guess. If I hear really good things about it, maybe -just maybe- I might get it on DVD. Cinema trips are few and far between for me.

I lack interest in this for the same reason I lack in any interest in Dinosaur Train- they both are cute looking, but I prefer a different kind of dino movie.
I'd like to see Up, but I just never got around to it, I suppose.

Look on the bright side people- at least Dreamworks isn't making it *shudder*

[Takama]

Maybe they are Farmers, too. Just a different kind of Farmer:

I can actually see it as a reason, why that little Monkey comes around...

Wow.  That is terrible.  those feet.

Not just the Feet, the whole creature.

Okay, let's get it straight:
Non-Avian Dinosaurs never went extinct.  Fine!
They developed Agriculture. Also fine with that. Actually expect sapient herbivorous or omnivorous Dinosaurs to do so. ( Carnivores would probably raise herbivores as a food source. )
They became grotesque parodies of themselves. Terrible!
Sauropods are clearly stupid due too much ramming their heads into the ground...Ehhhh.....
The Main Character gets attacked by a feral beast and does not kill it in self-defense ? Seriously?
He gets a Mammalian Sidekick, a Primate to boot. Horrible.

Yep, this can only end horrible. Especially given the track record Pixar and Disney ( who owns Pixar ) have with Dinosaurs....

I can handle everything else(its a cartoon), but they could of at least made the dang feet right.  Something tells me that if theres a T-Rex in this film, it will be an inacurate Jurassic Park type (remember, Dan had reported that Pixar has bought a Papo T-Rex from him).  I hope that the smaller Theropods(if any would be present) would be featherd.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I wouldn't write the film off at all based on this info..I really want to see it first.  Pixar really does some great films, the subject of dinosaurs being one so close to my heart I think do it justice..if not in a super-accurate detailed way, certainly in the spirit. 

I did like the Rex ( which was JP-ish ) from Meet The Robinsons...I can deal with that quality.

TQ, you really should watch UP..I didn't think much of the trailer, but I loved the movie.

[scallenger]

Well, it's clear that accurate dinosaurs are not what this film is going for and are just using them for their own story purposes. It's one of those "take this on face value" kind of stories where it is just meant to be enjoyed for kids, and in most cases for Pixar, for the adults to enjoy as well. But probably not dinosaur enthusiasts.

Btw... why does the look of this movie remind me of "Dinosaur Bob"? LOL

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

They might have taken some inspiration from that book. Another similar one is Jacob Two-Two and the Dinosaur :