Rating: The Good Dinosaur is going to be Pixar's most divisive film. Not their worst, don't get me wrong, but the one that garners the most polarising opinions, ranging from tearful joy to emotionless derision (often both at the same time). Heck, even I can't fully make my mind up about it. In many ways it's classic Emeryville, with an off-kilter coming-of-age story built around a oh-of-course genius idea, but that's all juxtaposed with a sense of repetition and stifled creativity. This was a famously troubled production, originally planned for release in Summer 2014 before a change of director and total story reshuffle forced it to this late 2015 spot just months after Inside Out, and it really shows. Right from the title it's a confused film - Arlo, our hero, is an Apatosaurus who goes on a journey of self-discovery, but nothing about his personality or actions distinguish him as any more "good" than half of the other creatures he comes across. Things just aren't developed in the way you'd expect them to be, especially from this studio. As cynics so often like to point out, Pixar aren't always the first person to come up with their original ideas - toys coming to life, monsters hiding in your closet and little beings controlling you from your brain are long-standing "What ifs?" - but what they do brilliantly is take these concepts and realise them completely; these worlds within ours are given hierarchies and human communities that allow exploration of bigger, context-relevant ideas (just look at how Toy Story became about growing up, or Ratatouille about not judging things on the outside). Yet, with The Good Dinosaur, one of their most untapped ideas - the brilliant notion that the armageddon asteroid missed, leading to dinos and humans co-existing - is squandered with nary a sense of wonderment. If anything, that genius concept is just needless set-up; the main narrative is that Arlo gets parted from his family (who farm corn for some reason) and must find his way back with the help of feral human child Spot. We clearly needed the near-miss to allow humans and terrible lizards to live alongside each other, but the story it's been used to tell is nothing new. And that's the big problem with the film - it's really derivative. Throughout I was reminded of countless, better animations; the landscapes and action beats come from Up, the set-up of a community storing food for winter is A Bug's Life, the death of a supporting character and a gaggle of villains feel directly lifted from The Lion King, there's a supporting character who acts like a dog for no reason just like in Tangled and Frozen, the whole arc for Arlo is Bambi to a tee and the episodic "ooh, what's this dinosaur like" story structure is beat-for-beat Finding Nemo. Heck, the arc with Spot hews uncomfortably close to Ice Age. Pixar riffing on Blue Sky? Stop this alternate reality, I want to get off. What stops this feeling like a lazy rip-off or rushed hack-job is that trademark Pixar shine which manages to dull any serious complaints; it may not be the most original film, but it's still a fun one. The creativity on show outside of the narrative, from the use of dino-traits to achieve human-like society to the way individual scenes build to almost tear-jerking crescendos, is wonderful, and reminds you exactly how this company consistently lifts itself above the rest of the pack. We're once again in a fully realised world, to the point where story digressions feel like the result of our hero only being able to explore so much of this landscape rather than time-mandated script choices. And what a landscape it is. This is by far the company's conventionally best looking movie, with near-photorealistic vistas populated by cartoonishly-detailed creatures drawing you in like no stereoscopy ever could. We typically expect our big-budget animations to look good, but this is envelope-pushing stuff. I often bemoan watching a movie just for the visuals (see: Avatar), but The Good Dinosaur is the film that bucks that trend - see it just for the animation alone. The Good Dinosaur is a solid children's animation and one that will certainly hit more mature audience's right where it hurts (especially thanks to a surprisingly atmospheric score), but the major story failings are also a reminder that its studio is no longer the infallible power it once was. This may not be the first sub-par movie we've got from Pixar, but it is their first squandering of an A-grade idea; there was no innate brilliance of the concept of sentient secret agent cars, after all. No matter how nice the overall package is, after the transcendent Inside Out that's a real disappointment. The Good Dinosaur is in cinemas now.
