The Good Dinosaur
Vibe
Pixar’s alternate-history tale imagines a world where dinosaurs never went extinct, following Arlo, a timid Apatosaurus struggling to live up to his family’s expectations after a traumatic loss leaves him feeling small and afraid. Swept far from home by a sudden river current, Arlo forms an unlikely bond with a feral human boy named Spot, who helps him navigate a vast and often unforgiving wilderness. As the journey unfolds, Arlo is forced to confront his fears and redefine what strength truly means. Directed by Peter Sohn, the film pairs sweeping, photorealistic landscapes with a simple, character-driven narrative. Beneath its elemental story lies a meditation on fear, resilience, and the quiet process of growing into one’s own identity.
Watch for
- Arlo’s early struggles with fear, establishing the emotional foundation of his journey.
- The evolving relationship between Arlo and Spot, which develops through trust and shared survival.
- The contrast between the vast natural landscapes and the characters’ vulnerability within them.
- Arlo’s key moments of decision, where he begins to confront fear and define his own sense of strength.
Production notes
The Good Dinosaur had one of the most troubled productions in Pixar history. Bob Peterson, who had co-directed Up with Pete Docter, was the original director from 2011, but in 2013 he was removed and the entire film was effectively restarted under a new direction. Peter Sohn, a longtime Pixar story artist (the model for Up's Russell), took over and substantially reworked the film with a new story team. The premise — what if the meteor that killed the dinosaurs had missed Earth? — remained, but the characterizations, plot structure, and emotional arc were almost entirely rebuilt. The film's photorealistic landscapes were modeled on the American West, with research trips to Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho informing the painterly background work. Raymond Ochoa voiced Arlo, Jack Bright played Spot, and Jeffrey Wright was Poppa Henry. Composer Mychael Danna contributed the score. The film cost approximately $200 million.
Trivia
- Bob Peterson's removal from directing in 2013 — and the subsequent 18-month delay while Peter Sohn rebuilt the film — became one of the most public director changes in Pixar history; the film originally scheduled for May 2014 was pushed to November 2015.
- The film's photorealistic landscapes were modeled on the American Pacific Northwest and the Tetons; Pixar's research team took multiple trips to capture the geography, geology, and weather patterns that became the film's visual foundation.
- Peter Sohn — who would later direct Elemental (2023) — was a longtime Pixar story artist, and Up's Russell was animated based on his physical proportions and gestures; The Good Dinosaur was his feature directorial debut.
- The Good Dinosaur was released the same year as Inside Out (2015), making it the only year in Pixar history with two theatrical releases in the same calendar year — an unusual scheduling decision driven by The Good Dinosaur's lengthy production delays.
- The film features almost no human dialogue — Spot, the human child, communicates entirely through pre-linguistic vocalizations and gesture, an unusual choice that gives the film a more primitive, fable-like atmosphere than typical Pixar features.
Legacy
The Good Dinosaur stands as Pixar's most underseen feature of the modern era — released just five months after Inside Out's success, the film grossed only about $332 million worldwide on a $200 million budget and was the first Pixar feature to lose money on theatrical release. Critical reception was lukewarm; reviewers acknowledged the photorealistic landscapes as among the most beautiful Pixar had ever produced but found the story underdeveloped. The film has been quietly rediscovered on streaming, particularly by viewers who appreciate its unhurried pace, its stripped-down dialogue, and its primitive-fable tone. Its legacy is largely institutional — a marker of Pixar's only major theatrical financial failure during the modern era, and the troubled production whose director change became a case study in Pixar's willingness to gut and restart projects rather than push forward with compromised material. Peter Sohn's career continued forward, with Elemental in 2023 and Incredibles 3 scheduled for 2027.