So this was... interesting. Beautiful and visually stunning beyond any doubt, with the most photorealistic CGI world I've come across in any media. If this was a rendering engine advert I'd have nothing but high praise for the result. Unfortunately, The Good Dinosaur is supposed to be a kids film, not a demo reel, and in that respect it definitely feels a little lacking. In fact I'm not even sure "lacking" is the correct word, it's just a bit... odd. The core storyline is okay, a mixture of The Lion King and Finding Nemo that pushes most of the right buttons in terms of a character arc with a moral underpinning, but definitely doesn't push any boundaries in terms of plot or storytelling. The world the film creates is confusing at best, with some dinosaurs having invented agriculture, housing and tools whilst others just live in fear in the depths of the woods (fear from what is never really outlined, given that the large carnivores all seem to prefer mammal meat). Despite this seeming stasis, the mammalian evolutionary path appears relatively unhindered, resulting in foxes, raccoons, marmots and cattle all clearly being present and yet humans are an odd mixture of canine and primate that is, again, never really analysed.

And then there are the "offbeat" moments, which range from a surprisingly Family Guy-esque drug trip sequence (aimed at children...) and distinctly unsettling, undeveloped characters like the Styracosaurus, to the strange direction the film takes around midway by becoming a bit of a Western, filled entirely with stereotypes. In fact, stereotypes would be a good way to describe just about all of the characters in the film (stereotypes that are just a little unhinged). For a generic kids film, that would be slightly excusable, but for a Pixar film, The Good Dinosaur feels distinctly out of ideas, happy to regurgitate common tropes and very much at home with a more conservative mindset. Female characters are all smaller, weaker and distinctly pinker than their male counterparts; those family units that are shown are incredibly generic, normally mimicking the standard family unit of the 1950s of a Mum, Dad and siblings of mixed gender. Even the ending of the film, which could have had a nice touch of inclusiveness-despite-clear-differences, with Spot joining the family and helping out with his innate tool-wielding abilities, helping make up for the lack of "Dad" being around to do all the heavy lifting, was instead broadsided by the inclusion of a random group of "humans" (again, perfect family unit of suburban 'Murica, just with loin cloths) that just appear and then adopt him. In some ways, this is a heartwarming moment and rare instance of actual emotional development for the two main characters, but when you look at it any deeper it seems to be slightly off. At best this was poor/lazy storytelling, at worst it was a willful decision to reign in any form of progressive subtext, making it clear that you can only be truly happy with your "own kind". And that's before we even get onto wondering why they all walk quadrupedally until the last shot, when suddenly it's bipedal all the way home! That feels very deliberate (I mean, it would require different movement animations for starters) but I have no idea what it was trying to imply.

Even with the technical mastery shown in the amazing CGI backgrounds, the actual character models feel distinctly tacked on. The dinosaurs are all cartoonish, with very low-resolution features and almost no skin textures or detail to them which definitely stands out when contrasted with the visually rich surroundings (or even the smaller animals, who are often far more detailed). Feet "splodging" animation aside, the main characters feel more thrown together than intricately crafted. With all that said, however, I didn't hate The Good Dinosaur. There's a core of a good movie here and I imagine most young kids (which is clearly the target audience) will enjoy the ride. Adults, though, should be warned: this isn't really a Pixar film, it's just a very nicely animated fable.