ClayKavalier
Banned
I was looking for something to watch and came across the Good Dinosaur on Amazon. I missed it in theaters and completely forgot it existed.
I knew nothing going in, so I was pretty surprised that the movie is about dinosaurs who farm to get by. The setting is pretty bizarre. Say what you will about Cars, but it was fun seeing all the little details they put together to make the setting feel like a world full of sentient cars. TGD seems lazy in comparison, it's our world with dinosaurs substituted in for people. This makes some details not make much sense. What were the dinosaur family doing with the chickens? I guess eating their eggs, but they don't seem big enough to crack a dent in the daily calorie needs of a brontosaurus, and anyway they're herbivores. It's not a huge deal, just disappointing coming from Pixar.
Everything that happened before the dad dies was boring, and everything that happens from that point to the t-rexes was pointless. That was a really long sequence just to show Arlo and Spot becoming friends. Scenes like the one with the triceratops just feel like padding. He had one or two jokes, and the movie wouldn't be any different if the scene were removed. The fermented fruit scene was just odd too, it felt really out of place. There were a lot of moments watching this movie where thought to myself "What the hell am I watching?"
The t-rexes were the only characters in the movie I liked, though again the small details feel a little off compared to what I'd expect from Pixar. Do they only eat their longhorns? Why are they alternately much more powerful than or completely helpless against the raptors depending on what the movie calls for at a given moment? Again, it felt lazy.
A lot of dramatic moments fell completely flat for me. There's some surprisingly obvious comparisons to Lion King, which yet again felt pretty lazy coming from a Pixar movie. But in the Lion King the scene where Simba sees Mufasa in the sky was really powerful. In TGD I was just left wondering if Arlo had eaten some more rotten apricots off-screen before being chucked off the mountain. If I remember right in the Lion King Mufasa basically just tells Simba to get his act together, which is believable. Simba knows he's being selfish hanging out with Timon and Pumba while his family is being subjugated by Scar. In TGD it just felt to me like Arlo was being sort of a dick complimenting himself by imagining his dad repeating the "You're me and more" line.
Another was when Arlo "saves" Spot. Did jumping in front of the wall of water even do anything? That scene would have made a lot more sense if they just left it at him fighting off the pterodactyl.
And speaking of the pterodactyl, why does Arlo sometimes seem fragile but at others he can fight off a predator with a bit of a running start and a headbutt? There's a lot of stuff like that that just looks goofy, another being the raptors winning the fight against the T-rex before Arlo stepped in. They were beating it around as if it weren't three times their size.
And the end just seemed ridiculous. Arlo is at least partially responsible for the death of the father since he couldn't do something as simple as feed some chickens while his siblings were actually contributing. He let Spot go even though Spot was putting his family in danger, and there's nothing to suggest that the humans are going to stop stealing corn.
Even if you think Arlo isn't to blame at all for the father's death, all he did was find his way home, which he would have been completely incapable of without Spot. What exactly did he do to earn his mark? It's basically a pity mark since everyone's glad he's alive, and he even got to place it higher than his brother and sister!
I could rant on, but the movie just did not click for me. Pixar seems to have really lost their way, for years I would scoff at people who preferred Dreamworks or Disney animated movies, but Zootopia was great. I wouldn't call Dreamworks' recent movie classics or anything, but they're fun and worth watching. I'd rewatch Cars before TGD.
I knew nothing going in, so I was pretty surprised that the movie is about dinosaurs who farm to get by. The setting is pretty bizarre. Say what you will about Cars, but it was fun seeing all the little details they put together to make the setting feel like a world full of sentient cars. TGD seems lazy in comparison, it's our world with dinosaurs substituted in for people. This makes some details not make much sense. What were the dinosaur family doing with the chickens? I guess eating their eggs, but they don't seem big enough to crack a dent in the daily calorie needs of a brontosaurus, and anyway they're herbivores. It's not a huge deal, just disappointing coming from Pixar.
Everything that happened before the dad dies was boring, and everything that happens from that point to the t-rexes was pointless. That was a really long sequence just to show Arlo and Spot becoming friends. Scenes like the one with the triceratops just feel like padding. He had one or two jokes, and the movie wouldn't be any different if the scene were removed. The fermented fruit scene was just odd too, it felt really out of place. There were a lot of moments watching this movie where thought to myself "What the hell am I watching?"
The t-rexes were the only characters in the movie I liked, though again the small details feel a little off compared to what I'd expect from Pixar. Do they only eat their longhorns? Why are they alternately much more powerful than or completely helpless against the raptors depending on what the movie calls for at a given moment? Again, it felt lazy.
A lot of dramatic moments fell completely flat for me. There's some surprisingly obvious comparisons to Lion King, which yet again felt pretty lazy coming from a Pixar movie. But in the Lion King the scene where Simba sees Mufasa in the sky was really powerful. In TGD I was just left wondering if Arlo had eaten some more rotten apricots off-screen before being chucked off the mountain. If I remember right in the Lion King Mufasa basically just tells Simba to get his act together, which is believable. Simba knows he's being selfish hanging out with Timon and Pumba while his family is being subjugated by Scar. In TGD it just felt to me like Arlo was being sort of a dick complimenting himself by imagining his dad repeating the "You're me and more" line.
Another was when Arlo "saves" Spot. Did jumping in front of the wall of water even do anything? That scene would have made a lot more sense if they just left it at him fighting off the pterodactyl.
And speaking of the pterodactyl, why does Arlo sometimes seem fragile but at others he can fight off a predator with a bit of a running start and a headbutt? There's a lot of stuff like that that just looks goofy, another being the raptors winning the fight against the T-rex before Arlo stepped in. They were beating it around as if it weren't three times their size.
And the end just seemed ridiculous. Arlo is at least partially responsible for the death of the father since he couldn't do something as simple as feed some chickens while his siblings were actually contributing. He let Spot go even though Spot was putting his family in danger, and there's nothing to suggest that the humans are going to stop stealing corn.
Even if you think Arlo isn't to blame at all for the father's death, all he did was find his way home, which he would have been completely incapable of without Spot. What exactly did he do to earn his mark? It's basically a pity mark since everyone's glad he's alive, and he even got to place it higher than his brother and sister!
I could rant on, but the movie just did not click for me. Pixar seems to have really lost their way, for years I would scoff at people who preferred Dreamworks or Disney animated movies, but Zootopia was great. I wouldn't call Dreamworks' recent movie classics or anything, but they're fun and worth watching. I'd rewatch Cars before TGD.
