calvinnigh Put this up against Toy Story 2 or Incredibles and tell me You like it, then we'll talk.

Callum McColgan There are two scenes in The Good Dinosaur which stand out for their brilliance. Both wordlessly capture the longing for family and home entirely through a series of simple gestures. It's a great shame then, that the rest of the film that surrounds these scenes is so muddled, cloying and mediocre by comparison.The visual aesthetic here is strange. The vistas and scenery are astoundingly beautiful and the film itself is a technical marvel. Yet the puffy character design looks like something one would find in a CBeebies cartoon, and is ill-fitting when the ground they walk on looks so lifelike.The unfocused nature of the visual design carries over to the story as well. Following a young dinosaur on this journey to get back to his family after being swept away in a storm, learning to bond with a young human boy on the way. The plot points are all rather predictable, which is no bad thing if the writing is strong and characters interesting. However, The Good Dinosaur meanders back and forth through various scenes with no apparent thematic connection to one another. An early standout moment involves the two companions eating dodgy fruit and going on a drug-induced acid trip. No, really.Otherwise, this film is a fairly sub-par re-telling of a well-known story that doesn't really warrant any further mention. The tone lurches back and forth between the cloying and the gruesome; the main characters just aren't very compelling; and the lack of real wit makes the dialogue tiresome to listen to. Were this a silent movie, there would be real potential for something unique and compelling. As it stands, The Good Dinosaur just a below-average Pixar movie.

cinemajesty Movie Review: "The Good Dinosaur" (2015)Pixar Animation Studios principal executive producers John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich green-lit the second digital animated feature of the year 2015 after "Inside Out" comes as surprise from a production company that usually benefits from their highly-imaginative staff. Here it comes to a main character misconception throughout with a 85 Minutes torturing editorial following a ugly-designed Apatosaurus from egg-hedging under humanized-uninspiring eyes of the main dinosaur's parents, who share nevertheless professionally-captured vocal beats by supporting cast Frances McDormand and Jeffrey Wright.Post-Production circumstances that are unable to secure any indentifying tension, despite being cute-looking for a minority of moviegoers, through an opening sequence of rumoring total production expenses of 200 Million U.S. Dollar by just designing photorealistic background plates of Central USA farming plains and later then an showdown-bringing image-layered raging wild river in heavy rain that even to the end I cannot shack off the feeling while seating in a movie house, actually watching this out-of-ordinary animated feature in a crystal-clear 4k projected screening that production designer Harley Jessup and his associates, taking unmotivated endeavors even lower, hardly convincing first-time director, Peter Sohn, who shares successes as storyboard artist and animator for "Wall-E" (2008) and "Up" (2009), to go for an impressionistic look in favor for an unless diverse naturalistic storyline environment of a standard coming-home, lost-here and found-friend-there dinosaur story, which had been leagues more-gripping with reminiscene to "The Land Before Time" (1988) directed by Don Bluth.Nevertheless the audience sit through with me on a cold day in November 2015 at New York City's Lincoln Square AMC theatres to witness some fair camera motions in virtual space and moments of awe with a cowboy-talking group of Tyrannosaurus, all up front with actor Sam Elliott's undeniable striking dark-smokey voice, running a ranch of longhorn animals in a western mid-act sequence, where another bunch of unlikely-designed, yet herd-attacking Velociraptors with vokuhila hair design, drop any chances to make me achieve my wishes of coming-out of the auditorium in fulfillment while other basically-uninterested spectators mention on the escalator-down-to-the-street that it is okay to flop even for legendary company of Pixar Animation Studios. © 2018 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

EBJ 'THE GOOD DINOSAUR' was directed by Peter SOHN and stars Raymond OCHOA, Jack BRIGHT and Steve ZAHN. ​Luckily for young Arlo, his parents (Jeffrey Wright, Frances McDormand) and his two siblings, the mighty dinosaurs were not wiped out 65 million years ago. When a rainstorm washes poor Arlo (Raymond Ochoa) downriver, he ends up bruised, battered and miles away from home. Good fortune shines on the frightened dino when he meets Spot (Jack Bright), a Neanderthal boy who offers his help and friendship. Together, the unlikely duo embark on an epic adventure to reunite Arlo with his beloved family.When I say this movie is a technical marvel, I genuinely mean that. I recommend the movie purely to witness the masterwork that is the animation and cinematography because that is where this movie thrives.Pixar is known for two things: stunning animation and brilliant story. As stated prior, it achieves the first part 10 fold, it is in the latter where this falters. Pixar plots have mostly been very well written and contain a great moral. Toy Story, Up, Finding Nemo, Inside Out etc - all these movies have fantastic plots and morals and all of them are at least good movies. Plot is where this movie fails.Expanding on that point is the lack of a strong moral in this movie. Ratatouille teaches that every dream is possible and Inside Out teaches that sadness is a valid emotion. The Good Dinosaur dabbles in the admirable concept that fear is a valid thing. And that is something I would definitely be behind. Alas, they abandon this moral swiftly after it is established and that seems counter productive to me. I am very disappointed by Pixar here. It may be my fault for having high standards but I don't think that that is down to me, and more down to Pixar's previously consistent quality.Raymond Ochoa was perfectly passable as Arlo but passable is where it ends. He doesn't shine and he is pretty much the only real character in the film. Combine that with a poorly written character and you have a lack of sympathy from me. Jack Bright's performance is impossible to give a proper critique on due to its nature thus I wont comment on it much. I can, however, comment on the character he portrayed. Spot was a very entertaining character and can probably create a few laughs but he lacks a driving force to make him compelling. Granted, a lack of the ability to speak can stump a character's growth but I still didn't feel a connection to him at any point and that is definitely an issue for the film; I did not care.I should do a full segment on the villain but Steve Zahn's 'Thunderclap' was so weak and disappointing that I just had to google the character's name. My time is best spent on other aspects of the film so all I will say is the villain is awful.Side characters, such as Sam Elliot's Butch or Jefferey Wright's Poppa, were fine and interesting enough but they merely served as plot points and thus had negative time to blossom.I want to praise this movie because it definitely excels in some aspects. It is a masterpiece of technical film making. If you want evidence of it, just google 'The Good Dinosaur Water' and find a YouTube video of it. It is beautiful and magnificent to behold. I am happy I saw it just because of how spectacular the animation is for this movie and I recommend it entirely for that. Combine this amazing animation with jaw dropping cinematography and you have a technical masterpiece.This movie is pretty funny and I laughed at a few jokes. I will at least give it that. But a good animated film will include both good humour and good heart. This movie lacks true heart and emotion. They try REALLY hard to squeeze emotion out of me, and I have previously been happy for Pixar to milk money out of my eyes but this time it didn't work. The blatant and non-ironic use of Disney clichés make this movie just seem like it is trying to evoke emotion and that just doesn't work. Disconnection to the characters means I don't care about their fate and that means I can't enjoy a film. A conclusion is just as important as the journey, but if the journey is weak; the conclusion is meaningless.I do recommend this movie. As much as I critiscise it, it is one of those rare movies I can recommend purely for one aspect of it. I'll rate the movie 5 'DEBBIEs' out of 10 and a fair recommendation. Just don't expect Pixar to be at the height of its' power.