'The Good Dinosaur': The script is functional, the animation is not memorable
A good rule of thumb when making kidcentric animated movies is this:聽When in doubt 鈥� dinosaurs!
The latest Pixar movie from Disney, Peter聽Sohn鈥檚 鈥淭he Good Dinosaur," is fairly tame by the most inventive of Pixar聽standards. The script is more functional than funny, and the animation,聽while adept, is not altogether memorable.
Still, this fantasy about an聽apatosaurus named Arlo who must find (and fight) his way back to his聽family plays a bit like 鈥淭he Odyssey鈥� for tykes. Along the way he聽befriends a 鈥渃ritter鈥� sidekick, the little cave boy Spot, who steals the show聽whenever he鈥檚 center stage, which is not often enough.聽Celebrity voices聽include Frances McDormand, Jeffrey Wright, and Steve Zahn, but the聽only one you鈥檒l likely identify without prompting is Sam Elliott as a big (I聽think) T. rex. I didn鈥檛 know southwestern accents were prevalent in prehistory. Grade:聽B (Rated PG for peril, action, and thematic elements.)
