The Good Dinosaur (2015)

“Sometimes you got to face your fear to get to the other side.” - Poppa

I have to admit, I had no desire to see this Pixar film and only watched it because it was first on the list of films in the Pixar Theory list.

Boy, was I pleasantly surprised! I liked the film and while I can see why it didn’t do well at the box office, I still enjoyed it and it was a lot better than what I thought it would be. The premise of “What would happen if the dinosaurs weren’t wiped out by an asteroid?” was a fun one to explore and is an interesting start to The Pixar Theory (if it is indeed a real thing). Plus it lends credence to Cars and Wall-E as to why there weren’t enough fossil fuels as the dinosaurs didn’t die off in the “real world” way and didn’t leave enough fossil fuels for the future inhabitants of Earth.There is a visual connection between this film and Inside Out, in that we see the triceratops looking dinosaur in both movies; the live one in The Good Dinosaur and a statue of it in Inside Out.

I won’t go into the review of the film and the evolutionary aspect of whether this story is possible or not, (I mean it does have talking dinosaurs, so why are people even arguing the evolutionary aspects of the film) but I will say it is worth watching and while it’s not a Toy Story level Pixar film, it’s definitely a good film that explores relationships, overcoming fears, family, and forming connections with those that are different than us. It’s also a very beautiful film with great scenery and backdrops to the character’s journey.

The re-watchability factor is low, and on a Pixar scale of 1-5, The Credible Nerds give the film a 3.5.