I'm just going to say it now. This film is not a masterpiece. It's nowhere near being one of Pixar's best movies, yet I did enjoy this movie. OK, I'll say that it's not great, but it's not as bad as many people have been proclaiming. This film has problems. A couple of them. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. I should talk about the story.
In an alternate reality which that asteroid that caused the dinosaurs to go extinct missed the earth, we see a young Apatosaurus named Arlo is struggling with work on the farm. While his older brother and sister have gotten used to the hard work, Arlo is scared of almost everything he sees. Eventually, he ends up miles away from home after falling in a dangerous river and it's up to him to get home before winter settles. Along the way, he comes across colorful characters like a human boy named Spot who acts mostly like a dog, a Styracosaurus who collect pets, and some rancher T- Rexes.
So, what exactly do I like about the movie? Well, for a start the animation is beautiful. The world they created in this film is so realistic and lifelike, it's really some nice eye candy. One of the issues a lot of people have with animation is that the dinosaurs (which look like they came from a cartoon) do not go with the realistic backgrounds. I do agree with this, but I gave that a pass as I find it more of an experiment that Pixar tried. The characters in this film (with the exception of Arlo, I'll get to him later) are also very likable, I enjoyed that strange pet collector and Spot who was easily the best character in the movie. Now let's talk about the bad stuff. First of all, the story is really clichéd and predictable because we've seen it been done in other animated dinosaur movies ("The Land Before Time" for example). This film's original story and concept which I read somewhere was a lot better and creative than the final result because it was different and unique for Pixar. Another issue I have with the movie, and this is a big one, is our main character, Arlo. Boy, did I hate him throughout the movie. He's pretty much this coward who is pretty much afraid of everything and has no true emotions outside of fear and anger. Now, the actor playing Arlo (Raymond Ochoa), was great. He played the character as best as he could and I'm not criticizing him, I'm criticizing the way he was written. It was just awful, I mean awful. I also do wish that this film showed more through actions without words like "Wall-E". This film would have been more powerful without the dialogue.
But as is, I think this film is good, but not great. This film should be watched more for its animation and not its story. So, if you're somebody looking for another Pixar masterpiece, you won't find it here. But if you want a film that had marvelous animation and a simple story, I would give it a recommendation.
P.S. Some material in this film may be too disturbing for children under the age of 5.
