Now into my Top Five Pixar films we are, at long last, discussing Pixar’s much maligned The Good Dinosaur. A meditative, ominous piece which suits my disposition to a tee, this back-to-basics, animation-first production is a real highlight of their filmography for so many, many reasons. Presenting a measured look on grief and courage, it’s not only an engaging and rewarding film, but also one I have found emotionally crucial at multiple times in my life.
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This video is part of my series Pixar Quality, in which I’m ranking and reviewing 25 years of Pixar movies. I’ve covered eighteen of their other films in previous episodes which you can find on my channel, and we’re now in the top five! Subscribe to catch the top four!
Thanks for being here.
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In complete sincerity, few things have brought me more joy across my entire time on YouTube making content than the comments under every previous episode of Pixar Quality of people wondering where and when The Good Dinosaur would show up. Whether confusion, disbelief, seriousness, interest, whatever it was, it always made me smile to see this film's mere absence make ripples and get reactions. I'd see more and more of them each episode, with sometimes people even saying they watched the film in prep simply because I hadn't talked about it yet. It brought me this feeling of coherency, something to really look forward to and an engine for the series. For that reason and many others, this was easily the section I was the most excited to make for the entirety of Pixar Quality. I wrote parts of it before any other film treatment because I always knew I'd need to give it a little extra, but I only realised after it was done just how long I'd been waiting to get to it. Parts of this script are over three years old. There are few videos on my channel I have wanted to make as much as this one and I am beyond excited to finally see it out.
Seeing more and more hype and disbelief build for every video that it wasn't in has brought me a lot of joy, so even if you don't agree at all with where I've placed it, the journey here has been some of the most fun I've had creating on YouTube. Thank you, through your anticipation, for making this movie which is already so special to me feel even more dear. This is my favourite section from this entire series and I very much hope you enjoy it.
Noticing that it was not talked about in any of the videos you'd made so far was certainly a surprise for me.
THIS is the one I’ve been waiting for. The Good Dinosaur is the review I’ve been waiting to hear from you the most. I am genuinely so hyped to hear someone get really serious about the good dinosaur. I saw it for my birthday with my family because I was so excited for it to come out and this is the first and only time I will ever see someone give this a good review so I can’t wait to see what you have to say beyond “do YOU remember what the villain’s name is in this movie? I bet you DONT. That means it’s baddd”
you had me for a second with the pretentious title card until the comic sans showed up
15:12
FINALLY
Uhm… Haven't seen the film. I most certainly want to. But it's 3am here in Berlin. Is it ok to fall asleep to this (no offense)? And then go and watch the movie the upcoming days? And THEN watching (actually, this time) the review again? Or am I about to ruin the first-time-experience?
Finally!! SOMEONE ELSE WHO THINKS THIS MOVIE IS PEAK PIXAR. IVE WAITED SO LONG FIRST THIS
man I was not expecting this video to be an emotional gut punch, I think this is the most I've cried to a video essay ever. Amazing video as usual.
yeah i dont think i can do these anymore
My personal reasons trump card is watching the Good Dinosaur with my late grandfather. He was not the type to enjoy family movies most of the time, I think it was the wacky humor in a lot of them that made him change the channel very quickly. But he kept the channel when this movie was on. The part when the pterodactyl eats the fox thing made him LAUGH and set us for the rest of the movie. He was fully engaged with it too, which was rare for him to do late in his life (save for Forrest Gump).
Not my favorite movie by any means. I would have to watch it again someday, I think. But just because of that day and that only this movie is not longer just another movie of the bunch for me. Emotion is part of it just as logic is.
Fuuuuuck, that last couple minutes was brutal. Another great video. Can we expect the remaining films to have standalone videos as well?
The more I hear you talk about this makes me think you are gonna love The Wild Robot, it’s become in my top 10 films and I was loosing it both times I watched it in theatres!
Pixar Quality is my favourite notification, you are awesome, thank you for another video!
Very grateful this got a standalone episode. I hope this can spur even more curiosity in people to go give the film a chance. I've actually been thinking about the film often since I left the comment on the last episode. Don't wanna say for certain just yet but it might have wriggled its way into my top 5 as well. The comparison you made to Wall-E felt pretty enlightening considering that's my current favorite Pixar film. I really just adore how much this film takes its time and lets the world just wash over us. The first day Arlo spends alone in the woods I was just absolutely riveted. And I just love how the film commits to it for its entire runtime only taking small detours here and there. Ahhh I just wanna keep gabbing but I'm not much of a writer, seriously thank you for sharing your experiences. Also thank you so much for sharing that story about you and Moses, it was really beautiful.
EDIT: I appreciate the sentimentn and appreciate a well thought out defence even more 👍
The NOAA completely missed the opportunity to make their initials NOAH as in the biblical weather story. I feel like that's what they were going for and just couldn't make the letters work.
The Good Dinosaur is a film I haven't seen yet, and it is really weird to try and think back and think how this film got justified as being Pixar's first "flop". The only thing I can remember from this film is the trailer coming out, the visuals being hyper realistic, and then seeing a cartoony dinosaur in the waters. And instantly, every reaction and Youtube video and media personality reacted "this is a waste, this is childish, this could have been good but it won't", and it's like culturally I was given permission to not care about the film, as if it wasn't for me. I grew up on Pixar, on Finding Nemo and Incredibles, there is an intense amount of comfort and nostalgia associated with the brand. But somehow I was never compelled to go back and properly consider it as a piece of art.
It's a nonsensical reaction, given how similar it is to other Pixar films. They are always films that overcame technical limitation and used the medium to full effect. No one complained about the humans in Toy Story, or the cartoon monsters in Monster's Inc. The later is a point you uniquely criticised in your review of it, but I'd never seen mentioned otherwise. Incredible's improved the human models, but they were still incredibly cartoony, with unrealistic proportions and very malleable and expressive eyes. It worked for the story it was telling. Finding Nemo's fish were not realistic. And yet Good Dinosaur got immediately dismissed, before the film even came out.
I think this reaction only makes sense given the context of when it was released. It was 20 years after Toy Story. People who grew up as kids with the original catalogue had moved on to a teenage mindset, to reject the childish things they grew up. The last universally acclaimed Pixar film that came out was Toy Story 3, a film about the existential dread of growing up and moving on from Toys, and then the next 5 out of 6 films Pixar released were Cars 2, Brave, Monsters U, Good Dinosaur, and Finding Dory. Films that all have differing degrees of quality, some of which are still very good, some of which are too childish. But all fit into the narrative that Pixar had nothing original left to say, all the stories it had left to tell were either sequels or not good enough to stand on their own. With only Inside Out as the outlier, the exception to the rule. And all of this happened in the 2010's, the infancy of YouTube and the modern internet, where the immediacy and urgency of social media sort of made it's place for a juvenile and surface level analysis of media. It was not video essays that were popular, it was Cinemasins and Honest Trailers, and Top 10 Buzfeed articles and clickbait about how Pixar isn't good anymore. As companies, both the ones making films and the ones judging them, tried to emotionally manipulate people's responses to conform them to the needs of capital, either to flock to cinemas in increasing numbers or flock to websites and perform uniform rejection of those films, culturally people didn't have the tools to be intellectually honest with themselves and their opinions when they analysed why they liked things.
I do also think that it makes sense given what you said about the intended audience, that if felt like it was made for you watching alone on the computer. This 2010-2015 window is in an awkward moment historically, right at the start of Marvel and blockbuster cinema hits being dictated by brand and IP rather than quality, but still pre-covid when streaming films became a much more solitary viewing experience. Even post covid it no longer feels like I can ask a large group of people out to see a movie, only going with a few close friends or family. (Though that may be simply a personal issue of covid completely eliminating the social aspect of Uni and other such third spaces at a transitional period , isolating young adults in social limbo). Even though Netflix was around before covid, it was still seen as a social activity, "Netflix and Chill" was asking someone else to watch with you. So once the cultural backlash to Good Dinosaur happens, it's harder to convince and justify others to watch it with you, and it seems a lot sadder and lonely to watch a Pixar film by yourself. None of these implications and connotations are justified, they're all irrational fears of being "childish" and "lonely" that aren't actually substantiated by reality. But they're all implied social pressures that leads to everyone performing fitting in, going "yeah, the good dinosaur is at the bottom of my list" even though you've never actually seen it. Rather than this post covid context, when you can watch a film by yourself and have an individual reaction to it, free of contamination from others expectations.
It is a bit tragic, that all of the honesty and emotional vulnerability that artists can poor into a project like this, can just be swept away by the apathetic whims of capital. How so much of the reaction to this film's concept was cyncial, immature, shallow, and uninformed. And I think it's a shame that this film never got the proper chance to stand up on it's own merits. How it would have been treated much better if it was earlier in the catalogue. I mean, no one gives Bugs Life this much scrutiny and expectation. It's only because of how good the visuals were, that it got this much judgement for choosing to be cartoony, for choosing to show emotion and artistic expression. It wished to be more than simply a tech demo to sell a narrative of "this is the best looking one yet", as so many soulless video games inevitably become. I mean, you brought up the Lion King remake, think of how soulless and lifeless that film is. The Good Dinosaur would not be improved by having realistic dinosaurs. That these lifelike creates were performing human like actions would be tonal dissonance and enter into the Uncanny Valley. It was the correct creative choice. But it still got unfairly judged for it.
Edit: Ooof, that ending hurts. It's a reminder of how important these films are for so many people. They mean so much more than the pedantic, whiny shitstorms of discourse that the internet can turn pieces of art into.
But it is also a reminder of how important these videos are. I know you've struggled with and voiced your struggles in many of your videos about the point of making these, whether your videos are worth anything to anyone. But these videos are pieces of art, they emotionally affect us and that's why we watch them.
To quote my comment from the Arkham City video "You made me feel more from this video than from the entirety of playing Arkham City. Which, from one perspective, is not that high of a bar to clear. But from another perspective, that also means that this video means more to me, and that it's succeeded more as an artistic expression." The fact that this can remain true, even when it's for a film I haven't seen yet (I'll make sure to at some point), shows that is truly you that is creating that emotional honesty and effect, and that you are very good at doing it.
The first 48 seconds of this video are the best first 48 seconds of any video on this channel.
Another amazing video as always. You’ve made me go from viewing the good dinosaur and a snore to really thinking “ damn I should rewatch this”. Even if my opinion dosnet change at all on the good dinosaur, the fact I immediately want to rewatch it to see is a testament to how good of a writer you are. Can’t wait for the rest of the list
P.s, I’m calling Toy Story 2 as your next one, my runner up is ratatouille
I think you single handedly convinced me to watch this movie after nearly a decade. Thank you
Thank you for sharing about your dog as i just lost my first dog of 16 years last week and I cry all the time when I think of her. I might finally give this film a chance after being in the pack of its bad because everyone said its bad.
This movie was ripped apart when it first came out. Simply because, in my opinion, people were so used to talky, annoying animated films, that more pensive, visual storytelling-heavy films like this were seen as unordinary. Now people are finally starting to appreciate it more, yet it remains by far Pixar's most underrated film, and I will always say that this film is a top-tier Pixar masterpiece in its own right.
You touched on the "constant simulation" thing and it's really important to note that a lot of parents view kids films as something to distract their children with with while the parents work or wind down. And also that a lot of kids will just not watch movies shown at home if they can't connect with what's happening on screen. When I was a child, I couldn't watch Toy Story because the entire middle portion of that film is just Woody and Buzz talking past each other and the roots of that conflict were way too adult for me to understand.
Most kids that love dinosaurs are in it mainly for the vibrant, larger-than-life nature of the imagined dinosaur world and the fun of learning about dinosaurs they've never heard about. Anything using dinosaurs to tell an emotion-driven story is in for an uphill battle, particularly when your main competition for that is A Land Before Time.
The Good Dinosaur is an immaculately made film, but it had so much going against it's success. I'm surprised it was even approved for production.
shit man that dog thing was entirely unnecessary I had already felt your points quite well before losing my ability to see from the painful crying
Ok, here's a thought. And follow me here.
Dinosaurs…wait, wait, wait, listen.
Dinosaurs. Are cool.
And movies ABOUT dinosaurs are ALSO cool
I've been watching your series of PIXAR retrospectives overtime, curious to see where each film lands on your personal ranking. I will admit that The Good Dinosaur is not one of my favorites from PIXAR's lineup of feature films but I haven't seen the film since it's theatrical release almost a decade ago. Your heartfelt essay on why you consider this film within your Top 5 really makes me appreciate the takeaways people can come away with from these amazing films. I think I genuinely was not prepared to experience a more slower-paced, personal film on top of the film's whirlwind production in the background. At face value, I can really see why myself and many other audiences overlooked this film.
I think I'm echoing the choir here but you've convinced me to give TGD another chance to at least appreciate the story it was telling. You're doing an amazing job with these essays and I am eagerly looking forward to your final 4 coming up.
jesus man. i didn't click this video thinking i'd come out bawling, but here we are. this was an amazing video, and a wonderful analysis on a very underrated film. I'll admit i have my own gripes with it (to me it's the peak of photorealism in animated films before big studios finally started leaning into animation as a medium, rather than just a means to appear life-like), however i will forever stand by that it's a beautiful story and film, and truly one of pixar's best. thank you for sharing this. i'm going to go watch the good dinosaur 🙂
I genuinely love this movie
I'm crying so hard right now.
This movie kinda feels like cormac mcarthy wrote a pixar movie in the best way possible.
Sorry for this unrelated comment to the film but, do you have any thoughts on Transformers One if you've seen it?