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We first heard about Pixar's The Good Dinosaur at the D23 Expo two years, and since then there's obviously been a lot of development on the film. During this year's Expo, Disney revealed some great new concept art as seen above, and there was also a lot more information on the film's story and characters.
John Lasseter started off the presentation with telling the fans that all their movies begin with the question... "what if?" For example, “What if toys were actually alive when you left the room?” or “What if monsters really were in your closet?” He then added that The Good Dinosaur is, “The biggest 'what if' ever.”
They then showed a clip from the film. It started out with... "65 million years ago," with a shot into space where we see an asteroid belt where one asteroid is knocked free by another one, and it's knocked from the belt and starts hurtling towards Earth. As it gains speed and the intensity builds for it to hit Earth… it flies right by Earth as a group of grazing dinosaurs stare up at the sky as the asteroid hurtles over their head like a shooting star.
The main idea of the film is that Dinosaurs never went extinct, and according to director Peter Sohn and producer Denise Ream, the dinosaurs have evolved through the years into industrious farmers who “Function as their own farm equipment.” For example, the triceratops is like a bulldozer, and the stegosaurus can cut down acres of crops.
Here's a new synopsis for the film offering up new details:
The Good Dinosaur asks the generations-old question: What if the cataclysmic asteroid that forever changed life on Earth actually missed the planet completely and giant dinosaurs never became extinct? The film is a humorous and exciting original story about Arlo, a lively 70-foot-tall teenage Apatosaurus with a big heart. After a traumatic event rattles Arlo’s tranquil community, he sets out on a quest to restore peace, gaining an unlikely companion along the way—a young human boy named Spot.
They then showed another clip from the film. There was no dialogue in it. It basically showed a team of long neck Apatosauruses plowing a field as they burrow their heads into the ground, and a few other farming tasks they have become accustomed to.
The movie will star the voices of Lucas Neff (Raising Hope), voice of Arlo; Bill Hader, voice of Forrest; Judy Greer, as Ivy; Neil Patrick Harris, voice of Cliff; John Lithgow, voice of Poppa; and Frances McDormand as Momma.
We were shown one other great sequence featuring Arlo coming across the first human he has seen who was running around in makeshift bug-like armor. This is Spot, who automatically starts to attack Arlo with a small spear. At one point the boy ends up in the Dinosaurs mouth, and hanging off his tonsils and ends up biting it only to be spit out of the Dino's mouth. As time passes we see the two characters form a bond and grow close to each other.
The final funny scene screened featured Spot trying to hunt down and catch a bug as it runs up Arlo's long neck high above the clouds onto the head where he barley misses the bug as it gets away. Arlo encourages Spot, encouraging him that he'll get the bug, and shows him some tricks. As Arlo tries to show Spot one of them, he spins around, which sends Spot flying off into the distance.
I really liked what I saw from the CG animated movie, and I'm sure it will do very well. After all, everyone likes dinosaurs! It will be released In theaters May 30th, 2014.
