‘The Good Dinosaur’ Preview: How John Ford And Hayao Miyazaki Helped Inspire Pixar
2015 is the rare year with not one but two Pixar films: this weekend’sInside Out, and this fall’s still-mysteriousThe Good Dinosaur.
Most of what we’ve heard about the latter so far has had to do with its offscreen woes.The Good Dinosaurwas originally scheduled for release in 2014, but was yanked off the calendar for extensive retooling. Now that it’s on track for a fall 2015 release, Pixar and directorPeter Sohnare eager to show off some of the goods.
In an hourlong presentation this morning, Sohn offered a first look at some charming new footage from the film. In addition, he offered new details about the story and making ofThe Good Dinosaur, including his inspirations for the movie. (Yes,Jurassic Parkcame up.) Find out everything we learned after the jump.
Set in a world where dinosaurs never went extinct,The Good Dinosaurfollows Arlo, a young apatosaurus belonging to a family of agrarian farmers. Timid Arlo is close to his family, but tragedy strikes one day and his father dies. Shortly after, Arlo falls into a rushing river. When he comes to, he discovers the water has carried him hundreds of miles from home.
Arlo is unused to being alone, and doesn’t know how to forage for food or build shelter. Then he encounters Spot, a creature unlike any Arlo has seen before. Specifically: Spot is a human boy. Arlo is initially wary of this strange animal, but they eventually form a bond as they set out to get Arlo back home.
In short,The Good Dinosauris the story of a boy and his dog, with a dinosaur in the role of the boy and a boy in the role of the dog. According to Sohn, major themes include “self-discipline, facing fears, and love.”
The Characters
Arlo:Voiced byRaymond Ochoa, Arlo is an apatosaurus around 11 years old. He’s fun and goofy and loves his family — but was born “afraid of the world.” Over the course of the film he becomes less scared and more brave.Spot:Voiced byJack Bright, Spot has already spent a long time surviving alone in the wild when he meets Arlo. He’s a human boy around 6 or 7, but comes across more like a dog. He walks on all fours and speaks no language.Poppa (Henry):Poppa looks more realistic and less cartoonish than Arlo, and is “built like a tank.” Sohn talked about voice actorJeffrey Wrightbringing a “bear hug” quality to his voice.Momma (Ida):Hardworking Momma keeps the farm running. Voiced byFrances McDormand.Buck:Arlo’s older brother. Voiced byMarcus Scribner.Libby:Arlo’s older sister.Thunderclap:A pterodactyl voiced bySteve Zahn. Pterodactyls are threats in this world, kind of like vultures are in ours, and they’re designed to look creepy and mean.Butch:A tough T-Rex voiced bySam Elliott, whom Sohn says has “the perfect voice for a T-Rex.“Ramsey:Butch’s daughter, described by Sohn as a “firecracker.” Voiced byAnna Paquin.Nash:Buch’s son. Voiced byAJ Buckleywith a charming drawl.
Other characters include a tribe of velociraptors, whose feather “mullets” give them a bit of a “country” look. And there’s a large dinosaur — maybe a tatankaceratops, or something similar. He lives apart from other dinosaurs and surrounded by critters of all types, which look a little different from the creatures we have today.
Setting and Tone
The look ofThe Good Dinosaursets up an intentional contrast. On one hand there are the characters, who look like the CG cartoons they are. Arlo has the wide eyes and smooth surfaces typical of a Pixar character, rather than the narrow eyes and bumpy skin we see in more “realistic” dino depictions likeJurassic Park.
On the other hand, the nature setting looks photorealistic, to the point that Sohn had to tell us certain close-ups and wide shots we saw were not live-action footage but CG animation. The scenery was inspired by Wyoming, particularly the Teton mountains.
Sohn spoke about wanting to get across a “meditative, immersive, intimate” feel that would convey both the “beauty and the threat of nature.” SinceThe Good Dinosauris in part a survival story, the setting had too look sufficiently intimidating. He additionally pointed out that the differences cement Arlo’s status as an outsider in this world.
Keep reading to find out Sohn’s cinematic inspirations forThe Good Dinosaur, as well as to get a recap of the footage we saw. (Spoiler alert: I almost broke out the tissues.)
Inspirations and Influences
In a Q&A following the presentation, Sohn spoke a bit about some of the other films that have influencedThe Good Dinosaur. The key word there beingsome. “I could name you a thousand movies, literally, because five years is a lot of time to watch movies,” he said.
But within the limited timeframe, he told us he’d looked at “boy and his dog” movies and “old frontier” films. Specific titles cited wereCarroll Ballard’sThe Black Stallion,Steven Spielberg’sE.T., and the classic Disney tearjerkerOld Yeller— plus the films ofHayao Miyazakifor “their taste of tone and breadth.”
Elsewhere in the presentation, he named the works ofDavid LeanandJohn Fordas inspirations for some of the wide-open natural settings, which depict “a world that can make even a dinosaur feel small.”
Meanwhile, when it came time to craft the dinosaurs, they supplemented their research of real-life dinos with creative inspiration from filmmaker and special effects iconRay Harryhausenand, of course,Jurassic Park.
And while they aren’t a direct influence onThe Good Dinosaur, Sohn spoke of being inspired as a child by Disney animated films likeDumbo. Thanks to their strong visual and emotional components, they were among the few English-language film his Korean-speaking mother could properly comprehend.
Presumably she’ll have no trouble withThe Good Dinosaur, either, because Sohn told us the film doesn’t have a lot of dialogue. He pushed instead for a “visually driven” approach.
Footage Recap
Along with the asteroid bit shown in the trailer, Sohn shared two new clips with us.
Clip #1: Arlo in the river
This is the pivotal moment that sets Arlo on his journey. He falls into a rapidly flowing river and begins to panic, screaming for his mother as he keeps bobbing in and out of the water. Eventually, he hits his head on a rock.
Clip #2: Arlo and Spot bond
The longer clip has Arlo and Spot getting ready to settle down for the evening. They have some fun chasing fireflies, but it’s a bittersweet moment for Arlo because it reminds him of chasing fireflies with his late dad.
He tries to talk to Spot about his feelings of missing his family. At first Spot doesn’t understand, but Arlo erects a little stick family in the sand to represent his own family and Spot does the same.
Through these visual aids, Spot reveals that his parents have died, just as Arlo’s dad has died. The pair bond wordlessly over losing their parents, and Spot comes over to snuggle with Arlo.
It’s a short scene, less than 5 minutes, but it looked like Pixar doing what it does best: hitting me right in the feels. I’ll admit to tearing up a bit here. If the rest of the movie is half as sweet and moving as this scene we can countThe Good Dinosauras another win for Pixar.
