The Good Dinosaur

This is the first Pixar movie that was made mostly for children. And it shows. That is, all the previous ones could be enjoyed by youngsters, but they always had plenty of attractions for larger kids, like me. This one, not so much. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy it, I did, but the story is about as simple as they come, about a dwarfish brontosaurus kid who has to go out and find his courage. (In this world, the dino-destroying meteorite just missed the Earth, and the big critters developed intelligence and cultures.) He becomes friends with a feral human child who walks on all fours, and they face challengers together. There is a lot of cleverness, such as a family of T. Rexes who are cowboys, herding giant buffalo around. In this world mammals are stupid and lizards are smart. And of course it looks terrific, with photo-real plants and landscapes. But it lacks that special pizzazz that Pixar has had previously. I have to say the outlook for the next few years is rather bleak, too, and shows a real lack of imagination. Of the five films listed as in progress, four of them, Finding Dory, Cars 3, Toy Story 4, and The Incredibles 2, are sequels. Only Coco, centering around the Mexican Day of the Dead, shows promise of something original.