Post by Shenzi on Feb 28, 2016 0:08:43 GMT -5
Wow, what has happened here? Where has everyone gone?
Hopefully, I can get the ball rolling again.
I just streamed 'The Good Dinosaur' last evening because while the trailer underwhelmed me, I found myself overflowing with curiosity.
To be honest, I feel this is a blemish in Pixar's outstanding record.
There wasn't a complete absence of uniqueness. The alternate reality in which the dinosaurs never went extinct resulting in humanity never evolving into dominance was quite out of the box and the journey of personal growth held it's own, but overall this is a Frankin-film fushion of 'The Land Before Time', 'The Lion King' and 'Life of Pi' with a pinch of 'Brother Bear'. The story while heart warming and at times tearjerking, was one demensional and full of cliches, falling below Pixar's originality standards.
Arlo's character as being held back by his fearful nature was developed well but his establishment as an outcast in his family fell short because we didn't see enough of his relationship with his siblings or the relationship the two siblings have with each other in contrast.
I found him and his relationship with the human toddler referred to in story as a 'critter', Spot, adorable but very unbalanced. I still felt as though Arlo were solo because all the focus is on him.
I would have liked to have more of an established introduction to Spot, the only backstory we get on him is a brief, unspoken gesture which packs quite a punch but left me wanting more.
I liked that there wasn't a villian, to me, Thunderclap was more of an obsticle and I thought he was a pretty unique character aside from decieving the protagonist into believing he was a good sameritian. I liked the whole 'the storm provides' thing.
While the story had some touching moments, it was overall inconsistent. It had it's strong areas but also had moments that felt either rushed or unnecessary.
For example, I saw no real significance to the character who challenged Arlo to "ownership" of spot nor did I understand Alro's motivation to fight for Spot in that moment as opposed to the Thunderclap climax. Unless it was because the other character had made what Arlo see value in Spot as a bodyguard.
Anothing thing that stumped me was Spot's first two peace offerings to Arlo, the lizard and the giant beatle. He's portrayed as quite a bit smarter than his primitave nature would suggest and he'd been frequently invading the Apatosaurus farm to eat their corn so shouldn't he have known that Arlo was a vegetarian?
By far the strongest part of the film and the most in depth was Sopt's final scene in which Arlo reluctantly gives him up to a human family who shows interest in adopting him. It was also the one part of the film which surprised me, that was absolutely NOT what I was expecting, in a GOOD way. That was a really smart way to leave Spot as opposed to Arlo's intention to make a pet of him on his family's farm and his heartbroken expression as he let the little guy go was sublime, I was about to cry. I probably WOULD HAVE cried had I not been holding back since I was in the presence of my family.
The final moment, however, in which Arlo, very predicably gets to make his mark, had this very abrupt feeling to it. Like me in Fiction Writing class last fall having to just toss in a stopping point due to a rush to make my draft deadline. We get no sense of how Arlo's family dealt with his disappearance. At the very least a few scenes throughout his journey that take us back to the farm would have helped tie it together a bit better.
There was also an inconsistency in the animation, the envirnment was breath taking and the attention to detail on Spot was amazing but the dinsaurs were more cartoony. It's difficult to tell that Alro and his family are Apatosaurus', I had narrowed it down to three candidates from my dinosaur book, none of which were the apatosaurus before finding the confirmation via Google. I felt like these dinosaur characters would fit in well on Cartoon Network.
Perhaps I am over-analyzing, it's possible that this film's simplier story and characters were due to Pixar's intention to target a younger audience than usual. It does successfully come across as more child aimed than their other films.
Overall I don't believe this film was terrible but it didn't overly impress me either.
Hopefully, I can get the ball rolling again.
I just streamed 'The Good Dinosaur' last evening because while the trailer underwhelmed me, I found myself overflowing with curiosity.
To be honest, I feel this is a blemish in Pixar's outstanding record.
There wasn't a complete absence of uniqueness. The alternate reality in which the dinosaurs never went extinct resulting in humanity never evolving into dominance was quite out of the box and the journey of personal growth held it's own, but overall this is a Frankin-film fushion of 'The Land Before Time', 'The Lion King' and 'Life of Pi' with a pinch of 'Brother Bear'. The story while heart warming and at times tearjerking, was one demensional and full of cliches, falling below Pixar's originality standards.
Arlo's character as being held back by his fearful nature was developed well but his establishment as an outcast in his family fell short because we didn't see enough of his relationship with his siblings or the relationship the two siblings have with each other in contrast.
I found him and his relationship with the human toddler referred to in story as a 'critter', Spot, adorable but very unbalanced. I still felt as though Arlo were solo because all the focus is on him.
I would have liked to have more of an established introduction to Spot, the only backstory we get on him is a brief, unspoken gesture which packs quite a punch but left me wanting more.
I liked that there wasn't a villian, to me, Thunderclap was more of an obsticle and I thought he was a pretty unique character aside from decieving the protagonist into believing he was a good sameritian. I liked the whole 'the storm provides' thing.
While the story had some touching moments, it was overall inconsistent. It had it's strong areas but also had moments that felt either rushed or unnecessary.
For example, I saw no real significance to the character who challenged Arlo to "ownership" of spot nor did I understand Alro's motivation to fight for Spot in that moment as opposed to the Thunderclap climax. Unless it was because the other character had made what Arlo see value in Spot as a bodyguard.
Anothing thing that stumped me was Spot's first two peace offerings to Arlo, the lizard and the giant beatle. He's portrayed as quite a bit smarter than his primitave nature would suggest and he'd been frequently invading the Apatosaurus farm to eat their corn so shouldn't he have known that Arlo was a vegetarian?
By far the strongest part of the film and the most in depth was Sopt's final scene in which Arlo reluctantly gives him up to a human family who shows interest in adopting him. It was also the one part of the film which surprised me, that was absolutely NOT what I was expecting, in a GOOD way. That was a really smart way to leave Spot as opposed to Arlo's intention to make a pet of him on his family's farm and his heartbroken expression as he let the little guy go was sublime, I was about to cry. I probably WOULD HAVE cried had I not been holding back since I was in the presence of my family.
The final moment, however, in which Arlo, very predicably gets to make his mark, had this very abrupt feeling to it. Like me in Fiction Writing class last fall having to just toss in a stopping point due to a rush to make my draft deadline. We get no sense of how Arlo's family dealt with his disappearance. At the very least a few scenes throughout his journey that take us back to the farm would have helped tie it together a bit better.
There was also an inconsistency in the animation, the envirnment was breath taking and the attention to detail on Spot was amazing but the dinsaurs were more cartoony. It's difficult to tell that Alro and his family are Apatosaurus', I had narrowed it down to three candidates from my dinosaur book, none of which were the apatosaurus before finding the confirmation via Google. I felt like these dinosaur characters would fit in well on Cartoon Network.
Perhaps I am over-analyzing, it's possible that this film's simplier story and characters were due to Pixar's intention to target a younger audience than usual. It does successfully come across as more child aimed than their other films.
Overall I don't believe this film was terrible but it didn't overly impress me either.