'The Good Dinosaur' Review: A Breathtaking Journey With Arlo and Spot

It's finally here. The Good Dinosaur has been announced, then pushed back, was sort of remade and the finished filmed just reached our theaters. Originally, Bob Peterson (co-director of Up) was going to direct it, but he had to leave the project in 2013. Pete Sohn (Partly Cloudy) took over as the solo director; a change of director is usually not a good sign. However, Pixar has had a few of those situations in the past, and at least one of them ended with a brilliant film (Ratatouille). Some other times, it hasn't been that great (ahem, Cars 2).

Fortunately, The Good Dinosaur is closer from Ratatouille than Cars 2. Our review below.

New 'The Good Dinosaur' Synopsis May Reveal Story Changes

The Good Dinosaur has been through some difficult times at Pixar: it's lost a director (Bob Peterson) and was delayed 18 months. But the film appears to be on the right tracks again, and Pete Sohn (Partly Cloudy) is currently hard at work, directing what will be Pixar's 16's feature film. But it appears some sacrifices had to be made.

Pixar's The Good Dinosaur Getting "Completely Reimagined"

While Pixar is getting ready to release their much anticipated and talked about film Inside Out next summer, we know very little about their next project after that, scheduled for November 2015. As you may already know, The Good Dinosaur was scheduled to be released this past May, only to be postponed and have its director removed. After that, the only thing we knew was that the Pixar Brain Trust was working to save the project and a new release date of 25th November, 2015 was scheduled. We haven't heard much about the project until yesterday when /Film broke the news that the film has been "completely reimagined." These words came from actor John Lithgow, who plays the main protagonist's father.

Breaking: The Good Dinosaur Pushed Back to November 2015; Pixar Will Release No Film Next Year

Concept art for The Good Dinosaur, which stars the voices of Lucas Neff, Neil
 Patrick Harris and Judy Greer. It will now open November 2015.

When Bob Peterson was removed as director of The Good Dinosaur, particularly as we're so close to its planned 30th May, 2014 release date, it seemed incredibly unlikely that the film would be ready on time. In fact, it seems the situation is worse than anticipated, as Pixar have announced (via the L.A. Times) that they're pushing their fifteenth feature film all the way back to 25th November, 2015.

Watch: John Lasseter Talks Animation, Directors and the Best All-Round Film for Bolt in 2009

"We're a filmmaker-led studio, we're dedicated to the vision of these filmmakers. But the most important thing is we've got to be making a great movie for our audience. And frankly, that's good business. Quality is the best business plan." Those are the words of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter, talking about the replacement of Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon) early on in the production of, what would become, Bolt, and how it was ultimately best for the film.

The interview with Movies Ireland is over four years old now, but with the current commotion about the replacement of Bob Peterson at the helm of Pixar's fifteenth feature film, The Good Dinosaur, it seems particularly poignant right now.

[UPDATED] Official: Bob Peterson No Longer Directing The Good Dinosaur

3 days ago we reported the story that, apparently, Pixar had removed Bob Peterson as director of their next film, The Good Dinosaur. We've been hoping and crossing all our fingers that this wasn't true, but, alas, The LA Times reports officially that the Up co-director has indeed been pulled off the project, with no immediate successor named.

Rumour We Hope Isn't True: Bob Peterson Pulled from The Good Dinosaur

Now this is the sort of story you absolutely hate to read (and for what it's worth, it was no picnic to write either) and hope with all your heart isn't true. Blue Sky Disney - who you might remember as the fatally trustworthy source who first told us about Big Hero 6 a while back, and Zootopia, Giants and Moana more recently - says that both director Bob Peterson and producer John Walker have been pulled from Pixar's The Good Dinosaur.

New Story Details on The Good Dinosaur, Big Hero 6, Captain America 2 and More!

JoBlo recently exclusively announced, via "a trusted and reliable source from a recent marketing event", a horde of Disney film news directly concerning at least four projects that we here at A113Animation are very excited about.

UPDATED - Disney at CinemaCon: Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur, Star Wars, Tomorrowland and More!

CinemaCon has been going on today in Las Vegas, and the biggest film studios around have a presence there - included, obviously, is Disney and their many exciting subsidiaries. Here's some of the cool news stories to come out of the event:

It's only mildly intriguing, because we'd already heard strong speculation from several sources, but Disney and Pixar have confirmed that Pete Docter's inside-the-mind film is called Inside Out and scheduled for a US release date of 19th June, 2015 (which they released at CinemaCon last year) - the UK release date is currently 7th August, 2015. Now, is this the upcoming Pixar film that Michael Giacchino's scoring?

Thomas Newman On Board to Score The Good Dinosaur

Acclaimed composer Thomas Newman, who most recently scored Skyfall and Steven Soderbergh's Side Effects, is returning to score his third Pixar film, 2014's The Good Dinosaur. This will be Newman's third film for Pixar (after Finding Nemo and WALL-E).

The composer, who is the cousin of fellow Pixar-composer Randy Newman and of Joey Newman (Adam and Dog), speaking at Le Moyne and Syracuse University a couple of days ago, said that the Pixar film (which is directed by Bob Peterson) would be his next project.

It's great to hear that Newman's returning to Pixar, as all of his work's superlative, particularly his score for WALL-E, which was absolutely out of this world (pun intended). I can't wait to hear what he conjures up next.

The Good Dinosaur opens on 30th May, 2014 in the US and 18th July, 2014 in the UK.

Via Upcoming Pixar.

Cool Logo For Pixar's The Good Dinosaur

Briefly: Pixar News received an anonymous tip that the above logo is being used for Up co-director Bob Peterson's solo-directorial debut, The Good Dinosaur. Pixar Post confirms that the logo is legit - or at least was being used in November of last year. It's a nifty little logo that goes well with the quirky story The Good Dinosaur has - I can't wait to hear more from this film when Monsters University's almost out later this summer.

The Good Dinosaur is co-directed by Peter Sohn (Partly Cloudy) and produced by John Walker (The Incredibles), it's released on 30th May, 2014 in the US and 18th July, 2014 in the UK.

The Good Dinosaur's Box Office Returns May Have Just Shrank

The future is going to be absolutely prehistoric! 2014 is set to be the year of the dinosaurs again.

In great news for Jurassic Park fans (well, unless they were particularly put off by 3) and presumably nerve-shredding news for Disney execs, Universal have officially given Jurassic Park 4 a release date: 13th June, 2014. That release date is just over a fortnight after that of Pixar's dino-film, The Good Dinosaur (due 30th May, 2014).

UPDATED: Possible Cast for The Good Dinosaur Emerges

On New Year's Day when we got some great new concept art from Pixar's upcoming features, I was rounding off the post as usual - directors, producers, release dates, etc. - when, while checking the UK release date of The Good Dinosaur on FilmDates.co.uk (a website Disney's UK PR team themselves advise us bloggers to use for reference), I noticed something odd: it lists a voice cast for the film. I assumed this was a mistake of some sort, as it seems too early to be hearing about the film's voice cast (particularly in such a low-key manner); but Bleeding Cool posted the story today, so I thought it worth mentioning.

FilmDates lists the cast as being "Lil' Wayne, Joan Rivers, John Ratzenberger, Dee Bradley Baker, Tom Kenny and Jason Alexander". Joan Rivers previously had a small cameo in Shrek 2; Dee Bradley Baker is a voice actor with many animation credits, notably as Perry the Platypus in Disney's Phineas and Ferb; Tom Kenny is best known as the voice of Spongebob Squarepants, but also recently voiced Rabbit in Disney's 2011 Winnie the Pooh film; Jason Alexander, perhaps most recognisable as suicidal Earl in the Friends episode The One Where Rosita Dies, has also amassed many animation credits to his name, including The Return of Jafar and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Given that this is a Pixar film, John Ratzenberger was to be expected.

Lil' Wayne, primarily a rapper, with few screen-credits to his name, seems the odd one out, but if Pixar has cast him, they presumbaly have faith in his ability, and I have faith in theirs. Still, it seems an odd choice - if this cast information is accurate, that is; we'll see if we can get word one way or the other.

The Good Dinosaur is directed by Bob Peterson and is released on 30th May in the US and 18th July in the UK.

UPDATE: 02/01/2013, 23:00 (GMT) - I emailed Pixar's PR guy Chris Wiggum, inquiring as to the accuracy of this cast list, Chris replied promptly with: "Not accurate." Well, providing this isn't a red herring  to throw us off the track, there you have it.

Happy New Year: New Concept Art from Upcoming Pixar Films

Pixar have a wonderful New Year treat for us all, as they sent ComingSoon.net a card wishing them a Happy New Year, complete with exclusive concept art from three of their upcoming films!

John Lasseter Talks About The Good Dinosaur and Pete Docter's Mind Film

Pixar and Disney Animation Chief Creative Officer, Executive Producer and general head honcho, John Lasseter, on a recent promotional tour for Pixar's next film, Brave, spoke about the studio's slate of films beyond that - specifically, Bob Peterson's The Good Dinosaur and Pete Docter's Untitled Pixar Movie That Takes You Inside the Mind!

Normally I would post small excerpts from the quote's here, to give you a flavour of what he's saying, but as this is John Lasseter, and as what he says is so interesting - it's our first real flavour of plot and inspiration for the films - I'm going to post the entirety of John's comments below:

Read what Lasseter said on Up co-director Bob Peterson's directorial debut (and my most anticipated Pixar film) The Good Dinosaur, after the jump break!

Bob Peterson Talks About The Good Dinosaur

Pixar's upcoming slate is, for all its exciting premises, shrouded in mystery, with very little being known about anything past this summer's Brave. However, today, Bob Peterson (co-director Up, voice of Dug in Up and Roz in Monsters, Inc.) shed some light on his highly anticipated directorial debut, The Good Dinosaur.

The film, set for a 30th May, 2014 release, explores a world in which the asteroid that caused the dinosaurs to go extinct, never hit the Earth, and dinosaurs now share the planet with mankind. Speaking to the LA Times, Peterson, as well as the film's co-director Peter Sohn (Partly Cloudy) and producer John Walker (The Incredibles) gave us some details on the film's inspiration, as well as whetting our appetite in terms of what we can expect to see in the film.

The LA Times says:

"Peterson, who served as codirector and writer on "Up," said the inspiration for the movie came from a childhood visit to the World's Fair where he was awed by some dinosaur animatronics."

With Peterson stating that "It's time to do a movie where you get to know the dinosaur, what it's really like to be a dinosaur and to be with a dinosaur".

Those of you that follow Bob Peterson's Twitter will know that he's been undertaking the writing of the film's script over the past few weeks, stopping at various spots around California in his car when inspiration strikes, and Walker says:

"So if there's a bunch of dinosaurs in a Whole Foods parking lot in this movie, you'll understand why,"

The Good Dinosaur sounds incredibly interesting, and I can't wait to see what Peterson does as a director!

Read the full story at LA Times.

Bob Peterson Joins Twitter

Such is the reputation that Pixar has built up, with its unprecedented string of box-office and critical successes, that its staff are treated like rock-stars. Avid Pixar nerds like myself will obsess over and worship everyone from the individual animators to the huge-personality directors who helm their features - hell, I follow their pool.

So, it's always a huge event when a new Pixarian joins Twitter, and today, Bob Peterson joins the huge social-networking site. The co-director of Up, who is directing Pixar's upcoming 2014 release, The Good Dinosaur, marks the longest in a long line of Pixarians to join Twitter - following Brad Bird, Brenda Chapman and Andrew Stanton's return to the site.

Follow the very talented animator and film-maker @Bob__Peterson (yes, that is two underscores).

On a related note, our Twitter name has officially changed, from @WilliamA113, to the much more obvious @A113Animation.

Disney and Pixar News from CinemaCon 2012

Yesterday at CinemaCon 2012, at Disney's exhibit, the guests in attendance were treated to a plethora of exciting news pertaining to lots of upcoming films to be released under the Disney banner; including lots of exciting Pixar news.

Disney first:

• Although we already knew this, via screenwriter Nicholas Stoller, Disney have now given official confirmation that they're working on The Muppets 2.
• Fans at the event were also treated to the first few minutes of footage from Disney's 51st animated film, the video game themed, Wreck-It Ralph.
• They were also shown some new footage from Tim Burton's Frankenweenie.

Check out the Pixar news after the jump.

Pixar News from D23 Day 2: 2 New Films

Pixar have released a huge slab of information on their upcoming slate at their panel's at D23 today, concerning Brave, Monsters University and the two unnamed films we have heard about.

Courtesy of Hypable, we get a detailed list of all you need to know about Pixar's D23 revelations; the expo revealed some more plot points and details on a scene from Brave, concerning Merida's courtship, and a little bit more light on Monsters University, all of which sound interesting. However, the real point of interest is that of the announcement of two new Pixar films.

These are the, until now, unknown films due out in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

The 2013 film is the long rumoured, but only just now confirmed, Pixar dinosaur film that has been on the cards since we first saw an image of a boy and a dinosaur (above) two years ago. Now, as if the dinosaur premise of the film wasn't enough to get excited about, we also learn that it is directed by Bob Peterson! The co-director/writer of Up is yet to direct a feature film, yet he is the Pixarian whom I most wanted to see direct a film. In terms of top-notch production talent, we now learn that it is co-directed by Peter Sohn (director of Partly Cloudy, the short film paired with Up) and produced by John Walker (producer of The Incredibles).

This sounds amazing enough, but the synopsis provided, giving us an alternate version of Earth, adds more excitement to that:

What if that life-changing asteroid missed Earth? Director Bob Peterson’s hilarious tale depicts a world where dinosaurs never went extinct.

I'm hooked already and can't wait to see that film on November 27, 2013.


The second film is the, also long expected, next Pete Docter film. The director of Monsters, Inc. and Up returns to the director's chair for "an inventive new film that explores a world that everyone knows, but no one has seen: inside the human mind".

Now that sounds immensely intriguing, complicated and exciting all at the same time. In terms of production talent on this one; Ronnie del Carmen (director of Dug's Special Mission) co-directs and it is produced by Jonas Rivera (producer of Up), add onto that that IndieWIRE claim that 2 time Academy Award winner, and the writer of the Toy Story 3 screenplay, Michael Arndt is penning the script, and this, likewise, sounds like a winner.

And that exciting film hits cinemas on May 30, 2014.


Thanks to Hypable, The Pixar Blog and Pixarian, Austin Madison for the news.

Monsters University Gets its Director



A week after Floyd Norman let it slip that "Monsters2" (now Monsters University) was to be helmed by a new director, we find out just who that is.

According to Mike of The Pixar Blog and other sources, at the Cars 2 Blogger event today, it was announced that Mater and the Ghost Light co-director, Dan Scanlon, will direct Pixar's first prequel. Scanlon also did storyboards on Cars and on Toy Story 3. Once again, it's great to see Pixar trust a new director with one of their established franchises.

Sure, it's no Bob Peterson, but I'm still excited to see how Dan fairs in the director's chair!