Is 'The Good Dinosaur' the best movie opening this weekend?


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JURASSIC PERIOD — If seeing a movie over the long holiday weekend has become part of your family's annual tradition, Pixar has you covered.

The gorgeous, and surprisingly heartfelt "The Good Dinosaur" is showing up just in time for the Thanksgiving crowds, and not surprisingly, just in time for award season as well.

Like always, let's chat about the highlights:

Sanjay's Super Team

Like the many Pixar films before it, "The Good Dinosaur" leads with an animated short. This time, director Sanjay Patel relates a mostly true autobiographical story about how fathers and sons view the exact same moment in, "Sanjay's Super Team."

The story is obviously a love letter to Patel's father, but also serves as an interesting discussion about a child's evolving appreciation for tradition. It may not be the general crowd pleaser previous shorts like "Partly Cloudy" and "For the Birds" have been, but it's still a worthy addition to the Pixar short library.

The premise

"The Good Dinosaur" follows the same formula most animated dinosaur movies have adopted in the past by choosing a young brontosaurus — we'll call him Arlo this time — separating him from his family, and sending him on a journey home.

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Pixar's take on this however is, what if that adventure took place on an Earth never sucker punched by a species-ending asteroid? What if that story took place in a classic American Western film, complete with farmers, cattle rustlers and the general spirit of man (or in this case dinosaur) verses the wild frontier?

For those of you who love Pixar's ability to repackage the seemingly crazy as familiar, heartfelt entertainment, you're going to love "The Good Dinosaur." For the rest of you, well, you're probably still going to love "The Good Dinosaur."

You know, for kids

"The Good Dinosaur" knows its audience well. Adults are welcome, but they need to sit quietly in the corner and not interrupt. This is a story for the kids overwhelmed by a large and scary world, this is a story for the kids who know there's more to their favorite pet than meets the eye, and this is a story for the kids who want to leave their mark on something special. On second thought, adults definitely need to see this movie as well.

Pixar, via AP
Pixar, via AP

By way of content advisory, there is a brief sequence where Arlo and his human critter Spot mistakingly eat some fermented fruit, after which hilarity ensues. I did hear children around me asking their parents what was happening, but that's about as edgy as "The Good Dinosaur" gets.

Filmed in Utah

Okay, "The Good Dinosaur" was absolutely not shot in Utah, but the film looks so good, and the landscapes so authentic, you could probably sell the idea to a few of your more gullible friends.

Even when compared to Pixar's most beautiful backdrops, "the Good Dinosaur" is exceptional. For director Peter Sohn's first feature film, he's asked his animators to embrace a new level of realism and the results are stunning. Animation studios have been reluctant to approach photorealistic settings in the past, but after seeing "The Good Dinosaur," I'm betting hyper-realism in animation will be the next big thing.

Conclusion

It will be two years before we see another original Pixar movie, and after that, there isn't another non-sequel on the schedule. Sure, I'm looking forward to "The Incredibles 2" and "Finding Dory" with the rest of you, but Pixar is at its best when introducing flying balloon houses, elaborate monster factories and the inner workings of the human brain.

"The Good Dinosaur" is another win for the studio's unique creations, and while I previously called "Inside Out" as the sure Best Animated Picture winner earlier this year, I wildly underestimated the potential of yet another lost brontosaurus story. "The Good Dinosaur" is a fantastic addition to the Pixar library. Here's looking forward to "Coco" in 2017.


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About the Author: Travis Poppleton ----------------------------------

Travis Poppleton has been covering movie news, film reviews and live events for Deseret News and KSL.com since 2010 and co-hosts the FlixJunkies podcast. You can contact him at tspoppleton@gmail.com.

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