'The Good Dinosaur' offers breathtaking animation, disappointing plot

At the start of "The Good Dinosaur," released Nov. 25, a meteor hurtles towards Earth on a collision course with the blue planet and ready to bring destruction to the dinosaurs. Instead of crashing into Earth, however, it misses, and the story begins. Pixar takes this imagined scenario and runs with it, establishing a coming-of-age tale about a cowardly dinosaur. Unfortunately, while "The Good Dinosaur" may be Pixar's finest bit of animation to date, the film simply does not live up to the studio's previous films in terms of storyline, and fans might struggle to associate it with the Pixar franchise.

The story follows the timorous 11-year-old dinosaur Arlo (Raymond Ochoa), who lives with his parents and two siblings on a farm in the alternate present day. While his siblings are able to quickly “make their marks” --  the literal and symbolic passage into adulthood among the dinosaurs in the film -- Arlo struggles to live up to his parents' expectations. After Arlo falls into a river and is separated from his family, Arlo must work together with his new “pet” human named Spot (Jack Bright) in order to find his way back to his mother and siblings.

The film's animation is absolutely stunning. Though the characters are carefully rendered, it is the landscape shots that undoubtedly bring the film alive and compensates, at least in part, for the film's lackluster story. Panoramic scenes -- plains of golden grass and spectacular mountain views -- will leave viewers breathless, stunned by both their hyper-realism and their beauty. In one scene, during which Arlo runs through a field of fireflies to light them up for Spot, you can almost feel the tiny creatures swirling around you in a beautiful display of luminescence.

Unfortunately, the film's story is not quite so beautiful. To be fair, given the number of critically acclaimed Pixar films like "Inside Out" (2015) and "Finding Nemo" (2003), any addition to the studio's repertoire faces an uphill battle to achieve its own place in the Pixar franchise. "The Good Dinosaur" never becomes anything more than, well, good. The story is solid if a bit cliché: Arlo faces an internal challenge, loses a key figure in his life and must go on a long and hard journey to learn what it takes to “make his mark” on the world. The premise of the movie, too -- the "what if the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs missed" scenario -- is unique and has potential. Still, the movie fails to deliver. 

"The Good Dinosaur" fails to establish its own world. The story hits all the right marks, but it's all been done before. The characters are fun but none of them feels really memorable, the villains generic and ordinary. The few other characters that the movie introduces, such as the family of rancher T. rexes, are left in the dust shortly after being introduced. There is no real character development outside of Arlo's evolution, which is itself relatively generic, leaving the beautiful world portrayed in the film feeling remarkably empty. Where are the other dinosaur families? What is dinosaur society like? The best Pixar movies create entire worlds that viewers revisit over and over again. It's sad that, in the end, such a visually stunning movie simply fails to establish a single truly meaningful character. Audiences will leave the movie feeling good -- but not great.