Pixar brought you greats like Up, Toy Story, Wall-E and more, but it seems like they’re losing their touch at delivering them. The Good Dinosaur is about Arlo, a young Apatosaurus (I have no idea what that is, Wikipedia shows a dinosaur with a long neck so let’s stick with it), who is having trouble finding out where he fits in his family. He’s not as strong as his brother, or smart as his sister. He lives in a world where a meteorite didn’t hit the Earth, and instead humans and dinosaurs co-exist.

In a scene which seems similar to the bit in Lion King during the stampede, Arlo loses his father and is washed away from his way home. He ends up teaming up with a human named Spot to try and find his way home. We see the two work together and go through fairly emotional scenes to develop the duo. Pixar know how to play to the audience’s emotions to get them to connect without actually developing any characters. They also know how to use bits from their other movies to their advantage, we’re introduced to a family of T-Rex’s who turn out to be good, much like the sharks from Finding Nemo.

The best part really about The Good Dinosaur is the look of the entire film, which is truly amazing. The attention to detail with regards to the world shows how far animation has come. The characters show emotion through detailed facial expressions, get cuts and scrapes as they battle through the environment. Unfortunately, that isn’t enough to save this fairly average movie.