I'm not sure why Pixar decided to release two features in one year, after having finally taken a year off. It's as if they knew that only one would be particularly successful, so they wanted the greater to distract us from the lesser. In so doing, they could avoid talks of a not-so-hot year.
The title is a bit misleading, because several if not most of the semi-civilized dinosaurs are about as good as young protagonist Aldo. If there's one way he's better, it's in his refusal to kill the food supply-raiding human orphan he encounters -- tho he chalks it up to his usual failing, timidity. Dire straits force him to start relying on the nonverbal yet grateful boy, dubbed Spot, for help reuniting with his family.
Does this sound like a mishmash of other movies to you? Maybe a cross between The Land Before Time and Ice Age? There's certainly a plethora of cliches. Aldo's the runty black sheep of his family, tho at least his parents don't resent him. In typical Disney fashion, he doesn't get to keep both for long. His journey gradually turns his annoyance at Spot into tender care, in addition to building up his fortitude. It gets pretty predictable. Like Brave, it exchanges Pixar creativity for state-of-the-art CG -- for the environments, anyway; Aldo looks about as convincing as Yoshi from the Mario games.
Fortunately, it also gets heartwarming. Aldo's juvenile, quadrupedal cuteness may help in this regard. I found Spot, who could easily have been a playmate for the Croods toddler if not for the rivalry between Pixar and DreamWorks, more obnoxious in his surrealism than in his barbarity (he walks on all fours but wants privacy to pee?), yet he also grew on me.
TGD also seems to be one of the more action-packed Pixar entries. That's almost inevitable in any story set in prehistory, especially the (fictitiously extended) age of dinosaurs. No onscreen bloodshed, but note the PG rating before you bring in any little kids.
The moral? While Inside Out preached the value of sadness, TGD puts emphasis on fear. Aldo learns that courage means pushing onward in spite of fear, not avoiding it altogether. Something like friendship is good for fomenting that. You may pick up on a secondary lesson about overcoming differences, but it's not as strong: Aldo and Spot sadly separate in the end, with no hint of future visitations.
Perhaps the title alludes less to Aldo than to the film itself. It is indeed good, but to call it great would be mighty generous. Watch when you want to engage your emotions more than your intellect.
No comments:
Post a Comment