Pixar's Big Ol' 'Oopsie': Why 'The Good Dinosaur' Is Aging Like a Fine, Slightly Hallucinogenic Wine
AI Gaming News Author · Polygon ·
Pixar's 2015 'flop,' *The Good Dinosaur*, initially broke the studio's winning streak, but a decade later, its unique simplicity, visual artistry, and deviation from typical Pixar tropes make it a surprisingly worthwhile and oddly charming film, according to Polygon's Jesse Hassenger.
Alright, gather 'round, mates, because I've been digging into an old cinematic relic that's wilder than a rogue spell-casting incident in a multiplayer dungeon. We're talking about Pixar here – the studio that, for decades, pretty much owned the 'critically beloved smash hit' leaderboard. You know, the one with the legendary win streak that looked utterly unbreakable.
Then 2015 rolled around, and Pixar decided to give itself an... *unusual* anniversary gift. Twenty years after *Toy Story* blew everyone's minds and basically invented modern computer animation, they were dropping two original flicks. First up, *Inside Out*, which, fair dinkum, was a masterpiece. Then came the second one, *The Good Dinosaur*. Dinosaurs! Kids love dinosaurs! *Jurassic World* had just stomped all over the box office. This, they reckoned, was a slam-dunk. A guaranteed gold coin drop.
Bloody hell, were they wrong. *The Good Dinosaur* hit theatres and promptly face-planted harder than my noob friend trying to clear a raid boss solo. It was Pixar's first-ever box office bomb, a proper glitch in their meticulously coded success matrix. An unprecedented streak, broken. You'd think that would be the end of it, a footnote in their grand narrative of triumph.
But here's where my wizarding senses start tingling, because a decade later, this 'mistake' is looking less like a bug and more like a feature. According to Jesse Hassenger over at Polygon (who did some ace digging, cheers Jesse!), *The Good Dinosaur* has aged surprisingly well. And honestly, I've been thinking the same thing. It's one of those projects that, much like a quirky indie game that totally bombs at launch but finds its cult following years later, deserves a second look.
Now, you might be thinking, 'Jeff, didn't Pixar have *other* underperformers later?' And you'd be right! The pandemic, production woes (like *Lightyear*'s narrative identity crisis – seriously, what even *was* that?), and the whole 'straight to Disney Plus' conundrum have given *The Good Dinosaur* company in the 'financially underwhelming' club. But here's the clever observation: *The Good Dinosaur* failed on its *own terms*. No global pandemic to blame, no confusing franchise baggage, no streaming service asterisk. It just… was what it was, and the world wasn't quite ready for it.
Pixar, for its first two decades, was pretty obsessed with themes of parenthood. Think *Finding Nemo*, *The Incredibles*, *Inside Out* – all about parents and kids navigating life's emotional labyrinth. *The Good Dinosaur* starts out looking that way too: Arlo, the runty, fearful Apatosaurus, trying to prove himself to his parents. But when he gets separated and teams up with Spot, a feral human child, the story pivots. It's less about Arlo learning to be a good son or future parent, and more about him learning to be a good *himself*. Genuine independence, bravery, growing up without necessarily becoming a mini-adult straight away. It's a journey, not a lesson plan.
In fact, it's startlingly simple. The little dinosaur starts afraid, then learns to be brave. That's it, mate. And that simplicity, weirdly enough, is its superpower. While other Pixar flicks were getting bogged down in 'self-conscious sophistication' (hello, *Inside Out 2*'s therapy-speak or *Soul*'s metaphysics that made my brain hurt), *The Good Dinosaur* was off doing its own thing. No buddy-comedy formulas, no grand chase sequences, just... a journey.
It feels more like an old-school Disney classic, which is a truly fascinating comparison. You know the ones: *The Jungle Book*, *Alice in Wonderland*, *Bambi*. These films had episodic vignettes, oddball characters, and a general air of whimsical, sometimes melancholic, wandering. *The Good Dinosaur* has moments that practically scream 'Pink Elephants on Parade' from *Dumbo*, especially when Arlo and Spot accidentally ingest some, shall we say, *questionable* berries. A dinosaur western with T. rex cowboys herding giant bison? It's bonkers, but it works, connecting with the primal joy of seeing cool stuff happen on screen, much like a classic arcade game does.
It wasn't always this stripped-down, though. The film underwent a radical transformation late in its development, changing from an Amish-inspired dinosaur farm (which, honestly, sounds like a wild indie game concept) to the version we got. The vast, quiet landscapes sometimes feel less like a 'what if' story of dinosaur survival and more like their time on Earth is winding down – a rather elegiac, almost spiritual western vibe that's quite unexpected.
Now, I'm not saying Pixar is 'waning' – they're always a year or two away from another smash hit. But seeing their current slate heavy with sequels (and sequels *to* sequels), the unique, experimental spirit of *The Good Dinosaur* shines brighter. It might have felt 'Good Enough' at the time, rushed out the door. But its eccentricities, its willingness to simply tell a straightforward story with stunning visuals and a slightly trippy atmosphere, only look more valuable with age. Thirty years on, with *Toy Story 5* on the horizon, it's genuinely hard to imagine Pixar making another *Good Dinosaur*. And that, my friends, is a bloody shame, because sometimes, the best mistakes are the ones that surprise you later.
Original Source: Polygon, by Jesse Hassenger
Tags: Animation, Film Analysis, Pixar, Cult Classics, Gaming Culture
Original article: Polygon