By thinning “The Good Dinosaur” ‘s herd, Pixar Animation Studios wound up with a far better film

Jim Hill

9 years ago

Given that — this past weekend — “The Good
Dinosaur” was once again the No. 1 family film at the box office, there
are a lot of parents on the prowl right now for toys that draw their
inspiration from this new Pixar Animation Studios production

And as luck would have it, there’s a good number of
“Good Dinosaur” -related playthings on the market right now. The
Disney Store — for example — has a Jack the Ankylosaurus action figure which
features swinging tail action …

… while over at Amazon, you can choose between Mary Alice
the Stegosaurus …

… and Will the Triceratops.

Mind you, if your child really is a “Good
Dinosaur” fan, they’re certainly going to be surprised if they find Jack,
Mary Alice and/or Will under the tree. Mostly because these three characters
didn’t actually appear in that Peter Sohn film.

“And why is that?,” you ask. It has a lot to do
with the way “The Good Dinosaur” was retooled after Pixar veteran Bob
Peterson was pulled off of this project back in the Summer of 2013. You see,
Bob was the guy who initially came up with the Big “What If” that
drove this movie’s story. As in: What if the asteroid that wiped out the
dinosaurs had actually missed Earth?

You see, Bob put a very personal spin on “The Good
Dinosaur.” Given that he had grown up in Ohio’s
Amish Country … Well, that’s how Peterson thought the dinosaurs would
have evolved after another 65 million
years on this planet. They would have eventually become this Amish-inspired
agrarian society where all of the farmers worked together for the collective
good.

And to Bob’s way of thinking, five different dinosaur
species would have come to occupy very specific roles within this farming
community. Triceratops would have used their sharp horns & bony frills like
bulldozers to first clear the land. Then massive apatosauruses would have come
along to furrow the soil and plant seeds. Once that crop was fully grown,
stegosauruses would have used the sharp spikes on their tails to mow things
down. Parasaurolophuses would have followed right behind those stegosauruses
and gathered up what had just been harvested.
And then the parasaurolophuses would have piled those crops on the
strong backs of the ankylosauruses. Who
would have then hauled that harvest back to the barn.

That sounds like a well-ordered world, don’t you think? One
that could perhaps have been tipped on its ear one day if one young apatosaurus
farmer decided to do something different. Like — say — instead of
automatically killing all of the bugs that regularly attack their crops in the
field, studying these insects instead.

This is what Arlo was supposed to be doing as the original
version of “The Good Dinosaur” ‘s storyline was unfolding. This is
why — if you look closely at the very first poster for this Pixar film — you’ll
see two giant bugs.

And speaking of giant … Take a look at Arlo’s enormous
puss. Why does this early version of “The Good Dinosaur” ‘s title
character have such a long face? Because Bob Peterson envisioned this apatosaur
not as an 11 year-old who gets lost in the wilderness. But — rather — as a
man-child in his late teens / early 20s. A literally big-hearted lug who longs
to abandon his rigid role on the farm and perhaps do something different with
his life. Like — say — go off on an adventure.

“And what was supposed to send Arlo off on this
adventure?,” you query. You remember those large insects that this
“Good Dinosaur” has been studying when he should have been protecting
all of those crops? One day, Arlo notices that one of these bugs isn’t actually
an insect. But — rather — a boy who’s crafted a crude disguise for himself
that then makes this small human look like a bug.

Because of the little three spots that this boy has painted
on his forehead (which are supposed to mirror / mimic the spots that he sees on
all of the enormous insects that are attacking the crops which the dinosaurs
have planted) … Well, that’s why Arlo winds up calling this small human Spot.

There were a lot of intriguing story ideas & character concepts
like this that can only be found in Bob Peterson’s version of “The Good
Dinosaur.” The only problem was that all of these elements never coalesced
into a single emotionally satisfying / overall entertaining storyline. And as
“The Good Dinosaur” ‘s original release date of May 30, 2014 drew
closer & closer and Pixar’s story trust had yet to come up with a third act
for this film that actually worked, something obviously had to be done.

So when John Walker (i.e., “The Good Dinosaur” ‘s
original producer) stepped away from that project in 2013 so that he could then
go work with Brad Bird on Walt Disney Pictures’ “Tomorrowland,”
that’s when Denise Ream (i.e., “The
Good Dinosaur” ‘s new producer) made her move.

“I came onboard this project in June of 2013. Shortly after that, Pete (Sohn, Bob
Peterson’s original co-director on “The Good Dinosaur”) took over the
story,” Ream recalled in an interview with the Huffington Post. “We
just shut the production down. And it was the hardest professional thing that
I’ve ever done. But when you’re swirling in the story murk, you have to do
something. And Peter … While he still wanted to honor the world and the
characters that Bob had originally created for this project, he also wanted to
tell a far simpler story.”

So rather than make a movie that showed how ankylosaurs,
apatosaurs, parasaurolophuses, stegosauruses & triceratops came together to
form an Amish-inspired farming community, Sohn & Ream decided instead to
focus on a single family of apatosauruses. Not only that, but Peter &
Denise decided to pare back Arlo’s family. Reducing his number of siblings from
two brothers & a sister to just a brother & a sister.

And speaking of paring things back, given that the character
of Arlo (as Bob Peterson originally envisioned him, anyway) had been this 70
foot-tall man-child … Well, that then made it challenging for Pixar’s artists
to stage scenes where this apatosaurus could then connect with a 3 foot-tall
human boy. Which is why Sohn & Ream opted to not only reduce Arlo to 15
feet in height, they also reduced this character’s age as well. Making him just
11 years-old when Arlo & Spot (SPOILER ALERT AHEAD) wind up getting swept
downstream and then have to join forces if they’re to survive their time in the
wilderness.

“And when we pitched this new, simpler story featuring
a far younger version of Arlo, John Lasseter said ‘This is great.’ But he then
warned Denise and I — if we were to go ahead with this version of ‘The Good
Dinosaur’ — that we’d really have to
bring these characters and the world that they live in to life. Because with
this simple a story, you can’t hide behind the plot. Which is a very vulnerable
place to be when you’re a filmmaker,” Sohn recalled.

“And I have to tell you that — on the day that we
pitched John & the Pixar Brain Trust the new simple version of ‘The
Good Dinosaur’ and they totally got on board with that idea — I went into
the bathroom and wept. Because I so desperately wanted to make a movie like
this. One where it was going to be the smaller, more character-driven moments
that wound up having the biggest impact on the audience,” Ream concluded.

Changing apatosaurs in mid-stream like this was obviously an
enormous gamble. Thankfully, it was one that paid off in the end, given that
the critics wound up raving about “The Good Dinosaur.” With Joe
Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal saying that this Peter Sohn film was
” … heartfelt and endearing, as well as visually splendiferous”
while Sandy Schaefer of Screen Rant stated that this new animated feature
” … boasts a touching story and gorgeous animation.”

Now as for Bob Peterson … Look, this wasn’t this Pixar
veteran’s first walk in “Jurassic
Park.” Given that Bob had worked
on the story team for the story team for such challenging projects as “A
Bug’s Life” & “Toy Story 2” (Not to mention being the story
supervisor on “Monsters, Inc.”), he already knew how tough creating a
new full length animated feature could be. Which is why — rather than exiting
the Emeryville operation after being taken off of “The Good Dinosaur”
— Peterson just sucked it up and then moved on to his next assignment at that
animation studio. Which was helping to craft a satisfying story for
“Finding Dory,” the long-awaited sequel to Pixar’s 2003 hit,
“Finding Nemo.”

Which, as it turns out, has proven to be a far tougher nut to crack
than anyone had ever anticipated. Thanks — in large part — to SeaWorld‘s
“Blackfish” problem and how that controversial documentary has helped
reshape the public’s perception of how animals should be treated in captivity.
But we’ll get to the behind-the-scenes stories associated with this new Andrew
Stanton movie in a future Huffington Post article.

But for now, those of you who are curious about what Bob Peterson’s
“The Good Dinosaur” would have been like at least have this handful
of toys to check out. I mean, it’s not like all evidence of the earlier version
of this new Pixar Animation Studios film has been wiped from the planet, has gone
entirely extinct.

This article was originally posted on the Huffington Post’s Entertainment page on Monday, January 7, 2015