The Bizarre History Of The Good Dinosaur, Pixar's Biggest Dud

Dating back to the days of Gertie the Dinosaur, dinosaurs and animation have been inseparable in film history. The limitless possibilities of animation mean that it's the perfect medium to bring to life these prehistoric beasties that have always captured people's imagination. The history of dinosaurs in animation stretches through projects ranging from "Fantasia" to "We're Back! A Dinosaur Story" to "The Land Before Time" among many others. Given the ubiquity of these critters in the world of animation, it was only a matter of time before Pixar tried its hand at a story involving these creatures. Pixar's foray into this field emerged in 2015 with "The Good Dinosaur," which told the story of Arlo (Raymond Ochoa), an adolescent dinosaur scared of everything, having to make a treacherous trek back to his home accompanied by a feral human boy named Spot.

This twist on the classic boy and his dog narrative had the usual staples of Pixar features (comedy, tearjerker moments, beautiful animation), but so much else about this motion picture was totally distinctive, even when compared exclusively to its Pixar brethren. This idiosyncratic nature is reflected in this chronicle of the movie's history, which covers everything from the film's troubled production to how its score was produced to director Peter Sohn's personal connection to the title. The untold truth of "The Good Dinosaur" will make anyone further appreciate an especially noteworthy entry in the sizeable pantheon of animated dinosaur cinema.

Pixar movies don't just emerge from the ground fully formed. Like all motion pictures, they begin with a germ of inspiration and snowball from there into something much larger and more detailed. For "The Good Dinosaur," its origins begin with its initial director, Bob Peterson. As a kid, Peterson went to the World's Fair, where he was captivated by a collection of animatronic dinosaurs. Seeing these once-extinct organisms towering over him instilled a love for these creatures that made him think of the storytelling possibilities of these prehistoric giants.

In a later interview with Collider, eventual "Good Dinosaur" director Peter Sohn revealed what inspired him to get passionate about "The Good Dinosaur." He didn't have any childhood World's Fair memories to turn to, but he did note that he deeply related to Arlo as an outcast adolescent. He wanted to use "The Good Dinosaur" to communicate what it was like to be an awkward youngster who's trying to navigate both themselves and the larger frightening world around them. Peterson and Sohn's core personal inspirations for "The Good Dinosaur" were drastically different, but they brought something deeply distinct and poignant in their grounding of this prehistoric yarn.

Two years after it was first revealed to the public, "The Good Dinosaur" returned to the D23 convention with a much deeper look into what the movie was about. This included a reveal of the feature's cast, which was packed with recognizable names. "Raising Hope" leading man Lucas Neff was announced as the voice of the film's protagonist, plucky dinosaur Arlo, while John Lithgow and Frances McDormand were playing Arlo's parents. Arlo would also have a trio of siblings played by Judy Greer, Neil Patrick Harris, and recurring Pixar fixture Bill Hader.

Talking with Screen Slam on the red carpet after a presentation on "The Good Dinosaur," Lucas Neff expressed an incredible amount of excitement over the project and revealed further details about Arlo, including how the original version of this character had "the soul of an artist." He also noted that classic Pixar movies like "Ratatouille" were the kind of films he had wanted to be in, so getting to be the protagonist of "The Good Dinosaur" was a dream come true for the performer. Unfortunately, despite Neff's enthusiasm for the role, he and most of these other initially announced cast members would not make it into the final cut of "The Good Dinosaur," with only Frances McDormand surviving the production's rocky road to completion.

When a Pixar director is removed from a passion project of theirs, they tend to leave the studio shortly afterward. Jan Pinkava, for instance, left to go work at Laika after being removed from "Ratatouille" while Brenda Chapman found employment at Lucasfilm in the wake of getting kicked off her passion project "Brave." The loss of a deeply personal project to these artists makes it understandably difficult to continue at Pixar like nothing happened. Bob Peterson is an exception to this trend. After losing "The Good Dinosaur," he continued to stay on at Pixar and would direct other projects for the studio, including the Disney+ series "Forky Asks a Question."

In an interview with Collider, Peterson noted that he never considered leaving Pixar since he always felt like this studio was his home. In illuminating why he continued on at Pixar, Peterson also reflected on why his version of "The Good Dinosaur" never went forward. In hindsight, Peterson felt he wore too many hats on the production trying to write and direct it. In the process, the second and third acts of his take on "The Good Dinosaur" were weak and resulted in Pixar deciding to revamp the feature. It was a brutal experience, but being so open about what went wrong in this directorial effort gave Peterson the room to stick around at a studio near and dear to his heart.

Originally, Peter Sohn was just around on "The Good Dinosaur" as a co-director. This is a position that's often been filled by filmmakers at Pixar yearning to take on full-fledged directorial duties down the line. Lee Unkrich, for example, was a co-director on "Toy Story 2" before becoming a director proper on "Toy Story 3" a little over a decade later. Meanwhile, Adrian Molina was a co-director on "Coco" before getting the chance to be a director on the upcoming "Elio." Initially, it wouldn't have been surprising to see Sohn serve as co-director to director Bob Peterson on "The Good Dinosaur" and then move on up the chain of command down the line.

However, once Peterson left "The Good Dinosaur," Sohn's responsibilities on the feature changed dramatically. Talking to SlashFilm, Sohn recalled he had been working on "The Good Dinosaur" since 2009 and had been deeply committed to the project during that entire timespan. Once Peterson left, Pixar stepped in to ask him, as somebody with such extensive experience of the "Good Dinosaur" world, to take over the entire movie. Once he accepted the gig, Sohn found himself graduating to director faster than he could've ever imagined.

Arlo the dinosaur and Spot the human come from two dramatically different worlds. "The Good Dinosaur" emphasizes their exceedingly opposing existences by giving them a gigantic language barrier. While Arlo speaks in English, Spot is totally non-verbal save for some growls and other basic noises. The duo can't have a traditional conversation and instead express their innermost thoughts to each other through means like drawings in the sand. This critical aspect is all part of how "The Good Dinosaur" was meant to emphasize the importance of communication and the many forms it can take.

"For me, the inception of all this, and I've talked about this a lot, but my parents didn't speak English," Sohn explained to Inside the Magic on why communication is so important to "The Good Dinosaur." "And so you just learn to try to communicate in other ways. It has a lot to do with body language and tone. Some of our favorite films that have connected in our family were stories that were told very well visually. And a lot of those were animated movies, where they are able to kind of put structure on things through gesture and observation and I didn't know it at the time, but that made such an impact on me growing up." Recognizing what left an impact on him as a youngster ensured that Sohn could properly realize one of the most emotionally impactful themes of "The Good Dinosaur."

While the most famous composers that have worked with Pixar include Randy Newman and Michael Giacchino, they're far from the only people who've put together the orchestral music that defines a film from this studio. Over the years, several different composers have worked on Pixar titles, with these musicians ranging wildly from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross to Patrick Doyle to Thomas Newman, among others. For "The Good Dinosaur," the score was composed by Mychael and Jeff Danna. The former figure has composed the scores for movies like "Life of Pi" and "Moneyball" in his solo career while his collaborations with Jeff Danna have included another Pixar title, "Onward."

In tackling the score for "The Good Dinosaur," Mychael Danna explained to We Are Movie Geeks that he and Jeff Danna were inspired by the consistently innovative nature of Pixar as a studio in putting together their score. They didn't want to make something ordinary, so they embraced bold creative tendencies like taking musical influences from all across the planet. The pair also recalled how the most difficult character to work with musically was the character Spot. Conjuring up a theme for this young boy was a challenge thanks to his imperfect nature, but a woodwind eventually functioned as the breakthrough instrument that could serve as his theme. Getting these tiny details just right is par for the course for any composer working on the latest title from Pixar Animation Studios.