A few months ago, we let you know a little bit about the upcoming Pixar film The Good Dinosaur, an animated feature that imagines a world in which dinosaurs never became extinct. While not much about this film is yet known, the lead creative team recently shed some new light on this intriguing new movie in an interview with the LA Times.
While no specific details on the film’s plot were given, director Bob Peterson revealed that audiences will be getting a much more personal depiction of the dinosaurs’ lives in this new film, saying, “It’s time to do a movie where you get to know the dinosaur, what it’s really like to be a dinosaur and to be with a dinosaur.” The original inspiration for the movie, Peterson revealed, actually came from the 1964 World’s Fair, where Peterson was awed by the dinosaur animatronics that Disney created for Ford’s “Magic Skyway” Pavilion.
In developing the film, the creators revealed that they’re toying with what dinosaurs represent in today’s society, which is typically something resistant to change or anachronistic. The film’s title The Good Dinosaur may not necessarily represent the whole story, as co-director Peter Sohn revealed that if there are “good” dinosaurs, there must be bad ones as well. “The title is deceptively simple,” Sohn said. “It has more meaning than it seems.”
With The Good Dinosaur still in its early planning stages, the crew is doing as much research as they can to better understand dinosaurs by visiting natural history and science museums and examining fossils and bones. Peterson is currently at work on writing the film “vagabond-style,” carrying around his laptop and stopping to write at locations throughout Northern California as inspiration strikes. “So if there’s a bunch of dinosaurs in a Whole Foods parking lot in this movie, you’ll understand why,” said the film’s producer, John Walker.
The Good Dinosaur is currently set to debut in theaters on May 30, 2014.
