It has been almost two years since Disney/Pixar officially announced the development of The Good Dinosaur at the D23 Expo.
The “good” dinosaur in question is named Jacob (pronounced Yacob) and the story follows him and his “pet boy” on an adventure to save their collective worlds.
The film is being directed by Bob Peterson, who served as co-director on Up, in addition to voicing several memorable characters such as Roz in Monsters, Inc. and Dug in Up.
The synopsis that Disney released for The Good Dinosaur reads:
“What if the cataclysmic asteroid that forever changed life on Earth actually missed the planet completely and giant dinosaurs never became extinct?”
John Lasseter provided further details about the film’s plot:
“They are kind of cartoony but they are dinosaurs; they are not walking around with clothes on or anything like that, they still are kind of dinosaurs. We focused on mostly the plant-eaters, not the carnivores… Their society becomes more of an agrarian society, meaning farmers. They become farmers. It’s a very funny story about a certain way of life that a young dinosaur has trouble fitting into and he ends up going on this quest. He kind of messes up and he has to put everything right by going on this quest and on that quest he meets this our character that is an outcast from his society too and so the two of them form this bond and it becomes this unique kind of story…”
The filmmakers want to explore what dinosaurs represent today, and how they are represented in stereotypes. Bob Peterson said: “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.” Peterson said the inspiration for the movie came from a childhood visit to the World’s Fair where he was impressed by some dinosaur animatronics.
The Good Dinosaur is scheduled to arrive in theaters on May 30, 2014!
