Wednesday 3 June 2015

Making (Pre)History: Pixar Unveils ‘The Good Dinosaur’ Teaser:


Having recently been inundated with news of further sequels from Pixar, it seemed as though their continual outflux of originality had gone the way of the dinosaurs. But does their latest output herald a year of change for the company?

Pixar have released the first teaser trailer for The Good Dinosaur (2015), to be released later this year. As with all teaser trailers, it’s humorous and a fairly innovative concept. The trailer posits what would happen if the meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs bypassed Earth, and the dinosaurs remained, and evolved. Aside from this, it gives very little away concerning its plot, but one thing is certain: it looks interesting, at least visually, and strikingly different from anything else that preceded it. Perhaps Pixar are finally returning to form? Maybe it’s a little too early to say.

The fact of the matter is that a disturbingly large quantity of sequels remain in the pipeline. For the last five years, Pixar seem to have embraced their established franchises and played it safe. That said, this should not in any way hinder creativity and originality otherwise, outside of these franchises. But people’s collective disappointment in the company’s output, invoked by their unfortunate bout of sequelitis, was likely exacerbated by the weak and underdeveloped Brave (2012), which saw an original concept accompanied by a mediocre and frankly unoriginal storyline. Indeed, it seemed the curtain had fallen on Pixar’s seemingly irrepressible winning streak.

Yet this year, Pixar seem to be re-emerging as the front runners of original storytelling. The cynical of us had our doubts initially – admittedly I’m one of them – but it seems as though they’re getting back on track. Although The Good Dinosaur suffered problems behind the scenes (such as Peter Sohn taking over the directorial role from Bob Peterson in summer 2013*, not to mention a substantially delayed release), the concept nonetheless has promise. What with the release of their long-awaited comeback with the wholly original Inside Out this month, it seems that 2015 might well be the year Pixar bite back.

Watch the teaser below:
 

*Sources:
LA Times: ‘Pixar Animation yanks director Bob Peterson off ‘The Good Dinosaur’’; http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-pixar-director-20130831-story.html

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