Pixar's delightful animated adventure about a timid dinosaur and the feral child he befriends
Inviting us to imagine that evolution had taken a different course and dinosaurs never gone extinct, this playful animated comedy adventure gives us a Western-type tale of pluck and peril with a timid young dinosaur as its hero.
Arlo (voiced by Raymond Ochoa) is the runt of an Apatosaurus family of doughty pioneer homesteaders and he must learn to master his fears when events strand him miles from home in the company of a feral human child (Jack Bright).
Scampering about on all fours and howling rather than speaking, this bristling, bustling creature (whom Arlo names Spot) is an immensely winning character, as is the cowboy-like Tyrannosaurus rex (played by Western veteran Sam Elliott) the pair encounter during a hazardous run-in with buffalo-rustling raptors.
There's plenty of slapstick fun to enjoy, too, plus the emotional engagement of Arlo and Spot's growing bond, but the film's most impressive feature is its awesomely beautiful rendering of the natural world - from majestic forests and raging flood waters to the glittering phosphorescence of a field of fireflies.
