A simple film in an imagined timeline
A Potpourri of Vestiges Review
By Anirban Lahiri
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| The Good Dinosaur (2015) - By Peter Sohn |
Our Rating: 6.0
IMDb Ratings: 7.3
IMDb Ratings: 7.3
Genre: Animation | Adventure | Comedy
Cast: Jeffrey Wright, Frances McDormand, Maleah Nipay-Padilla
Country: USA
Language: English
Runtime: 93 min
Color: Color
Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur is a simple film in an imagined
timeline where the Homo Habilis (or, some similar tool-making pre-human
species) cohabits the intelligent reptiles who were still extant on the face of
our planet. Although the idea of intelligent dinosaurs and their collective is
not entirely new, this is the first time I have seen its representation in cinema.
However, the filmmaker seems to have shown that metaphorically. An intelligent,
farming creature cannot afford to be four-legged. That goes against the working
of nature.
Besides this simple flaw in characterization, the
fable of the good dinosaur works at a basic level, like Aesop’s stories, or
Panchatantra. The cute, little Arlo is the weak sibling of Libby and Buck. He
fears even small critters. Yet, his parents Henry and Ida, the two intelligent
apatosauruses, never give up on him. The question is, how and when would Arlo make
his footprint on the wall of the family barn?
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| A Still from The Good Dinosaur |
Finding your own worth is the impetus that drives the
rest of the film, taking Arlo through the typical hero’s journey, which we find
in books by Joseph Campbell. This is a perfect ploy for both fables and
epics. The Ugly Duckling (1843) revolves around this. So does the Ramayana. Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
quotes this journey through a single reflection of Paul Bäumer, the hero of the novel. “We are
none of us more than twenty years old. But young? Youth? That is long ago. We
are old folk.” The hero’s journey is pointed to that goal – to be wise, to be old, farsighted soul with the energy and fearlessness of the youth. Arlo’s
journey is a snapshot of that for the toddlers and early teens of our times.
Yet, the adult may relate to that through its quaint moments.
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| A Still from The Good Dinosaur |
Where the film falters is not the simplicity of the
journey, or the awkward character of the thin, green dinosaur. It is the
equalization of goodness with stupidity – a signature of exploitative feudal
values (which is at the core of the Disney studios, with an apparently
capitalist cover) that works well with fables. Most of our traditional fables
are products of the last fifteen hundred years or less. The moral baggage they
carry, the subtle politics that is injected to the toddler brain by enjoyable
doses of such fables, came from the idea of a fixed, hierarchical, stepped
society where one earns a predestined position (and, never beyond that) after a
lifelong struggle. This is the conventional journey of the hero. But, this is
a remnant from the pre-modern society.
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| A Still from The Good Dinosaur |
The
role of fables in politicizing (and policing) young minds is a favourite pastime
for the postcolonial discourse analysts. One of my teachers made name, and
strong academic position, on the basis of his Ph.D thesis on this topic – the
politics of the postcolonial children’s literature. Moral baggage works so much
these days that some of my students do not see it possible to make a film
without a social message attached. Such social messages are based on fixed value
systems. Those value systems are considered to be eternal and universal. Under
such schemes of things, history goes for a toss. But, who cares? Our traditions
always refer to three generations’ memory at best.
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| A Still from The Good Dinosaur |
That
was similar in the days of the Mahabharata. That is equally prevailing today.
So, the return of the dead father, an emotional bond
between the critter and Arlo (reminding me of symbolic alter-ego so common
among certain aboriginal tribes across the world. Carl Jung made a list of
them, long ago), the symbolic fight with the pterodactyls, and the final come
back home are besotted with some sentiment of morality, from
time to time. Several of these recurring motifs have been Disney signature,
from the good dinosaur in Fantasia (1940) to the return of the dead father’s
apparition in Lion King (1994). Apparently, these are popular with young
children, streamlined through our existing framework of feudal values buttered
with capitalist ambitions.
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| A Still from The Good Dinosaur |
The
film is running well in India and elsewhere.
But, the scheme for young children, and the adult, seems to beg for a change, shortly. Otherwise, the medium of cinema would go for a toss soon.
Readers, please feel free to share your views/opinions in the comment box below. As always your insightful comments are highly appreciated!
But, the scheme for young children, and the adult, seems to beg for a change, shortly. Otherwise, the medium of cinema would go for a toss soon.
Readers, please feel free to share your views/opinions in the comment box below. As always your insightful comments are highly appreciated!
References:
The Good Dinosaur (2015) Trailer
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