The computer-animated film takes place in an alternate timeline where the asteroid that is hypothesized to have hit Earth and made dinosaurs extinct misses, instead. In this B universe, a young Apatosaurus named Arlo struggles on his own after the death of his father. When the poor guy gets hurt and lost one day, he ends up far away from his home in the Clawed-Tooth Mountains. As he tries to make his way back, he comes across a cave-boy, whom (in a bit of archetypal movie role reversal) he names Spot.
It’s not smooth-sailing from there for Arlo and Spot, though. Arlo may be a plant-eater, but there are still big, scary dinosaurs out there, among other predators. On top of that, nature is a threat of its own. Based on the trailer, The Good Dinosaur will unfold into quite the adventure, while still managing to tug at our heart strings as Disney-Pixar movies always seem to do.
The combination of dinosaurs, Disney, and Pixar should be a winning one. Though Jurassic World overshadowed the opening weekend of Disney-Pixar’s latest flick, Inside Out (which still exceeded expectations with a record-setting debut), The Good Dinosaur may actually benefit from the blockbuster giant’s immense popularity. Dinos are huge right now so, all things told, we expect the response to be more than just so-so.
Though there isn’t much talking in The Good Dinosaur‘s trailer, the Peter Sohn-directed film includes the voices of Raymond Ochoa, Jack Bright, Neil Patrick Harris, Bill Hader, John Lithgow, Frances McDormand, and Judy Greer.
The Good Dinosaur hits theaters just before Thanksgiving on Nov. 25, 2015.