So it seems we don't have a thread on this, maybe because it wasn't a terribly exciting movie

I just watched it again for the second time and my thoughts are pretty much the same as the first time. It's ok, but meh.

So really, my first thought about the movie, is how on earth do they get the seeds off of the corn cobs to be able to plant them? For me the whole farming aspect was weird. I understand what they were trying to do, but I just don't think it worked and they went about it the wrong way. Farming dinosaurs just isn't particularly realistic (not that it has to be I suppose) and doesn't leave much room for the imagination if you ask me. I feel like it would have felt more real had they been more caretakers of the land as opposed to farmers. The story itself works, it's very similar to TLK: Son inadvertently gets father killed, son ends up lost away from home and makes an unlikely friendship. Learns some lessons along the way about believing in himself and who he is, son returns home to make things right and earns his place. "Copy, paste"

Anywho, that aside, the story is nice and I do like the way that the friendship between Arlo and Spot develops. It's a very sweet friendship and I think that Arlo's character in particular grows quite nicely throughout the story. In terms of designs, some of the dinosaurs and adorable critters I loved, others like the Rustlers were just not my cup of tea and I would have loved to have seen raptors that were more raptor-like. But at least they had feathers I suppose. The T-Rex family was fun, a bit too much stereotype and too much human aspect to their life as well. It would have still worked perfectly for them to be keeping a heard of long-horns, they really didn't need to anthropomorphise it any more than that. It would have been a beautiful wildlife story in that way and I truly think that that's the way they should have taken the movie.

My favourite thing about the movie is absolutely without a doubt the scenery. Those beautiful landscapes. The lighting, the motion, colour and epic scale of the landscapes is simply gorgeous. Without a doubt some of the most stunning CGI scenery I have ever seen. If you haven't seen the movie, watch it simply for that piece of eye candy. That being said, I personally don't feel that the scale of the scenery fits with the design of the story. So I'm going to say it again, the fact that the dinosaurs are farmers and herders etc brings a much more cartoony feel (was anyone else bothered by how much the T-Rex looked like the ones from Ice Age?) which is obvious in the design of these characters, but it's juxtaposed against these dramatic landscapes which just don't fit that theme. If they'd taken out the farming and had Arlo's family as caretakers of the land, the story is still there, the T-Rex can still be caretakers of a herd of long-horns just without all the western stereotyping etc. And in a more realistic universe such as that, the landscapes would suit it perfectly.

It was a cute movie, however it could have been so much more. So much potential just wasted in bad writing.