Is it Pixar News Day and no-one sent us the memo? Between new Inside Out posters, a teaser for Toy Story That Time Forgot and now this fresh information on The Good Dinosaur, it’s feeling like the Emeryville team and their Disney partners were waiting to spring it all on us at once. Still, it appears to be good news for Dinosaur, as co-director Peter Sohn is officially in charge of the movie.
There was somewhat natural consternation when director Bob Peterson was removed from the film over creative challenges, with word that the film was to be delayed until 2015. Which explained why it was Sohn and producer Denise Ream who turned up to promote the film at Disney’s D23 in August of last year, as the company scrambled to make it better.
Now Sohn is promoted to full director for his feature debut (he’s worked in the art, story and animation departments and directed 2009 short Partly Cloudy) and has been putting his stamp on the film with the help of his colleagues. “The heart of the story remains the same," Sohn tells The LA Times. "It's always been about this young dinosaur growing up. But the world itself has changed a lot. Nature has become a character." The dino in question is Arlo, a lively 70 foot-tall teenage Apatosaurus with a big heart. After a traumatic event rattles Arlo’s community, he sets out on a quest to restore peace, gaining an unlikely companion along the way – a young human boy named Spot.
Sohn has removed some elements, such as the dino society being akin to Amish farmers and upped the danger from the surrounding environment. "When Bob was taken off, I was supporting the film as best I could," Sohn says. "It felt like, this child, this film still needs to be raised. It was just about how to take care of the thing at that time. Trying to keep the original vision of this film intact and trying to plus it as well."
We’ll see the results when The Good Dinosaur finally arrives here on November 27.