The Good Dinosaur

Ashia R:

Tonight’s Family Movie Night: The Good Dinosaur, circa 2015.

I’ve never heard of this movie. So let’s see how it goes!

Commentary as we watch below – add your thoughts below.

2 seconds in: We have to pause the movie to answer the Earthquakes’ questions about ‘WHY ARE THERE NO MORE DINOSAURS?!’

Which we have gone over, before. But they feel the urge to know *right now.*

R2: ”I didn’t know dinosaurs farmed!”

And now we’re fielding questions about how this has to be an alternative universe where agriculture and humans co-exist alongside dinosaurs.

Dad has a thicker neck and head and larger body and mom is thinner and more delicate, because heaven forbid dinosaurs don’t adhere to human gender body expectations.

Aaand here we are with backward theories on body size and temperament, circa 1975. 

The chunkier baby dino is aggressive and violent, the skinny runty one is nervous and fearful, and the one with a feminine voice is helpful and dutious (but most importantly, thin.) 

This reads like it was cast by Louise Bates Ames. 

‘Is your 5-year-old an endomorph? They’re probably a WIMP!’ 

‘Is your 3-year-old pear-shaped? Get ready for a lifetime of wrestling sandwiches out of their slothlike, chubby little paws!’

Is your 9-year old a mesomorph? Congratulations on creating an athletic, well-rounded member of the master race!’

If you can’t tell, I’ve read every single one of those ‘Your 2-Year-Old, Tepid and Tumultuous’ books. Mostly to find out what kinds of weird outdated cultural garbage we’re still putting on our kids in American society.

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When do kids grow out of the habit of asking “Why is he doing that?” As if we’re privy to another part of the movie that we have somehow seen and they haven’t? DO they grow out of this?

Jen Regan: my grandmother still asks this.

Ashia: Oh no. ::resigned::

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”She’s only got one foot” as if that’s a reasonable reason to be afraid of a chicken – about footless Fran. Does the Evil Crip Trope apply to critters, too?

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‘Earning your mark’ seems to be restricted purely to productivity & labor. I have small hopes the twist in this movie moves toward anticapitalism and valuing and recognizing people regardless of how much they DO – but those hopes are SUPER small.

I am not really the kind of parent who is into ‘participation trophies’ but the idea of recognizing kids only after they accomplish stuff makes me cringe.

Tricia L: I’m into praise for hard work and sustained effort, which is kind of a “participation trophy.” If my kid gets an A because a class was easy, I’m less impressed than if he works his butt off to get a C.

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Ashia: Re “Get through your fear to see the beauty on the other side” that feels a little empty.

In keeping with the idea of courage as working through fear in service to others – I am okay with Arlo being afraid of bugs.

He doesn’t know what that bug was! It could have been deadly! 

Who is helped by him not being nervous about bugs?

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A critter is stealing food from the silo, and the first impulse is to trap and kill it.

Or, DAD, you could just build a less shitty silo. Just a thought.

AnnaMarie M: I adore you.

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Ashia: Introducing: prehistoric human, who indeed co-exists alongside dinosaurs. And this critter happens to be light skinned and blue eyed and male presenting. Of course.

I mean I get that we need a suspension of disbelief with the mishmashing of millions of years together and talking dinos, but do we really have to pretend the first humans were white? 

Are white folks that fragile that we can’t even accept dark-skinned ancestors?

Dad dino is smart enough to orchestrate architecture, but not smart enough to tell his kid not to go hunting in a lightning storm. OKAY.

When pointing out how this movie made the human white to comfort white viewers who would FREAK at the thought of ancestors with dark skin and eyes:

Q: “At least the human had brown hair.”

Nathan: “Yeah. The brown hair is to denote that it’s a savage.”

Ashia: POINT WELL MADE, WHITE MAN.

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Why are these vegetarian sauropods so bloodthirsty?

On one hand – YEAH THAT IS WHAT YOU DESERVE when you try to attack someone. On the other hand, we want to teach our kids alternatives to punitive justice so I’m wrestling with saying ‘falling into the rapids was what he damn well deserved’ and “But also I hope he’s okay.”

R2: “If I fell into the water like that would I die?”

Ashia: “YES. STAY AWAY FROM WATER AND NO HORSING AROUND.”

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Given the vaguely southern/ Midwest accent of the dad – combined with the landscape, this feels like the movie is happening in prehistoric US-ish territory. Which adds to the annoyingness of the only human in the movie being white and blue-eyed.

I get it – it’s a ‘modern, post-colonial US’ but still. Even the movie itself feels templatey in a ‘midwest Texas Roadhouse / Applebees franchise’ kind of way.

Also: Sauropods living in mountainous areas filled with evergreens. Anthropomorphic agriculture aside, did sauropods survive on pine needles?

Oh. Berries. They ate tree berries I guess.

At this point Arlo has fallen, tripped, gotten scraped, bruised, and trapped under rocks to the point where I’m wondering if watching animals that code as ‘sensitive’ suffer was the whole point of the movie.

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Why is this human so invested in keeping such an aggressive sauropod alive? Do we ever find out?

Bugging those little prairie dog hamsters stars as a game of solidarity feels on brand for this movie.

Aaaand now they’re eating hallucination-incuding fruit. This just took a really weird swerve.

Is this supposed to be a storm-chasing cult of flying dinos?

Oh yup, definitely a cult.

W…wait so some predators are bad for eating meat – but other predators are the ‘good kind’ who talk about personal bubbles and don’t eat food when it presents itself?

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Now we’re discussing coding. So for the kids:

The sauropods are coded as farmers.

The T Rexes are ranchers.

And I dunno even what that delirious dude with all the animals on his head was supposed to be. Nathan‘s theory is that was a hippy.

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R2: “What do dinosaurs turn into?”

Ashia: I don’t even understand what that question means.

Shannon BS: Did he maybe mean evolutionarily? Because we’ve talked about how some dinosaurs evolved into birds.

Ashia: Yeah that turned out to be what he meant! Luckily we got him a dinosaur book for his birthday this week so we’ll have to look it up!

My general go-to answer to what dinosaurs evolved into is usually “chickens”

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Given the coding and general theme of toxic masculinity, I’m wondering if/when the Indigenous folks show up as some sort of evil savage beast and/or if filthy immigrants make an appearance as some sort of pesky interloper. I feel like that’s just as likely as being erased and invisible.

Rustlers: coding for poor white folks.

Nice to see classism worked its way in here too.

Weird that buffalo don’t get the anthropomorphic treatment but okay.

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Insert obligatory scar competition where we celebrate how tough we are and pretend trauma is for wussies!

I mean I’m for owning the things we’ve endured but this expectation that traumatic experiences are fodder for fun stories and have no effect on our mental health is reductive.

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”Drowned him in my own blood” is the second most metal thing I’ve ever heard of (after childbirth)

This movie could use a follow-up dose of ‘Real Cowboys.’

 I feel like that would be healing.

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Helpful re: Arlo’s sensitivity and skinniness as queer coding: