My family and I had the opportunity to preview THE GOOD DINOSAUR this week and here is my review, from a Christian perspective. The movie previews have all been about taking a peek into what life would be like if an asteroid didn’t hit the Earth and dinosaurs didn’t become extinct. The movie is about Arlo, a friendly young Apatosaurus making an unlikely friend with a “critter” who happens to be a human.
Visually, the movie is brilliant. Each scene is more breathtaking than the last. The scenery and characters are very realistic looking, you won’t believe that it is animated, Pixar did a fantastic job. The detail throughout the movie is impressive and visually stunning.
THE GOOD DINOSAUR journeys along with Arlo the Apatosaurus and his enemy-turned-friend. They travel through a harsh and mysterious landscape with danger around every corner. Their mission is to get back to Arlo’s family that he lost in a river accident. There is a lot of growth in Arlo from the scared little dinosaur in the beginning to a strong dinosaur that his mom mistaken him for his father in the end.
This part of the movie was good, my kids liked it. It was entertaining and had a good story of family values and bravery.
Humans and Dinosaurs Co-existing in THE GOOD DINOSAUR
The premise of the movie is what would life be like if the dinosaurs didn’t go extinct and actually lived among humans. I believe that dinosaurs and humans did coexist. There are plenty of instance in the Bible that humans coexisted with dinosaurs, a good example is found in Job 40:15-124. If you are interested in learning more about dinosaurs in the Bible, check out Answers in Genesis website or The Great Dinosaur Mystery website. Both includes many resources for adults and kids to learn about how we co-existed with dinosaurs many years ago.
If you and your children would like to learn more about creation and get the opportunity to hold real dinosaur fossils, check out Akron Fossils & Science Center in Copley, Ohio. It is 4,500 sq ft museum that focuses on creation science, intelligent design, and dinosaurs.
Evolution in THE GOOD DINOSAUR
I was really disappointed in the way humans were portrayed in THE GOOD DINOSAUR. The dinosaurs talked, built homes, farmed, and several T-Rex dinosaurs even herded cattle!
The people, particularly the young boy acted like animals, dogs in particular.
The young boy was even named Spot, clearly a dog’s name. Spot would howl at the moon, walk and run on all fours, and even scratch his head with his leg like a dog.
I believe humans are made in God’s image. We are not the result of millions of years of accidental random processes. Obviously we have evolved in our intellectual abilities but we did not start out acting like dogs and wild animals. We were created with intellectual abilities far superior to animals, we were designed to govern over animals.
What was even more absurd is that throughout THE GOOD DINOSAUR, any and all humans were walking on all fours, but in the last frame, they were walking upright. What was that? Rapid evolution? It was just too weird.
As a Christian, I was disappointed in the portrayal of humans in THE GOOD DINOSAUR.
The movie would have been exceptional if Arlo made friends with a real human of that time, the nonsense of humans acting like animals was not necessary. Even my kids thought it was strange and immediately saw the evolution message of the movie.
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