THE GOOD DINOSAUR

This is Pixar doing what Pixar does best: a small, scared character learning to be brave, wrapped in animation so beautiful it looks almost like live action. Arlo's story carries real weight — perseverance through fear, love for someone who's caused you trouble, and a gentle, touching picture of adoption. Parents will find plenty here worth talking about afterward.

It isn't flawless. The pacing drags in places, and a couple of light references to evolution and "Mother Nature" slip in, though they're brief. Some sequences — a scary predator, a father's sudden death, the general jeopardy of the wild — may unsettle younger or more sensitive kids.

One practical note: if you're seeing it in theaters, it may be paired with the short Sanjay's Super Team, which carries a Hindu-meditation, New Age theme worth knowing about beforehand. For most families, though, this is an easy yes: worth the trip.

Arlo is the runt of his dinosaur family — timid, easily frightened, and the only one who hasn't yet "made his mark" on the family silo the way his parents and siblings have. When his father gives him one more chance to prove himself, a sudden storm sweeps Arlo far from home and leaves him separated from his family. Now he must find his way back before the first snowfall — and find his courage along the way.

Four stars, and here's what that means: this is gorgeous, often poignant filmmaking, even if it isn't Pixar's tightest story. The foreground animation is startlingly realistic — landscapes and skies that look almost photographed — set against character designs that stay deliberately cartoonish, an odd but interesting contrast some viewers will love and others will find strange.

The story itself echoes Finding Nemo — a lost young creature finding his way home through a dangerous wild — but without as much pacing or as much emotional pull. The central conflict, man against nature, repeats itself more than it needs to. Still, the film lands its poignant moments, and the craft on display is genuinely remarkable.

This is a film with a strong moral center. It exalts hard work, family loyalty, and doing something bigger than yourself — the family farm runs on responsibility and earned achievement. It celebrates love and care for people who cause you trouble, and perseverance in the face of real fear and real loss. It even offers a tender, unmistakable picture of adoption, welcoming someone in as family who wasn't born into it.

Where it departs from a fully biblical view is minor but real: light references to evolution, an old earth, and "Mother Nature" appear in the dialogue, though the source notes they're brief and lightly handled rather than pressed hard. Parents should know they're there, even if they're easy to address in conversation afterward.

What this film is really about is a son finding his way home to the family who loves him — and a family opening its arms to someone who wasn't born into it. Scripture speaks to both: "he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 1:5). The world can be a wilderness, but home — and Whose family we belong to — is worth every mile of the journey.

Pixar has made something genuinely lovely here — a story about fear, perseverance, and family that will land with kids and adults alike, wrapped in animation worth seeing on its own. A few light content notes are worth knowing beforehand, but they're easy to talk through. Same verdict we opened with: worth the trip.