Audiences attending the Cannes Film Festival were in for a treat on Wednesday morning, as John Lasseter gave a detailed two-hour presentation on the upcoming film slate for Disney and Pixar. Audiences cheered with excitement, as unreleased plot details surrounding The Good Dinosaur and Finding Dory were revealed. As we share these details we wanted to point out that the descriptions now include new characters and situations from the films – in case you are avoiding them. Beginning with The Good Dinosaur, Variety notes,
The story centers on Arlo (Lucas Neff), an Apatosaurus, who after losing his father in a tragic accident, falls into a river, gets knocked out by a rock and finds himself in a land far away. As he makes the trek back to home to the Clawed-Tooth Mountains, he befriends a human cave-boy named Spot. “This is a boy and a dog story, but the roles are reversed,” Lasseter said. “Arlo, the dinosaur, is the boy in the story and Spot is the dog”—meaning Arlo stands upright and speaks, while Spot travels on his hands and feet and grunts.
The presentation continued to focus on The Good Dinosaur as Lasseter began to reveal character images of the dinosaurs. The audience admired T-Rexes, a Pterodactyl and a shaggy Velociraptor which Lasseter joked, “The feathers on the Velociraptor look like the haircuts of famous football players…we’re putting our own unique Pixar spin on the dinosaur world.”
Moving onto the next character (the environment), which was highlighted in one of the clips shown, as Arlo and Spot chase fireflies into a forest. “It’s unlike anything we’ve had before,” Lasseter said. “The level of believability we’re striving for in this film is going to be breathtaking.” If you remember, the film Brave was set in the beautiful Scottish hills and was animated with such realism that it appeared to be filmed with a live-action camera. So, hearing that The Good Dinosaur team is ‘striving for more’ has us excited to be immersed in this new world.
Who will be the music composer for The Good Dinosaur? According to Games Radar, it appears that Mychael Danna (known for Life of Pi) will compose the film. Back in April, it was announced that Danna would make his Pixar composing debut for Sanjay’s Super Team (the short paired with The Good Dinosaur). As fans begin to delve into his past work to learn about his musical point of view – we look forward to hearing soundbites in the release of the official The Good Dinosaur trailer.
FINDING DORY
Fans of Finding Nemo will find themselves swimming into theaters in 2016 as Pixar’s Finding Dory will reunite us with our favorite forgetful fish, Dory. Recently, it was announced that a preview of the film would take place this upcoming August at D23. Luckily, we don’t have to wait that long as John Lasseter revealed a few tidbits during the Cannes presentation.
The film will transport the audience on a journey through the Pacific Ocean after Dory seeks help from Hank the octopus (at an institute that cares for undersea creatures) following the resurfacing memory of her childhood. Dory will encounter many new characters including a whale shark named Destiny, “She thinks she’s a whale, but she’s actually a shark,” Lasseter said. According to Variety, the film will also showcase an adventure, “where shipping containers have fallen off boats; a frightening encounter with a giant squid and wading past a kelp forest on California’s northern coastline.“
Finishing up the Pixar portion of the presentation, Lasseter expressed his joy in returning to the director’s chair for Toy Story 4, set to release on June 16, 2017. Though the film is still in the early stages, Lasseter shared “it’s shaping up nicely. It’s funny. The story is not as much a continuation of the past films, but a brand new chapter in the ‘Toy Story’ world.”
