The hero of The Good Dinosaur, the latest offering from Pixar animations, isn't the adorable apatosaurus, Arlo, his unlikely human companion, Spot, or the red neck T-Rex cowboy voiced by Western film actor Sam Elliott. Rather. It's the extraordinary photo-realistic animation that steals the show.
The Good Dinosaur asks what would have happened if 65 million years ago the asteroid heading for Earth had missed, rather than hit. It imagines apatosauri who talk and farm corn, humans who walk on four legs, and a planet flourishing with unique creatures and majestic landscapes.
It's the scenery that capture your attention first. Perfect postcard shots of towering mountain ranges and incredibly detailed close-ups of leaves, grasses, water and rivers make it hard to tell if the images are real or animated.
The original release date of May 2014 was pushed back 18 months, which makes sense if the result is the animation seen here - it's on a new level compared to what we've seen before.
The Good Dinosaur uses the familiar storyline of a character who must summon the courage to find his way home, and re-tells it as a Western. It's a clever little twist and leads to some fun scenes, including a shaman-like styracosaurus and a family of T-Rex cowboys.
