THE GOOD DINOSAUR slated for 2015 release success, as per John Lithgow

The Good Dinosaur is Being Released in 2015. Beginning with Cars in 2006, everyone’s favorite emotion factory Pixar has been releasing a feature length film a year. And while your initial reaction would be to assume that this kind of Woody Allen productivity might lessen the completed work, their track record remains pretty pristine. News that 2014 would come and 2014 would go without a new Pixar film (and yet somehow, a third Expendables climbing out of the muck) is understandably bum news.

But fear not, ye who still slug their Ratatouille lunchboxes to work: Pixar’s serving up two films in the big one-five (a new term attached to 2015 that absolutely nobody is using). Inside Out, the star-studded* mind-trip is slated for release June 19th, 2015, and the delayed-but-still-a-thing The Good Dinosaur will hit movie houses November 25th. News on the troubled saurian picture has been hard to come by, but some light is finally being shed on why its taken so long and that light comes, as most light does, courtesy of John Lithgow.

Lithgow, who’s voicing Poppa in the film, talked about the film’s production process in a recent interview with Collider:

“They have now dismantled it and completely reimagined it and it is a fantastic new story. So I’m going to record again on it within the next month. Don’t worry. It’s coming and it’s going to be better than I imagined.”

They in the above quote is the Pixar brain trust of directors who’ve taken control of the film over from original director Bob Peterson (Up). The Good Dinosaur was originally slated for a May 2015 release but trouble with the film’s third act is allegedly responsible for the revisions/change in leadership. Lithgow’s comments indicate that significant revisions of the film’s narrative have taken place, at least enough to warrant further recording sessions.

If it were coming from another production company, Lithgow’s words might be read as a red flag for the quality of the forthcoming film (ie: “it’s a mess: I’m here to reassure you but it’s still pretty bad”) but my money’s on Pixar in this circumstance. Thrice before the company’s needed to shake up leadership on a project in order to crack a film and in two of those occasions (Ratatouille and Brave), the film’s won Oscars. Rather, we should all be thankful that there’s a company as willing to forgo release dates and bottom lines for a successful work of art, which is what Pixar makes. Since Toy Story, the company’s been redefining how we see cartoons: it’s time they’re afforded the same luxury as serious artists. Which is, after all, what they are.

*Amy Poehler is in a Pixar film, marking the best supplement to a fine product since the long ago bacon/grilled cheese venture.

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