Even though The Good Dinosaur opened to rave reviews and scored an impressive $68.7 million at the box office over the Thanksgiving holiday, parents are lambasting Disney for producing a children’s film so full of violence and death that it left their little ones in tears.
The Daily Mail is reporting on the dustup between parents and the makers of the new Pixar film which features vicious dinosaur attacks, a boy who acts and is treated like a dog, and the killing of a child’s parents.
“My husband’s sleeve was soaked from my 10-year-old’s tears, the 2-year-old was terrified, and I could hear the 5 and 8-year-old crying throughout the movie,” wrote one mother on Common Sense Media after seeing the film. “If you want silly and fun, this is probably not what you are looking for.”
In its review of the PG film, The Washington Post did warn that the emotional story-line of the film, coupled with its violence, was not appropriate for children under the age of eight years.
“The trials that Arlo and Spot survive are truly harrowing, especially in 3-D, from rushing rivers to landslides to lightning, huge storms and flying dinosaur predators eager to eat any small mammal, including Spot,” wrote Post reviewer Jane Horowitz. “The emotional traumas faced by Arlo and Spot, involving the loss of parents, the sheer difficulty of surviving and loneliness, are all portrayed unblinkingly.”
One parent was not nearly as kind. “We brought a group of children aging from almost 3 to 6 into this sorry excuse for a children’s movie. Less than an hour later, we walked out. . . . Less than a half hour into the movie I had two children in my lap scared senseless. Two of our children in our group were crying. When the main character was hallucinating from the fermented fruit, we decided to collect our belongings and head for the exit. What was Disney thinking? I will no longer trust Disney and blindly take my children to their movie without closely checking the movie plot first. Is there a hotline to request a refund for these tickets?”
And this wasn’t the only parent to say they are throwing in the towel when it comes to Disney/Pixar.
“Based on my child’s reaction, I don’t feel I can continue to trust Pixar / Disney. This movie is promoted with images of a cuddly dinosaur prancing among fireflies. Once lured in, viewers are ambushed with repeated scenes involving parental death and others depicting such ‘feel good’ moments as a cute critter being violently devoured whole . . .”
One reviewer who gave the movie a positive review admitted that the mother and preschooler sitting next to her left the movie after 30 minutes because the child couldn’t stop crying.
This explains why popular sports writer Rich Eisen sent out a tweet at the request of his wife Suzy after she took the couple’s three young children to see the movie.
“Suzy just called and said ‘Please tweet out Good Dinosaur worst movie ever. Thanks for scaring the crap out of our kids’. So there it is,” Eisen wrote.
This sounds like a movie parents of young children will want to avoid.
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