The Good Dinosaur (2015)
Grade:
Transfiguring Adoption awarded this movie 2 Hoots out of 5 based on how useful it will be for a foster/adoptive family. [Learn more about our Hoot grading system here]
Movie Info:
- Rating: PG (for peril, action, and thematic elements)
- Genre: Action & Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Kids & Family
- Runtime: 100 minutes
- Studio: Disney/Pixar
From the Cover of The Good Dinosaur (2015) by Disney/Pixar:
“The Good Dinosaur” asks the question: What if the asteroid that forever changed life on Earth missed the planet completely and giant dinosaurs never became extinct? Pixar Animation Studios takes you on an epic journey into the world of dinosaurs where an Apatosaurus named Arlo makes an unlikely human friend. While traveling through a harsh and mysterious landscape, Arlo learns the power of confronting his fears and discovers what he is truly capable of.”
Transfiguring Adoption’s Overview:
The Good Dinosaur (2015) is another hit Disney/Pixar film with a stellar cast and a unique twist on the “what if”s of dinosaurs. As usual for a holiday blockbuster with Disney/Pixar the visual effects are fantastic and have a neat mix of simpler character design with very detailed and colorful landscapes. While the movie overall is a cool film, caregivers should be aware that there are some pretty heavy emotions dealt with in this film that may be difficult for younger children (and even some older children) to digest, especially if they have endured traumatic separations and loss such those experienced by children from the child welfare system. In addition to this, there are some concerns with the traumatized main character caring for another child throughout the film and having the second child depicted more as a pet. Children 3rd grade and up overall may enjoy the film but I would suggest watching it with your child or in the form of a family movie night as to be ready and available for if a child does struggle with perilous action sequences, death/loss/separation, or with trying to parent other children.
** Spoilers Could Be Ahead **
How Is This Relevant To Adoption & Foster Care?
Arlo in The Good Dinosaur (2015) is very much a character many children can relate to. He’s got some big footprints to fill (like his father) and is constantly in comparison to his bigger brother and resourceful sister. Arlo’s small stature often seems to get in the way of his goals too as he tries to make his mark on the family silo. His sense of helplessness is further magnified following his father’s death, which he could do nothing to prevent. This sense of helplessness and grief is very much an experience for every child who has been in the child welfare system and should be addressed by a patient and loving caregiver at the child’s pace as to give them the time to develop the words to appropriately express their needs and the emotional capacity to explore such intense emotions and honor their grief.
Discussion Points:
- Grief and Loss
Just the act of being removed from the family of origin and all that is familiar and being placed somewhere else is highly traumatic to children. If we imagine being removed from our everyday life with nothing but the clothing on our backs and being put somewhere else where we had no control over what we ate, what we did, and where we went I think we all would meet the drastic change with some resistance (and in my case, a LOT of resistance whether it was a good change or not)! And this does not even begin to cover all of the other losses and sources of grief a child may have endured as a result of traumatic events. Our children need a caregiver willing to navigate the messy, uncomfortable experience of grief and loss to prepare them for the future when they are older and may have to endure such things on their own. Though it will be tempting to push away these feelings in favor of cheering the child up (as none of us like to see children suffer) it is an important task for a caregiver to quietly accept a child’s pain and help them walk through it so that they do not have to take that emotional journey alone anymore. - Appropriate Boundaries
In this film the perspective and roles of animals and humans are flipped in where Arlo becomes the reluctant caregiver to the wild human child he finds. Whether another living being truly is a pet or is another child it is important for children to learn appropriate boundaries with one another as well as with adults. Often children in care have been victim to inappropriate boundaries. Sometimes the oldest child in a sibling group became an auxiliary parent to their siblings. Other children have had boundaries so severely crossed with adults that they lack the ability to recognize a boundary has been crossed and that behavior was wrong. And other children have been so victimized by inappropriate boundaries that they may perpetrate abuses on others as they have been victimized by others. For this reason, it is especially important for a caregiver to teach a child appropriate adult/child relationship boundaries, peer boundaries, and sibling boundaries to avoid the potential for future harm. The film also briefly addresses boundaries with the T-Rex crew as depicted when the siblings fought. The parental figure, Butch, establishes physical boundaries as a bigger, stronger, wiser adult with the brother, Nash, when he violates his sister’s (Ramsey’s) boundary, which can be positive for explaining physical autonomy and then translate into discussing other boundaries that aren’t as visible. - Communicating Without Words
Arlo and Spot experience a beautiful moment one night when they use sand and sticks to communicate their experiences with loss of family with one another. While Arlo has access to verbal language to express the depth of missing his family, Spot lacks this and can only communicate with mournful howls into the night. They comfort one another by engaging in ways each finds comfort (i.e. – hugs for Arlo and howling for Spot). Just like Spot and Arlo, it may take some time and practice to learn ways to understand a child’s attempts to communicate grief and to comfort a child.
Cautionary Points:
- Death of a Parent
Any level of separation from a primary attachment is highly traumatic to a child, especially when separation has become permanent from death of a parent or the severing of parental rights legally. For this reason, a caregiver needs to be very cautious in allowing a child that struggles with grief and loss in viewing this film as the death of Arlo’s father occurs onscreen and Arlo witnesses his drowning and being swept away during a storm. They could potentially be triggered as well by Arlo being swept away by the river and becoming lost as a result of this accident. - Water/Storm Related Trauma
This may be more specific to some children than others but children who have been exposed to water or storm related traumas (i.e. – hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, water sports accidents, drownings, etc.) may be triggered by the nature of Arlo’s father’s death and Arlo being swept away by the river. - Parent Puts Child in Harm’s Way
Arlo’s father intentionally brings Arlo out into a storm to make him face his fears. This is clearly harmful to Arlo so much where his father ends this demonstration but also because this leads to the father’s death. While this was well-intended by Arlo’s father this could trigger memories of abuse/neglect situations and phobias and result in a terrified child that is unable to express their emotions. - Arlo Experiences Intense Flashbacks of Father’s Death In Storm
It’s important for a caregiver to remember that when a child appears to be ignoring us or to just be acting out that a child may be vividly reliving something highly traumatic from their past. This could include intense imagery of the traumatic event, audio memories, and even experiencing physical sensations from the traumatic event. Caregivers need to be prepared to help their child return to calm without further traumatizing a child in crisis. - Arlo is Depicted as A Caretaker To Younger Human
Children who have been neglected or victimized may struggle with appropriate boundaries with other children as a result of their trauma. Oldest siblings especially often function as an extra parent to their siblings and struggle with feeling “demoted” to another child once placed in a foster home. Other children also may not understand that other children have bodily autonomy and treat other children and animals like objects without thoughts or feelings. This may be challenging for a child who struggles with such boundaries as they may view Arlo’s caregiving as reinforcing internal beliefs of this nature. - Arlo Attempts to Kill Human Child, Human Child Kills Animals for Food
In this film, the human child is depicted initially as a pest that needs to be killed in a farm-setting due to his stealing of food from reservoirs. This action is encouraged and angers Arlo’s father when Arlo is unable to follow through with harming the human child. This may be problematic for children who have been harmed by others or victimized by violent children or caregivers or were encouraged to harm others in a physically aggressive manner in the past. - Arlo Experiences Perilous Situations
Arlo while trying to return home has experiences related to survival in the wild alone. He is shown hungry/starving, without shelter, without protection from a competent adult, and is injured. This may be triggering for children that have endured severe neglect and were unable to trust adults to care for them. Arlo also experiences great fear in navigating cliffs, falls from great heights, multiple near drownings, snake attacks, bird attack, pterodactyl attacks, etc. - Cult-Like Group Shown
Thunderclap and his gang of pterodactyls depict a cult-like group that worships the storms and attempts to harm Arlo when he prevents them from eating Spot. This may be difficult for a child who has been harmed by adults in such contexts or have been encouraged to harm others as justified by creeds or values in an isolated group.
Discussion Guide:
- Why did Arlo not feel like he fit in? Has there been a time you felt like you did not fit in?
Caregiver Note: While Arlo has a very obvious bout of loss and grief from losing his father, it’s important that we recognize Arlo already had struggles prior to this separation. Sometimes in the midst of all the responsibilities of caregiving it’s easy for us to forget the struggles children perceive from before they were removed from the home of origin or even struggles unrelated directly to the removal (i.e. – bullying, struggles in school, missing out on activities that promote normalcy, etc.). It’s important for a caregiver to remember that when a child grieves something new it can bring up old hurts as well and resume grief over other things as well. For this reason, children sometimes have more needs than a caregiver may initially recognize. Helping children bring awareness to their emotions is beneficial to development, but especially for children in care that have missed out on opportunities to build up emotional intelligence skills. - What kinds of things made Arlo feel sad? What event especially caused Arlo to feel out of place and sad?
Caregiver Note: At this point the child may point out the things that made Arlo feel less than, including how his siblings picked on him, in addition to the loss of his father. It’s important to help your child to recognize all the other things around the loss of the father that affect Arlo as well, such as feeling responsible because he couldn’t fulfill his responsibility in guarding the silo and the trauma inflicted from the large storm that ultimately swept his father away (as well as himself when he accidentally went downstream). Sometimes children struggle to connect their emotions to the various things around them and will struggle to communicate. By practicing giving names to the things that hurt that will help engage the ability to honor those emotions and fears and give space to grieve with you, the bigger, stronger, wiser caregiving adult. - What did Arlo do in response to his father passing that did not help him? What are some things that helped him in his grief from losing his father?
Caregiver Note: Here we are connecting Arlo’s emotions to his behaviors, which is a valuable skill related to emotional intelligence many children from the child welfare system lack. Help your child recognize Arlo’s body language in his anger and sadness as well as how he acted out in those emotions. Behaviors that resulted in negative consequences included trying to hurt Spot, not being careful and falling into a river/storm again, pushing others away with harsh speech, and pushing away caring connections. Positive behaviors include using advice from his father to get home, using his experience to help others, and using appropriate verbal and non-verbal communication to express how he felt to others. - Was it okay for Nash to shove Ramsey and touch her without asking? Why was that not okay?
Caregiver Note: This question will help establish an example in violating a person’s boundaries in a way many children with siblings are very familiar with. Often siblings struggle with boundaries with one another due to unclear boundaries in the family of origin, an older sibling tasked with caring for younger children as a parental figure, and even from watching how other adults treat one another. Discuss with your child how it’s not okay for Nash to touch Ramsey without her consent (or permission) and that other children and adults should not be touching them in any way without consent either. - Would it be okay for Arlo to correct Nash for violating Ramsey’s boundaries? Why or why not?
Caregiver Note: The purpose of this question is to set the boundaries between adult and child, which is another boundary that many children from the child welfare system struggle with due to inappropriate child/adult boundaries often experienced prior to entering the child welfare system. Many older siblings functioned very much as a parental figure to their younger siblings to survive the abuse and neglect endured before entering custody of the child welfare system. For this reason, an older child may especially struggle to recognize the authority of a caregiver and test this boundary over and over. It is important for caregivers to prepare for this and anticipate having to reinforce that they are the adult caregiver and that it is the adult caregiver’s job to settle disputes such as boundary violation. - What are some other kinds of boundaries we need to respect for others besides touching them?
Caregiver Note: At this time you may discuss further with having healthy emotional boundaries, healthy boundaries in friendships, and further with child/adult boundaries. This is important as this will add to a child’s emotional intelligence skill set in addition to the social intelligence skill set. Discuss how you may greet a very good friend or family member with a hug versus a high five or handshake with an acquaintance as an example of healthy emotional boundaries being reflected in physical boundaries. - What bigger, stronger, wiser adults can you talk to if someone violates your boundaries?
Caregiver Note: This is an important question to discuss as a child’s sense of felt safety is very different from actual safety. Children in the child welfare system often see adults as unsafe due to the abuse and neglect they have suffered previously. Discuss how caregivers (i.e. – foster parents, adoptive parents, etc.), caseworkers, therapists, teachers, and others are safe resources as they are mandated to care for children and be mindful of their best interest whether they are in the child welfare system or no longer a part of the system. - When Arlo and Spot felt very sad, how could they tell? What did their faces and bodies do when they were sad? How about their tones of voices?
Caregiver Note: Children from the child welfare system often struggle to connect feelings to behaviors, especially in themselves. By practicing with Arlo and Spot, they can identify verbal cues for emotion in addition to non-verbal cues from Arlo and Spot both since Spot cannot speak in a known spoken language to the audience. - What are some ways I can tell when you feel especially sad? What are some ways I can tell you I’m here for you without words to help you feel safe and loved?
Caregiver Note: This question will turn the emotional/social intelligence skills we have started to establish inward by helping a child identify when they are feeling poorly how the body responds. This, and developing a plan while things are calm, will help you and your child connect and communicate when words fail. This is important because children who have endured trauma often have deficits in the prefrontal cortex (which is the part of the brain that develops into the mid and late 20s) and this part of the brain contains language centers. Those deficits combined with the fact that cognitive functioning decreases when emotional escalation increases means that children will most likely struggle to use verbal communications to express how they feel and what they need… which is why we see the behaviors and meltdowns that cause so much chaos in the caregivers home. Help your children come up with a “Help Plan” to communicate with a signal or code word when they need your support but don’t have words. Practice these supports often so that they can become a habit over time. - ACTIVITY: Rustler Round-Up
Caregiver Note: This can be thought of as a tag-like game. The group is divided into two teams, the Rexes and the Rustlers. The Rexes will have one person on a central base or the play area and guard the person on the base. The Rustlers will try to get past the Rexes without touching the Rexes and get to the central base.
NOTE: Inclusion on these lists does not necessarily mean endorsement. Furthermore, with all our resources, we highly recommend you preview them first to determine if there are any trauma triggers that your child may not be ready to handle. Transfiguring Adoption does not intend for its reviewers nor its reviews to be professional, medical or legal advice. These reviews and discussion guides are intended to help parents to better be able to connect and understand their children who come from traumatic backgrounds.
