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 3^rd 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.

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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.