Caveboy Spot steals 'Good Dino' spotlight
Among the vast array of creatures that inhabit the frontier world of The Good Dinosaur, it was the little boy with the canine tendencies who stole the heart of director Peter Sohn.
Howling and cute, the wordless little scamp named Spot — with grunts and sounds courtesy of Jack Bright — hijacks funny and serious alike in the Disney/Pixar animated film (in theaters Wednesday). The caveboy protects his Apatosaurus pal Arlo from an armed cobra, has no problem going on berry runs and is wowed by the trick Arlo can do with a long tail and a hidden fireflies.
The film is a turn on the archetypal “boy and his dog” tale, though the boy here is a long-necked dinosaur with a huge hole in his life and the dog is the kid who starts to fill it.
At the start, “Arlo doesn’t understand this animal, and the animal is just being what it is: loving and a survivor and tenacious,” says Sohn. “Boiling it down to what Spot needed to be for Arlo really started to help the beginning of what Spot could become.”
Not only is the design that animators came up with for Spot appealing, says producer Denise Ream, “he is guileless but protective and has a selfless connection to Arlo. Who doesn’t like a character like that?”
The movie wanted to play with the aspects of Spot that are akin to a family dog, Sohn says. He might not have a tail, but Spot’s tongue sticks out quite often, especially when happy, and he walks around on all fours.
But as the filmmakers continued to dig into his character, the more they found Spot’s humanity coming to the forefront.
Sohn and the animators worked hard to ensure sure every decision Spot made from the beginning was that of an animal, until one important sequence where Arlo uses sticks and sand to symbolize his family and the loss of his father. He gets annoyed when his explanation doesn’t seem to be getting through, but Spot responds in kind, a communication breakthrough followed by a tear-jerking, much-needed snuggle from the little boy.
It was inspired by a real-life moment from Sohn’s own life: His wife was in the throes of labor pain when pregnant with his first daughter, and their French bulldog surprisingly went over and lay right next to her belly.
“It seemed so empathetic, like does this animal understand?” Sohn says. So when working on Good Dinosaur, “we started talking about, boy, wouldn’t it be great if we could capture that quality of animals where they can surprise you with emotion or they can feel like they’ve connected to you in a way where you didn’t think (they could), furthering your own connection to it.”