'The Good Dinosaur' Is Now Playing!

After a troubled production that involved a director swap, a full-on revision of the voice cast, and an 18-month delay on the original release date, Pixar's sixteenth feature The Good Dinosaur finally stomps into theaters today.

Concept art first spotted in 2009

The film's production can be traced back as far as 2009, when a behind-the-scenes video for Up offered a glimpse at some concept art featuring a dinosaur and a human boy. For two years fans wondered whether Pixar was hard at work on a dinosaur-centric movie, until the film was officially unveiled at 2011's D23 Expo as "The Untitled Pixar Movie About Dinosaurs". The film was to be directed by studio veteran Bob Peterson, who came up with the idea of a story set in an alternate reality where dinosaurs never went extinct himself. Peterson was eventually removed from the director's chair when problems with the story arose and was replaced by co-director Peter Sohn (Partly Cloudy). From there, the film was entirely reworked and given an entirely new cast, with the exception of Frances McDormand, who is the sole remaining cast member from the original cast, which included Neil Patrick Harris and John Lithgow.

Though reviews for The Good Dinosaur so far have not been quite as enthusiastic as those for the studio's smash summer hit Inside Out, the film is still being received positively and is said to be charming and visually sutnning. It currently holds an 85% "fresh" critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. 

Unfortunately I will not be able to see the film until the weekend, but after following its progress for so many years I am incredibly excited to finally see the finished product.

Accompanying the film is Pixar's latest short Sanjay's Super Team, directed by Sanjay Patel, who drew inspiration from his childhood for the film. From what I've heard, the short is an absolute delight and yet another unique entry in the Pixar short film canon.

Will you be seeing Pixar's latest offerings this weekend? Have you already seen them? Share your thoughts in the comments!

The Good Dinosaur and Sanjay's Super Team are in theaters now!