Bad news, everyone! As the LA Times confirms, Pixar has pushed back the release date for The Good Dinosaur all the way to November 25th, 2015. The movie is having an incredible troubled production, having its director replaced not too long ago. The movie is temporarily being helmed by Pixar studio heads and former directors John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich and Mark Andrews and the film’s original co-director Peter Sohn.
This new release date was the original date of the Finding Nemo sequel, Finding Dory. However, Finding Dory will now also be pushed back to the Summer of 2016. Talk about a domino effect! We don’t know if this means there won’t be a Pixar film in 2014, but as Ed Catmull says in the article: “Nobody ever remembers the fact that you slipped a film, but they will remember a bad film. Our conclusion was that we were going to give the [dinosaur] film some more time.”…If we have to wait, we’ll wait.
In with every bad news, there comes some good. Since the coveted early summer spot of May 30, 2013 spot is now vacant. Disney has taken the opportunity to announce that it’s moving up the release date of its live-action Maleficent to that date. The film was originally slated for a July 2, 2014 date, but apparently Disney thought this May date was better for the film.
Pushing The Good Dinosaur film back nearly a year and half can’t be a good sign about how the film was turning out. Many films are pushed back just a few months for various reason (e.g. better date with less competition, story tweaks, running off schedule, etc.). But this almost seems to us like the crew is starting from ground zero. Very unfortunate, as many animation fans had The Good Dinosaur on the top of their most anticipated films of 2014.
Based on Catmull’s comments, it seems there is a lot pressure internally at Pixar and externally to live up to its legacy of great films. Obviously, we as fans want the best possible final product so that we can rant and rave about it for years to come. It’s just a shame that we’ll be Pixar-less for nearly two years.
How do you feel about The Good Dinosaur being pushed back?
We’ll keep you updated on any other news that come out.