“The Good Dinosaur” arrives saddled with two potential liabilities: an 18-month delay after dozens of layoffs at Pixar last year, and the unenviable status of being the follow-up to “Inside Out,” one of the best films the animation studio has ever produced.
But none of that matters, for first-time helmer Peter Sohn and screenwriter Meg LeFauve (“Inside Out”) have created a fantastic and frequently exhilarating feature that showcases Pixar’s greatest strengths: technical brilliance, emotional texture, crossover appeal, and an impish sense of humor that takes the utmost advantage of the animated form. (Sohn is probably best known as the inspiration for the character of Junior Wilderness Explorer Russell in “Up.”)