Filmmakers Tease Themes For Pixar's 'The Good Dinosaur'

Though it announced a new title and release date for The Good Dinosaur last month, Pixar's been loathe to give away too many plot specifics at this early stage. When first announced, all the studio would reveal was that the basic idea is "What if the cataclysmic asteroid that forever changed life on Earth actually missed the planet completely and giant dinosaurs never became extinct?"

And while we still have no idea what species of dinosaur will take center stage, or how (or if) they'll interact with humans, or who the lead characters are, we do have a better idea now of what other themes will tie into that central premise. Read more after the jump.

Peterson revealed that the idea for The Good Dinosaur came from animatronic dinosaurs he saw when he visited the World's Fair as a child. However, his current influences may be much more prosaic. Petersen mentioned that he'd been lugging his laptop around in his car to stop and write whenever inspiration struck, leading Walker to comment, "So if there's a bunch of dinosaurs in a Whole Foods parking lot in this movie, you'll understand why."

But it won't be all fairgrounds and parking lots — Petersen also said that the crew had been doing research at natural history and science museums, looking to fossils and bones for guidance on how to build a dino world.

Early concept art (see above) showed people standing next to a dinosaur more or less in the Apatosaurus mold, which suggested the film would feature interaction between humans and dinos, but the filmmakers would not confirm or deny that angle. What Sohn would give away was that he was thinking about dinosaurs and their associations with anachronism and resistance to change.

Further, he pointed out that the title "The Good Dinosaur" implied that there would also have to be "bad" dinosaurs, whatever that might mean. "The title is deceptively simple. It has more meaning than it seems," he said. As for what that subtext is, though, we'll have to wait a couple of years to find out. The Good Dinosaur is scheduled to open May 30, 2014.