Geoff Insch was 4 years old when he first saw “The Land Before Time,” and it is a movie he quotes to this day. One aspect of the movie and many other animated dinosaur films that 28-year-old Insch appreciates is the emphasis on loss, the struggle for survival and how success is achieved through confronting one’s fears and insecurities.
He pointed to Petrie in “The Land Before Time,” who is a Pterosaur who is afraid of flying — something that is an essential part of his character, said Insch, who is a freelance filmmaker in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. With the help of all his friends, Petrie is eventually able to overcome this fear and fly to safety.
Several animated dinosaur films emphasize similar themes and lessons of loss, survival and confronting fears, according to media arts professors, a professor of writing and literature, and Insch.
Pixar and Walt Disney Pictures releases the animated film “The Good Dinosaur” on Nov. 25, about an Apatosaurus named Arlo who makes an unlikely human friend. And similar to “The Land Before Time,” “The Good Dinosaur” emphasizes the moral that confronting one’s fears will make a person stronger, according to Craig Caldwell, a professor of film and media arts at the University of Utah.
Many animated films, particularly from Disney and Pixar, tend to follow a fairy tale structure centered on specific morals, said Caldwell, who also spent a few years working at Disney Feature Animation in Burbank, California. He pointed to how “Tangled,” a retelling of the Rapunzel fairy tale, conveys the message that sometimes a person needs to think outside the box to find a solution to a problem. “Cinderella,” he said, teaches that being kind and thoughtful, even when others act badly, will be rewarded.
Besides the fact that they are “just plain fun,” said Caldwell, these films can help teach children right from wrong, help them develop critical thinking skills and can even help them deal with traumatic situations.
Why are kid-friendly animated films able to depict scenes that in any other situation would typically be frightening or traumatizing for children? It points to what Lien Fan Shen, associate professor of animation studies at the University of Utah, calls “the buffer zone.”
“Animated films present an abstracted idea of reality,” Shen said. “Therefore, it gives not only children, but everybody, a safe space to actually watch it.”
This abstraction comes from the fact that “characters in animated films are people, but at the same time, they are not people,” she said.
The buffer zone is a major advantage of animated films, said Shen, because it enables thematically heavy scenes to be presented in a way that is more bearable for people of all ages to watch.
“You can achieve a lot of impossibility with animation,” she said.
In the case of “The Land Before Time," “The Good Dinosaur” and other similar movies, impossibility comes in the form of featuring dinosaurs as main characters that live humanlike lives with humanlike challenges.
But why use dinosaurs, creatures that are long gone, to teach such lessons?
It could very well be this extinction factor that makes these creatures so ideal for teaching children, Shen suggested.
“Dinosaurs represent this idea of otherness. It’s not a part of us or a part of this time,” Shen said.
Consequently, she said, dinosaurs become a safe way of presenting different lessons and ideals.
Kade Parry, professor of literature and writing at Snow College, also sees value in the extinct creatures serving as teaching tools in animated films.
“Because dinosaurs are extinct, and because our understanding of their existence comes mostly from studying fossils, they are in many ways foreign and unrelatable to contemporary viewers,” Parry said.
Making main characters out of these mysterious creatures can teach children the value of studying history as well as the fact that a lot can be learned from the past, Parry said.
For Insch, his appreciation of dinosaurs in films comes from how they present a wide range of characters and personalities.
“One of the things that’s cool about dinosaurs is that it gives you these different ways of classifying the characters that would be harder to do with humans,” said Insch. “For example, in ‘The Land Before Time,’ you’ve got Littlefoot, a long-neck, and then you’ve got a Pterosaur that can fly. You’ve got the ‘three-horn’ Cera and the ‘sharpteeth’ Tyrannosaurs that are the bad guys."
This showed Insch at a young age the value of not only getting along with others different from him but also the value in working with them, helping them and being their friend.
“Dinosaurs, traditionally dangerous and ferocious creatures, are portrayed in animated films in often humorous and benevolent ways," Parry said. “By making them lovable characters in a cartoon, filmmakers make dinosaurs relatable and, therefore, delightful. These films often show children that certain aspects of life can be feared but can also be relatable — preparing them to encounter, embrace and eventually overcome their own fears.”
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Here is a list of some animated, family friendly dinosaur films:
"Land Before Time" (1988), rated G: Littlefoot, a young Brontosaurus, is left orphaned when a “sharptooth” Tyrannosaurus attacks his mother. Joined by friends along the way, Littlefoot continues his journey to a safe haven called the Great Valley, where he hopes to be reunited with the rest of his family. This is first in a series of 13 films that follows the adventures of Littlefoot and his friends in the Great Valley.
"We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story" (1993), rated G: Captain Neweyes travels back in time to feed four dinosaurs his brain grain cereal, which makes them intelligent and nonviolent. They then travel back to the 21st century in order to fulfill the wishes of children in New York City who want to see dinosaurs in real life.
"Dinosaur" (2000) rated PG: When a meteorite strikes the island where an Iguanodon dinosaur named Aladar is living with a family of lemurs, they are forced to travel to a safer place. Aladar and his family team up with other dinosaurs to find the “Nesting Ground.”
"Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" (2009), rated PG: Sid is taken by a female Tyrannosaurus after stealing her eggs — which he thought had been abandoned — leading the rest of the characters to come save him in a tropical world of dinosaurs hidden beneath the ice.
"The Good Dinosaur" (2015), rated PG: A storm washes Arlo, a young dinosaur, down a river where he is left injured and far away from his family. Soon after, Arlo meets a boy named Spot who offers him help and friendship. The two embark on a journey to reunite Arlo with his family.
Email: lpeterson@deseretnews.com