[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_good_dinosaur.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:320:''"Sometimes you gotta get through your fear to see the beauty on the other side."'']]

''The Good Dinosaur'' is an American 3D computer-animated film produced by Creator/{{Pixar}} Animation Studios and released by Creator/WaltDisneyPictures. It was released on November 25, 2015 as the studio's sixteenth feature film. Infamous for its TroubledProduction, which resulted in the original director, longtime Pixar writer Bob Peterson, leaving the project due to story problems and being replaced with fellow regular Peter Sohn.

Set in an AlternateUniverse in which the dinosaurs never went extinct, the film follows Arlo, the youngest of a family of ''Apatosaurus'' farmers living in the shadow of the Clawtooth Mountains (Wyoming's Grand Tetons). One day when he's chasing after a "critter" - a human child - who's been eating from the family's food stock, Arlo falls into the river and is swept away by the current. Now Arlo, accompanied by the human boy, whom he names Spot, has to face his fears as he makes his way through the wilderness to come back home.

For the other major Disney film revolving around dinosaurs, which in contrast to this fully CGI film stars CGI animals in real-life backgrounds [[note]]we know the CGI is really good in this film, but it's not real backdrops![[/note]], see the page for ''WesternAnimation/{{Dinosaur}}''.

''The Good Dinosaur'' played in theaters along with Pixar short ''WesternAnimation/SanjaysSuperTeam''.
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!!''The Good Dinosaur'' provides examples of:

* AerithAndBob: Among Forrest Woodbrush's companions are Fury, Destructor, Dreamcrusher, and.... Debbie.
* AllAnimalsAreDogs: Inverted. The human child acts like a dog, prompting Arlo to name him "Spot". [[spoiler:The other wild humans also behave this way, to the point where all they investigate one another by circling and sniffing.]]
* AlternateHistoryDinosaurSurvival: The movie is set in a world where [[WhatIf non-avian dinosaurs (along with pterosaurs) never became extinct]] and Jurassic dinosaurs like ''Apatosaurus'' and ''Stegosaurus'' coexist with Cretaceous dinosaurs like ''Triceratops'' and ''Parasaurolophus'' and even prehistoric mammals like the giant bison ''Bison latifrons'' that existed in the ice ages.
* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: The ending theme for the Japanese release is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSCl3D3bwRY "Best Friend (Mother Earth version)"]] by Kiroro, a rerecorded version of one of their earlier songs.
* AndroclesLion: Inverted. Arlo gains Spot's loyalty after he spares him when Spot falls into a trap his father set up.
* AnimalStampede: The herd of longhorn bison go on a stampede after attacked by a pack of ''Velociraptor'' cattle rustlers. Arlo and the ''T. rex'' family fight the rustlers among the stampeding bison.
* AnimalTalk: Zigzagged. It's clear that humans and dinosaurs can't understand each other, but it's left ambiguous ''why'' they can't understand each other.
* AquaticSauropods: Subverted; Papa Henry warns Arlo to steer clear of the river. [[spoiler: In fact, Popa Henry drowns just because he can’t swim. Arlo starts off struggling to stay afloat in the water, but once Spot teaches him to swim, it ends up paying off in the movie’s climax.]]
* ArcSymbol: Stones are depicted as obstacles throughout the film.
* ArtStyleDissonance: Downplayed; While the movie is not exceedingly grim and and has lots of moments of lighthearted downtime and levity, the film is a still a grounded coming-of-age story that takes itself mostly seriously and does not sugarcoat any peril or trauma characters may experience. All of this is done with rather cartoony and exaggerated character designs. The designs also clash with the look of the world, namely the photorealistic environments.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology:
** The very existence of humans and bison in a scenario where dinosaurs never became extinct. In fact the very reason why mammals evolved into larger and more diverse forms was to fill the empty niches left by the dinosaurs' extinction, though in the case of the bison it was probably to add non-sapient livestock to deal with the CarnivoreConfusion of civilized Tyrannosaurs eating civilized herbivore dinos.
** While all dinosaurs, and pterosaurs by extension[[labelnote:note]]or "all ornithodirans", with Ornithodira being the archosaur group including both dinosaurs and pterosaurs[[/labelnote]] are portrayed as sapient, it comes off as strange that birds are just unintelligent animals, an odd choice as birds ARE dinosaurs, and in fact the lineage with the most advanced brains.
** Sauropod eggs were generally spherical, not shaped like oversized hens' eggs. Also, eggs that are tapered at one end are shaped that way so they won't roll far when disturbed as they lie on their sides; setting them fat-end-down negates the purpose of a tapered shape, and might even impede the embryonic dinosaur's ability to absorb oxygen.
** Pterosaurs couldn't grasp things with their feet, and even if they could, they were far too light to be able to lift a juvenile Apatosaurus.
** The giant beetle dies instantly upon being beheaded by Spot...even though real-life insects lack blood pressure and don't bleed to death, and have accessory brains in their torsos. In fact, beheaded insects are known to live for days or even ''weeks'', only dying since they can't eat and succumb to starvation.
* ArtisticLicensePaleontology:
** Apatosaurus went extinct ''before'' the meteor hit. Even with the AlternateHistory, Arlo should not exist. That said, other sauropods, namely the titanosaurs, did live all the way to the mass extinction, so with his generic CartoonCreature design Arlo can be Hand Waved as some kind of titanosaur.
** That, however, doesn't explain the ''T. rex'' family's encounter with "outlaw stegos", as Stegosaurus lived in the Jurassic: a ''full 80 million years before T. rex''.
** On a minor note, the scene in which the asteroid misses Earth shows a ''Parasaurolophus'' -- while they did live in Late Cretaceous, they lived only around 76 to 73 million years ago, 7 million years before the asteroid hit.
** The four-legged snake Spot fights is supposed to be a ''Tetrapodophis'', but is shown to more closely resemble a viper as opposed to the actual animal which was more lizardlike in appearance. It is also considerably larger than the real ''Tetrapodophis''. It could be a descendant, given the AlternateHistory setting, though it does raise the question on why snakes would retain their legs if the mass extinction never happened.
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: On a realistic trajectory, the asteroid would have flown by in a hyperbolic/parabolic trajectory, due to Earth's gravity altering the trajectory of the asteroid.
* ArtisticLicenseSpace:
** No asteroid belt has asteroids anywhere near that densely packed. They're rarely if ever close enough to be seen from each other.
** We see the asteroid heat up and start to burn as it enters the Earth's atmosphere, but in the next shot, the wide one, it's suddenly far away from Earth again. Of course, RuleOfFunny.
%%* AxCrazy: Thunderclap.
* BadassFamily: The Tyrannosaurus family that Arlo met are highly skilled hunters and fighters.
* BaitTheDog: Thunderclap and the pterosaurs come off as rather goofy, as does their ramblings about “the storm”, but caring, and seem to be trying to help dinosaurs and critters injured in the storm. Then Thunderclap devours an adorable critter alive and they fight over its remains, and it becomes clear that they are very dangerous.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: Mostly averted with Forrest Woodbrush; he attempts to lure Spot in as his own, but willingly gives him up when Spot responds to Arlo first. Played ''lethally'' serious with Thunderclap and his CargoCult of pterosaurs.
* BigGuyLittleGuy: Spot the human is a mere 3-feet tall. While Arlo is a juvenile dinosaur, he is still quite large compared to Spot, being somewhere around 10-15 feet in height.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Papa is gone, as is Spot, but Arlo finds his way home safely, [[CharacterDevelopment more confident and grown up]] than he's ever been.]]
* BlackComedyBurst: Doesn't get more black than Spot ''beheading a giant beetle onscreen.''
* BodyBridge: Arlo and Spot come upon a gap while traveling along a narrow ledge. Spot pushes and bites Arlo, making him fall so that he's holding on by his teeth and tail, and crawls across him to the other side.
* BondingOverMissingParents: Arlo and Spot begin to bond when Arlo talks to Spot about his family. Spot then reveals [[spoiler:he did have a family, but they died. Just like him, Arlo lost his father recently.]]
* {{Bookends}}: At the beginning and end of the movie there's an ''Apatosaurus'' walking, with a shot of its shadow as they're walking, then the back of their head. At the beginning, [[LikeFatherLikeSon it's Henry and at the end, it's Arlo]].
* ABoyAndHisX: Inverted. The highly civilized "X" (in this case, an ''Apatosaurus'') from a world where humans are wild creatures that behave like dogs adopts a wild human boy. Their growing relationship results in Arlo learning to overcome his fears and become courageous.
* ButtMonkey: Arlo gets put through a lot of injuries, frustration, and heartache, only some of which is PlayedForLaughs.
* CarnivoreConfusion: Addressed. The Tyrannosaurs avoid eating other dinosaurs by being presented as a family of cattle ranchers. The raptors want to prey on their bison and are presented as rustlers. The pterosaurs pick off small and weak creatures, and are presented as lying bullies who exploit natural disasters in order to find vulnerable prey.
* CleanPrettyChildbirth: The eggs Arlo and his siblings emerge from are completely hollow and dry inside.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Forrest Woodbrush, the Pet Collector.
* CluckingFunny: Arlo is terrified of the cluckers he has to feed on his family’s farm, yet the fact they are essentially man-sized chickens with raptor-like toe claws drives home the comedic touch of a dinosaur afraid of prehistoric chickens.
* CowardiceCallout: Arlo’s brother Buck calls him out for being a huge coward who cannot complete his simple task of feeding the cluckers and messes up everyone else’s chores.
* {{Cowboy}}: The Tyrannosaurus family are Working Cowboys, protecting their herds of bison from raptor rustlers.
* CubCuesProtectiveParent: When Arlo is about to feed the the cluckers, he comes across a baby clucker. While he tends to it, the bird’s mother dramatically pops into frame and frightens him off.
* CurseCutShort: Ramsey almost says ''bullshit.''
* CutenessProximity: Ramsey finds Spot to be "the cutest little thing".
* DeathbringerTheAdorable: Forrest's assorted little pets including Fury the lizard, Destructor the fox, Dream-Crusher the tusked gopher and [[OddNameOut Debbie]] the cardinal.
* DidNotThinkThisThrough: Papa Henry trying to catch up to Spot and get Arlo to face his fears ends up being rather short-sighted planning in hindsight. Since his son is a CowardlyLion, he tries to get him to do his chores but he keeps getting scared due to the hens attacking him. Poppa Henry eventually thinks that the best thing to do to toughen him up is to have him kill a pest. Then when ''that'' fails, he take him into a treacherous storm to help him conquer his fears. [[spoiler:Papa Henry’s rash decision making ends up getting him killed and leaving Arlo traumatized and developing a new fear for storms.]]
* DisappearedDad: Arlo loses his father to a flash flood caused by a thunderstorm.
* DisappointedInYou: While Poppa Henry doesn't exactly say it, he is ''very'' upset when Arlo lets the critter (Spot) that's been eating their food free and firmly decides to take Arlo to where the critter is and finish the job. However, when Arlo hurts his leg during the chase after the critter, he realizes he WasTooHardOnHim.
* DisasterScavengers: The pterosaurs are more literal practitioners of this trope, preferring to sit back and let the storms do the killing for them while they feast on the remains.
* DumbDinos: Averted with Arlo and the other dinosaurs, who are fully sapient. Ironically, the raptors come off as the least intelligent dinosaurs in the film, while Thunderclap and the pterosaurs are superstitious and cruel but not stupid by any means (too be fair though, pterosaurs are not exactly dinosaurs).
* EarlyBirdCameo: In anticipation for the next film ''WesternAnimation/FindingDory'', Hank the octopus appears at the bottom of the river when Arlo falls in.
* EyesNeverLie: When Thunderclap gives a rather intense stare at Arlo, his eyes quickly jut to the side in Spot’s direction. This makes Thunderclap look over behind him and see Spot.
* FaceOfAThug: Since ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' are known for looking and being vicious, carnivorous creatures, Arlo was terrified when he ran into them. Luckily for him, they turn out to be {{Gentle Giant}}s.
* FaceYourFears: Arlo can and often does face his, but views himself as cowardly and incompetent, and believes that strength comes from being unafraid of anything. Once Butch informs him that fear is natural, his confidence in himself blooms.
* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: Spot [[spoiler:tearing a huge hole in Thunderclap's wing membrane with his teeth.]] There's no gore or anything, but it's still quite shocking.
* FauxAffablyEvil: The pterodactyls, especially Thunderclap. They seem polite at first, but once they locate a tasty mammal, their savagery becomes very clear.
* FearIsNormal: Arlo says that his cowardice has been nothing but a hindrance to him, but Butch offers an ArmorPiercingQuestion; "Who said I'm ''not'' scared?"
-->'''Butch''': If you ain't scared of [[NeverSmileAtACrocodile a croc bitin' ya on the face]], you ain't alive. Listen, kid, you can't get rid of fear. It's like Mother Nature; can't beat her or outrun her, but you ''can'' get through it, and you can find out what you're made of.
* FeatheredFiend: Bubbha the ''Velociraptor'' and his pack of cattle rustlers.
* FightForTheLastBite: After Thunderclap devours a small animal, the tail of the creature is left dangling on the side of Thunderclap’s beak. Coldfront and Downpour then start a fight against their leader where all three of them start tugging for the last scrap of food before Thunderclap pushes both of his lackies down to remind them who is in charge.
* FireForgedFriends: Arlo is first afraid of Spot, then has a hatred of him [[spoiler:since he blames him for Poppa's death]], but they bond together surviving in the wilderness. Arlo is willing to fend off Pterosaurs and ford flooded rivers to save him.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Determined to earn his mark, Arlo finally works up his nerve and faces the chickens, asserting that he won't be chased off and will feed them! His efforts to be assertive are interrupted (and even negated) by his brother's prank, but it does give a hint that perhaps [[BewareTheNiceOnes Arlo has a potential to be brave]].
* FreezeFrameBonus: When Arlo gets bitten by a gopher and falls into a lake, going frame-by-frame shows [[WesternAnimation/FindingDory Hank the septopus]] sitting camouflaged on the lakebed, a year before [[ProductionForeshadowing his actual debut]].
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Forrest Woodbrush, aka the Pet Collector, is surrounded by small animals that perch on all of his horns.
* FutileHandReach: Arlo reaches out his front leg before [[spoiler: his father is killed by the rushing flash flood.]]
* GentleGiant:
** Arlo, being a sauropod, is a massive, good-natured herbivore.
%% ** Poppa Henry, Arlo's father, is a better example.
** The Tyrannosaurus family that Arlo met [[FaceOfAThug are actually pleasant creatures]].
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Ramsey coming very close to saying the full word “bullshit”.
* GiantEqualsInvincible: Averted:
** Arlo may be huge, but the world is ''far bigger'', and natural hazards and obstacles will often make him vulnerable.
** [[spoiler: Sadly, the same goes for his Poppa, who may be a giant, but is killed by an even more giant flood...]]
** The Tyrannosaurus family are large dinosaurs bigger than Arlo but when fighting the rustler Velociraptors we see even they are vulnerable when an individual Tyrannosaurus is gang attacked by two or more Velociraptors.
* GoofyFeatheredDinosaur: The only feathered dinosaurs are the raptors going after the T. rex's herd. Although fearsome, they are depicted as goofy rednecks, with their feathered crests resembling mullets.
* HandyMouth: Arlo and his family make up for their lack of hands by using their mouths to grab objects with while managing their farm.
* HappilyAdopted: Spot becomes adopted by [[spoiler:a family of traveling cavemen, who quickly bond with him as he does with them, even teaching him how to walk on two legs.]]
* HerbivoresAreFriendly: Played pretty straight. Herbivores are described as being the "farmers" of dinosaur society, and Arlo does indeed come from a family of frontier dinos (subsistence farmers). On the other hand, there's mention of "outlaws" such as the ''Stegosaurus'' gang Nash fought off. However, the Tyrannosauruses also turn out to be farmers as well...though they don't farm plants, they farm animals.
* HostileWeather: The storms that occur throughout this film show some of the worst qualities of big storms. There are powerful winds that dislocate a lot of debris and constant rain that cause large flash floods.
* HumansAreNotTheDominantSpecies: Humans exist but they're more primal and animalistic than modern-day humans. Dinosaurs survived and have gotten to the point where they have cultures, languages, and agricultural abilities.
* HumansAreWarriors: Spot manages to outfight many creatures that threaten him and Arlo, in contrast to Arlo's more cowardly nature for most of the film.
* InevitableWaterfall: Arlo faces one of these while rescuing Spot--an inevitability, given that the river is a main story element.
* InSpiteOfANail: In real life, the reason mammals (and by extension, humans) that we're most familiar with evolved and diversified the way they did during the Cenozoic is ''because'' dinosaurs went extinct, as mammals evolved to take over the now unoccupied ecological niches.
* IntellectualAnimal: In the movie, humans don't have the ability to speak, but the dinosaurs and pterosaurs do. Also, the herbivorous dinosaurs farm plants while the carnivores raise livestock.
* InterspeciesFriendship: The film is mostly about the growing friendship between an ''Apatosaurus'' and a young human boy.
* IronicEcho: Poppa Henry telling Arlo to "take care of the critter [Spot]".
* JumpScare: After Arlo catches Spot in a trap for the first time and hides behind tall grass, Spot suddenly lunges at him through the grass from Arlo's view.
* KidHero: Arlo, the lively 11-year-old Apatosaurus with a big heart.
* KidsWildernessEpic: Follows the mold pretty closely, despite the fact that the characters (other than Spot) aren't human.
* LargeHam: Thunderclap, especially when he starts ranting about the storm.
* LivingDinosaurs: In this setting the dinosaurs never went extinct.
* LocationThemeNaming: Arlo's name is the Old English word for "hill". As of the film's re-tooling, however, he no longer has siblings whose names fit the theme.
* MinimalistCast: The only real main characters are Arlo and Spot, as all other characters only appear for small sections of the story to drive Arlo's character development.
* AMinorKidroduction: The film begins with the birth of Arlo and his siblings.
* MixAndMatchCritter:
** Forrest Woodbrush is a ''Styracosaurus'' with the horn arrangements of a ''Triceratops''.
** Thunderclap has a ''Nyctosaurus''-like crest alongside toothed jaws and wing claws.
** Many of the non-descript animals display this. Particularly the viper-lizard hybrid.[[note]]This one at least makes sense, since snakes evolved from lizards. As well as the discovery of the four-legged snake ''Tetrapodophis''[[/note]]
** The ''Dimetrodon'' from one of the deleted scenes has a skull similar to a gorgonopsid's.
* MushroomSamba: Arlo and Spot eat rotten fruit that give them hallucinations.
* NeverTrustATrailer: The trailers make it look like the storm that Arlo and Poppa are caught in causes Arlo to wash down the river away from Poppa. Also, it makes it look like Arlo meets Spot after he is far away from home. However what happens in the film is that [[spoiler:Arlo encounters Spot before Poppa's death. Spot was a pest eating the family's crops and Poppa tasked Arlo to trap and kill him, but Arlo couldn't bring himself to do it, which prompted a disappointed Poppa take Arlo out to track down Spot and finish the job, where said storm causes the flash flood which kills Poppa. After that tragedy, Arlo blames Spot for Poppa's death and the two get into a scuffle only for both to end up in the river and washed far away from home.]]
* NoAntagonist: The producers have stated nature is the film's main antagonist, though Thunderclap and his fellow Pterosaurs seem to come close.
* NoodleIncident:
** How exactly did Spot, after being carried off by Thunderclap and his Pterosaurs, manage to avoid disappearing down the gullet of one or another of them? All we know is that they're busy tearing apart his hiding place when Arlo finds them again.
** We also never find out how Spot got separated from his family in the first place.
* NotUsingTheZWord: The word "dinosaur" is never actually used in the movie itself. Nash does bring up some outlaw ''Stegosauruses'', but that is about it.
* OhCrap:
** Arlo gets this reaction upon witnessing Thunderclap devouring a fox-lemur-thing he just helped rescue. He maintains this expression while beginning to realize how dangerous and menacing Thunderclap is.
** Thunderclap gets this reaction twice during the climax. First when he hears Arlo roar at him. Then when he sees the hole Spot tears in his wing.
* ParentheticalSwearing: "All right you cluckers!"
* PartingWordsRegret: The last thing Buck does before Henry takes Arlo on that fateful trip is play a mean prank on Arlo and mocking him for being cowardly. [[spoiler:When Arlo returns, Buck is really happy to see him.]]
* PartiallyCivilizedAnimal: The dinosaurs have a society of sorts - Arlo's family run a farm and build simple structures and implements, the ''Tyrannosaurus'' herd cattle - but otherwise act and move like animals.
* PerfectlyCromulentWord: Thunderclap seems to have inadvertently conflated the concepts of revelation and elevation, calling it "relevation".
* PredatorsAreMean: Subverted by the ''T. rex'' family, who farm non-sapient bison livestock and show no interest in eating other, civilized dinosaurs. Played straight, however, with Thunderclap's pterosaur flock and Bubbha's ''Velociraptor'' pack.
* ProperlyParanoid: Arlo turns out to have every reason to be afraid when his father decides to take him on a dangerous trip in the middle of a storm so that he can not be cowardly.
* ProtagonistTitle: Arlo is the titular good dinosaur.
* PunctuatedForEmphasis: "Pervis! Shut! Yer mouth!"
* RaptorAttack: The ''Velociraptor'' have a patch of feathers on their heads and spines as well as tufts on their legs and at the end of their tails, but they are otherwise scaly and glaringly lack feathers on their arms (the one place on ''Velociraptor'' that's known to be plumed). There's also the fact they're much larger than the real animal, as with many portrayals in media. On the other hand, they have proper long and narrow snouts as opposed to the broad ''Deinonychus''-like skulls perpetrated by ''Film/JurassicPark''.
* SceneryPorn: The backgrounds are lush and vibrantly rendered to a photo-realistic degree, which of course contrasts heavily with the simple, cartoony design of the characters. In fact, much of it was created through actual geological data of Wyoming and Idaho landscapes, particularly the Tetons and Yellowstone.
* ShadowArchetype: Thunderclap is exactly what happened if Arlo forgot what fear is.
* SharkFinOfDoom: Inverted, literally. The second time the pterosaurs appear, it's with their mouths sticking out of the clouds just like this trope, except upside-down.
* ShooTheDog: [[spoiler: At the end, Arlo encourages Spot to go with a family of cave-people rather than go back to Arlo's family farm.]]
* ShoutOut: The first time Arlo meets the ''Velociraptors'', they're [[Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark lurking in tall grass]].
* SilenceIsGolden: When Arlo and Spot (who can't talk) are alone, the movie can go for long stretches without any dialogue.
* SmashedEggsHatching: Arlo’s egg is cracked open when Buck repeatedly hits it with a stick. Arlo peaks out of the egg alive, but is rather underdeveloped.
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: There are three ''T. rexes'', four ''Velociraptors'', and five pterosaurs, with one female in each group.
* StealthyColossus: Before Arlo can be killed by the raptors, the T. rexes have managed to sneak up on the them and attack them without the rustlers even detecting their presence.
* SuperPersistentPredator: Thunderclap and his gang definitely qualify. Justified in that the lot of them are AxCrazy.
* TerrorDactyl: Thunderclap and his clan are a band of hostile pterosaurs that are the closest to actual villains in the film. They all have very inaccurate designs: Thunderclap himself bears resemblance to a ''Nyctosaurus''...except that he has teeth, birdlike talons, and wing claws, which ''Nyctosaurus'' did not have in real life (especially the wing claws, as nyctosaurids are distinctive for ''lacking'' those). The other pterosaurs appear to be ''Ludodactylus'', ''Caulkicephalus'', and ''Guidraco'', which also have birdlike talons. However, the pterosaurs are [[ShownTheirWork quadrupedal like in real life]], but they walk on their knuckles and their arm anatomy is more bird-like.
** Supplementary material simply calls the pterosaurs "pterodactyls". Thankfully, the merchandise also describe them as flying reptiles and one children's coloring book explicitly states [[ShownTheirWork they are not dinosaurs]].
* ThisIsMyHuman: During his travels through the wilderness, Arlo gains an unlikely companion. A small, but feisty orphan human. He's utterly alone in the world. Humans have only started to emerge in the world, they haven't evolved to the point where they're capable of communicating beyond yells, grunts and cries. [[HumanPet Arlo ends up adopting the little boy, and names him "Spot"]].
* ToughArmoredDinosaur: Although none are seen, Nash mentions an encounter with a gang of outlaw ''Stegosaurus'' where one of them hits Nash in the leg with his spiky tail. Nash is now unable to feel anything in his toes.
* ToylineExclusiveCharacter: Some characters who have a presence in the toyline do not appear in the movie in any capacity. These include two ''Ankylosauruses'' (Jack and Vivian), two ''Triceratops'' (Mary Alice and Sam), and Will the ''Stegosaurus''. These characters were apparently deleted characters from early drafts of the movie.
* TrampolineTummy: There is one tv spot featuring Spot bouncing on Arlo’s belly a few times. Spot then bounces to towards the camera and hits the screen.
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: Where do we start? The trailers covered Poppa's death, Arlo's friendship to Spot, the meeting of Forrest Woodbush, Arlo helping the cowboy T-Rexes, Arlo encounters the main villain, Thunderclap and also the climax. In short, the trailers just showed you the entire movie.
* TruthInTelevision: Henry and Ida are loving parents, but their children appear to have been partially born out of a need for help around the farm; one of the first things they do is show their newborn children the property and explain that they'll all be taking care of it together. It seems a little utilitarian, but this was par the course for homesteaders.
* TwoGirlsToATeam: The only female on Arlo's family are the mother and the eldest child.
* TheWestern: With dinosaurs! Arlo and his family are basically farmers in the rural wilderness. Arlo and Spot’s with the T. Rexes in particular is straight out of a Western, complete with the T. Rexes getting their Longhorns back from savage rustlers.
* WhamLine: After listening to Butch's story about the time he fought off attacking crocodiles:
-->'''Arlo''': You guys would have liked my Poppa. He wasn't scared of anything. I'm done being scared.\\
'''Butch''': [[ArmorPiercingQuestion Who said]] ''[[ArmorPiercingQuestion I'm]]'' [[ArmorPiercingQuestion not scared]]?
* WhamShot: After Arlo helps Thunderclap free a cute raccoon-looking thing that was trapped after the storm, Thunderclap promptly ''eats the poor thing alive'', showing that he's NOT the friendly search-and-rescue guy he claimed to be.
* WhatMeasureIsANonCute: At one point Spot attempts to bring Arlo random things to eat, one of which is a lizard that's still alive and a giant beetle that's still alive. The lizard looks about as cartoony as everyone else and Spot promptly tosses it away. The beetle looks like an actual photorealistic beetle, and Spot promptly rips its head off. Onscreen.
** Two more insects are later eaten onscreen, played for laughs. When a big-eyed, fluffy critter resembling a raccoon or a lemur is eaten onscreen, it's played for horror.
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: What Arlo ultimately learns in the course of his adventure.
* YouExclamation: Arlo says this twice to Spot when he is meeting him again until they befriend each other.
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