Line #30 Headscratchers/TheGoodDinosaur


1	* Why does Arlo's family have chickens? They're not carnivores.
2	** Either as a trade item, or for their eggs, or they use their dung as fertilizer.
3	** Do we know for sure that Arlo and his family aren't carnivores? (Or at least omnivores?) While the species they're based on were (as we know) herbivorous, that was millions of years before the events of the film - there's nothing saying they couldn't have evolved to eat meat or eggs in that time.
4	*** Real life evidence for this: the increase in protein from an omnivorous diet is what led to the increase in human brain size.
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6	* How did the dinosaurs make that yoke Arlo's mom was carrying buckets upon? And if they are capable of making such tools, why do they need to plow with their heads?
7	** It could've been carved by a dinosaur species with working hands, like a large theropod or iguanodont.
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9	* A wave kills Henry, so how can Arlo, an 11-year-old with no experience in the wild on his own, survive not only a wave exactly the same as the first one, but ''also'' go over a waterfall with his life intact??
10	** Henry was killed by a ''flash flood'' (aka he didn't see it coming), and the wave that struck him was full of whole trees, stones, and other dangerous debris it'd been sweeping up for who-knows-how-many miles. He was probably hit on the head and stunned, unable to lift his head up to breathe. Arlo was only dealing with water and ''small'' fragments tossed up by the landslide, and (barely) made it through.
11	** Alternatively: Arlo knew how to swim - Henry didn't.
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13	* Could it be that the pterodactyls survived? They could swim a bit faster than the flood, and could fly off the waterfall. Even Thunderclap could fly with a hole in his wing.
14	** Thunderclap wasn't so much as flying, but weakly flapping around. Even without the flood, he wouldn't have made it far.
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16	* Why does Spot (and the caveman family at the end) howl like wolves? In fact, how wolf-like are they supposed to be? Do they actually have traits that we'd associate with modern day wolves, or are they just imitating?
17	** Spot became an orphan early, he probably saw some wolves and took their habits.
18	** [[spoiler: While watching the film, I was under the impression that Spot had encountered the other humans previously, before the events of the story. Maybe they'd tried bringing him into their family but couldn't get him to trust them by conventional means - Spot had probably been feral and on his own far too long for that - so they eventually turned to howling like they'd seen and heard him do to hopefully help show him that he was the same as them. This explains why we only hear them howling after Spot and Arlo do it first (or, at the end, after they're close enough to see him clearly and don't want to scare him off), and why they're so welcoming to him when he finally does join them, instead of surprised that there's this little wild kid wandering around in the wilderness.]]
19	** I still don't think the behavior was natural to the family. They get up and walk on two legs once Spot actually joins them, and the way they treat him (hugging, stroking his cheek, and lifting him up onto the father's knee) is more reminiscent of anatomically-upright humans than dogs or any other animals.
20	** Even Spot, with all his dogginess, will occasionally laugh or use his hands for something or pet Arlo. Humans are clearly the stand in for wild dogs in this universe, but it's not unreasonable to think some might occasionally shift over into walking upright occasionally.
21	*** Spot's lapsing into humanoid behaviors could also be vestiges of his life with his human parents, though. There isn't enough evidence to concretely determine whether all humans are as dog-like as he is, since there are hints that the only others we see are doing it to try and acclimate him.
22	** In the scene where Spot reveals that his family is dead, the sticks he uses to represent them are standing upright, hinting that's how he remembers them. There's also the non-reaction the human family at the end has to having Arlo so close by, which would be out-of-place if they were as animalistic as Spot. The father appears to deliberately mimic Spot's "approach and sniff" behavior but backs away and waits when it doesn't work at first, and Spot is coaxed into walking on foot as he leaves with them. The little details like these suggest that humans as a whole live like they do normally, and that Spot probably only acts doglike because he had to live alongside them when his parents died.
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24	* Why did Spot and Arlo hallucinate due to the fermented fruit if there's no way for humans to hallucinate after eating fermented fruit? Also, does hallucinating actually happen when you're drunk?
25	** Humans allegedly developed the tolerance we have toward alcohol consumption today thanks to our ancestors having to eat rotten, fermented food to survive at times. Not sure what that says about Arlo, but Spot is probably at the point in human evolution where he's more susceptible to inebriation, because his people haven't built up as much immunity, so to speak.
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27	* Why is it that birds are the only dinosaurs that cannot speak? Also, are they sapient or not?
28	** Are birds indeed the only non-sapient dinosaurs though? We see five different types of sapient creatures in the movie: apatosaurs, pterosaurs, tyrannosaurs, raptors and one ceratopsid - we only ''assume'' that all other "dinosaurs" are sapient too. In fact, the "chickens" on the farm have clawed hands and tails indicating they are actually not birds, but some other kind of feathered theropod - suggesting that non-sapient non-avian dinosaurs do exist in this world.
29	** Maybe they just speak a different language?
30	** Birds and their closest relatives like the dino-chickens could be so mentally advanced compared to the non-avian dinosaurs, that their language and culture is completely alien and indistinguishable from the habits of wild animals. Essentially a minimalist take on UltraTerrestrials.
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32	* Why do Spot and the other humans wear clothes? Spot's garment seems to be made out of leaves, which would have to be tied or glued together somehow, and seems not likely considering humans in this world are supposed to be the equivalent of rodents. The family of humans, on the other hand, are wearing fur, which would imply they have tools to skin animals. But the dinosaurs, who are supposed to be the most advanced species on Earth, don't even have tools.
33	** Intelligence isn't the only thing a species needs to use tools, it must also have the ability to use them. Dolphins are some of the smartest animals on the planet but tool use is practically (though not entirely) nonexistent because they don't have hands. Also, we don't really know if the humans are less advanced than the dinosaurs. Spot was orphaned at a young age so his animal-like behavior can probably be attributed to that. Chances are, the human family are little different from modern humans, they're just not in an advanced era. Maybe it's just a case of HumansThroughAlienEyes, and in fact the humans ''are'' more advanced, Arlo (and thus we) don't perceive them that way.
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35	* Why would Arlo's family still have a food shortage after his father's death and his disappearance? Shouldn't they have more food, since they now only need food for 3 and they still have all the food that was stored before?
36	** Well, not exactly - they might have lost Henry, but they've gained Spot. Up until the very end of the film Arlo had planned on bringing Spot home with him. Plus, keep in mind that the dinosaurs were still the equivalent of the Stone Age, and food production output is limited - the problem isn't so much "We have a food shortage" as it is "Arlo needs to get home and help with the harvest before winter kills the crops, in which case there will ''be'' a food shortage." The silo was far from full even before Spot ate up more of their supply, so the stockpile is quite limited.
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38	* Why does the family Spot joins in the end all have white hair?
39	** If they're part of the same family and share genes, seems perfectly reasonable.
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41	* Why would Henry think Arlo would be capable of killing the critter that was stealing their food, when Arlo has already shown he can't even take care of the chickens? All he did in between the two was show him the fireflies - it seems a bit much to assume that that would be enough to change him.
42	** The killing itself was suppose to be the lesson to toughen him up. Unlike the chickens that were able to run free, the critter would be caught and easy to kill.
43	** Arlo couldn't take care of the chickens because he was terrified of them. Why would his father think him brave enough to kill Spot? Why wouldn't he hold a practice session using something that was actually alive, to make sure he was fully up to it?
44	** Arlo refusing to kill Spot didn't have to do with fear; it's implied he just had too much of a conscience for it.
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46	* Why are there so many storms? We saw one that kills Arlo's father, another that causes Arlo and Spot to lose the river, and a third one during the climax. All three of them seem to be quite hurricane-like, causing widespread damage, and two were the cause of devastating flash floods.
47	** Interesting fact: carbon levels during the age of the dinosaurs was much higher than it is today. The asteriod that killed the dinosaurs caused an extinction event and a drop in CO₂, and everything that evolved after it adopted to this new, comapratively lower level (including humans, so unless you are a dinosaur this is ''not'' evidence that rising CO₂ levels are not a concern). And of course, since higher CO₂ levels lead to more extreme weather...
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49	* How do these creatures find mates? All the sentient species we see are all living in isolated immediate family groups.
50	** The Tyranosaurs were taking Arlo to a meeting place where he could perhaps get directions from other dinosaurs. This was derailed when he saw the distinctive peaks above his homestead from a distance.
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52	* What's with the weird galloping run the T-Rex were doing?
53	** Since the T-Rex family is a parody on classic human cowboy stories, the way they run is a play on the galloping of horses. The rexes even whip their tails and let out a little “yah” before breaking into a run, the same way a cowboy would urge on a horse.
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55	* How are there Apatosaurus in this movie if they are already extinct before the meteor hit?
56	** It's possible whatever wiped them out didn't happen in this timeline just like how the meteor didn't strike the Earth.
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58	* What does Arlo earn his mark for? True, ''we'' saw that he was able to take care of spot, brave a storm to save him and be willing to give him a better home, but his family saw none of that. He may have just told them but that would hold little weight.
59	** Not only did he get rid of the critter that was eating their food, but it was his duty to his family and the need to help with the harvest that motivated Arlo to find his way home, when he could've easily given up, found a new home elsewhere, or been eaten. Him managing to survive on his own for that long, let alone for the sake of his family and their farm, seems worthy enough to earn him his mark.

Context Headscratchers / TheGoodDinosaur