‘The Good Dinosaur’ trailer: Pixar goes for the natural look

Dancing fireflies, quivering pine trees, a racing river — if Pixar made its own version of the BBC documentary “Planet Earth,” it might look something like the animation studio’s nature-driven new trailer for “The Good Dinosaur.”

An adventure story about a teenage Apatosaurus named Arlo, “The Good Dinosaur” posits a world where the asteroid never hit the Earth and the dinosaurs never went extinct. In contrast to this summer’s fierce “Jurassic World” creatures, Arlo, voiced by child actor Raymond Ochoa, is a decidely sweet and cartoonish dinosaur, with expressive, wide-set eyes, gangly knees and a goofy smile. The planet Arlo inhabits, however, is a lush, dangerous and photoreal one, where the environment drives the action.

Using hardly any dialogue, the trailer depicts Arlo’s budding friendship with a feral-looking human boy named Spot (Jack Bright) as they fend off fanged predators, race through flowerbeds and howl together at the moon.

The movie, from director Peter Sohn, has endured a tumultous production, as Pixar executives replaced the previous director, Bob Peterson, in 2013, and parent company Disney pushed its release date back by more than a year.

In an interview with The Times after he took over the film last year, Sohn said he was streamlining the story and redefining the setting.

“It’s always been about this young dinosaur growing up,” Sohn said. “But the world itself has changed a lot. Nature has become a character.”

“The Good Dinosaur” opens Nov. 25.

For animation news, follow @thatrebecca.

ALSO:

Why that new ‘Ant-Man’ hero may not be dead after all

‘Sword in the Stone’ remake in the works from ‘Game of Thrones’ writer

New ‘Henry’ image suggests virtual-reality by way of Pixar