'The Good Dinosaur' Could Make A Return

Pixar's been on a roll lately. This past summer, Inside Out was a box office hit, and it seems the animation studio is gunning for a repeat success with the release of The Good Dinosaur, opening in theaters Nov. 25. The Good Dinosaur follows the story of a dino named Arlo (voiced by Raymond Ochoa), who gets lost coming home and goes on a journey to make it back to his family. Along the way, he makes friends with a human cave boy named Spot (Jack Bright) and meets a slew of other dinos (one voiced by Anna Paquin from True Blood) as well. It's a pretty original story, but like so many other Pixar films, will The Good Dinosaur have a sequel? Could this movie be the start to an entirely new franchise?

There'd certainly be enough content, at least judging by the first film's plot. The movie takes on the question: "What if dinosaurs never went extinct?" In reality, if dinosaurs had never died, humanity would probably be extinct. But since The Good Dinosaur is a children's movie, it's perfectly OK to bypass the less family-friendly option in favor of one cute dino and his feral human buddy. As for a sequel, it's certainly a possibility — and hopefully, it'd go a lot smoother than the first movie's production did.

Two years ago, director Bob Peterson, who first conceptualized the film, left the project, leaving The Good Dinosaur without a lead until he was replaced with Peter Sohn, a longtime artist for the studio and, now, debut director. In addition to switching directors, the film's release was pushed back — it was originally supposed to come out in the summer of 2014, not the fall of 2015. Last but not least, The Good Dinosaur saw a total overhaul of its voice cast: changes include replacing Lucas Neff, who was originally set to play Arlo, and Neil Patrick Harris, who was to voice one of Arlo's siblings (we'll miss ya, NPH).

There's also the question of what Pixar has coming up on its film slate — and it's a very busy slate that happens to be jam-packed with sequels to popular movies.

Finding Dory

In Theaters: June 17, 2016

Cars 3

In Theaters: June 16, 2017

Coco

In Theaters: Nov. 22, 2017

Toy Story 4

In Theaters: June 15, 2018

Incredibles 2

In Theaters: June 21, 2019

If The Good Dinosaur also turns out to be another box office hit for Pixar, chances are that we could very well see a sequel with a Nov. 2019 release, at the earliest. According to Variety, it seems that The Good Dinosaur may even surpass Inside Out when it comes to audiences' excitement, increasing its sequel odds. That goes to show that people are definitely interested in this movie, and that we could very well see a continuation of Arlo and Spot's adventures in the future. Because if The Land Before Time can get score a slew of sequels, so could The Good Dinosaur. Everyone loves dinos, after all. It's kind of a fact of life.

Images: Pixar; Giphy (3)