The Good Cast

The Good Dinosaur has changed in most ways you can think of. A release date of May 2014 was moved to November 2015. Director Bob Peterson, who originally conceived the idea, was taken off the project and replaced by Peter Sohn. The storyline involving the dinosaurs as farmers was scrapped as well. And now, a brand new cast has been announced to headline the prehistoric flick.
When John Lithgow spoke about the “dismantled story” last August, he mentioned that he was one of the cast members to rerecord his lines. But Lithgow is no longer attached to the film. In fact, Frances McDormand remains the only original cast member still signed on. Read the full cast list below.
Arlo, the young apatosaurus braving a journey to find his way back home will now be played by Raymond Ochoa, replacing Lucas Neff.
Poppa is now played by Jeffrey Wright, taking over from John Lithgow. Momma is Frances McDormand.
Bill Hader (who you can hear as Fear in Inside Out, opening in exactly one week!) was slated to play Arlo’s brother Forrest, but now Arlo will have a new brother named Buck, played by ABC black-ish star, Marcus Scribner. Other cast members include Anna Paquin, Steve Zahn, AJ Buckley, Sam Elliot, and Jack Bright as the young human boy, Spot.
This new cast was announced via Disney’s blog. Perhaps to assuage the worries fans have about the state of the film, given all the changes, a paragraph was dedicated to explaining Pixar’s method of scrapping and starting new. With Pete Sohn in the director’s chair, this writer has no doubt about the level of quality we should expect.