Star of ‘The Good Dinosaur’ can relate to the dino tale
As the youngest boy in a family of five kids, actor Raymond Ochoa says he could easily relate to the anxieties of the animated hero he voices in “The Good Dinosaur.”
The 14-year-old provides the voice of 11-year-old Arlo, a knobby-kneed Apatosaurus who’s more fearful than fearsome, but desperate to find his place in the world and make his parents proud.
“He’s a big family person, the family relationship comes through his (siblings) and when they fight I can relate to it because I have three older brothers,” Ochoa said during a recent publicity stop in Toronto.
“But also he wants to make his parents proud and that’s a big thing of his and I want to make my parents proud. That’s all I want to do.”
In this latest Pixar outing, dinosaurs survive an asteroid’s near collision with the Earth to become the dominant - and smartest - species around.
Arlo and his pea-green family are hard-working farmers in the American Northwest, and while chores around the homestead seem to come easily to his larger brother Buck and bigger sister Libby, they are a constant source of frustration for the unco-ordinated runt of the family.
After failing to impress his father yet again, a disappointed Arlo sets out to right his latest wrong, but that only ends in more trouble: he’s alone in the wilderness, separated from his family and clueless as to how to find his way back.
Forced to face his fears, Arlo has no choice but to tackle each obstacle as they come, which he learns to do with help from a wild and fearless two-legged critter - a grunting, wide-eyed cave boy - he dubs Spot.
Ochoa says filming sad moments were the toughest part of the gig. But while the movie gets dark at times, Ochoa says even the littlest viewers can handle heavy storylines.
“There always has to be a movie that can touch you in some way ... and (kids) can relate to it in their own ways,” he says.
Ochoa says he knew he wanted to act for a living after booking his first commercial at age four..” And then I saw ‘Monsters Inc.’,” says Ochoa. “I was six years old when I said: ‘I want to be in a Pixar movie.”
Now his older brothers are the jealous ones, he boasts.
“The Good Dinosaur” is in theatres now.