50 free The Good Dinosaur trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Good Dinosaur is the Pixar film that almost fell apart. Bob Peterson's 2009 idea about an Apatosaurus farm boy lost its director, most of its voice cast and two release dates before Peter Sohn rebuilt it around a simple notion: nature is the villain. What reached screens in November 2015 had some of the most photoreal landscapes ever animated and became the studio's first box-office loss. These 50 questions range across the whole story: Arlo and Spot's journey home, Butch and his T. rex ranchers, Thunderclap's weather-named pterodactyls, the Wyoming and Oregon research trips, the USGS terrain data, the Danna brothers' score, the Frozen and Finding Dory release-date shuffles, and the short Sanjay's Super Team that played ahead of it. Every answer is sourced from the film's Wikipedia coverage, so you can check anything that surprises you. Play through in sets of 10 and see how well you know Pixar's dinosaur western.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What species of dinosaur is Arlo in The Good Dinosaur?
Apatosaurus
Animators filmed elephants at a zoo to work out how a timid long-necked giant should move.
Q 02What is the name of the human boy Arlo befriends?
Spot
Arlo wins a naming contest against a Styracosaurus who wanted the boy as a pet.
Q 03Who directed The Good Dinosaur?
Peter Sohn
Sohn replaced original director Bob Peterson in 2014 after story problems; he had made the short Partly Cloudy.
Q 04In which year was The Good Dinosaur released?
2015
It came out six months after Inside Out, the first time Pixar released two films in one year.
Q 05What alternate-history twist sets up The Good Dinosaur's world?
The extinction asteroid misses Earth
Millions of years later, herbivores have become farmers and carnivores ranchers.
Q 06What crop does Arlo's family grow?
Corn
Each child earns the right to make a mud-print mark on the family's corn silo.
Q 07What are the names of Arlo's parents?
Henry and Ida
Jeffrey Wright and Frances McDormand voice Poppa Henry and Momma Ida.
Q 08How does Arlo's father die in The Good Dinosaur?
He is killed by debris in a flash flood
Henry had just saved Arlo from the flood when the storm took him.
Q 09Who voices Arlo in The Good Dinosaur?
Raymond Ochoa
Ochoa replaced Lucas Neff when most of the cast was swapped out during the 2014 reboot of the story.
Q 10Who voices Spot?
Jack Bright
Spot is a seven-year-old caveboy who communicates only in grunts and howls.
Q 11Which actor voices Butch, the Tyrannosaurus rancher?
Sam Elliott
Animators modelled Butch's look on screen cowboys played by Clint Eastwood and Jack Palance.
Q 12Who voices Ramsey, Butch's daughter?
Anna Paquin
A. J. Buckley voices her brother Nash.
Q 13Which Oscar winner voices Arlo's mother, Momma Ida?
Frances McDormand
McDormand was the only member of the original 2013 cast to keep her role after the film was reimagined.
Q 14Who voices Poppa Henry?
Q 21Who originally came up with the idea for The Good Dinosaur in 2009?
Bob Peterson
Peterson, co-director of Up, was removed in 2013 after third-act story problems he could not solve.
Q 22The film's original creator said his inspiration came from seeing what as a child?
Dinosaur animatronics at a World's Fair
He wanted audiences to know what it was really like to be, and be with, a dinosaur.
Q 23Which Disney film took The Good Dinosaur's original November 2013 release slot?
Frozen
The film was pushed to May 2014, then to November 2015 as the story was rebuilt.
Jeffrey Wright
Wright replaced John Lithgow, who had recorded the part for the earlier version of the film.
Q 15What kind of dinosaur is Forrest Woodbush?
Styracosaurus
He keeps a menagerie of small animals perched on his horns and challenges Arlo to a naming contest for Spot.
Q 16Who voices Thunderclap, leader of the pterodactyl gang?
Steve Zahn
Zahn's carnivorous flock carries Spot off during the film's final storm.
Q 17The members of Thunderclap's flock are all named after what?
Weather
Downpour, Coldfront, Frostbite and Windgust round out the pterodactyl gang.
Q 18What is the name of the leader of the Dromaeosaurid rustlers?
Bubbha
John Ratzenberger keeps his Pixar streak alive as Earl, one of Bubbha's pack.
Q 19Which role does Pixar regular John Ratzenberger voice in The Good Dinosaur?
Earl the rustler
Ratzenberger has voiced a character in every Pixar feature since Hamm in Toy Story.
Q 20What are Butch's family herding in The Good Dinosaur?
Longhorns
The herd is made up of prehistoric Bison latifrons, and cattle rustlers are after them.
Q 24The Good Dinosaur's final November 2015 date had been reserved for which Pixar film?
Finding Dory
Inside Out in turn had originally held the May 2014 slot that The Good Dinosaur briefly occupied.
Q 25How many employees did Pixar lay off in November 2013 after the film's delay?
67
The cuts followed the closure of Pixar Canada a month earlier, which cost about 80 more jobs.
Q 26Which actor originally recorded the role of Arlo's father before being recast?
John Lithgow
Lithgow had said in 2014 the film was being completely reimagined and he would re-record, but was ultimately replaced.
Q 27Judy Greer, Bill Hader and who were cast as Arlo's siblings in an early version?
Neil Patrick Harris
The trio was cut down to one brother, Buck, and later a sister, Libby.
Q 28What did the filmmakers decide should serve as the antagonist of The Good Dinosaur?
Nature
Producer Denise Ream put it simply: nature can overcome anything, including a massive dinosaur.
Q 29Which US region did the team visit to research the film's landscapes?
The American Northwest
They spent time in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Juntura, Oregon and southern Montana.
Q 30What real-world sources did Pixar use to build the film's terrain?
USGS data and Google Earth imagery
The geographic foundation let Sohn shoot in any direction and keep the world feeling big and real.