Pixar's ‘The Good Dinosaur’ Release Date, Teaser Trailer; Pixar Announces Other Animated Films in Production

Jun 03, 2015 09:53 AM EDT

The American animation giant Pixar has released its first trailer Tuesday for the upcoming film "The Good Dinosaur." Its release date is scheduled to hit theaters in the United States on Nov. 25, 2015, a day before Thanksgiving. 

The trailer, which has been posted on YouTube, looks at the premise of what would have happened if the dinosaurs did not get wiped out by an asteroid. The general consensus within the scientific community is that most dinosaurs were wiped out in a mass extinction around 65 million years ago by an asteroid.

"Millions of years ago, an asteroid 6 miles wide destroyed every dinosaur on earth," the trailer stated. "But what if..."

The trailer, which lasts for about a minute, showed the asteroid flying by and not hitting the dinosaurs. It later goes into various dinosaur scenes, including a green dinosaur and a boy as the main characters.

According to Rebecca Ford of The Hollywood Reporter, Disney and Pixar hosted a presentation that previewed their animation slate during the Cannes film festival in France. The chief creative officer of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, John Lasseter, elaborated on what moviegoers can expect from "The Good Dinosaur," which is directed by Peter Sohn.

"I think our next movie asks the biggest what if of all," Lasseter said. "What if the asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs actually missed earth?"

Lasseter added that this film is "striving for a very unique tone, unlike any animated film made." He then focused on the nature scenes within the movie, which had a live-action feel despite the fact it was 100 percent animated.

"It's not going to be your average backdrop for a film," he said.

Lasseter noted that the film's premise would focus on a lost dinosaur that meets an orphaned boy.

"This is a boy and a dog story, but the roles are reversed," Lasseter quipped.

According to Ford, Lasseter will direct "Toy Story 4," which is scheduled to open in theaters in summer 2017. He indicated that it will be a "brand new chapter" in the "Toy Story" world as opposed to the continuation of the original story.

"There are seven more films in development and production slated for release after 2017," Ford wrote, citing Lasseter.

Lasseter then turned his focus to the state of Walt Disney Animation Studios. When Pixar took over that studio nine years ago, he claimed to have changed the work environment there to be friendlier to filmmakers as opposed to executives.

"It was quite broken when we came in, morale was really low," Lasseter quipped. "The magic is so important in what we do."

According to Ford, the short film "Sanjay's Super Team" will be shown in theaters alongside "The Good Dinosaur" when they are released later this year.