Bob Peterson off "The Good Dinosaur"

Bob Peterson has been taken off as director of The Good Dinosaur. No replacement has been made yet. Pixar has replaced directors in the past (most controversially Brenda Chapman from Brave, possibly leading to the addition of a bunch of unnecessary, goofy humor that didn't really fit in with the mother-daughter story... though we'll never know whose idea it was to - spoiler alert - turn the mom into a bear, which was really the part of the story that took away from the strength it had in the first act). In one instance, this worked really well - when Brad Bird took over for Ratatouille and made it a truly beautiful, heartfelt, original movie. Of course, it very well may have been just as wonderful had it been with the original director, but Bird certainly produced a great product. In other instances, it certainly hasn't turned out bad, and probably was for the best (it's really impossible to know).

Honestly, The Good Dinosaur is not the Pixar film I'm looking forward to most (that would be Inside Out, although the untitled Day of the Dead movie is a close second), so I really don't think it'll be that big of a deal. That being said, it always sucks to get replaced. It's a lot easier when they bring in a co-director to help out instead of full-on replacing (like Jennifer Lee is doing with Frozen, although that movie may have issues even she can't fix - goofy snowman and dog-like reindeer-sized issues). But it seems like here he's getting fully taken off the project, leaving co-director Peter Sohn to stand in until the Brain Trust finds a replacement (or maybe they'll just let Peter finish it up). I mean, it does premiere in less than a year after all!

Bob obviously knows how to make a great movie, as evidenced by his work co-directing Up. So here's hoping he's off working on something else great, and that the break was at least somewhat mutual. And, of course, let's hope that The Good Dinosaur is as brilliant and original as every Pixar film should be.