- “You can't get rid of fear. It's like mother nature. You can't beat her or outrun her, but you can get through it. You can find out what you're made of”
- ―Butch to Arlo by the campfire.
Butch is the tritagonist of Disney/Pixar's 2015 animated feature film, The Good Dinosaur. He is Arlo's wise mentor and the father of two young T-Rexes, Nash and Ramsey.
Background[]
Official Description[]
- "Butch is a rugged and intimidating Tyrannosaurus Rex—showcased by the gruesome scar across his face. A veteran rancher who’s a real pro when it comes to herding longhorns, Butch encourages his kids Ramsey and Nash to learn by doing, hurling them into one hairy situation after another. Butch likes nothing better than trading war stories over a campfire at the end of a long day."[1]
Role in the film[]
After his kids, Nash and Ramsey save Arlo and Spot from Thunderclap and his gang, Butch arrives to break up a fight between them by simply telling his son, Nash to get out of his sister, Ramsey's bubble. Then, he turns to Arlo and tells him he's got no business being out here.
When Arlo says he's lost and he's looking for a river that will lead him back home on his farm, Butch states there are many rivers out there and asks which one he's following. Arlo tells him he's looking for the one that leads to Clawtooth Mountain. Nash and Ramsey offer to take Arlo to a water hole somewhere South, where he may find someone with information on how to get back home. Nevertheless, Butch states that he and his family simply don't have time to "play baby-sitters" and that they are on their way to look for their lost herd of longhorns. However, Butch and his kids later agree to help Arlo when he offers to help them using Spot to track down their herd. At first, when they see Spot having supposedly led them all the way to a bug, which Spot later eats, they seem disappointed and Butch supposedly threatens Arlo that "if he's pullin' his leg, he's gonna eat his" until Spot calls them with a bark to show that he found the herd's tracks, a dead longhorn, and a feather belonging to the ones, in other words, "rustlers" as Butch refers to them as, that stole them in the first place, and Butch decides they must move.
When they finally find their herd and approach them quietly, Butch sends Arlo and Spot to get on a rock in the middle of the herd and scream real loud to attract the rustlers so that he and his kids could get them easily. After Arlo accomplishes that role (with Spot's help by biting him on the leg), the rustlers show up and are revealed to be velociraptors led by Bubbha. When they are about to attack them, Butch and his kids come to the rescue. When Butch gets overwhelmed by two raptors; Lurleane and Pervis, Arlo finally has the courage to overcome his fears and save Butch from harm. When they are about to retaliate, Butch grabs them by their tails and throws them far away, which also causes Bubbha and Earl to retreat in fear. Then, the T-Rexes, Arlo, and Spot let out a few roars over their victory on the raptors.
Later, at night, the group share their stories on how they got their scars when they notice Arlo's scar on his right leg due to his last battle with the raptors around a campfire. Nash got into a fight with 15 Stegosaurus outlaws where one of them got his spike tail stuck in Nash's right leg and pulled it back out, and since then, he is unable to feel his toes (demonstrated by setting them on fire). Ramsey got her tail stuck between a rock and a hard place when a stampede of longhorns was coming right at her, so she chewed the tip of her tail off to get loose. But both of them enjoy hearing their father's story. Butch once walked for five days without water at 100 degrees in the shade until he saw a pretty pond, so, he bent down to take a drink when suddenly three crocs launched out of the water and one of them bit him on the face but Butch wasn't ready for dying that day, so, he bit one croc in half, tail-whipped the other, and finally, drowned the last one in his own blood. Nash wishes he could touch the croc's tooth, which his father has stuck in his gums as a souvenir, but refuses to allow him to touch it. When Arlo states he is done being scared, Butch tells him that fear is something no one can "beat or outrun but can get through it and find out what they're made of." When Arlo notices the first snow, meaning winter is coming, the T-Rexes fulfill the rest of the deal by promising to help take him back home in the morning.
The next day, as they are herding along with Arlo's help too, Arlo sees Clawtooth Mountain and the T-Rexes wish him luck on his journey. He isn't seen again for the rest of the film.
Video games[]
Dino Crossing[]
Butch also appears in this video game as an obstacle that the player has to avoid in later levels. Like the Tetrapodophis depending whether the player is controlling Arlo or Spot individually or controlling Arlo and Spot together, touching him either loses a life or causes an instant game over.
Butch also appears as a playable character in Endless mode. To unlock him, the player must collect 100 berries.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- When Butch grins, his teeth resemble the mustache of his voice actor, Sam Elliott.[2]
- Another reference is Butch's occupation as a rancher in which his movement mimics a galloping horse as if he is riding one like a cowboy.[3] This alludes to Elliott's movie career as a cowboy or a rancher.
- When Butch says “At first light, we ride” near the end of the campfire scene, it is a reference to Elliott's portrayal of Carter Slade from the 2007 film Ghost Rider.
- Another reference is Butch's occupation as a rancher in which his movement mimics a galloping horse as if he is riding one like a cowboy.[3] This alludes to Elliott's movie career as a cowboy or a rancher.
- Butch is the only T-Rex seen with one tooth sticking out on the opposite side and direction like a tusk.
- Butch’s head is similar to that of the titular kaiju from the 1998 Godzilla film.
- Butch can be seen as a foil to Henry. Like Henry, he knows not to ignore his fear and instead chooses not to risk his life unnecessarily.
- In the scene where Arlo talks with Butch and his family at the campfire about his encounter with a crocodile, Butch is probably referring to a Sarcosuchus or a Deinosuchus, prehistoric crocodiles that lived in the Cretaceous epoch and fed on dinosaurs that were mostly larger in size than themselves.
- In real life, Sarcosuchus existed in the Early Cretaceous epoch while the T-Rex and Deinosuchus existed in the Late Cretaceous epoch.
- Butch's portrayal as an ally appeared to be a complete subversion of the common portrayal of T-Rexes as villainous dinosaurs in most fictional stories.
References[]
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