Today Disney and Pixar are announcing details for the film The Good Dinosaur, from which we’ve previously seen only concept art. Footage was shown today, which Peter described as “very beautiful, not very cartoony, almost like a segment from Fantasia.” The story is described as the biggest “what if?” ever — what if the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs missed Earth entirely?

The primary cast was also announced. The primary characters are a family of farming Apatosaurs, with John Lithgow as the father, Frances McDormand as the mother, Bill Hader and Neil Patrick Harris as brothers Forrest and Cliff, Judy Greer as Ivy, and Lucas Neff voicing the lead character Arlo.

We have many more details below.

Footage shown today featured a look at an asteroid field sixty-five million years ago. There’s one asteroid coming towards earth, but it burns up and misses the planet completely. Dinosaurs look up at the asteroid flying by as they go about their business. The dinos come in all shapes and sizes; they’re farmers, with each species designed to be their own farming equipment. Arlo’s family lives in a very traditional farming community where not much changes

So Triceratops are bulldozers. Stegosaurus mow down acres of crops with their spiked tails. The Apatosaurs, with long necks, are built to do all the plowing on the farm. Cute little kid dinosaur characters run about between the adults. One clip showed rows and rows of crops, perfectly straight, fields of wheat. Dinosaurs are at top of the frame. They put their heads down and start plowing with their long necks. Some pick off branches, put them on their backs. Others cut crops with their tails.

There are lots of pests – prehistoric bugs that everyone hates but Arlo loves. The bugs turn out to be human cave men with a shell. Arlo figures this out when one cave man bites him. And so Arlo meets a boy, basically the first human any dino has ever seen. He’s Spot, named for three spots on his forehead. Spot is all alone in the world, not afraid of anyone, not even dinosaurs. He’s a tough kid, and he and Arlo set out on journey together.