It was announced at this past year’s D23 Expo (a Comic-Con for Disney fans, basically) that Pixar had begun work on its first ever dinosaur movie.

Now the director is shedding a bit more light on the project.

Bob Peterson told the Los Angeles Times that the film will likely give viewers a better opinion of the creatures who’ve previously been seen as enemies:

“It’s time to do a movie where you get to know the dinosaur, what it’s really like to be a dinosaur and to be with a dinosaur,” said Bob Peterson, director of the animation studio’s upcoming movie “The Good Dinosaur.”

Peterson, who served as codirector and writer on “Up,” said the inspiration for the movie came from a childhood visit to the World’s Fair where he was awed by some dinosaur animatronics.

In “The Good Dinosaur,” which will be codirected by Peter Sohn and produced by John Walker, an asteroid never hit the Earth and dinosaurs still roam.

In an interview at the studio’s Emeryville offices recently, Peterson, Sohn and Walker — who are in the midst of Pixar’s secretive story-crafting phase — kept key plot details such as geologic era and starring dino species under wraps, but hinted at some themes they’ll be exploring.

Sohn said they are toying with the idea of what dinosaurs represent today — something anachronistic or resistant to change. If there’s a “good” dinosaur, after all, there have to be bad ones. “The title is deceptively simple,” Sohn said. “It has more meaning than it seems.”

We’re very eager to see what Pixar comes up with, and whether or not the film will be set in present day.

A simple teaser poster for the film was revealed at D23 and depicted a small boy riding a dino on an open field, which suggests humans will play a role.

It had been set for a November 2013 release, but has since been pushed back to an unknown date.