Finally, after years of putting it off, I watched this movie. My verdict?
It was okay. I mean it in a positive way, but I feel like they could've done more with it. It felt quite minimalistic compared to past LBT movies (including the dreaded Movie 13). Then again, some of the crew (including the director and writers) are new, and I doubt they had the budget to afford more than what we got, so I guess I can give them a pass.
POSITIVES:
-Continuity references: I'm surprised they actually mentioned the death of Littlefoot's mother here. I think this was the first time they were this upfront about it (correct me if I'm wrong). It actually helped strengthen the urgency to save Bron for me. Oh, and of course, they actually brought Chomper, Ruby, and Bron back for this. They didn't really have to since today's generation might not know who these characters are, so this tells me the crew knew their stuff and wanted to appease older fans too.
-Grandpa Longneck: Surprisingly, I thought the new voice was quite appropriate. Yes, Kenneth Mars would've done a better job, but I believe there was a certain energy to his voice that gave Grandpa a sort of "still-in-his-prime" feeling. That energy is gone with Barry Bostwick, whose treatment instead communicated the fact that Grandpa is getting older and older, and he could be reaching the end of his days. At least that's how I saw it. So yeah, I didn't mind the new voice. (RIP Kenneth Mars, BTW. His last acting role was as Grandpa on the TV series. The character truly died with him.)
-Theme: The theme of leadership and teamwork was really pronounced here, which I found to be quite interesting. Littlefoot and Cera's conflict in the middle of the movie over how to navigate the group was a pretty sweet callback to the first movie. I think this is the first time in God knows how long where we see their relationship and differences in-depth.
MIXED FEELINGS:
-Songs: The songs are definitely a mixed bag. I liked "Look for the Light" and "Better Off Alone" and thought their tunes were pretty catchy. "Hot and Stinky" and "Today's the Day", on the other hand...eh. Definitely lower-ranked in my LBT playlist.
-Tone: Of course, this is a by-product of having new people on the crew, especially at the helm, but the tone was so strikingly all over the place. There are some scenes that definitely felt like LBT, but there were others that seemed out-of-place and even inconsequential, such as the Diggers scene.
-New characters: Etta and Wild Arms are definitely no Yellow Bellies, but I feel like more could've been done with those characters. Etta's only seen flying in a flashback, since her wing was singed, but they could've used her wing injury as a device for her own character development. Maybe she actively tries to save Bron from the Fire Mountain but got injured and couldn't, and now she has to live with it. She regains her flight when she gets over her guilt and a second chance presents itself. As for Wild Arms, he screamed "antagonist" to me, so they shouldn't have taken the safe road and instead just RUN AWAY with his traits of cowardice and arrogance. The fact that he gets off at the end of the movie just took me aback. On a positive note, I think Reba McEntire and Damon Wayans did well with what they were given.
NEGATIVES:
-Mr. Threehorn: Unlike Grandpa, his new voice is just so...UGH. There was nothing positive to glean from the new voice.
-Action sequences: My favorite parts of the LBT movies were always the scenes featuring Sharpteeth. So, when your new LBT entry leaves me unimpressed with the Sharpteeth scenes, you know you did something wrong. This is the first LBT movie to feature two different Sharpteeth species as antagonists, and yet, all three Sharpteeth were somehow bungled. I feel like didn't have enough budget to flesh out the scenes more, which is why the Sharpteeth scenes didn't feel as impressive. There wasn't even a payoff to it all; they just had Grandpa and Mr. Threehorn of all people (or dinosaurs, I should say) HIDE from the Carnotaurus, which just felt like a whole load of crap. They could've had all the adults face off against all three Sharpteeth in one final, climactic sequence, as another user had suggested before.
-Supporting characters: There was a surprising lack of supporting characters. It was only Grandpa and Mr. Threehorn who went out to the Mysterious Beyond to find the kids, which I found very unusual. It's usually all the parents, at the very least. Speaking of which, we didn't get to see Tria and/or Tricia. And on that note, we didn't even get to see SHORTY, who should've been with Bron's herd from the get-go. That is just...a whole other level of mind-boggling.
So yeah, overall, not a bad movie, and I don't regret watching it. Some areas were particularly disappointing, though. If they are working on a sequel (which I'm still hoping for), hopefully they're now more comfortable with the playing field and get a bigger budget, because I feel like the budget might've been lower than usual for this movie.
If there's going to be no more sequels (which is probably the case at this point), then I'm glad the franchise ended on this note and not that of LBT 13. The narrator saying Littlefoot had found something he hadn't been looking for (the value of his friends and friendship) was quite poignant for me. I couldn't have asked for a better ending to the franchise (aside from the gang growing up and having kids of their own, of course, but that would've taken an infinitely bigger budget).
I'll still have to think about where this movie ranks in my list of favorite LBT movies. But, other than that, not too shabby. Not too shabby indeed.
