Littlefoot's Mother

[landbeforetimelover]

I was just thinking that Bron might have gone back to the great valley with Littlefoot if his mother was with him.  I seriously question the necessity of Bron staying with his herd.  Surely one of the other brave longnecks was competent enough to take over as leader of the herd.  I just know that if Littlefoot's mother had been with him, Bron would have traveled back with them to the great valley.  Essentially, the sharptooth in LBT 1 is responsible for Littlefoot not having a mother and not having a father.  What do you think about this?

[Manny Cav]

I think the sharptooth got what was coming to it for all of this....

[Malte279]

Essentially, the sharptooth in LBT 1 is responsible for Littlefoot not having a mother and not having a father. What do you think about this?

Quote Rooter:

It is nobody's fault. The great circle of life has begun. But you see, not all of us arrive together at the end.

Unlike many of you I cannot really blame Sharptooth. It is not like it was motivated by some kind of sadism compelling it to produce orphants. Sharptooth had to hunt to survive. I don't think it is easy to blame a creature for the actions it has to take to ensure the own survival and in this case nature's design put the strival for survival of one creature against that of another. I suppose that even Littlefoot himself probably understood this (looking at his relationship to Chomper and his parents). If Littlefoot was dwelling on the guilt of that Sharptooth, of Sharpteeth in general, about his own loss, and about the "might have beens" I suppose we would have a depressive, embittered, and hatefull character rather than the lovable longneck.

I think the sharptooth got what was coming to it for all of this....

How many dinosaurs were killed, turned into orphans, childless parents, or whatever other damaged families in order to keep Chomper alive? Even though his LBT 5 quote "I had longneck for breakfast" was a pretence to his parents it still goes to show that he didn't life exclusively on insects all the time (or his parents would have asked about it). So what do you make of this? Fry Chomper for the greater good? :blink:

As for Bron, I have frequently statet my opinion on him and of LBT 10 in general. He already had left part of his herd (He said that he was looking forward to introduce Littlefoot to the rest of his herd back home). Bron's herd must consist of quite a bunch of dependant adults. I never lost the impression that they came up with some really bad patchwork in order to introduce a character whose relationship to Littlefoot was too important to abandon him at the end of the movie and then... abandon him <_<

[Manny Cav]

I think the sharptooth got what was coming to it for all of this....

How many dinosaurs were killed, turned into orphans, childless parents, or whatever other damaged families in order to keep Chomper alive? Even though his LBT 5 quote "I had longneck for breakfast" was a pretence to his parents it still goes to show that he didn't life exclusively on insects all the time (or his parents would have asked about it). So what do you make of this? Fry Chomper for the greater good? :blink:

Uhh... when Chomper said he had longneck for breakfast, he was lying. He didn't really have longneck for breakfast. He said that because his parents sniffed out the gang, and he had to come up with a good excuse for the scent. His parents probably didn't comment on it because they consider it perfectly normal for a sharptooth to have meat (and, of course, it is). So, we may not know how many other dinosaurs Chomper had to eat. Mabey even none, given his young age. Who knows, he may not have even been able to physically do it at his young age, and he just had a diet like his current one in the television series. So, in short, frying Chomper would be a very stupid idea, because he wouldn't do anything to hurt the other residents in the Great Valley, and, as far as we know, never has done anything to hurt anyone else.

And, yes, the original LBT 1 sharptooth was just doing what came natural to it. It was doing what it had to do to survive. That's understandable, but it doesn't mean everybody else has to like it, or even put up with it. If there was a sharptooth roaming the very streets you live near, would you not want it killed (or at least stunned/tranquilized somehow) in a timely fashion?

[Weather_lord_7]

Unlike many of you I cannot really blame Sharptooth. It is not like it was motivated by some kind of sadism compelling it to produce orphants. Sharptooth had to hunt to survive.

Plus he was out for revenge due to Littlefoot damaging his eye.

[Malte279]

Uhh... when Chomper said he had longneck for breakfast, he was lying. He didn't really have longneck for breakfast. He said that because his parents sniffed out the gang, and he had to come up with a good excuse for the scent.

I was perfectly aware of the fact that Chomper was lying in this moment. But if we assume that Chomper had always lived on a diet consisting of nothing but insects and other creatures considered too "insignificant" by the audience to be pitied I suppose his parents would have commented on Chomper's switching to a diet of larger creatures. In short I do think that Chomper probably did get a taste of that diet before. Young as he is Chomper probably wouldn't be able to hunt larger creatures but rely on those brought down by his parents or scavenge; then again he actually DID hunt Littlefoot and the others before he recognized them. Just what exactly were his intentions? How would he have proceeded if those dinosaur kids he had cornered had not been his old aquintances? Perhaps he would have just talked to them (I don't see how he could gain perfect command of leafeater language just on the first day of his life), which might give some substance to suspicions of Chomper being hitherto less focused on larger prey than other sharpteeth. Nevertheless I consider it kind of naive to think of Chomper as the one and only sharptooth who will eat only those who don't count or deserve it (even though I'm sure Universals would want to foster that image to avoid answering awkward but interesting questions about Chomper) :

If there was a sharptooth roaming the very streets you live near, would you not want it killed (or at least stunned/tranquilized somehow) in a timely fashion?

Of course I would and I did never question the necessity of the actions taken by Littlefoot and the others to get rid of Sharptooth (even though I do question the interpretation according to which revenge more than necessity was the cause for Littlefoot to get rid of Sharptooth). But this is not the point I was addressing here. If I was close to a Sharptooth I would want to get away or get rid of it or get out of danger in any way. But all this would not make the Sharptooth acting on its instincts and its desire to live an "evil" creature.

Plus he was out for revenge due to Littlefoot damaging his eye.

He probably was; and this indeed might be one of the few points where we could accuse Sharptooth of a genuinely villainous trait (though there are countless examples of revengeful "heroes" whose revengefulness we tend to overlook gracefully). I consider it very likely that Sharptooth felt revengeful about Littlefoot. Nevertheless I am not sure if all his actions and his presence in LBT can be based on this thirst for revenge. Don't forget that most leafeaters were heading for the Great Valley and that the logical consequence for Sharptooth was to follow them. Perhaps Littlefoot and the others were just unlucky to be at the wrong place at the wrong time more than once. Throughout the timespan of LBT Sharptooth must have made some more prey to survive even though it isn't mentioned in the movie. For all this Sharptooth would be a natural enemy, but seems less like a villain than some other land before time characters who, though less intimidating, show more signs of outright villainy.

[landbeforetimelover]

Plus he was out for revenge due to Littlefoot damaging his eye.

Okay.  I feel really dumb now.  I have no idea what you're talking about.  I guess I am tired.

[DarkHououmon]

You remember that scene of Littlefoot stuck in the thorns, and he struggles to get out? The thorns hit Sharptooth in the eye, and damaged it (which is why it is mostly closed). That's why the Sharptooth wanted revenge on Littlefoot.

[Manny Cav]

If there was a sharptooth roaming the very streets you live near, would you not want it killed (or at least stunned/tranquilized somehow) in a timely fashion?

Of course I would and I did never question the necessity of the actions taken by Littlefoot and the others to get rid of Sharptooth (even though I do question the interpretation according to which revenge more than necessity was the cause for Littlefoot to get rid of Sharptooth). But this is not the point I was addressing here. If I was close to a Sharptooth I would want to get away or get rid of it or get out of danger in any way. But all this would not make the Sharptooth acting on its instincts and its desire to live an "evil" creature.

I never said otherwise. In fact, didn't I already say this in my previous post? It did what came natural to it, but that doesn't mean everybody else had to put up with it or accept it. The sharptooth going on it's instincts doesn't really make it evil. It's just doing it's thing. Of course, that doesn't mean everybody else has to like it, either. If I had a BFG and I saw Sharptooth about to chomp away on Littlefoot's mother or anyone else, that sharptooth would have about a couple of seconds to say it's prayers before it was history.

[DarkHououmon]

If I had a BFG and I saw Sharptooth about to chomp away on Littlefoot's mother or anyone else, that sharptooth would have about a couple of seconds to say it's prayers before it was history.

To be honest, I don't really agree with that.

[Manny Cav]

No offense taken, but can you at least tell me why?

[DarkHououmon]

Glad I didn't offend you.

And I'm not really sure if I could explain why I disagree with the idea of killing Sharptooth just because he was trying to make a meal out of a sauropod. No offense intended.

I hope this doesn't make me sound unsympathetic or anything.

[landbeforetimelover]

If I could of, I would have blasted that sharptooth.  I don't care if he needs food.  Tough.  I'd still blast him.

[DarkHououmon]

If I could of, I would have blasted that sharptooth.  I don't care if he needs food.  Tough.  I'd still blast him.

No offense, but I'll never understand the desire to kill Sharptooth just because he was acting upon instinct.

[landbeforetimelover]

Instinct or not, it doesn't change the fact that he murdered Littlefoot's mother.  I sure am glad he died.

[DarkHououmon]

Instinct or not, it doesn't change the fact that he murdered Littlefoot's mother.  I sure am glad he died.

....that sounded harsh, in my opinion.

Sharptooth was only doing what he needed to to survive. I can't understand hating a creature for doing something they had no choice but to do.

[DarkHououmon]

Whoops..doublepost.

[Manny Cav]

If Sharptooth was swallowing your mother whole, I bet you'd kill it by any means possible, instinct or not. Sorry, but "instinct" simply isn't enough reason to see friends and family get eaten and killed by some wild predator.

And, is it just me, or is this getting a wee bit off topic, as well as a little too serious for a scenario that is likely to never occur? :

[DarkHououmon]

If Sharptooth was swallowing your mother whole, I bet you'd kill it by any means possible, instinct or not. Sorry, but "instinct" simply isn't enough reason to see friends and family get eaten and killed by some wild predator.

And, is it just me, or is this getting a wee bit off topic, as well as a little too serious for a scenario that is likely to never occur.

I had said nothing about Littlefoot "getting revenge" on Sharptooth. From his POV it's understandable, as it was indeed his mother killed.

I never had ill-will against Sharptooth, though, and I didn't believe he truly deserved to die. From nature's perspective, he didn't do anything "wrong".

[Malte279]

Don Bluth too did have a problem considering Sharptooth a real villain. In the issue of his Toon Talk magazine dealing primarily with the land before time Don Bluth wrote on the Sharptooth:

Was he deficient in kindness and mercy? No! Was he evolutionary arrested or retarded? No! Simply put he was hungry. It is the law of nature to seek out food to satiate the appetite. So I reasoned, how could I hate the beast for doing what nature instinctively ordained? Just because he was big, growling and hungry didn't make him malevolent. He needed to step outside nature's boundaries to be a bad guy, embrace brutality over compassion, and harbor a vendetta or grudge that could twist his soul into an unnatural existence. That would be a true villain. Creative ideas are born out of conflict. I wanted a more dimensional bad guy, but I was outnumbered and finally gave in. Steven and George, in fact the whole team, felt that the Rex's teeth did the job. More evil could be over-kill. If something can bite you, that's reason enough to fear it. The dinosaur children, simply put, are terrorized by their natural enemy. Although I knew our story would pack a dramaticwallop to the audience if they could hate Rex, not just fear him, I grew weary of pitching the idea. The most horrific villains are those who appear confident, cool and in control at first glance, while beneath the skin, you sense something is terribly wrong, and you never suspect the magnitude of the twisted horror inside until it is too late.

Bluth also had a big picture of Sharptooth printed on the back cover of that issue of his magazine. That picture came with the line (if memory serves me right as I don't have the magazine at hand right now):

Sharptooth isn't really evil. He has just been grumpy all his life. He will get over it.

As for the sharptooth's eye, there is more on that issue in this thread. The thesis that revenge for a damaged eye was a motive of Sharptooth was mainly supported by one of the books of the land before time which appeared in 1989.
Here are a few lines from that book referring to Sharptooth's eye (quoted in the thread mentioned above):

Sharptooth was at their heels, and they could feel the ground tremble. Littlefoot and Cera cowered in the center of the brambles, thinking they were safe, but Sharptooth chewed and ripped through the twisted boughs. Littlefoot could fel the monster's hot breath on his tail. Leaping up to get away he got caught in some thorny black branches. Sharptooth bore down on him with evil glee.
At the very last moment Littlefoot freed himself. One of the hard thorny branches snapped back and hit sharptooth right in the eye. The monster bellowed in pain and reared back from the brambles. Then, with a terrible fury, he plunged back into the thicket, searching for the puny creature that had dared to injure him.

Closer and closer the monster came. Although one of his eyes was swollen shut, he was growling softly, enjoying his moment of revenge.

With another terrible cry, the big beast thundered toward them, his enormous mouth wide open and his one good eye glinting with hatred.

Petrie saw what was happening and he whistled in fury as he once more zoomed at Sharptooth, landing on his head. He put one wing over Sharptooth's good eye and held on for dear life. [...] Petrie was getting tired holding on to Sharptooth's face, and his wing fell away from the monster's eye. Now that he could see what he was doing, Sharptooth roared in rage and charged at the rock wall - and Petrie.