Could the sequels have been made darker?

[Allicloud]

I agree, that the Land of the Mists was a somewhat gloomy place and even a little scary. But nothing as scary as a barren death valley the gang ventured through in the original movie. That desert had the word "despair" written all over it.

And yet at times, the barren wasteland is strangely beautiful. I dunno, maybe it's just me; I kinda have a thing for big empty landscapes.

[trulyfantasticme]

If I could take control of LBT, the first thing I would do is bring Pterano back...then I'll make more episodes, expand them to at least an hour. Yeah, the series need alot more villains other than sharpteeth, kay? I would also bring back some of the villains and maybe make up new ones.

I would also have more dramatic scenes and more epic scenes. I would love to have Sierra return and have revenge on the gang and Pterano, hearing Sierra's plan for revenge, forgets all about his banishment and comes back to the Great Valley to protect his nephew...

Or sumthin like that...

[Allicloud]

Actually, looking at the series again, I do notice that there are several rather...well, maybe not dark, but certainly not kiddy, moments that most kids wouldn't get.

For example, most younger people see the whole Tinysauruses thing as a reference to exterminating pests and suchlike. But when I look at it, I just think: Holocaust and KKK-lynching. Heck, they even blatantly say that the reason they're getting rid of them is because they're different and "anything that's different is dangerous!".
Not to mention the number of skeletons that litter the series. They mostly downplay this in the later sequels, where the characters may come across the odd bone and sometimes a whole skeleton, but look at the earlier ones. You got whole sets that look just like the Elephant Graveyard from the Lion King! Heck, you even got Hyp Nod and Mutt walking across a gigantic set of ribs at one point! Granted skeletons aren't exactly gory or graphic, but you still have to remember, they are the remnants of a corpse, a cadaver, a dead thing!

[Coyote_A]

You got whole sets that look just like the Elephant Graveyard from the Lion King!

That's what the Mysterious Beyond looked like in the second movie. After the gang were caught in the rockslide they found themselves in a place that had the word "death" written all over it. Now, compare it to later sequels such as the 6th or 7th. The Mysterious Beyond is just an enormous barren territory. Depressing maybe, but not as scary.

[Daddytops2009]

I wanted to see the last LBT movie without the Yellowbellies.

[Justin1993]

You got whole sets that look just like the Elephant Graveyard from the Lion King!

That's what the Mysterious Beyond looked like in the second movie. After the gang were caught in the rockslide they found themselves in a place that had the word "death" written all over it. Now, compare it to later sequels such as the 6th or 7th. The Mysterious Beyond is just an enormous barren territory. Depressing maybe, but not as scary.

And compare it to the 9th film, where the Mysterious Beyond is full of life.  :huh:

[LBTFan13]

I'm sure there are plenty of things that could have been done with the sequels to make them a little more darker, but there are many things to take into consideration. Aside from these movies, the only other big name franchise that was releasing movies involving dinosaurs was Jurassic Park (unless I'm forgetting something). For obvious reasons, Jurassic Park is not a family-friendly franchise, but there were no other movies related to dinosaurs out beside the Land Before Time. Universal had to tailor something to a more approachable audience, and because Jurassic Park was doing so successful at being the darker, intense franchise, that left Land Before Time.

Another thing to take into consideration is the competition. For obvious reasons, Universal's main competition is Disney (at least in my eye), so it's only natural to look at what the competition does well and attempt to imitate it. Disney excels at creating family-friendly franchises that blends the right amount of edge/darkness, so of course Universal would attempt that with one of its largest franchises. Unfortunately, it seems like Universal couldn't quite get the right mix with LBT.

Could things have been done differently? Of course they could have, but it would have been very difficult considering the circumstances.

[Adder]

But there were no other movies related to dinosaurs out beside the Land Before Time.

There were the Carnosaur movies. The first movie came out about a month before the first Jurassic Park movie. The carnosaur series is even darker than the Jurassic Park series. Every movie has included r-rated gore and violence, even the two spin-offs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnosaur_(series)

[Petrie85]

There was a lot they could have done to make these movies darker. Make the stories darker added a little bit more violence.

[Bruton the Iguanodon]

as you say with number 5, it seems like a pretty serious, almost dark movie, until they run into Chomper. After that, it's clearly kiddy.

I couldn't agree more. The first half of movie 5 was great, but then it turned just sour afterwards. When you made that comment about 5 were you implying that you, like I, really loved the first half of 5 but hated the second? (not even the blood in the second half could save it from being kiddie)

Anyways, I think movie 9 could have been way darker. 2-4 were dark enough, 6 and 8 couldn't have been made darker they were so bad, same goes for 7, but not 9.

Ah, 9...something about this one was different. 6-8 mainly felt like crap, but 9...felt like a beautiful land before time film hidden under layers and layers of godawful animation and CGI. It was mostly made up of sunny, kid friendly scenes, which were usually livable, enjoyable, and even touching, but some of which were pure preschool crap, mainly the "Imaginary Friends".  Yet there was one particular occasion when the film strayed from this territory: the scene with the lioplerudon---set in the lake at night in the pouring rain and ending with Mo seemingly sacrificing himself---felt like something out of an entirely different film, it was so different from the rest of the film. This here shows that the films definitely could be edgier and universal is definitely holding back. The ending was so beautiful, of the gang saying goodbye to Mo and going home, and making it back to the valley, and reuniting with their parents as the sun sets. This ending just gets me, and as I watch it I think how this could have been the end---how this would have actually made a good finale, with all the movie 1 connections, and how I feel as I watch the edning that I'm seeing the characters return home for the last time, and the ending line giving that feeling of "Oh, this series is over, but there's a whole lot more out there yet to be discovered." That, and LBT 9 was the last movie I really watched, prior to getting back into it this year. I have a whole topic on this called, "Should LBT 9 HAVE BEEN THe end?" But no one's responded to it yet.

[Bruton the Iguanodon]

and have ali and littlefoot trapped together while facing dil and ichy

I really like that idea...but would it have worked? I can't remember exactly what happened (I haven't seen 4 in forever) but I don't see why they wouldn't have done that if it did work. It sounds like a really good idea.

[Malte279]

^ They needed Ali to lead the others to the cave where Littlefoot was trapped. Also they probably needed them to be separated to allow for some character development with Ali overcomming some of her racism.
But would it have been darker anyway if Littlefoot (rather than being trapped alone (not quite alone with Archie coming along) and uncertain whether or not Ali was death or hurt) had been trapped along with Ali?
One thing I notice about this part of LBT 4 is that both Littlefoot and Ali seem to presume that the other one is relatively save of the other side of the rockslide when for all they know the other one could have been burried right under it.

[Bruton the Iguanodon]

So basically that couldn't have worked.

I wonder why someone suggested it then.

[Bruton the Iguanodon]

But would it have been darker anyway if Littlefoot (rather than being trapped alone (not quite alone with Archie coming along) and uncertain whether or not Ali was death or hurt) had been trapped along with Ali?

I don't know why someone suggested it, seeing as it wouldn't have worked out nor would it make it darker in any way. Before realizing it wouldn't work I thought it would make it better, yes, but not darker.

[Ludichris1]

Even though I liked the previous ones as well, I think I read on a web site that some critics were panning the first four LBT sequels for following the same type of process. I never really noticed anyway. I think it was good the change from so called 'seriousness' (I think it's more the lighting/colors and the group learning more often). It gives the first four sequels an almost immortal appearance. Like they're always there. The other ones are still just as great. Well, number six was kind of weird, but 7-11 and I guess 12 do were all worthy (9 maybe not as much as you'd believe though. But good TV movie.)

It's kind of sad the memories you can have by watching certain movies.
I had gone to my parents' friends' house in Florida (it was vacation from North Carolina). The dad we had met long before when we lived in the same neighborhood and he helped with the weekly gameday. He was real nice. We went out to Blockbuster and got some food at the convenience store. The girls and my sister and other brother watched another movie. But me, my brother and Allen (that's his name. was in his mid 40's.) watched what we picked out: The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water. He said he had never seen LBT before. He liked it at the end. We left later on that day.

Flash forward 2 years later (I think). My mom comes into our rooms sniffling. She says Allen has passed away of a heart-attack while mowing someone's else's backlawn. It was so sad ((

Now, I will always remember him whenever I watch that movie.

[Bruton the Iguanodon]

A simple change of the colour scheme. The first sequels were okay with their colour schemes, though they could do with making the pallette a bit darker. But the computer sequels (7 and onwards) were very brightly coloured, which makes them really stand out. If they just kept with the earth-colours/pastelle palette of the original sequels, it could have worked really well (In fact, I'd go so far as to say that this is a prominent reason that most people say that they thought the first few sequels were good, but the rest sucked). One thing they do get right though, is the colour changes for mood: such as reddening during a dramatic violent scene, or suchlike. Of course, this can be overdone (The Pagemaster is a good example), but if they used it more, it would certainly make them more imposing and dramatic.

Another easy example is the songs. You can basically separate the songs into 2 categories: The ballads and the sillies. (with a few exceptions). If they had just made a few more serious songs, that weren't ballads, maybe fans would have taken the songs more seriously.

We need more ballads and less sillies!  

Or even better, no songs at all.

But yeah, I totally agree with you about the colors of the earlier fims. The new ones are brighter and feel modern. The original felt timeless, the first three felt contemporary but not overly modern, 5 and 6 were maybe a little too bright, 7's colors were too thick, 8 and 9's were pretty bad, 10-13's were GOD AWFUL. out

I don't know if anyone felt this way, but like as Doug said about "Bambi" in his review, I really felt like I was in nature in the earlier sequels. But I barely feel that way by 12.

If they ever start making the movies again they'll need to bring back the old animation. It is a must.

P.S., would you consider boring a "Big Water" in 5 a ballad or a silly? I mean, it displays the gang's fears and isn't as dumb as "Friends for dinner" and is quite slow, but does all thag make it a ballad?

[Bruton the Iguanodon]

I agree, that the Land of the Mists was a somewhat gloomy place and even a little scary. But nothing as scary as a barren death valley the gang ventured through in the original movie. That desert had the word "despair" written all over it. 

The Land of Mists was spook-tacular! It's my favorite guest location in the series and if I could choose one place that they would have to go through in a hypothetical future movie, it would be the Valley of Mists. It's scary, mysterious, gloomy, and in a very dark way, beautiful---exactly the kind of stuff I like in movies and music.   I wouldn't even mind paying the price of seeing Tickles again---and to be fair, we've had way worse.

I also thought the desert with "despair" written over it was pretty cool but we've visited that a few other times I think and if I had to choose between the two it would be the Valley of Mists.

[Bruton the Iguanodon]

QUOTE (Allicloud @ Jul 13 2011, 12:11 AM)
You got whole sets that look just like the Elephant Graveyard from the Lion King! 


That's what the Mysterious Beyond looked like in the second movie. After the gang were caught in the rockslide they found themselves in a place that had the word "death" written all over it. Now, compare it to later sequels such as the 6th or 7th. The Mysterious Beyond is just an enormous barren territory. Depressing maybe, but not as scary.

I would like to think of he mysterious beyond and the elephant graveyard as seperate things; I'm not really a fan of the lion king but I really love movie 2 and it's sequence in the mysterious beyond is one of the best action sequences in the franchise!

And a correction: it doesn't appear in the 6th. By the 9th it's barely even depressing, seeing as there's grass growing and a diplodocus mother is raising her babies out there. Crazy, huh?  :blink:

[Bruton the Iguanodon]

as you say with number 5, it seems like a pretty serious, almost dark movie, until they run into Chomper. After that, it's clearly kiddy.

I really like the first half of movie 5 but really hate the second half. I'm sorry to those of you who feel otherwise, but I strongly feel this way and hope it's okay with you guys.

But then, as far as I know, most people on here are teens and young adults, so most of you guys probably like the dark, serious tone of movie 5 better.

But like I said previously, if they had made more variety, rather than just the slow, ballad songs and the bouncy, silly songs. In fact, I think Standing Tough is the only exception to that rule. It's not slow and peaceful, but it's trying to be serious.

Standing Tough is one of my faovirte LBT songs. I feel the same way about it that a lot of people apparently do about "Very Important Creature".  I think it's very underated and that we need more songs like these.

I agree, that the Land of the Mists was a somewhat gloomy place and even a little scary.

"Was?"  :unsure:

Please don't say that. It is. And for all these reasons, it's my absolute favorite guest location in LBT and thinks it's a shame they don't go through it more. If they make another sequel I wanna see it again!!!

I'm sorry if I'm so obsessed, but come on, it's dark, mysterious, scary, ominous, and everything that I think makes books, movies and music pure awesome!  

[Bruton the Iguanodon]

Is that ok?!  :unsure: