2) And here is a silly question... Who do you prefer: the Ali of the first film or the true pairing of Ali and Rhett in the Brave Longneck Scheme? 

Neither.
I prefer the Ali of the fourth film   

Jesus Murtaugh Christ...

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1) What do you think that Ali brings to series?  Do you wish that she had more appearances in the series besides her run in the fourth film and in the Brave Longneck Scheme?

2) And here is a silly question... Who do you prefer: the Ali of the fourth film or the true pairing of Ali and Rhett in the Brave Longneck Scheme? 

Being one of my favourite guest characters of the series, if not my favourite, it's no surprise that I'd have to stop by and share my thoughts. In fact, I rewatched Journey Through the Mists earlier today just for the occasion, which also inspired my new avatar.

(Edit: This was my avatar at the time.)

I just love the idea of Littlefoot meeting a female longneck around his age. It was an interesting dynamic because all of Littlefoot's friends so far are different species, yet here he finally has a playmate who's a longneck just like him. And I liked her personality too; she had a shy yet more openly playful side to her. She also contrasted nicely from Cera.

Expanding on from that, it also struck me during my rewatch that she's the one who initially doesn't want Littlefoot's friends along for the journey when she and Littlefoot go to retrieve the Night Flowers. Yet then she's the one who is forced to go back and rely on Littlefoot's friends for help after he gets trapped in the cave-in, which ultimately turns out to be a good thing as it paves the way for her learning to overcome her prejudices. I found that interesting.

Ali mentions that, because she was part of a migrating herd, that was why she never got the chance to meet other species of dinosaurs, which made me wish to learn more of her backstory. I feel like there was potential for a storyline there.

The migrating herd also harkens back to the dinosaur segregation seen in the first movie, but I like how Ali's prejudice was shown to manifest in a different way than for characters like Cera. Whereas Cera and her father were aggressive with other dinosaurs, Ali is merely timid and afraid of them, but not outright mean. Another way in which Ali and Cera are foils. And yet it also makes Ali a foil to Littlefoot, as while they were both raised to be affiliated with only their own kind, Littlefoot didn't end up prejudiced.

I've lamented before that I really wanted for Ali to appear in more films, especially since the ending of #4 pretty much outright states that she'd return. Although I can see now why maybe she wasn't made a regular part of the Gang, in the sense that it would've been two longnecks (or "two Littlefoots," as Ducky says ), whereas the rest of the Gang consists of only one member per species. But I still think Ali could have (and should have) been a recurring/supporting character at the very least.

I haven't seen "The Brave Longneck Scheme" yet, but that'll be coming soon, before the end of the month. I'm sure I'll have some things to say about it.

Welcome back!

I already bid my welcome to you in another thread, but why not do it again? Welcome back to the forum, and I must say I love your profile picture. Strut is such an innocent and funny character.

I rewatched LBT4 earlier today, so I feel a bit more confident about consolidating my thoughts for Ali in this thread.

1) Personally, Ali—at least in Journey Through the Mists—and her initial apprehensive closed-mindedness was a foil to what Littlefoot and the Gang of Five stands for. Her unwillingness to play with non-longnecks and unintentionally causing a divide between Littlefoot and his other friends (especially Cera) harkens back to Littlefoot's mother saying that longnecks never play with any other species all the back in the first film, and the entire premise of Cera's jealousy over Littlefoot's new friend in fact repeated in a lesser way for Mo in Journey to Big Water (another film w/ Journey in the title, ha).

I will say that I did not remember her being so spunky and headstrong towards Littlefoot, though. She bites down on Littlefoot's tail and impishly hides in her first appearance. She comes off as cheeky, firm, and rambunctious to Littlefoot (I can see why people like this pairing from her moments), though meek to everyone else as she cowers beneath Littlefoot in stark contrast to her opening scene. Her opening up to the Gang is one of the highlights of the film as a whole, especially as it's kinda a non-issue by the TV series (a separate can of worms). She would definitely have benefited from a reappearance in he longneck related films, say X for instance.

2) This is a joke, right? Journey Through the Mists, of course, unless you mean the Ali from the start and end of the film. I'll say, a long-term narrative of her turning from distrustful Ali to open-minded Ali, instead of the Archie cave sequence forcing her to trust the rest of the gang in such a contrived way within like maybe 10 mins of film time, might make for a compelling arc, ala a TV series arc.

But overall, that's my thoughts on Ali. Definitely a hard character to nail. As I said, her character seems all over the place because it slowly changed throughout LBT4 and then shifts completely again in The Brave Longneck Scheme, and this is exacerbated by fanfics (especially romantic ones) usually selling her spunky side short, but she definitely is a great if underutilized character. I can see why so many wanted her to join the Gang, that's for sure!

Wow, this picture is amazing! The bump map and contours in the water ripples really sell this! It looks like a scene right out of Journey Through the Mists, and Ali and her reflection also look really good! Splendid job!

Good drawing, Flathead!

Thanks guys!

I must ask, what is that in the bottom right corner? My first impression—believe it or not—was that it was a pineapple. Talk about coincidences, huh?

I actually don't know the name of them but there those long things that stick out of the water. I tried my best to draw it (and having a top down perspective made things more difficult as well). See the attached image below to see what it's supposed to be.

Despite getting exposed and subsequently called out by the Old One, I can't help but feel that Rhett got off a little too easy at the end, with Littlefoot immediately inviting him to come play with his friends, and even Ali didn't really seem upset that Rhett had lied to her. But on the other hand, it shows how kind-hearted and forgiving Littlefoot and Ali are.

Well I don't think it was ever their intention to punish Rhett as hard as possible but instead to show Ali that she's being dumb

I'm guessing that there's probably 2 reasons. First is that they might not want to encourage grudge like behaviour in the audience (though this might not be that strong as an argument as Cera and Mr. Threehorn basically do that all the time). More then likely though is that there's just not enough time in a 22ish minute episode to fit it in. They basically resolve their plot points with 30 seconds to spare to either make a quick joke (like in The Big Longneck Test with how everyone laughs at finding out Shorty hasn't taken the test) or to sing Feel so Happy