The great log running game is another of the six episodes I saw last year already, but I don’t think I wrote about it back then.
The initial scene has Tops in the role of a somewhat clumsy “gentleman” as which we have seen him in LBT 11 already. The point may be arguable, especially with regard to the other things he says / does in this episode, but I still think one might count it as an example that he is not only the jerk as which some of you see him. I thought so much about Tops for a story that I doubt my view of him is “objective”, but with all his mistakes I don’t really believe that he can be reduced to the “jerk” as which he comes across in some of the episodes. Also note that he is making a little fun of himself and perhaps even about his “threehorns are best at anything” statement when he says about Tricia: “I’m glad someone believes me.”
Tria is so untouched by all that threehornism (Cera: “I’m a threehorn” Tria: “That’s what I’m afraid of”) that I’m wondering about her bringing up. She must have known Cera’s father before the original movie, which suggests that she had been in the lands that turned into the wastelands of the original movie. We saw the less hostile ways of different kinds interacting with each other only in the Great Valley and among herds of farwalkers who are likely to visit lush and green places frequently (thereby minimizing competition for food or other potential causes for rivalry). Is it possible that Tria was lucky to never get into a situation that broods the kind of racism shown by many threehorns? Or is it possible that her parents were extremely liberal? I don’t think we will ever know or be able to prove any theories, but she is certainly more easygoing than we might expect threehorns to be (not that this is a new realization. She already was more easygoing when she first appeared in LBT 11).
The episode is the first case I know in which the characters refer to their difference as four- respectively two-“fooders”. I find it interesting to see Ducky being very good at something, being well aware of it, and showing a playful kind of competitive spirit about it, challenging Chomper.
They translated a human idiom (what was the English version of it?) to dinosaur talk: “Don’t count your hatchlings before they hatch”. I think it might be very interesting to translate human idoms into dinosaur talk. We have had other words and phrases from human talk being translated into dinosaur talk before, but long idoms are more interesting. Picking up a “human” idioms dictionary and try to translate them into dinosaur talk may perhaps be an idea for a new game in the party room (funny how an episode about a game might give ideas about a game in the GOF
).
There are some somewhat strange phrases in the German translation. Not for the first time Littlefoot says “Das kannst Du knicken” which litteraly means “You can flex that” and is an idiom meaning so much as “no way” or “forget about it”. The use of the phrase sounds a bit strange as the phrase is probably a kind of temporary fashion used by few people. Perhaps it is fashionable among school children at the moment and they are trying to make the characters use their language so to speak.
Another funny thing about the German translation is that once Cera calls her dad “Papsy”, which I suppose is meant to be a “pet name” derived from “Papa”, but it sure sounds very much like “Topsy” and we know how much Cera likes that name.
The episode also reveals that Tricia, though unable to talk herself, is understanding even complex things “you bring some nice soothing mud and put it on the hurt”.
We saw Spike bringing down a tree for the log running game and Littlefoot asked him to do it rather than felling the tree himself. Is it possible that Spike is the strongest of the group? I don’t think it really matters, but usually we perceive him as a glutton while his “volume” may also provide him with more strength than Littlefoot or Cera.
As for bringing down trees, we saw Tops bring down several on his way to help Cera. Though it didn’t seem to slow him down it is a rather strange thing to do while one is in a hurry. Also I wonder if it wouldn’t provoke some protests from other dinosaurs if trees are being “senselessly slaughtered” like that. The dinosaurs are well aware of how long it takes for a tree to grow to a respectable size and I don’t suppose they would bring them down for the fun of it (at least not too often).
