The Gang of Five
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How much time...?

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Bruton the Iguanodon

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How much time do you think this film takes place over? It's clearly just pretty much two days and one night in 2, 3 full days in 7, but how long do you think here?

We know there is an indefinitely long gap between the opening sequence and the one where Littlefoot gets his treestar, but how long? I hear the book says 5 years, and wikipedia's summary says  "years later", but really, who knows? Could Bron have actually been gone that whole time, returning only when the earthquake strikes on the day film 1 resumes after flipping ahead? Really, what were you up to, Bron? Do u have a secret life your son doesn't know about, and your wife never did?!

We see the gang sleep together, but only once. In fact, it seems only 2 nights pass in the entire rest of the film. I doubt you could reach the great valley that fast though. Also, I noticed how Cera and her dad's sizes are disproportiante at the end of the movie compared to the beginning---she suddenly seems either much bigger or he shrank. So sometime must have happened. And that would mean Littlefoot grew a lot as well. But Ducky doesn't seem any bigger at the end of the film since when she hatched---ditto for her siblings. And Spike...um, don't even get me started on Spike, he seems to be in some aging paradox in this film.

But anyways, do you know how long it may have taken place over? Maybe the uncut version could give us some help!



Justin1993

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I highly, extremely highly, doubt that the original print of the film would elaborate on the amount of time that passed in the movie. The time between Littlefoot's hatching and the scene after can only be estimated.

And most of the time throughout the movie can only be speculated. I mean the events of Littlefoot meeting Cera, Littlefoot and Cera being chased by Sharptooth, Littlefoot's mom fighting Sharptooth, the earthquake, and Littlefoot's mom dying could all have happened in one day. However, you don't know. The night Littlefoot meets Cera the second time could have happened a day later, or two. It's unlikely, but possible.

Then comes the meeting with Rooter. A couple of hours may have passed between Littlefoot's mother's death and this meeting, or maybe a day could have passed.
Then comes the small pterosaurs. A day could have passed between Littlefoot's meeting with Rooter. Who knows.

Then comes the treestar in the footprint. A day or more could have passed as Littlefoot wandered the landscape, mourning for the loss of his mother. This part could have taken place in one day. Him seeing his shadow thinking it was his mother, him encountering Cera for a third time.

Then we move forward towards the introduction of Ducky. Maybe a few hours passed between the third encounter with Cera, maybe a day or two. Again, only speculations. The meeting with Petrie clearly happened within that same day. And, possibly, Cera's encounter with Sharptooth also happened on that day.
The scene with the skeleton may have happened the next day as it would have taken Cera a while to get to where the rest of the gang is. Still more speculations.
Spike's introduction happens right after Cera tells them about Sharptooth. Those two events happen in the same day.

The scene where they are all walking along the river must have been the same day as the previous two events as Ducky is holding the berries used to entice Spike away from his nest. The scene with the finding of the small grove of trees could be the same day also. As could the scene where they find green food.

From there, it's clear that the day progress to night and on to the next day, where the gang meets sharptooth again. When the gang are traveling up the mountains must be a couple hours or so after the meeting with the sharptooth that morning. Then there's Cera and Littlefoot's fight, followed by the volcano scene and continuing on to the fight against Sharptooth. Then, finally, the finding of the Great Valley. All these scenes mentioned in this paragraph all make up one day as night is not shown and there is enough time in the day for it all to happen, albeit spread out.

The gang's adventure could very well have taken a week or more. It's still all just speculation.


Bruton the Iguanodon

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Thanks! But how much time passes between when Littlefoot encounters Cera again and Littlefoot's mom's death? A whole day? Or did the sky just "turn yellow" during that scene?


Bruton the Iguanodon

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The time between Littlefoot's hatching and the scene after can only be estimated.

And how much time do you estimate?


jansenov

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The time between Littlefoot's hatching and the scene after can only be estimated.

And how much time do you estimate?


To estimate the time between Littlefoot's hatching and his talking to his mother one has to reconcile two things: the speed at which Littlefoot grows up, and the speed at which the herds move towards the Great Valley. Mentally, Littlefoot is like a human 5 year old or older, so if he gorws up as slowly as a human, it would mean 5 or more years passed. That's too long. The herds couldn't have been moving so slowly. The narrator said that the dinosaurs were desperate for food and started moving west to the Great Valley, before Littlefoot's hatching. The environment didn't change throughout the movie, or even became worse, which means that if it was so bad to force the herds to migrate at the beginning of the movie, staying nowhere for long, it could have only gotten worse towards the end of the movie. Which would make the herds move even faster. Such large beings such as dinosaurs, and their young, could have crossed an entire continent in a year or less. And the scarcity of food didn't permit them to stay anywhere for long.

So, Littlefoot had to grow up fast. I'd say that only a few months passed between his hatching and his talking to his mother.

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Thanks! But how much time passes between when Littlefoot encounters Cera again and Littlefoot's mom's death? A whole day? Or did the sky just "turn yellow" during that scene?

Yes, a whole day. Littlefoot meets Cera at dawn, and it is dawn all the way to the earthquake's end. Then the movie goes fast forward to night. The sky is yellow because the air is full of particles from volcanic activity and the dust raised by the wind from the dry land. Tiny particles absorb blue and green light, so the sky colour would always variate between red and yellow.


Bruton the Iguanodon

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Thanks, a few months seems a much more likely amount of time to account for how long Bron was away.

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Yes, a whole day. Littlefoot meets Cera at dawn, and it is dawn all the way to the earthquake's end. Then the movie goes fast forward to night. The sky is yellow because the air is full of particles from volcanic activity and the dust raised by the wind from the dry land. Tiny particles absorb blue and green light, so the sky colour would always variate between red and yellow

So a whole day did pass? Or were you being sarcastic and the afterwards was an explanation. If so, does that explain why the sky also turns red and yellow in the sequels?


jansenov

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I wasn't being sarcastic. Where did you...? Oh, I get it. It's because of "fast forward". It's not a stylistically neutral expression. I should have said something like "Then the movie switches to night time in the scene with the abyss made by the earthquake." That would be more neutral. The explanation I gave is grounded in physics. As for the sequels, this could explain some cases where the sky is yellow to red, but in most cases it doesn't. Especially with red. Red was Grosvenor's favourite way of telling the viewer danger was coming.


Bruton the Iguanodon

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"The time between Littlefoot's hatching and the scene after can only be estimated."

Bron was gone this whole time, so unless he went really far it couldn't have been long, could it?


Dr. Curzon

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Bron was gone this whole time, so unless he went really far it couldn't have been long, could it?

Maybe there were very few green/liveable places?


jansenov

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How do can figure Bron into the events of the original? Nobody had Bron in mind back then.


Bruton the Iguanodon

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How do can figure Bron into the events of the original? Nobody had Bron in mind back then.

Well apparently they do now  :anger

So I guess it couldn't have been much time. Which works well, seeing as Spike isn't supposed to be that much younger then the rest.


rKrizik

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This might be an insignificant point, but you could also take into consideration that (at least as far as I know) no one really knows how young dinosaurs age. =)
In the first post it was mentioned that Cera looked bigger next to her dad at the end of the movie, so she might have grown since then. Maybe it's safe to assume that different species of dinosaur age at different rates, just like today's animals do.
If Ducky didn't look different in size from her siblings, maybe they just age differently? There's a lot to speculate. =)


Bruton the Iguanodon

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The meeting with Petrie clearly happened within that same day.


Or did it?

Someone suggested it could've been longer when I asked how Ducky knew about how Littlefoot got his treestar since he never mentioned his mom to her