Yesterday the Starday Celebration was aired over here (it is one of the six episodes I did see last year already). The translation of the title to German was not quite literal. They made it “Die Schl¸pftags-Feier” which would be “The hatchday celebration”. Once again there are a couple of things I will note just for the reckord, not for any thought that they are really a serious issue. First of all I have a question to those of you who know more about astronomy than I do. Is it possible for any star to be visible for just three days in a year and still appear as high above the horizon as Ruby’s starday star does?
Really, I don’t mean to turn this into some ridiculous point of critizism, but I’m just interested. Does anyone know whether or not it is possible?
As for other minor mistakes, we saw Ruby eat the three grapes that remained after the rockslide, but the next moment the three grapes are back on their vine.
During the flood caused by the earthquake it was a little strange that Spike was not carried away, not even slightly unbalanced, by what must have been a very strong current of water. The idea of a branch rather than a vine as a “sheet anchor” was used in a land before time audio play I heard before (but there Cera was the one to be rescued, Spike was the one who had the idea to use the branch instead of a vine, and the whole thing failed in the audio play as the branch broke).
Petrie was scared of the idea of sheltering grass. Of course it is kind of “in character” for Petrie to be scarred about anything. The sheltering grass doesn’t seem to be identical with “the” sheltering grass from LBT 2 as there was no reference whatsoever to the sinking sands which might have provided a more undertandable reason for Petrie’s fear...
Anyway, no real conclusion here.
Just like other episodes I have seen so far there are green skys quite frequently in this episode. I think green skys of that kind first appeared in LBT 8. Somebody seems to like green skies. Not much more to deduct from this either, I just mean to point out everything I took notice of before reading your reviews.
I wondered a bit about the clubtail in the episode. It wasn’t meant to be Mr. Clubtail from LBT 5, was it? They looked alike and lived up to the LBT 5 perception of clubtails as somewhat disgusting (“Smells like herd of clubtails on a hot day!” “Clubtail-breath”), but the behaviour of the episode’s clubtail was certainly more egoistic than we would have expected from the LBT 5 Mr. Clubtail. Maybe the reservations expressed against clubtails in LBT 5 are an interesting topic for discussion in another thread.
I suppose one of the most interesting aspects about “The Star Day Celebration” are the numeral flashbacks.
One thing that may be worth some attention is a significant difference between Ruby and Chomper. We see Ruby is really having a hard time about being separated from her family (her parents and two younger siblings from what we see in the flashbacks). But is not Chomper separated from his family too? Is he less sensitive than Ruby about his family? It almost seems like it for another reason. In the flashback we saw Chomper was with Ruby’s family at the time they entered the Great Valley (just Chomper and Ruby, not the rest of Ruby’s family). Was Chomper adopted by Ruby’s family in a Spike / Ducky’s family kind of fashion? But that wouldn’t really make any sense for unlike Spike Chomper knew his parents and was not separated from them last time we saw him before the series startet (LBT 5). I suppose we can only speculate about why Chomper would be with Ruby’s family. Maybe Redclaw played a role in this. But no matter the reason why Chomper was with Ruby’s family before they entered the Great Valley, it still doesn’t give any reason why Chomper would miss his parents any less than Ruby does. Is there any episode refering to Chomper missing his folks?
Perhaps there are lesser ties between sharpteeth and their families than between families of other kinds (Chomper was the only one not to know about the birthday customs of the others), but I really don’t think so. It would be an extreme contradiction to what we saw of Chomper and his folks in LBT 2 and 5. Any chance that it has to do with Chomper seeing Littlefoot and the others before he got to know his parents? I really don’t think the effect of that first day of Chomper’s live could have such a negative effect on the relationship with his parents.
The flashback of Chomper and Ruby getting into the Great Valley also explained to some degree why they did. Chomper must have told Ruby about his friends in the Great Valley and Ruby’s parents apparently decided that Ruby should learn about the ways of the leafeaters in the Great Valley. They knew all this “only” from Chomper’s tales. Maybe a somewhat weak basis to send your kid to a place about which you don’t know anything at all from personal experience.
It all seems a bit like a “student exchange” just without somebody being sent into the Mysterious Beyond in Return (wouldn’t it be a mean idea to send Petrie out into the Mysterious Beyond on his own to make him learn more about how tough and scary life is outside the Great Valley
). The holding together in the Great Valley really seems to be to some degree unique (I think the thesis was suggested before in a thread about why sharpteeth might not WANT to enter the Great Valley at all); otherwise the “exchange” wouldn’t make much sense. Comparing Ruby’s and Chomper’s prensence in the Great Valley to an “exchange” also suggests something about the future. To share that valuable knowledge with her family Ruby will ultimately have to return to them. And what about Chomper? Can his presence in the Great Valley be compared to a “student exchange” too? In Ruby’s case it was half suggested that the knowledge she would aquire would be useful against Redclaw. But what exactly is the purpose Chomper’s parents would put any knowledge about the ways of the Great Valley too?
Kacie suggested in her webcomic that Chomper’s parents may be enemies (though relatives) of Redclaw. Would these two grown up sharpteeth need any of the Great Valley knowledge against Redclaw? Very unlikely if you ask me.
Would they want that knowledge for a different purpose?
Is it be possible, as some may suggest, that Chomper is unwillingly being used as a spy? I really don’t think that Sharpteeth would have any advantage of any kind of large scale attack on the Great Valley, as I have laid out elsewhere.
Without knowing about why Chomper is not with his parents I don’t think we will know why he is in the Great Valley. But the door is open for a lot of interesting discussion and debate.
Again there were some interesting melodies apart from the songs, most notably in the flashback of Chomper and Ruby entering the Great Valley and after the after freeing of Ruby out of the cave.
Interestingly Chomper’s good scent which was refered to in other episodes already does not only work on other dinosaurs, but also on “sweet bubbles”. Apparently Chomper’s scent works not just on things of immediate interest for sharpteeth in general (prey or other dinosaurs, including allies), but on plants as well. Maybe this is one thing Chomper learned in the Great Valley, developing a sense of smell, though not the taste, for the different kinds of green food. Even in case he really did learn this in the Great Valley I doubt it would be one of the things his parent would have sent him to the Great Valley for, with regard to the “exchange” perspective laid out above:lol.
Littlefoot, Chomper, and Ducky are certainly very bad liers in this episode. Littlefoot was more convincing (though not thoroughly) in LBT 11. They could have been a bit more considerate towards Ruby by playing with her (making her bad day better) but giving some explanation for the absence of Cera, Petrie and Spike.
That way Petrie would not have been off to her “Thinking place” (something very much in character for Ruby).
