The Gang of Five
The Land Before Time => General Land Before Time => Topic started by: Bruton the Iguanodon on November 08, 2011, 12:47:26 AM
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Does anyone realize how different the first and second half of 5 is? The first half was so good and promising but the 2nd half just, i dunno, flopped. The first half for example had 2 amazing songs, one fun and one beautiful, where as the one during the third half was rotten. There were also really some cheesy moments in the seond half:
Chomper: "That's just my daddy."
All: "YOUR DADDY?!"
Chomper: "And my mommy."
All: "YOUR MOMMY??!!!!"
Not to mention Chomper's voice was god annoying.
As someone pointed out, the first half is very dark compared to the second half. The subtitles for the sharpteeth, the awful shades of yellow...it just wasn't right in my opinion. The first half could almost have passed for a Roy Alan Smith film, other then the regretable use of turning the sky red and some rather weak visuals during "Big Water". 5 wouldn't have suffered nearly as much if Roy allan Smith had directed it---then again, neither would any of the good Grovsner sequls, particularly 9.
But anyways I'm straying from the topic. I saw someone who said he/she really hated the first half of 5. Whereas for me, if I had to choose which one is better, it would be the first half all the way! As a kid I would usually leave the room after they finished singing "Always There". Not that the second half didn't have some good moments---I love Elsie, and the scene where they're reunited with their families is touching. And that shot of them returning to the valley, coupled with the beautiful credits score, is still heartwarming to me nearly 11 years later. 5 was a great film, but unlike the previous sequels, it sure was fairly flawed. And no other LBT film has two halves so drastically different from each other. So, which do you think is better? Again, for me it's the 1st half all the way, but I understand anyone who prefers the second, which is good in it's own wway. So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and vote! (I'm interested to see what the results are!)
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You know what? I have nothing to add. I agree with every point you made. Though I expect we are in the minority :).
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Thanks! I just wanted to point out though I meant to say 5 was more flawed then the previous sequels, not more heavy sorry if that's how you read it cause that's what it sort of looked like
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My favorite part is by far the first half or so. It does feel like it could have been done by the person or folks who worked on the 2nd through 4th movies, then another team took over. I remember thinking that the first time I saw it.
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Both parts of this movie are enjoyable, but the first half is better. I don't have any problems with the second half, however.
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I like the first half best, though I do like the 2nd half also. I always thought the first half feels more like it fits in with the earlier sequels. & the 2nd half with the later sequels that come after it.
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That's because movie 5 was made both by Roy Allan Smith (director of 2-4) and Charles Grovsner (director of 6-12).
As a result, it's sort of the "bridge" between what I felt were the truly classic days of LBT, and...the later, not-so-great days.
BTW, thanks for bringing my topic back from the dead, MurMur. I made it just shortly after I first joined this site, and it sorta went dead shortly afterwards.
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Well I voted for the second half because that's where I think the movie picks up - a friend is reunited, a rogue sharptooth is defeated, the Gang resolves differences (for the most part) and I love the reuniting scene at the end and the return to the lush GV.
I really don't think the latter half was all that disappointing. I really though Chomper's voice was appropriate for a young sharptooth - he would hve been the human equivalent of a five or six year old, and that's what his voice put forth.
But then I couldn't really decide, I really liked both halves of the movie. The first half I havd issues with because everyone was just so unfeeling it seemed and there were tlaks of splitting up the herds. WHY DO THAT! Anyway, the first half got on my nerves, but I love that song, Always There.
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That's because movie 5 was made both by Roy Allan Smith (director of 2-4) and Charles Grovsner (director of 6-12).
As a result, it's sort of the "bridge" between what I felt were the truly classic days of LBT, and...the later, not-so-great days.
This explains everything. :)
BTW, thanks for bringing my topic back from the dead, MurMur. I made it just shortly after I first joined this site, and it sorta went dead shortly afterwards.
And I should thank you for making so many interesting topics, Bruton. They deserve more love, so I'll try to revive some of them, if you don't mind.
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you made a whole bunch of interesting topics, Bruton :yes
I slightly prefer the first half over the second mostly since it's darker and... somehow more enjoyable(thought the second half would be the most liked part here since Chomper, who's a well-liked character here, appears in it.
I also don't have any problems with 'Friends for Dinner'... no doubt that it's the worst song of LBT 5 but I still like it(after all the other 2 songs were awesome)
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he would hve been the human equivalent of a five or six year old,
As you can probably tell by some of the comments I've made about Cera's nieces, I don't like kids. Sure, the gang is great---Spike is quiet and low-key, Petrie is more of a funny character than a kid, Cera and Littlefoot are both very likeable, and even if you don't like kids, it's near impossible not to love Ducky. :exactly
And I should thank you for making so many interesting topics, Bruton. They deserve more love, so I'll try to revive some of them, if you don't mind
you made a whole bunch of interesting topics, Bruton in-yes.gif
Aw, thanks so much you guys! You're the best! :smile And Murmur, you don't have to revive my topics if you don't want to. But if you're willing to, I'd love it! Thank you soooo much! :smile
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My favorite part is by far the first half or so. It does feel like it could have been done by the person or folks who worked on the 2nd through 4th movies, then another team took over. I remember thinking that the first time I saw it.
Well, it was written by just one person, John Loy, who wrote both movies 2 and 3. Grovsner started working on the sequels at this time but RAS was still involved.
I'm sure it's not all done entirely chronologically, though, which would rule out the theory that RAS got up and left halfway through production. No, I think the second half was simply dragged down cause Chomper was a poorly written character, imo.
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I love the first half, with one exception:
The first 5 minutes.
The first 5 minutes feature a LOT of EXTREMELY jarring things.
Remember this is the first LBT sequel not directed by Roy Allen Smith. That opening with the CGI galaxy was the most out-of-place thing I had ever seen in the series to that point.
That CGI never did sit well with me and contributed to what I feel about the first bit of LBT 5.
The second major problem with the first 5 minutes is an editing error that appears during the first running scene where the audio and visuals aren't in sync during the action. It's almost like the visuals cut to a different scene too early or something. It's just really off and it bugs me.
Once those two scenes are over though, I do feel like LBT 5 has a pretty strong first half and is more engaging to me than the second half, which is little more than a chase scene that lacks excitement.
LBT 5, in my mind, gives a terrible first impression with those two glaring flaws. Luckily it makes up for those flaws very quickly.
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Remember this is the first LBT sequel not directed by Roy Allen Smith.
But...but that's what I just talked about in the above post I made!
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Remember this is the first LBT sequel not directed by Roy Allen Smith.
But...but that's what I just talked about in the above post I made!
RAS was definitely still involved but at the end of the day LBT5's presentation looks and feels infinitely more like a Grosvenor product than a RAS product. It has the Grosvenor style spilling all over it; everything from the animation style to the lighting to the voice actors is consistent with other Grosvenor films, with very little consistent with RAS' work.
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The main difference between Grovsner and RAS to me now is the color tones. LBT 2-4 used more less bright ones. Other than that, I honestly don't see a ton of difference.
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I think that it could have had FAR greater potential if they'd asked the obvious "Chomper, where did that other guy go?" or figured out that it was HIM after them. It coulda gotten REALLY dark and hit the quality of the original.
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I think that it could have had FAR greater potential if they'd asked the obvious "Chomper, where did that other guy go?" or figured out that it was HIM after them. It coulda gotten REALLY dark and hit the quality of the original.
Exactly. They're just ok suddenly when they realize it's Chomper. Given, he didn't recognize them, but still, it's kinda a startling shift.
It's interesting to see that 6 fellow GOF members agree with me. Looking back, I feel I was sorta overreacting when I made this post, but apparently there's definitely enough difference to consider the film as two seperate halfs. Sort of like, "Flight Of The Navigator". I've never seen it but heard a bit about it.
It's about kid who falls into a ditch and wakes up to find everything has aged like, 10 years. At the same time, this space shuttle suddenly appears out of nowhere, and a bunch of scientists think the kid has to do with it somehow, since it sends him messages (the computer is voiced by Pee-wee Herman, btw). The first half of the movie has a TON awesome of buildup, whereas the second half is unfortunately just a generic kid movie about a kid flying around in a spaceship. Also, the kid played by someone about 13 but was apparently written as being much younger since he's a wimp who cries a lot. Still, the first half, from what I've heard, is very good. I get the since that it's sort of like LBT 5 in that way. I mean, look how much build-up first fifteen or so minutes alone has!
BTW, I'm guessing Vonboy was one of the ones who voted "Second half".
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It's been along time, but yeah. Pretty sure I voted for the second half.
Yes, the first half does have some stuff going for it. The Valley herd wandering in the desert, growing restless and desperate, and deciding to split up was good. One of the very few times since the original that they decided to go apart (Even though it didn't happen) Going to the island was exciting as well.
But I just really like the second half for Chomper. He's my favorite character after all, so any screen time he get's I can appreciate. I still love Friends for Dinner, for it basically being one of the few dark humor songs in the series, And seeing his interactions with his parents, and what the gang thinks about the whole situation was great.
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It's been along time, but yeah. Pretty sure I voted for the second half.
Yes, the first half does have some stuff going for it. The Valley herd wandering in the desert, growing restless and desperate, and deciding to split up was good. One of the very few times since the original that they decided to go apart (Even though it didn't happen) Going to the island was exciting as well.
But I just really like the second half for Chomper. He's my favorite character after all, so any screen time he get's I can appreciate. I still love Friends for Dinner, for it basically being one of the few dark humor songs in the series, And seeing his interactions with his parents, and what the gang thinks about the whole situation was great.
Glad to hear that from you. I remember a while back in this topic: http://z7.invisionfree.com/thegangoffive/i...topic=9511.0 (http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=9231.0) you said you"really didn't like the first half".
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My favorite part is by far the first half or so. It does feel like it could have been done by the person or folks who worked on the 2nd through 4th movies, then another team took over. I remember thinking that the first time I saw it.
Really? :smile
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We pretty much know it wasn't like that but I also got the impression the first half was made by RAS while the second was made by Grosvenor when I spent some time thinking about it again. They likely collaborated on both halves of the movie, maybe the ideas for the second half were rather Grosvenor-heavy? We just don't know as far as I'm aware...
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What makes you think so? I was under the impression that the use of strong colors and effects like the asteroid in the opening sequence had Grosvenors name written over it. The visually most extreme step, in my opinion, was the red light in case of danger.
There were some gloomy elements in the movie (swimmer skeleton) which one might associate more with Smith than with Grosvenor, but I can't say I saw much of Smith's style anywhere.
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In the end, though, it comes down to the writers. John Loy wrote V...wasn't he involved with 3 as well? I know he wrote some of the later sequels, while Dev Ross's only post LBT 4 writing credit was movie 9.
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Rewatched the film yesterday. I enjoyed it even more the second time around. :D Originally in my LBT rankings (http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=14907.msg485693#msg485693) I put this just below #4, but now I think I'd rank #5 higher. Definitely among the most epic in the series.
In response to the thread question/original post, hmm, I didn't think the two halves were that different from each other. The first half was a little more consistent overall, imo, but both halves were still great. I kinda wish the desert trek portion had been a little longer, but I love how atmospheric the entire journey is.
[LBT 5] I had seen previously [many years ago], although it wasn't familiar to me at first. It wasn't until around halfway into the film where I began to think, "Oh yeah, I remember this." But even there, the only parts I could recall were:
- The kids travelling across that rocky path to reach the island, only to later have the path get swallowed up by the ocean.
- When the plated Sharptooth first shows up, as I remembered Chomper's parents along with a third, more openly antagonistic adult Sharptooth. And then the final battle between Chomper's parents and the plated Sharptooth, before they knock him into the drink. (Although curiously, I'd forgotten about Chomper himself.)
Adding onto that, when I watched it again, I found that I could also faintly recall the desert trek from when I was a kid.
I'm still not really digging the songs, although "Big Water" and "Always There" are two of the better ones so far. I liked that "Always There" touched upon the fact that Littlefoot misses his mother.
Actually, upon second viewing, I think these two songs are really good. I was lukewarm about the songs initially when I began watching the sequels, but some of them have since grown on me.
I was a bit surprised to discover that I'd forgotten about the log-riding part from the last time (http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=15314.msg480799#msg480799) I watched the movie, even though my last time seeing it was only a few months ago. I mean, I recognized it once it actually began, but prior to that, the whole scene had slipped from my memory.
It annoys me that Chomper's parents never appeared again, especially since they were some of my favourite supporting characters of the whole series. Of course, I had the same issue with Ali. For that matter, I kinda wish we'd seen Elsie again too.
But all in all, a good time was had.
Topps: "What do you expect them to do? Rise up out of the ocean?"
Grandpa: "That's... that's exactly what they're going to do!"
:DD
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Honestly, I didn't know the first and second halves of the movie were so different until now. It is pretty weird that we were on one set of themes in the first half, and then we waylay them to the side for the moment while another set of themes pops up for the second half. Makes me wonder if they had to stitch together two different movies to save some time and/or budget.
This is also the first movie fully directed by Charles Grosvenor, right? Maybe something happened during the production?
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I always considered LBT5 as whole product. First part smoothly turns to second part.
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Agreed with Sneak. The two halves are certainly distinct, but it never felt lopsided to me. I love the way the journey progresses in this one.
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I liked the film as a whole. But because I am a Chomperite, I love the second half of the film, especially “Friends For Dinner.” Exposing that the Sharpteeth have their own language changed our perception of them; they were no longer stupid growling carnivores. Which adds to the Original Sharptooth, who probably had some rather “colorful metaphores” (Star Trek IV: The Journey Home) for the Gang of Five. :D
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I liked first half very much, it has no boring moments, i find second half a little worse, but I like it too, and I always enjoy LBT V as a whole with all three songs.
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I think the fact that I never noticed there were two distinct halves of this movie (and still don't remember there are distinct halves until this thread reminds me as such) tells me these halves aren't as distinct to me as it would be to someone else...