ducky's father

[kjeldo]

what you think about papa swimmer? please answer and i'm very happy

[DarkHououmon]

Well I don't think he was "never seen". He did appear in the first LBT movie, and I believe he did appear in LBT5.

[Weather_lord_7]

Hello Kjeldo. Welcome to the GOF. Hope you enjoy your time here and be sure to post lots


I think one of the reasons he's never seen, is that he's just a minor character. Don't know why that is, but, ah well.

Anyways, as I said before, welcome.  

[Manny Cav]

Sadly, some characters are simply not considered "important enough" to be included in some of the movies, if not almost all of them.

[kjeldo]

it could be that papa swimmer divorced with mama swimmer and he stepped out the valley

[DarkHououmon]

Here are images I took from LBT5.

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u72/Inf...eryduckbill.jpg
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u72/Inf...ryduckbill2.jpg
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u72/Inf...ryduckbill3.jpg
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u72/Inf...ryduckbill4.jpg

One of them is Ducky's mother. Now we have a second duckbill with her, with a different coloration. I've speculated that this is Ducky's father, but since he never appears again, far as I know, I can't be certain.

And in the first movie, when Ducky and Spike enter the Great Valley, we see not one but two adult duckbills. One of them was most likely the father.

So I wouldn't say Ducky's father never appeared. He just had so little screentime.

[Malte279]

I suppose Ducky's father disappeared for reasons similar to those for which we never got a look at respectively never saw very much of Petrie's father and Cera's mother. They didn't have anything to do for him.
It was easy enough to put him into LBT 2 and 5 as a silent and passive background character of no significance to the plot. There were no scenes featuring Ducky's family in LBT 6, but in case of LBT 7 and 8 there was hardly a way they could have kept Ducky's father passive if he had been present at all. Instead of introducing him as a character or leaving him unnaturally passive (by not having letting him say or do anything about the abduction of his daughter respectively the leaving of his addopted son) they cut him out for good and did not bring him back in later sequels in which a silent presence of him would not have come across as strange as it would have in case of LBT 7 and 8.

[Sky]

@DarkHououmon
Hmm...the 1st and 3rd picture look kinda weird.  :unsure:
They switched colors. o_O

@Topic
I've read something interesting on Wikipedia (I don't still trust it =/ ):

Ducky and Spike's Father

He is rarely seen but has appeared now and again, for example in the background The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze. It is sometimes asked if this is due to how Ducky's original voice actress, Judith Barsi was murdered by her own father, according to Internet Movie Database.

[landbeforetimelover]

I would rather have a better story than more characters.  If Duckys father contributed to the story then I'd be in favor of him appearing, but he really has no purpose in the movies.  They don't draw a useless character if they don't have to.  Have you noticed that Littlefoot is the only character in the whole story that has 2 guardians that are regularly seen?  I guess it's cuz Littlefoot always turns to them for advice and it's easier to have a 3 character dialog when advice is being given.  It shows 2 pov's.  Besides, if they spent time on other characters, the movie would take longer to make and it would take away screentime from other characters and possibly damage the quality of the story.

[DarkHououmon]

Yeah I noticed they switched colors. Probably just an animation mistake.

In the final picture, that's the last time you see that duckbill, because after that, he mysteriously disappears.

[DarkHououmon]

I would rather have a better story than more characters.  If Duckys father contributed to the story then I'd be in favor of him appearing, but he really has no purpose in the movies.  They don't draw a useless character if they don't have to.  Have you noticed that Littlefoot is the only character in the whole story that has 2 guardians that are regularly seen?  I guess it's cuz Littlefoot always turns to them for advice and it's easier to have a 3 character dialog when advice is being given.  It shows 2 pov's.  Besides, if they spent time on other characters, the movie would take longer to make and it would take away screentime from other characters and possibly damage the quality of the story.

Of course, they do animate random, minor characters during certain moments when need be, even though these characters contribute absolutely nothing to the story.

I personally see nothing wrong with introducing new characters, as focusing on just the original five could get tedious. It's nice to have something new every once in a while.

However, the number of characters in each movie would have to be kept in check. When too many main characters have to share the same spotlight, things don't usually turn out well. Neither character would get a decent amount of spotlight. One such anime that seemed to suffer from this, unless I'm mistaken, was Transformers: Robots in Disguise.

And there's also animation difficulty. If there are too many characters in one scene, it can make the animation harder to pull off. I wouldn't say it's impossible, but it would be difficult and would definitely take longer.

[landbeforetimelover]

I personally see nothing wrong with introducing new characters, as focusing on just the original five could get tedious. It's nice to have something new every once in a while.

I think that there should not be any more than 5 main characters in a story.  It's fine that there's other guest characters and such, but more than 5 main characters just gives too little time in the spotlight for each character like in the tv series. <_<

[Malte279]

I tend to think that LBT could be improved if instead of introducing ever more characters with every sequel (every time knowing that in the next sequel they will be gone without any further explanation) they should better work with those characters already introduced but not yet elaborated to their full potential. So far Chomper and Tria are the only characters to appear in two of the sequels (I'm not including the TV episodes in this considerations) and Tricia is likely to appear in LBT 13. There are so many characters with a lot of potential left. Characters who cover a very wide scope of personalities. I'd rather have characters like Ali, Pterano, Dinah and Dana, Hyp, Nod, and Mutt, Mr. Thicknose (naming some of the most potential candidates for another story) included and elaborated a bit more than having ever new characters who are bound to become rip offs of earlier characters once they have covered all of the possible personalities.

Back to the actual topic:

@Topic
I've read something interesting on Wikipedia (I don't still trust it =/ ):

QUOTE
Ducky and Spike's Father

He is rarely seen but has appeared now and again, for example in the background The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze. It is sometimes asked if this is due to how Ducky's original voice actress, Judith Barsi was murdered by her own father, according to Internet Movie Database.

I strongly suppose that this is merely the interpretation of somebody posting at Wikipedia. While it can't be disproven without talking to any of the planners of LBT it is still very unlikely that the absence of Ducky's father is meant to be a reference to the murder of Judith Barsi. After all Ducky's father did appear (though without an active role) in the first sequels which were least removed in time from the tragic death of Judith Barsi. I don't see the people of Universals keeping out Ducky's father for that reason from LBT 6 on. The earlier assumptions about the reasons for his absences seem more plausible.

I did mention in another thread that Ducky's father has a speaking role in one land before time book I have. As it is a book that was printed in Germany it is almost certain that his role is entirely based on the imagination of the author Karin J‰ckel and is not in any way based on any scene from any LBT script. It is nothing spectacular either  (the scene is preceding Ducky's hatching), but this is what she wrote (translated as literally as possible):

Father Anatosaurus swallowed a mouthful of slick algae und raised his head with the broad duckbill anxiously.
"Will it take much longer for the little ones to hatch?" he asked. "There will soon be an earthquake."
Mother Anatosaurus twitched frightened on her nest which was brimfull with eggs. It was an awkward movement which let one of her eggs roll out from under her tail.

[pokeplayer984]

*reads the quote at the bottom of Malte's post* Now I must ask how he knew an earthquake was coming.

As for the reason of Ducky's father not appearing after LBT 5, I'm guessing that he probably died on the way back?  I don't know.

[DarkHououmon]

I meant that's the last time you see him in that movie (if that is her father). I haven't seen him in any other movies besides the first and fifth, but I could have overlooked something.

[kjeldo]

that artickle on wikipedia sounds pretty good to me.

[kjeldo]

that artickle on wikipedia sounds good enough to me... :unsure:

[Malte279]

It certainly can't be disproven beyond doubt, but neither is there any evidence that the claim is correct. Sadly if it comes to LBT Wikipedia is not a reliable source and has frequently contributed to spread false rumors.

*reads the quote at the bottom of Malte's post* Now I must ask how he knew an earthquake was coming. laugh.gif

The sentences preceding the sentences I quoted give an explanation for that. There are some phrases very difficult to translate literally. But the sentences describe some signs that "something is in the air" so to speak. For example the last sentence before the first I quoted would be something like:

A dull rumbling from the belly of the earth was in the air.

Sometimes there are distinct signs preceding an earthquake some of which can be noticed even by humans. Very often animals proove much more sensitive for those signs (cats, dogs, horses etc. often behave "strange" before earthquakes). Perhaps it is similar for the LBT dinosaurs in the interpretation of Mrs. J‰ckel. However, the earthquake Ducky's father predicts can't be the same which later separated the families as the chapter after the hatching scenes begins with the line: "Years and years passed by". Ducky's father would be quite a prophet if he could predict earthquakes which will happen in years. He certainly would not have to worry about that one by the time Ducky hatched

[Teresa]

I heard it was possibly because the girl who voiced Ducky in the first film was murdered by her father.  

[Malte279]

^ As was mentioned by Sky in his above post.
While the claim cannot be disproved there is no evidence for the truth of it either.
Also remember that the last LBT movie which showed Ducky's father (LBT V) was produced in 1997 almost ten years after the murder of Judith Barsi. Much as I think that she deserves every tribute that can be given to her I really think it is wild speculation to think of the absence of Ducky's father in most of the movies to be a tribute to her.
Also don't forget that the sequels of LBT were created by an entirely different production team. I don't know how many of them knew of Judith Barsi and her tragic fate.