Yayz for bumping old threads! Okay, here we go:
This is all just my personal opinion, and after examining it a few times, I highly doubt anyone else will like it, but I just could not help sharing my thoughts on this. I think they should make another movie, but I do not want it to be The Land Before Time XIV (14). I would like an independent film made next. Now don’t get me wrong. I want it to be canon and take place after the thirteenth movie, you know, not contradict anything already established, but I want this excluded from the series as a stand-alone film. Maybe something like: The Land Before Time: Journey to a New Home with no number attached. Allow me to elaborate further.
I believe a new television would be awesome, but I feel that a movie should serve as the prelude to what the whole series is about. This is not unheard of. The Beatle Borgs did this. (Anyone remember that?) They made one television series then wanted another. However, before making the second series, they made a movie to bridge the gap, an explanation for why things would be different in the new series. (Wait, Power Rangers Turbo did this too, didn’t it?) The movie in between was very different than the original series, so I just feel that an overture like this would be better if not put with a number like the rest; make it its own film, not just another part of the series. Also, not several stories of the series following, but one single story broken up.
Anyway, I think this series should drop the overall lightheartedness of the previous series and take a much darker overtone. Most of the fans are older now, so I think it would be good to up the age appeal of the storyline. Besides, kids these days are more into darker stuff anyway. Now, I am thinking a major change from one series to the next, again, not unheard of. When the second Beatle Borgs season came out, I think the red one said something along the lines of, “These new villains make the last ones look like kindergarteners.” By major change, my thought is the Great Valley being destroyed, or something along those lines. This can happen in the movie, and the following television series can be about them trying to find a new home.
Like many epic journeys, I think a group split would be wise at some point. Maybe the grownups and kids can be separated, or maybe some families in one group and some in another, or maybe some really diverse combination like Mr. Three Horn, Littlefoot, Ducky, Spike, and Petrie while the rest of the residents \are in the other. Things like this just do better sometimes when the focus can keep shifting. I think there should be more physical fighting and longer-lasting emotional battles. I do not mean longer arguments, but rather, longer times to recover. For example, what if two characters upset each other, and it’s two episodes later that they are friendly again?
This would be a great opportunity to fill some plot holes. It can explain what happened to Guido before he came to the valley, what those rainbowfaces were doing here, where Spike’s parents might be, maybe we could see Ducky’s aunt mentioned in twelve, and so forth. A huge plot twist like maybe the rainbowfaces being the ones who destroyed the Great Valley could be revealed much later on, and maybe a while after that, we see they had a good reason for it. The gang being noticeably bigger would also be good in my opinion. We can see old and new faces, and darker elements like betrayal, ambushes, and suffering could really bring out the series more. Even within the gang, betrayal can be used in ways such as a bad guy blackmailing one, and suffering can come from eating a bad plant or something.
Meeting more leaf-eater-talking sharpteeth would be cool, as if Chomper can learn it so easily, I don’t think the possibility of others following suit is so outrageous. They can traverse many places, like jungles, deserts, and frozen wastelands. I don’t even think a life lesson is needed in each episode. Maybe what can be learned can branch out over several. In the end, they can find some new place to be happy and safe. I do NOT want this being a dream sequence, daydreaming, story told by someone as a “what if,” or anything like that. I mean, come on, thirteen movies and twenty-six episodes all with them living in one place all the time- isn’t it about time for a change of environment in terms of living quarters?
I think a darker story like this warrants no songs, honestly. I think humor would be great, but the general overtone very serious. I also think the realism of death would be a good idea, either by a random character or two from the herd, or maybe even someone more known but wouldn’t hurt the story much to lose, like Ruby. Hey, I like Ruby! I’m not saying, “Whew, let’s kill her off!” It’s just that death is a large portion of extra flavor and emotion in a series. Several episodes could be about her friends mourning and trying to stop the sharptooth that got her, but when they have him trapped, they just can’t go through with it and let him go. Maybe before that, she was talking to her friends about what she learned that her parents had sent her to find, and when the characters bump into her family, they can share the knowledge which helps out their kind. They grieve, but the help she provided lives on with them. You know, something like that. Maybe they can even throw in some species we haven’t seen in this yet.
So yeah, here’s my two cents on this whole thing. Nearly all the fans have already been established a while back, so why not age the tone of the series to meet the increased maturity of the old fans and greet the new passion for dark stuff of today’s generation? Many people complain that the style just keeps getting more childish, but that is an odd way to handle it since, uh, I don’t know, people get older and not younger! So if universal is going to throw something new our way and slap the The Land Before Time title on it, I wish they could try appealing more to the fans they made long ago. Alright, all set for the criticism of this silly notion.
