Ali

[NewOrder]

Why stick with the main characters? She's sort of our promised land, after 11 years she finally came back, and then suddenly disappeared. I guess this topic could branch out into many issues, such has Ali becoming a permanent member of the gang, her relationship with Littlefoot, and what happened to her.

[Nick22]

She is in many ways the most famous of the guest characters, since LBT 4 brought out a "love interest" for littlefoot, most protagonists in films have love interests, but it wasn't until LBT 4 that a possible interest for Littlefoot was created. Understandable since he, and other maij characters remain young, unaware of  such mature topivcs as mating and reproducing..

[Nick22]

Maybe by Season 2, she';'ll become a permanent feature in the series. you already have 7, so what's 1 more?

[Malte279]

I cannot refer to the content of the TV series when it comes to Ali, but there is one thing I noticed in several summaries or characterizations of Ali (for example the LBT 4 summary on the official LBT page) she is described as "shy". I wonder if she really lives up to that label. Her first encounter with Littlefoot (biting his tail) didn't exactly seem very cautious (I guess in case of a character like Cera a first meeting could not have gone more of on the wrong foot than that).
The behaviour of hers which I think may have been misinterpreted as shy was her rather fearful conduct towards the others. A conduct which is somewhat surprising if we see Ali's courage in situations of actual danger. Ugly as it sounds her original conduct towards the others was probably more based on the racism she was taught for all her life (which would bring us the situation in Ali's herd in general) rather than shyness.

[Nick22]

that racism is reminesciscent of the first film, and the herd really hasn';t changed much, at least from the longneck scheme episode. we have already discussed that nature of Littlefoot and Ali's realtionship(puppy love) and that's not likely to be fleshed out any more than it already is. But i think that in order for Ali to become to become a permanent part of gang, there would have to be a truly tumultous event happen, likely the serious injury or death of her mother.

[Noname]

Well, one of the upcoming episodes is "the big longneck test." Perhaps that will have Ali in it. It certainly seems to be promising...

[DarkHououmon]

Ugly as it sounds her original conduct towards the others was probably more based on the racism she was taught for all her life (which would bring us the situation in Ali's herd in general) rather than shyness.

This is not what I've read. I think it was on the Land Before Time website, before it was changed, so I think the information is lost. But in the information about Land Before Time IV, it states Ali was afraid of Littlefoot's friends because she had mistaken them for monsters her mother (and possibly the herd in general) warned her about.

[Malte279]

This is not what I've read.

You don't find that interpretation in official surces. There Ali is labeled as "shy" (on the old version of the page as well as on the new).
But I don't think shy is the right term for Ali's conduct. What may be understood as shyness is limited to non-longnecks (shortnecks? ) in the beginning of the movie, while her first encounter with Littlefoot was not exactly shy.
It would be interesting to know what kind of stories (or whatever) Ali's herd and her mother told her. There seems to be a clear distinction between the racism shown by threehorns (who consider themselves superior to all other kinds) and the racism shown by longnecks in this case (other kinds are dangerous and to be feared). The other kind of longneck racism we have seen so far (in the original movie) was neither claiming longnecks' superiority nor claiming other kinds to be dangerous. The segregation of the kinds was just accepted as a fact by Littlefoot's mother, which makes me think that her racism may have been much less developed than that within Ali's her (accepted, but not really promoted).
Another interesting question is whether or not Ali got into trouble for hanging out with "shortnecks". LBT 4 doesn't make any such indications (none of the longnecks in her herd seems to have a problem with her saying goodbye to Littlefoot AND his friends). Still I wonder if perhaps the situation is similar to that of Cera's father who doesn't really forbid Cera to hang out with the "hornless" (with the one notable exception in LBT 3 where the ban was against Littlefoot in particular) but doesn't approve of it.
I would like to go on with some more details about the dinosaur racism in general, but as I'm aware that this is leading too far from the topic of this thread (Ali) I will start a new thread on that matter.

[Nick22]

Yes, back to the Ali topic at hand. I think we'll see her again, and I hope next time they leave the door open for futher appearances.

[Nick22]

It will be intereesting to see if there will be a Season 2, hopefully, Ali will make a secomnd appearance...

[Nick22]

After seeing most of the episodes.. I'm guessing her appearance was a one-off cameo.. I may be wrong.. and I'd be glad to be , but right now it appears that way..

[landbeforetimelover]

I think that they've ruined her character.  Now it seems like she's a very ignorant longneck that will believe anything you tell her and she doesn't trust her old friends.  Her appearance was terrible and she only played a minor role in the tv series.  Her voice was pretty bad and her character lacked luster.  I could take her or leave her when it comes to the tv series.  I would love it if she reappeared in a sequal or two though.

If they ever have her appear again, they have to remake the nature of her character.  This can be done in several ways such as her experienceing a tramatic event or having her come in much later, making her grow in maturity before coming in again.  I personally hated her voice in LBT 4.  It was too high pitched but they can't just change her character completely and alter her voice and expect us to take her for the old Ali.  It doesn't work like that.

If they're not gonna change her character, I hope she never appears again.  It just takes away the magic of Ali in LBT 4.  

Basically, the way she was altered in the tv series, she's now a nothing character.  A filler.  A cheap knock-off of the original.  Why couldn't this be done by ruining another character like hyp or dill?  They were already ruined in my opinion.

I hope I didn't offend anyone here.  I personally love Ali's character and am angry of what they did to it with the tv series.  I'm just saying that her character needs a lot of work before I would ever consider her a character worth having reappear.

[KingdomKey23]

I'm an Ali fan (perhaps her biggest fan, and she happens to be my favorite character of the LBT series), but I have to painfully admit that what you say is true landbeforetimelover. I really hated how they changed Ali in the series.  :angry:  They made her seem so gullible, and how she just rejected the others like that. I'm sure she would've just died to be with Littlefoot and her friends again because they are probably the only friends she actually had. I really wish that scenario was handled a lot better. She hardly got any screen time, and I expected her to interact with the gang a bit more. No, I take no offence to your remark LBTL, though I was fine with her voice in LBT4, but not here. If I truly am a fan of Ali, then I wouldn't want to see her again until her character reverts back to her shy, but intellegent self. I was just so enraged because Ali subjected her to Rhette(sp?) like that. I pray that if they include her in a forthcoming sequel, then at least she is her good old self from LBT4, though perhaps  she has a a bit of maturity. For now, I plan to include Ali in the later chapters of my LBT fanfiction, and I will be sure to handle her the way she was meant to be.

[landbeforetimelover]

I was fine with her voice in LBT4

  Her voice sounded like a 6 year old being forced to use helium the whole time, and getting jabbed with a fork to make her voice sound so high pitched.


I cannot watch LBT 4 with headphones cuz her voice bothers me so much.  I still think they should have kept the same voice though.  It isnt't Ali without her distinctive voice.

I bet that if I were on the street and I heard her voice, I would instantly be able to tell that she played Ali in LBT 4.

I just love Ali so much.  Her character is so unique and interesting.  She is a complex character and I find it very suprising that they were able to make her so complex and generate so many Ali fans with her only appearing once.  It was a huge disappiontment for me to have her character ruined like this.  I think their number one priority with LBT now should be to restore her character.

I don't mean any offense to anyone who likes Ali.  I do too.  In fact, if they were going to add someone else to the gang besides Chomper, it should have been Ali, not Ruby.  I don't know why they don't give Ali's character more attantion.  They really should.  The one thing I'm waiting for in LBT is for Ali to return and to have her back to her old self again.

[Nick22]

I agreee that Ali should hsave been added... and the Brave Longneck Scheme was an golden opportunity lost, to have the first meeting of two of the best loved guest characters.. and it was completely watered down..I put it down to, writers just putting in an episode to just stop us older fans from wiondering when she is going to come back. It was a one-off, and Rhette was simply there is to make Littlefoot jealous..he was a plot device nothing more... they could have at least had Littlefoot and Ali do a duet , like "Back together again" or some other reunion song.. I do thing that they need to have Ali be voiced by someone who can sound like Julia Hansen (Her original voice) and they need to allow her character to come through..

[landbeforetimelover]

they could have at least had Littlefoot and Ali do a duet , like "Back together again" or some other reunion song..

That would have been the best freaking song ever!  I would have put it on my ipod like all of the sequal songs I have.  They had better not have this be the last time we ever see Ali.  They still need to make her character a character agian.

[Nick22]

Maybe She'll reappear in Season 2, if not then hopefully in either LBT 14 or 15 she wil return..The only positive i got out of the BLs was that Littlefoot during the "We need a plan song "said he(meaning Rhette) can't be her best friend" but that I intreprit it as sauying "I"m her best friend"

[Kor]

One thing they could do is similar to what the Justice league did, at least during the first season and part of 2 that I saw.  They could have some characters logically join the group who logically, and have some episodes where this char isn't present or has a cameo and has to help their parents or somesuch.  This could keep the total active in any one episode to a certain number but the actual GOF members could be larger.

I do agree though that Ali would likely not move into the valley unless her mother did or she died or something.

As for her and Littlefoot being cousins, they could be in fact cousins, but maybe distant like 5th or 8th, or somesuch.  Or many longnecks may call each other cousins if their from the same general area.  It could also be that perhaps somewhere in the past, one of Grandpa longneck's herd and one of Ali's became mates at some point in the past, so they consider each other related now.

[Nick22]

from my estimtes, she is either a 3rd cousin (once removed) or a 4th cousin... They have a common amcestor a great great grandfather or mother... depending on which of  his grandparents are related to the herd..

[Kor]

That is along the ways I was thinking, though I'm not sure what once, twice removed means.  They may indeed have a common ancestor.  From the first and fourth movies it  looks like they lived in different areas outside the great valley.  Perhaps sometime in the past when some disaster hit the great valley, there could have been a family of long necks.  Perhaps some siblings and friends went in one direction, and some others went in another.  One became Ali's heard, and the other the one that Littlefoot came from.  How far in the past this happened, maybe the longnecks themselves may not be sure.