The Gang of Five
The Land Before Time => General Land Before Time => Topic started by: lbt/cty_lover on April 18, 2008, 11:33:35 PM
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I was recently watching the original Land Before Time movie when I got to the scene where Littlefoot, Petrie, Ducky, and Spike were covered in tar (or whatever it was). I noticed that Cera grabbed Littlefoot's tail to get free. The way she grabbed was exactly how a human would grab. This completely contradicts the natural anatomy of any quadruped. I am wondering why this was done instead of Littlefoot just releasing her? I might be complicating this thing far too much, but I just want to see what everyone here thinks.
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It could have been an animation mistake that wasn't caught. One would think most toes are to short to grab much of anything, assuming said being could wiggle or move their toes at all.
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My point is that the way she grabbed was too much like the way a human hand would work. All quadrupeds lack opposable thumbs, which give bipedal life-forms the ability to grab.
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I think a couple of anatomy errors have been made in LBT :slap. Where the devil are Cera's other horns, even bony stubs of them? Spike has no stubs on his tail, either. Petrie, at times, resembles a bat-like anatomy :o :blink:. I think it makes the animators' job easier by omitting some of these "complex" features.
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Yeah. However, I think that Cera freeing herself shows her attempts at independence.
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Likely they do take shortcuts, and make some mistakes also. There is a thread on here talking about, and showing, some animation mistakes.
Simplying things does make things easier, like human animated characters often have one less finger then real humans.
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There are many scenes in LBT in which dinosaur anatomy is somewhat "adapted" to the requirements.
Not only does Ducky have four fingers but also an opposable thumb (I'm not sure if even Iguanodon's thumb was opposable).
We have many scenes in which the quadruped characters perform movements which they couldn't realistically do. They could never grab the vine the way they do in LBT 7 when it snaps.
In LBT 3 we have Littlefoot rear up on his hindlegs and spreading his "fingers" to signal uncertainty (about why the Thundering falls are gone).
In many movies (e.g. Cera in LBT 4) we have quadruped characters sit in a very human manner. This would require their shoulders to have very exposed ball and socket joints, same as a human arm, a theory that is also suggested by the fact that the knees of the character's front legs sometimes point forward and sometimes backwards.
There are countless other examples, but they are really something that I consider fun to discuss but not a point of real criticism. Dinosaurs couldn't talk to begin with :lol
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I don't see the problem here. LBT series is cartoons after all. :)
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he is right, its a cartoon
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As I said, I might have been complicating this thing too much. However, my question was answered by Malte best. Adaptations to suit the situation would make a lot of sense.
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That does seem pretty much a bad animation mistake. My toes look longer then Cera's, but I doubt I could grasp Littlefoot's tail with them, a pencil yes, but not unlikely anything as thick as Littlefoot's tail.
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It's just a children's series... and you are right to assert that the quadrupeds limbs were unable to grab things...
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In rewatching some of the movies and such I've noticed there are sometimes other, perhaps, animation mistakes where briefly Cera looks like she has an opposable toe on at least one or both of her front feet.
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There are similar scenes for Littlefoot too. And Ali also sports and opposable toe in the scene right after her head hit the trunk during the rescue of Cera. Her foot really looks like a hand in that scene.
There is nothing wrong with pointing out such examples and listing them, but I want to reassure everyone pointing out that it is just a cartoon for children, that I totally agree with them in thinking of these adaptations of anatomy as no point of criticism. The range of creative freedom is already limited within the boundaries provided by the setting of the land before time. Being too strict about the characters possibilities with regard to their lack of real hands etc. would further limit the authors' liberty.
Nevertheless there is no harm in pointing out these scenes.
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Not only does Ducky have four fingers but also an opposable thumb (I'm not sure if even Iguanodon's thumb was opposable).
Ducky is not an Iguanodon.
Also, Strut and Ozzie are shown moving their fingers. Struthiomimuses can only use their "hands" as a hook to pull foliage close to eat.
Still, you know what I say, "Please leave your science at the door."
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I've said something like in another thread, taking a line from a series likely forgotten today, mst3k. Talking about this or that in LBT can be fun, but you have to remember to say to yourself once in a while
"It's just a show, I should really just relax."
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Ducky is not an Iguanodon.
Thanks for reminding me, I wasn't aware :P:
I just brought in the Iguanodon as this species is known for their prominent thumbs.
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I wonder if they'd be called something like spikethumbs, or something like that.
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In one fanfiction I referred to them as thornthumbs.
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Something odd I've noticed about threehorn anatomy(and perhaps other quadrapeds) is that they did not have a rotator-cuff joint(aka ball-and-socket joint) at their shoulders :huh:. My first thought was that the upper rotator-cuff joints are not built for bearing a full weight load. Don't know; just a thought... :unsure:.
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I would guess they would be built similar to large reptiles that are around now like crocodilians and perhaps Komodo dragons.
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Actually, dinosaurs were the only reptiles to ever have had their limbs be out straight-down, not sprawled to the side. Modern reptiles' limbs sprawl out and do not go directly underneath them. Dinosaurs and modern birds share a hole in the hip socket as well.
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Definitely correct. They certainly took their liberty to allow Cera some motions which she would usually be unable to perform (e.g. in LBT 4 when she is mimicking Ali). Such scenes are relatively rare though. Can you think of some more examples?
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Hey. While watching some of the LBT movies, I noticed that the quadruped dinosaurs' tail seem to allow them to grasp things, sort of like a prehensile tail on a monkey. Am I imagining this?
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Longnecks seem to have this ability the greatest with Doc seeming to be the best at it.
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The way I see it, the tail is the closest thing to a hand that quadruped dinosaur has, so that would definitely make sense.
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It does make sense. They have only their mouths and tails instead of hands, ignoring the shots where quadrupeds are shown to have opposable toes on their front feet.
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I noticed a minor thing here... has anyone noticed that Cera and her father have four toes while Tria and Tricia have only three? Just a minor detail...
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& the way Cera's front feet are often drawn with her having an opposable toe on each of her front feet, but most of the other 4 footers do not have this.