Characters out of Character in the series?

[Malte279]

Many say that in the TV series the characters were so totally out of character. But are they really?

Granted, there are examples, but some of them are kind of interesting showing that the characters are not yet thoroughly known. The best example for this would be Ducky's "dark side" in the sky color stones.
There are some scenes in which characteristics from the movies are a little over the top (especially Petrie being exaggeratedly scary), but usually referring to aspects already known from the movies (there are scenes in which Petrie is extremely courageous, but still I think most would agree to him being the nervous and somewhat scary one of the group after watching the sequels, so "out of character" is not really a fair label when attached to the Petrie of the TV series.
There are contradictory scenes. Again Petrie is the best example as sometimes he believes about everything while sometimes he is the great skeptic. Again however this is something we know from the sequels already (he wouldn't believe in badluck in LBT 7 but would believe (according to himself) "anything" in LBT 7).
Personally I have always been under the impression that the TV series did fairly well not only in distributing screen time fairly among seven rather than five main-characters (Littlefoot is no longer the main spotlight magnet) but I also felt that the characteristics of the five original main-characters had been maintained fairly well. Littlefoot usually rather regardful, Cera as tough as ever, Ducky usually the friendly and gentle one, Petrie kind of fidgety (see above), and Spike gentle and gluttonous.
Those of you who think the characters are totally out of character in the TV series, can you give some examples?

[Amaranthine]

Well, correct if I am wrong, but I don't remember Little Foot EVER being a snobby, little brat in the movies at all. If you look at the "Sky Color Stone" episode, he has this smirk on his face, like something Shorty or Rhet would have and Chomper looks defeated beside him for some reason.

Also, Little Foot becomes incredibly bossy in that same episode. Petrie and Chomper repeatedly tell him that they probably should follow the girls to find the stone and he goes, "Eh...no I'm sure it's here." It's until he's proven wrong. It's like he's acting like a Cera, which I thought was out of character.

I thought seeing a darker side of Ducky was refreshing in some regard, but I guess to other fans it just seemed so sudden to them and out of nowhere.

[DarkHououmon]

Well, correct if I am wrong, but I don't remember Little Foot EVER being a snobby, little brat in the movies at all. If you look at the "Sky Color Stone" episode, he has this smirk on his face, like something Shorty or Rhet would have and Chomper looks defeated beside him for some reason.

Also, Little Foot becomes incredibly bossy in that same episode. Petrie and Chomper repeatedly tell him that they probably should follow the girls to find the stone and he goes, "Eh...no I'm sure it's here." It's until he's proven wrong. It's like he's acting like a Cera, which I thought was out of character.

There is a moment in the first LBT where Littlefoot seems to behave similarly, in my opinion.

When Cera attempts to leave the group to try to go her own way, Littlefoot immediately stops her and is all in her face, flat out telling her she's going the wrong way. This, to me, looks like Littlefoot is attempting to force Cera to go his way.

Now one can say Cera really does go the wrong way, but I'll point something out: Cera never actually says what way she was going to go. All she says is that she'll take the easy way. This 'easy way' could have been a number of things, and there was no way Littlefoot could have known whether or not Cera's way was right or wrong at the time. And there's also the scene earlier with Sharptooth where he tells Cera to go one way and she goes another. Unless Littlefoot had explored that area before, there was no way he could have realized that the tunnel Cera was going through would have been the "wrong way".

Littlefoot just seemed determined that his way was right and Cera's way was wrong and unless proven wrong, he'll stick to it. This seems to be how he behaves in the episode as well. He strongly believes that he was right about the stone's location and it took a lot of convincing for him to realize he was wrong.

So it seems to be that Littlefoot wasn't all that out-of-character in the episode, in my opinion.

[Malte279]

I need to watch the episode again, but if that was one case I'm not sure how well suited it is to reflect on the series in general as he has his moments in the sequels as well.
In LBT 10 he provokes Cera into hurting herself by hitting her head against a rock she could not possibly break. Sure, it was Cera's swaggering for which she had it coming, and sure Littlefoot does regret it after it happened, but it is an example that goes to show the series does not show a precedent of malice on the part of Littlefoot. In LBT 6 (for example) we also have him get through his head with fairly limited regard for what his friends think. It seems easy to forgive as his intentions are "morally justified", but then again one can just as well understand his friends who do not believe in the breaking of a piece of Saurus Rock being the cause for any badluck (nor does Littlefoot's grandpa). Still his conviction of doing the right thing would drive Littlefoot even into kind of a ghoulish attitude if that's what we could call ripping a tooth out of a corpse.

Everyone is entitled to their opinions of course. My main point is that sometimes I feel the TV series gets a little too harsh criticism and too little praise. There are of course points where they really messed up, but as a whole I would consider the quality of the series in many respects as higher than the quality of some of the last sequels.
Is there a real continuity in any of the main characters acting really out of character throughout the series in such a way that one could really say it differed a lot from the characters nature in the movies?

[dragoonanime]

I would say that ali is one character that was changed in the tv show. In the tv show she always believes rhet and she seems a lot more shy. In the movie she was a lot more brave.

[Malte279]

I'm kind of in a split mood about this. Make no mistake, I did not like the "brave longneck scheme" either, but Ali's attitude in that episode was not really unprecedented. In LBT 4 we did see her rather shy about all non-longnecks, and though she did have her moments about Littlefoot (biting his tail before they had exchanged a word) she was most of the time rather careful there too (e.g. "I hope we are friends" after they had been playing all day).
since the events of LBT 4 Ali had been only with the herd of longnecks and for all we know there may have never been any other longneck kid but Rhett and Ali in that herd which may well give a reason to Ali's readiness to go with Rhett's threadbare lies. This may sound harsh but with the prospect of spending a few days in the Great Valley and then be moving with the herd for another long time with nobody else to play with but Rhett it may be understandable why he might be higher in her priorities list.
Again, I did not like the episode, but I do think it would be unfair to accuse the makers of total disregards for the characters and facts provided by LBT 4.
In the context of this discussion Ali is tricky though as she is not really a main character and we only saw a very few days in her life. Though we may have thought of our own stories, we know very little about her. With regard to whether the series actually distorts characters I guess we need to focus on the main characters whom we have seen for a longer time and whose characteristics we really know.

[DarkHououmon]

I don't really believe Ali in "The Brave Longneck Scheme" has been changed all that much. Based on what I recall of her in LBT4, her portrayal seems pretty accurate.

In the movie, she was quite shy and refused to interact with Littlefoot's friends; the only reason she ever did in the first place was because Littlefoot was in danger and they were the only ones who could help. Had Rhett been in the herd at the time, she'd probably go to him first, since he's of the same species as her.

As for her being gullible, which I think was brought up before, I attribute this to the fact that Rhett is another member of her species. Ali has spent most of her life with another longnecks; the only time we know for sure she has been with different species was the events of LBT4. Ali trusts her own kind more than other species, so she probably never saw a reason why Rhett would lie to her. If Rhett were another species of dinosaur, Ali probably wouldn't have been so eager to believe him.

Ali hasn't been in the valley since LBT4 and, as far as we know, her only other visit besides that is "The Brave Longneck Scheme". There is a considerable time span between these two events. While an exact time isn't known, considering evidence provided by "Star Day Celebration", it has been at least a year, probably longer than that given the other movies. And Ali has only been in the valley for a short time. And in that time, we don't know for sure if she has encountered other species like she had in the Great Valley; it may have been that she, like before, again only encountered other longnecks, and possibly started to trust longnecks a lot more than other species again.

True, Littlefoot is a longneck and Ali could probably trust him. But to point out, Ali has only been friends with him for a short time, and his friends even shorter since she was afraid of them earlier. But with Rhett, it's likely she knew him for a much longer time. While one can't place exactly when Rhett showed up, it seems possible, at least for me, that Rhett has been in the herd long enough for Ali to be willing to trust him over Littlefoot and the others, whom, as I pointed out, she had only known and interacted with for a short time in the fourth movie.

[Ptyra]

I really gotta say that Petrie is VERY much out of character, and not just in the TV series, but after The Great Freeze.  "Imaginary Friends", was the point where Petrie's "personality machine" breaks AND fries. From there, goes the being-scared-to-fly-through-clouds...and yet he literally gets eye-to-eye with a Sharptooth. Twice, in fact. The second time going beak-first. You'd think he'd be more scared of doing that.

And then being stupidly gullible and holier-than-thou in the TV series. After everything that happened in Stone of Cold Fire, he should have been "Uhhh, Ali...Rhett is lying to you...big time. It hurts, but I know how it is." And don't get me started on how out-of-character he was in "The Great Circle Celebration". Guuhh. Since when was Petrie a zealot? I can go in circles, but until Great Freeze, he wasn't as obnoxiously paranoid, gullible, religious (good gosh, that shouldn't even BE in LBT!!!), and...not Petrie.

I did like his "Pterano Tall Tale" (as I refer to them) in "The Scary Sleep-Story Adventure"   . "I thought we were supposed to be telling scary stories"

I gotta say that I DID in fact like Ducky's sudden greediness in Sky Color Stones. After Big Freeze, she was a bit more expressive of her feelings and did scold Spike now and then (which I also liked slightly), so it was good to see her become obsessed with something to the point of Ruby and Cera "Ducky, what they heck happened to you?"

Littlefoot, ESPECIALLY in 13, did not have good changed.
"I think pretending to be in trouble is against the wisdoms!"
Says the one who played chase games and "Lone Dinosaur!"

[Cancerian Tiger]

Totally agree with ya on Petrie, Ptyra.  LB&T said the following:

4b.) Least liked Land Before Time episode - "The Great Circle Celebration". To sum it up, Petrie becomes a disciple of the sun, the others go along with it, Cera calls him on it, and God summons a fiery meteorstorm to set her in line. In the end she admits she was wrong to judge, and Petrie accepts her apology. The athiest is not amused.

Believe me, the Christian Spiritualist is not amused either <_<.  Petrie acted like a self-righteous bigot, and I can't stand folks like that.  

I'm glad Ducky finally expressed herself in LBT VIII.  Sure, she may have come across as a little too harsh, but I feel she had every right.  In the normal nature of Ducky, she was internalizing her resentment toward Spike, so she was bound to break sooner or later.  It sounds like many think Spike was innocent in LBT VIII, but he was anything but an angel.  Spike was keeping Ducky awake with his snoring and rolling on her at night.  As seen in the scene with Thicknose teaching, this was affecting her daytime functioning.  Spike's sleep habits may be excusable 'cuz he's sleeping and has no idea, but what was really inexcusable was Spike eating Ducky's lunch as soon as she looked away .  This was a very selfish act on his part.  I'm not at all surprised that Ducky was irritated with him.

[NeoGenesis005]

Well, correct if I am wrong, but I don't remember Little Foot EVER being a snobby, little brat in the movies at all. If you look at the "Sky Color Stone" episode, he has this smirk on his face, like something Shorty or Rhet would have and Chomper looks defeated beside him for some reason.

Also, Little Foot becomes incredibly bossy in that same episode. Petrie and Chomper repeatedly tell him that they probably should follow the girls to find the stone and he goes, "Eh...no I'm sure it's here." It's until he's proven wrong. It's like he's acting like a Cera, which I thought was out of character.

There is a moment in the first LBT where Littlefoot seems to behave similarly, in my opinion.

When Cera attempts to leave the group to try to go her own way, Littlefoot immediately stops her and is all in her face, flat out telling her she's going the wrong way. This, to me, looks like Littlefoot is attempting to force Cera to go his way.

Now one can say Cera really does go the wrong way, but I'll point something out: Cera never actually says what way she was going to go. All she says is that she'll take the easy way. This 'easy way' could have been a number of things, and there was no way Littlefoot could have known whether or not Cera's way was right or wrong at the time. And there's also the scene earlier with Sharptooth where he tells Cera to go one way and she goes another. Unless Littlefoot had explored that area before, there was no way he could have realized that the tunnel Cera was going through would have been the "wrong way".

Littlefoot just seemed determined that his way was right and Cera's way was wrong and unless proven wrong, he'll stick to it. This seems to be how he behaves in the episode as well. He strongly believes that he was right about the stone's location and it took a lot of convincing for him to realize he was wrong.

So it seems to be that Littlefoot wasn't all that out-of-character in the episode, in my opinion.

You know what you say makes a whole lot of sense, looking back on the First Movie and the Episode which was brought up its a perfect match to Littlefoot real personality.

[Kor]

I guess part of the reason is since no one wanted to keep continuity within the series of movies and tv series.  Many prefer to do that, instead of keeping to continuity.

[Adder]

Like Cera during the second half of Yellow Belly Dance? She was REALLY out of character during it, the first half she was normal, the second half I didn't even think that was Cera at all.