Well said, Malte. Yeah, the whole Chomper issue is the most glaring example of how the filmmakers let a potentially complex plot idea slip past them.
Alright, now that I've had time to thnk it over, here are what you would've changed about the sequels, one sequel at a time.
Land Before Time #2: This one was mostly pretty dang good, but there are a few glaring things I would have changed.
1. LBT2 really could have stood to be about twenty minutes longer, because I think the filmmakers could have gone for broke with the whole "Chomper is a meat eater living in the leaf eater's paradise, but he likes some of the leaf eaters as friends, not food idea. As Malte was pointed out countless times, while Chomper is definitely one of the best quest characters LBT ever had, the creators kind of wasted him.
2. I'd also have expanded more ont he idea of Littlefoot trying to rear Chomper. While they introduced the idea with the scene in which Littlefoot asks his Grandparents about it and shows him having to really work hard to keep an eye of Chomper, the whole idea was just kind of abandoned. Understandable since Chomper's real parents show, but still.
3. Scrut and Ozzie would have been more competent villains. While I liked some of the humor we got out of them, they never do anything remotely effective. A little tragedy over an egg being eaten and family losing an unborn child might be a little too dark. On the other hand, though, it would serve to show the audience how brutal the world was outside of the Valley. That bad things still happen in spite of the Valley's existance which could serve to show more good the Valley inhabitants have it, overall.
4. Like Malte said, more effort into the volcano scene.
That's about it. Yeah, my version of LBT2 would have been nightmare fuel ridden.
Land Before Time #3: This is one that I always felt was just okay, because I found the bully plot to be too stereotypical. Seriously, every kid's series had a bully episode of some sort that told us how bad bullying is. Did we really need another one? On top of that, I didn't really find Hyp, Dil and Nod to be very effective bullies, compared to some other better examples I had seen by that point. So, onto the changes...
1. I would not have dropped the bully plot altogether, because the "bullying is bad" and "bullies might be screwed up because of their homelife" schemes to have relevance. It should have been approached with more seriousness, though.
I'll think on this one, so moving on.
2. I think the idea of the Valley running short on water could have been played with a little more. For one thing, Little and co finding alternative water sources never comes of anything. They find it, but then the plot is abandoned in favor of a forest fire. Seriously, a scene in which the adults are med to it by the kids couldn't have been added?
3. The forest fire would have been more threatening and frightening. For one, I think it should have claimed one or two noted casualties that would be scene and mourned. That would show jsut how dangerous forest fires in a drying environment can be.
4. Lastly, I kind of would have liked to see how the whole "who gets to drink at what time of day" scenario worked in more detail and why was Mr. Threehorn the only one bothering too make sure it was properly regulated.
5. Mr. Threehorn is supposed to be a jerk for being so harsh in regulating the water supply, but I found myself, as a 24 year old, agreeing with him on some points. While I wil admit keeping the little ones from drinking until the time in which the whole species was supposed to drink was going a little far, its stated that Mr. Threehorn was going by the system they had agreed to ("Species X gets a drink when sun is in Y position").
6. Why were the adults, themselves, not trying to find an alternative water supply? Seriously, it wouldn't have taken much for them to go looking, themselves, as they would do by nature, anyway. Littlefoot and co still could have been the first ones to find another water source to save the Valley dwellers for a while.
7. The idea that less food was growing healthily could have been played a little more.
That's all til later.
