The Gang of Five
The Land Before Time => General Land Before Time => Character Discussion => Topic started by: pokeplayer984 on June 13, 2010, 03:04:06 PM
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Everyone who has seen the movies of The Land Before Time has criticized Petrie in one way or another. The subject which is often discussed is his tendency for having bad grammar. I've always wondered why he speaks so badly, but couldn't really figure it out. That is, until something popped up.
In the following caption topic...
http://z7.invisionfree.com/thegangoffive/i...?showtopic=8081 (http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=7820)
CT wrote the following caption.
Here, we have evidence of the fall that damaged the part of Petrie's brain that is responsible for good grammar :p.
I also laughed at this as many of us did, but then it got me thinking, maybe the crash that played out his appearance was responsible for his bad grammar. I mean, Petrie crashed right through solid rock for crying out loud. In fact, I took a few pictures here.
From these shots, we see that Petrie hits the ground face-first.
(http://www2.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/70deecc78ba2501e98c5e9853ac4aa963g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=k0zliyldytj&thumb=4) (http://www4.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/db3ae13da7f65acf38f01ee3d7a791e03g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=knmmlgwyjtm&thumb=4)
Furthermore, a single stone falls into the new hole he created, which may have possibly hit him on the head.
(http://www2.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/65dd15b30dc2af2b8daa323e078bb4ea3g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=jtyyg2umjjz&thumb=4)
I doubt anyone can come out of this without some sort of damage to their brain.
In fact, given the fragile-ness of his body, it's a miracle in of itself he came out of it alive.
What do you guys think? Think this crash was responsible for his bad grammar that he can't seem to recover from, or do you think it's something else?
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Your probaly right, but I never thought much about it why he had bad grammer, I always thought he was just born that way.
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I don't know for certain, but I consider it extremely unlikely that any head injury would disable a hitherto normally developed command of grammar. Can you give one real live example of any head injury that would mess up a living being's ability to speak correct grammar rather than disturbing the general speech motor functions of speech?
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A simple bonk on the head has been known to cause Amnesia in many cases, Malte. Here, we are talking about a crash that would normally cause serious injury/death AND a bonk on the head right after that.
If you come out of that alive, there's really no telling what brain complications you might suffer.
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Other than NOT being able to speak...
Of course, their voices and speech might sound "funny". There are some people who have some kind of brain damage/disability who WANT to say something, but their speech does not say it the way their brain wants to. And then there are very young Autistics who want to say something, but can't say anything at all, thus become extremely frustrated. There's an artist named Taylor Crowe (a VERY nice man :) ) who's father recalled when his "Autistic attributes" kicked in when he dropped a spoon, and said "Daddy, my mouth can't say the words" before freaking out.
Maybe that's his problem. He KNOWS what he wants to say but his mouth won't "say the words" that his mind wants to say. His head wants to say "I'm hungry" or "I'm scared", but he says "Me hungry" or "Me scared". Now, maybe his fall wasn't the cause of the problem. Maybe he was suffering heavy emotional trauma from being separated from his family started the problem, and THEN he had his fall, which worsened the problem.
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Not to bust in as some sort of grammatical know it all, or something... but my assumption of why exactly Petrie spoke the way he does was as a play on his nervous nature. Using "Me" at the beginning of a sentence is one way to portray a character as either less intelligent, unconfident in themselves or less educated in a particular language.
Petrie in most circumstance is shown as quite a smart little fellow, in most cases. The language portrayal is a difficult to pin down, since there is very little discussion over the topic of speaking. Nor is there any case of anyone actually questioning why Petrie speaks the way he does. Sure, he spoke like that when they first met... but that brings me to a more logical explanation.
When we first meet Petrie, he is nervous and unconfident in his ability to fly (as well, supposedly, his bravery). That is portrayed to younger children by his speaking manner, in which we can quickly identify with his nature, showing in the way he refers to himself. It is much easier to identify that a character is nervous and jumpy when they have a manner of speech that matches it. Think, for example, what Petrie would be like if he was the way he was, but spoke in a more literate manner: "I'm Petrie," as opposed to "Me... me Petrie," or the way he reacts when presented with some sort of danger. The words don't exactly come out of his mouth very well in those circumstances.
Short answer: Petrie speaks the way he does because it better portrays his character traits.
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I just have bad grammar and that's the way it is! :nyah :nyah
Seriously though, I've never considered the fall for the reason, and JD here seems to hit on the point better. However, it defies why his grammar is getting worse since the first film. He was saying things like "My name Petrie" and "I flied?" in the first film, which at least shows he did know the correct pronoun...none of this "me this" and "me that" which is a staple in all sequels. With his ability to fly he lost his ability to speak. :p Heh, can't figure why that is so.
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Aww, you got images of black Petrie at the top of the page! :)
Actually he also says "I" in 2 when he sings, "I teach you how to flyyy...ahhhyyyy....ahhhhyy!!!" No one's noticed this, I think.