The Gang of Five
The Land Before Time => 1988 Theatrical Release => Topic started by: Phantom on December 23, 2013, 01:54:50 AM
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A place for misc thoughts and observations on the original.
1. When Petrie falls from the twig in the tree scene, there is a very brief mistake. Watch the twig. You'll see.
2. Petrie is kind of purple in many scenes.
3. Spike's plates are much taller than in the sequels.
4. Littlefoot finds the treestar in his mother's footprint. Is this the same place she fought sharptooth in the mud?
5. Petrie pluralizes many words as a result of his speech thingy. He doesn't do this in the sequels.
6. Why are there footprints as Littlefoot separates with the group? They aren't theirs, as a scene shows them on the ground before. Maybe it's to show that many died doing what Cera did.
7. A lot of the rock formations have sponge textures.
8. Spike is implied to have a mental disability, which is supported by Cera's deleted comment. But is it exclusive to Spiketails within the first movie's canon? He is, after all, only a baby.
9. Sharptooth's sounds are based off leopard snarls.
10. Don Bluth villains always have warts.
11. The dialogue is fantastic, it sounds like the dinosaurs are really kids. The inflections are great!
12. There is a very high death count in this. Mostly bg characters.
13. Everything that goes wrong in the movies can be blamed on Cera. She constantly gets the gang into trouble. Watch again to see what I mean.
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He is, after all, only a baby
This.
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Towards the end of the film, when Littlefoot says "Cera! You're back!" his mouth never actually moves. It makes you wonder if it was dubbed in as part of the editing that took place...
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-10. Don Bluth villains always have warts.-
-13. Everything that goes wrong in the movies can be blamed on Cera. She constantly gets the gang into trouble. Watch again to see what I mean.-
The first one: Are you sure? I don't recall Carface having any warts.
The second: I'm not sure I really can agree. I think it's really unfair to put the entire wrap on her and say she's "constantly getting the gang into trouble".
For example, you can't possibly say it was her fault Littlefoot separated from his mother. He wandered off on his own. Cera may have shown up not too long after, but she didn't tell Littlefoot to follow; he did that on his own.
The fight between Littlefoot and Cera can't be entirely blamed on Cera. Think about it: Littlefoot has been leading them really hard, pushing them relentlessly, exhausting them, and they hadn't found the Great Valley. Cera simply wanted to leave peacefully to find an easier route (which was actually a very wise move on her part; Littlefoot was so stubbornly sticking to one way, he never once thought there could be an easier route; working themselves to death is pointless if there is an easier alternate) but Littlefoot didn't let her. In a rather hostile way, he tries to force her to stay, which angers Cera into insulting his mother, and Littlefoot is the one who starts the fight.
So you couild say Cera shouldn't have insulted his mother, which may have stopped the fight from happening and they wouldn't have gotten stuck in the tar later on. But at the same time, you can also say that Littlefoot should not have been so aggressive with Cera, as his attitude I feel is what prompted Cera to blurt out the insult; she was just so frustrated with Littlefoot by that point.
Blaming Cera for a few things, well that's one thing, but saying it's her fault for "everything that goes wrong"...I don't think I can really buy that.
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-10. Don Bluth villains always have warts.-
-13. Everything that goes wrong in the movies can be blamed on Cera. She constantly gets the gang into trouble. Watch again to see what I mean.-
The first one: Are you sure? I don't recall Carface having any warts.
The second: I'm not sure I really can agree. I think it's really unfair to put the entire wrap on her and say she's "constantly getting the gang into trouble".
For example, you can't possibly say it was her fault Littlefoot separated from his mother. He wandered off on his own. Cera may have shown up not too long after, but she didn't tell Littlefoot to follow; he did that on his own.
The fight between Littlefoot and Cera can't be entirely blamed on Cera. Think about it: Littlefoot has been leading them really hard, pushing them relentlessly, exhausting them, and they hadn't found the Great Valley. Cera simply wanted to leave peacefully to find an easier route (which was actually a very wise move on her part; Littlefoot was so stubbornly sticking to one way, he never once thought there could be an easier route; working themselves to death is pointless if there is an easier alternate) but Littlefoot didn't let her. In a rather hostile way, he tries to force her to stay, which angers Cera into insulting his mother, and Littlefoot is the one who starts the fight.
So you couild say Cera shouldn't have insulted his mother, which may have stopped the fight from happening and they wouldn't have gotten stuck in the tar later on. But at the same time, you can also say that Littlefoot should not have been so aggressive with Cera, as his attitude I feel is what prompted Cera to blurt out the insult; she was just so frustrated with Littlefoot by that point.
Blaming Cera for a few things, well that's one thing, but saying it's her fault for "everything that goes wrong"...I don't think I can really buy that.
Yeah those are some good points. And yeah as I really like Cera I too have to disagree with her been responsible for everything that goes wrong..
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Everything that wasn't beyond their control was her fault.
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Everything that wasn't beyond their control was her fault.
This.
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11. The dialogue is fantastic, it sounds like the dinosaurs are really kids. The inflections are great!
What do you mean?
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Also- have you noticed in "The Secret of Saurus Rock", Dinah & Dana have horns on their forehead; and that Cera does not? Their all three horns, though Cera is older than Dinah & Dana. Weird.
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Aye, this detail has lead to discussions (http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=2134) about the family status of Dinah and Dana (whether they may be adopted and belonging to a different species of threehorn). Seeing how they vanished never to be refered to again (especially with regard to not a sibling or any relative of any kind of Cera around by the time Tria turned up) one might also speculate about some kind of temporarry surrogate family.
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I have noticed something that only acers in the first film is the running joke of Petrie calling Littlefoot "Flat head". He doesn't call him it in the sequals.
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Also the term "bigmouth" for Ducky's species is not used in the sequels anymore (I cannot quite remember if there is a single case for the term to be used in the sequels again) and usually replaced with "swimmer", a term never used in the original.
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Also the term "bigmouth" for Ducky's species is not used in the sequels anymore (I cannot quite remember if there is a single case for the term to be used in the sequels again) and usually replaced with "swimmer", a term never used in the original.
Oh yes that too. There is a scene in the LBT2 were Cera refers to Ducky's type as "Big faces".
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I am not entirely sure though if what Cera says in that scene (enumerating the kinds her father tells her not to play with) "big faces" or if she says "beak faces", which would cover both, Ducky and Petrie.
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8. Spike is implied to have a mental disability, which is supported by Cera's deleted comment. But is it exclusive to Spiketails within the first movie's canon? He is, after all, only a baby.
Just...WHY? :confused
And on top of that, why is no one else bothered? No offense, but it sometimes sucks to be alone.
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What do you mean?
Criticism about aspects of the movies have been voiced but what degree of being bothered do you think is necessary for you not to feel alone about it?
I think Doc's "Do what you can; accept what you can't" applies very well here. We can point out what could have been done better (in our opinions) and we can get somewhat annoyed in case of really obvious flaws (often brought up in case of the later sequels in particular), but there is no bennefit in getting totally worked up about something that is beyond our control. Being bothered too much by that sucks too.
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You're right. I'm sorry. :oops