On whim, I've been marathoning the series as background noise while I work on balancing the budget for the bistro (News Years, upcoming tax season, and all that), and I had a sudden realization about "Land Before Time 3". Now, the film has always been one of the weaker entries in my opinion, but I never really thought about why much. Well, I have always found the Guest Characters of Week (Hyp, Mutt, and Nod) neither memorable or interesting. They're pretty typical bully characters, the kind you see in EVERYTHING (especially if you read a lot of Stephen King like I do). Sure, they graft on a "kids emulate their parents, and if you're a big meany-pants, your kid probably will be, too" at the last minute, but...
Don't Daddy Tops and Cera already have that covered? Yet it rarely ever gets the attention I think it warrants (outside of the original 1988 film, anyway). LBT3 could actually have been an opportunity to explore in-depth the many underlying issues of Cera's father being the resident backwards thinking racist and the effect that has on her.
Ultimately, I feel that Hyp and his posse are redundant and only serve to eat up running time. Between the crisis of the Great Valley drying up and everything with Cera and her father essentially mirroring what we learn about Hyp, anyway... yeah. I always, always thought the bits concerning the Triceratops family were by the most interesting part of the film, and on this recent rewatch, I think the series should have foregone on its quest character gimmick and just focused on the reoccurring crowd this time.
Any thoughts?