The Gang of Five
The Land Before Time => 1988 Theatrical Release => Topic started by: Bruton the Iguanodon on December 20, 2011, 04:01:12 AM
-
I felt this scene was just too short. It's such a moving scene but it could have been a lot more moving if the length had been increased. At under 2 minutes it's simply too short! There are plenty of other death scenes in films that are longer then that. Not that I'd want it to be overlong, just a little longer then it was.
Also, as TV tropes pointed out---
He then watched as she finally died. The kicker? The end of the scene is pulled off with the camera pulling back, so that you can only see the outlines of the two characters against the darkness... you don't even realize she has died until you hear Littlefoot speaking to her and getting no response.
Now if they'd done that at the very end of the scene, after she dies, at the point where Littlefoot says, "Mother? Mother?" But no, they had to change to a faraway shot in the middle of the talk and so the very moment where it's supposed to hit the hardest---is a faraway shot. This just isn't what I want. :(
This death scene would probably be the saddest scene ever if these two things were fixed. As it is, it isn't exactly. It's still enormously tearjerking, but I feel it could have been made sadder. Oh, and you know what else totally ruins it? Littlefoot being mad at his mother in the next scene. Yes, I know he was upset, but...(as I've said in the thread I have)...I thought he loved her too much to possibly even think that, even in the darkest of times. :( If he hadn't said a bad word about his mother, the scene of him running to his shadow thinking it's hers, and shouting "Take that back!" at Cera when she calls his mom a stupid longneck would feel so much more stronger and heartwrenching. As it stands, the first one does fairly so, but the second not as much after he said, "She should have known better! It's all her fault!"
-
As already noted, he was just very upset. It was a perfectly normal reaction for him. Even if he loved her twice as much than he did in the movie, or even thrice as much, that doesn't negate that he would get so upset with her in that scene.
Littlefoot saying "It's all her fault" doesn't actually ruin the death scene. Rather it makes it more powerful, more effective. It shows us just how much anguish Littlefoot is in. Him blaming her for her death, then later himself, shows the emotions running through his mind as he tries to cope with her death. It just makes it a much more emotional scene to have "It's all her fault" and "Why did I have to wander so far from home?" in the scene.
As for making the scene longer, I feel the length is good enough as it is. I don't really have any complaints about it.
-
Couldn't he just blamed Sharptooth? (I seriously hope he did, he would have had to be mental not to) :huh:
-
He wasn't rational. Neither would you or I be in such a situation. It would take some time to regain some sense. That time would vary from individual to individual, of course, but was Littlefoot's behaviour really so unusual?
-
I don't feel Littlefoot was irrational in the scene. He acted like anybody would when they lost a loved one. He was going through emotions due to the trauma he suffered, the despair he was going through. He didn't hate his mom; he was just confused and didn't understand why it had to happen. He said things like that because he was still coping and still trying to make sense of everything that went on.
He first blamed his mother because, at least to me, he thought that she should not have fought the sharptooth, that she should have just grabbed him and Cera and ran away to get away from him. He felt that if she had done this, she would have lived.
Then he shifts blame and targets himself. He probably thought he was stupid to leave her side just to follow a frog. He believed that if he had just stayed with her, then they wouldn't have had the sharptooth problem and she would have lived.
There were likely other blames he went through before the Rooter scene.
It's apparent that he does love her. Him briefly blaming her for his death doesn't change this fact. It may seem strange to you, Bruton, but ask anyone who lost a loved one what went through their minds. I can guarantee you that some of them likely, for a time, blamed their loved one for their own death, even if just briefly. I'm not saying everyone does it, but it does happen.
When people get upset, they can get irrational, making strange remarks. It's just a way of handling the situation and let out emotion. It's a perfectly normal reaction and is to be expected. It isn't about how much they loved them. The 'blame the victim' reaction can happen no matter how much they were loved. Again it's normal.
-
Perhaps "irrational" isn't the best word for describing Littlefoot's state. Even your post contradicts itself, DH. You say you feel he wasn't irrational, then you describe his emotional state, and then you describe such behaviour as irrational in your last paragraph.
In fact, what Littlefoot was doing was "rationalising".
"To rationalise" is "to invent plausible explanations for acts, opinions, etc., that are actually based on other causes". He tried to come up with an explanation for the events that unfolded, but he doesn't arrive to conclusions a person which is not under stress would arrive to (for example, that the sharptooth would have come near the herds regardless of what he had done, or that nobody, including his mother, could have known this sharptooth to have been so unusually strong). Instead, he blames his mother, then himself.
Now, is rationalising an irrational behaviour? Rationalising uses the tools of reason, as we can see with the question "Why did I have to wander so far away from home?", but it is guided by the subconscius, which is irrational (lacking reason) by definition.
Then again, rationalising can be done on purpose, at full consciousness, to justify one's own actions. This definitely does not apply to Littlefoot here.
So, Littlefoot was being irrational, in the sense that he wasn't fully aware of what he was saying or doing. It is normal to act in such a way in such a situation.
-
I used the wrong word in the first paragraph. I was going to change it but I couldn't think of a word to use.
-
Agreeable...i did the exact thing when my Grandma died. I wanted to blame somthing, but wasn't in the right mind to do so.
-
I'm sorry, it just upset me to see Littlefoot bashing his dead mother. I can't believe he didn't blame Sharptooth. Well, number 1 bad guy, looks like u get off scott free. As I said earlier, him saying "She should have known better" almost makes his response to Cera's later insult...well, a little hypocritical.
Oh, and I'm really sorry about your Grandma, LBTLover1. Even if it was a while back, I'm deeply sorry, and I'm sure she's in a really good place right now, thinking of you.
Back onto the original topic, maybe?
-
He wasn't bashing his mother. Saying "She should have known better. It's all her fault." isn't bashing. He was just upset, that's all. If he was truly bashing her, he would have gone much further by saying much worse things.
Anyway onto the original topic, I don't know what else I could add. I really don't think the death scene should have been longer; I think the length that it was was just fine.
Out of curiosity, ever thought writing fanfiction of how you prefer LBT to be like? Like, maybe writing a fanfic version one of the sequels, but changing things to how you would prefer it?
-
Cool idea! I might try that!
Oh, and no one's posted their opinion on this:
Also, as TV tropes pointed out---
QUOTE
He then watched as she finally died. The kicker? The end of the scene is pulled off with the camera pulling back, so that you can only see the outlines of the two characters against the darkness... you don't even realize she has died until you hear Littlefoot speaking to her and getting no response.
As I said I don't think that's how it shouldve been done...but that's just me. What about u guys?
-
It was probably done that way to scare the kids less. If they had shown her dying, it probably would have impacted the kids too much. So showing the death without showing it clearly, they felt that was the better alternative. That's my guess.
If you do write it, you can post it the board, just as long as it does not go to the R (sometimes called M) rating. Anything up to PG-13 is fine, far as I know.
-
It was probably done that way to scare the kids less. If they had shown her dying, it probably would have impacted the kids too much. So showing the death without showing it clearly, they felt that was the better alternative. That's my guess
And the older, nitpicky fans like me end up feeling cheated. <_<
Gee, who thinks there should be a Land Before Time "uncensored" version for older fans? With this shown and all the cut scenes from the original?
-
They were catering the movie towards the younger kids. When a studio makes a movie, they have a specific target audience in mind. In this case, LBT's target audience was children. They can't please everyone, however. So while many like LBT1 the way it is, others would feel like something could be changed. But as I said, hard to please everybody; there's always going to be someone who would want to change things around.
-
I still really like the idea of a version 4 older fans
-
The only way that would get released to video is with a total reboot of the franchise.
-
Anyways, I want your opinions though: do you think the death should have been shot close up instead of suddenly cutting to far away halfway through the scene?
BECAUSE I DO! :(
I can't help but feel that they cut the saddest moment from the film by doing this!
The end of the scene is pulled off with the camera pulling back, so that you can only see the outlines of the two characters against the darkness... you don't even realize she has died until you hear Littlefoot speaking to her and getting no response.
Oh, the heartlessness of the filmmakers! This scene could have been...
-
And....he could have just blamed SHARPTOOTH!
-
The zoom out is supposed to represent isolation between Littlefoot and his mother. During the scene, Littlefoot and his mother were close (in the camera), simulating a bond between them. As the camera moved out, the mother died and showed that all he has left is himself and nothing around could "cure" him.
-
But the "far awayness" starts in the middle of the scene, not at the end
-
No it's by the end of the scene.
Click here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbW8GgAWKi8) to see. The camera zooms out. Nothing is around Littlefoot except his mother.
-
Each characters has at least 2 lines apiece by the time its shown faraway and the scene is short enough as it is; its about halfway
-
And by the way, doesn't anybody wish he'd blamed Sharptooth instead? Or is Sharptooth too awesome a villian to blame? :idea
-
i know what you mean, the scene feels like it should have been longer, personally i like it as is but yeah i mean they're both there talking you can here their voices but neither character is moving and that is the point when everything is very still (aside from is mother's tail settling) that it feels like she's died.
in other words if you close your eyes and watch the scene, you can picture them talking and it feels like the camera should still be up close
now if you watch it without sound, at the point where the camera zooms out and her tail stops moving, that's the part when it feels like she's died
ok not very well explained but i hope you get the gist :huh:
-
So do you kinda see what I'm getting at now, LBTLover1?
-
Not really, the death was just at a fine pace...I don't really see how it should be extended. The camera zooms out, the tail settles, and the mother dies. I personally feel there shouldn't be any dialogue at all except the mother's directions to the great valley (since it was significant to Littlefoot).
For the sharptooth...remember, he was all screwed up in the head after his post-tragic situation. He really couldn't think. Of course, when I was younger, I asked, "Why is Littlefoot blaming his mother?" I'm older now I fully understand why.
-
Still, it coulda been shown up close.
And I don't see why he couldn't have blamed Sharptooth.
-
And I don't see why he couldn't have blamed Sharptooth.
It was because he was in so much pain and distress from what happened that he wasn't thinking straight. I was never upset with him blaming his mother (and then himself) after her death, and now that I'm older I understand why he did so: the pain he was feeling. He may have very well blamed Sharptooth offscreen before switching blames.
But I don't think it's necessary that we see him blame the predator on screen; him blaming his mother and himself is, to me, more emotionally powerful as it shows how much anguish he is in. Blaming Sharptooth, on the other hand, in that scene would have been, for me, less impacting because, in my opinion, it would have been less a distressed statement and more of a mention of fact, which wouldn't have made the scene after his mother's death as emotional as it could be. But that's just how I see it.
-
i like the length of the scene, i think that it seems like the dialogue and the animation don't seem quite right because while you can hear them speaking there's no movement accept for his mothers tail which eventually becomes still. they're not moving even though you can hear them talking. but really you can only notice it if you really look for a fault :smile
-
I hope there was an extended version in the lost scenes...but there isn't a cut to it in the "whispering winds" song