Littlefoot's Mother Showcase - January 2021

[rhombus]

Some things you see with your eyes, others you see with your heart.

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In this topic please feel free to discuss Littlefoot's Mother as a character, to share your own creations (fanfics or fanart) concerning this character, or to mention some of your favorite fanworks of others involving her.  For a full set of rules please see the 2021 Monthly Character Showcase topic but keep in mind that this is meant to be fun as opposed to any sort of contest.

I will go ahead and get the discussion started with the following questions:

1.  For many of us seeing Littlefoot's mother meet her end in the first film was a very emotional moment.  Do you remember your reaction to witnessing that scene for the first time?

2.  With the possible exception of Littlefoot's portion of "Always There" in the fifth film, the passing of Littlefoot's Mother and its effect of Littlefoot were only substantively covered in the first film.  Do you think this subject should be brought up again in any future film or television series?

[LittleDas75]

To answer your first question I can't remember my first reaction to her dying. In fact I don't remember crying at all during that scene. And as for the second question, it should be brought up again in future LBT content absolutely.

[ChocoDrake]

To answer your first question I can't remember my first reaction to her dying. In fact I don't remember crying at all during that scene. And as for the second question, it should be brought up again in future LBT content absolutely.

  Heck, I have the same problem as well, I can't remember it or crying either. It takes a lot to make me cry sometimes so...

[ChocoDrake]

Does anyone else have issues with writing her character? I think I'm doing good at keeping her in character, at least I hope so, but I always have that worry. I see her as this spiritual motherly guardian, nice and kind but does not take crap from anyone.

I wonder how others see her? Is there any strange quirks that just kinda happen when you write her? Everyone has a way of writing certain characters, what's your version of Littlefoot's Mother?

I've noticed my writing is different when writing her, I always use the word Yet a lot, and she always seems to follow her instincts more than anyone I've written for before. Also she's been kind of snippy these last few chapters, but I mostly blame that on stress, seeing your kids hit a dead end literally will do that to you.

[Nanotyrannus]

I don't think there's much to say about her that hasn't already been said; for as little screen time as she gets, she stands as one of the most memorable characters in the movie and one of the strongest in the whole series. 

1.) This is an odd case; not only do I not remember crying at the scene of her dying when I first watched it, but I straight-up don't remember the scene from any of my viewings of the movie from when I was little; I definitely pay attention to it whenever I watch the movie now, but still, weird...

2.) The fact that I took a good minute to pause and savor her being mentioned in some capacity in the opening narration of JotB when Universal released the first ten minutes of the movie definitely says something about my stance on this matter; absolutely.

[Sarah]

I never really saw the scene "for the first time", because the first time I heart the story of the first film was when I was reading an illustrated storybook of it together with my grandfather. I remember that I didn't say a word. I was just sitting there, looking at the picture of the dying brontosaurus in the book and asking myself things like: Is this really happening? and What's the point of this?
I'm really surprised of how good I can remember the text that my grandfather was reading out loud for me back then. At this sentence (rough transition from what I can remember): "Mother, please keep talking to me!", but his mother didn't answer. She had died.my grandfather lowered his voice in a sad manner and looked at me as if he wanted to make sure that I was okay and that I was able to understand what had happened. Then he turned the page.
I have to point out that the death wasn't as sad for me as for the people who saw Littlefoot for the first time in the original movie, simply because I grew up with the sequels. I knew that Littlefoot would be fine in the end. I knew that Littlefoot wasn't completely alone, because he was going to make the best friends he could ever ask for.

I think the most efficient method to make a true land before time fan interested in a sequel like 5, 9 or 14 is just to say that Littlefoot's mother is mentioned again. I've already seen that in reviews on websites that sell those movies. For me the moments when she is mentioned again are some of the most emotional and memorable of the whole series, so I would definitely love to see more of them.

I wonder how others see her?

The short screen time she had her and natural behaviour leave room for many different interpretations of her character. I found many different versions of her: ( this might a bit long so I'll put behind "spoiler")

Spoiler: ShowHide

 
How the people who own this book which came out before the film might see her:

How we saw her in the film

How some people who grew up with the sequels might see her:

How I saw her as a young child:

If you are interested in other character interpretations of her I would highly recommend to watch the first film in other languages. I think her character is more orientated on a real dinosaur than on other cartoon characters, so her personality isn't defined by movement. That's why her character can change slightly with her voice actor. I can't speak for all version, but I've noticed that Helen Shaver sounds more quiet than the German voice actor of her for example.

[LittleDas75]

Either way Littlefoot's mother is a fantastic character . She's very kind and a complete bad a**. Her death is very sad and is my opinion the most powerful death scene in animated film history  . It's too bad her husband left her for no logical reason .

[StardustSoldier]

Lol, I still need to post my thoughts in here. I'll try and remember to do that soon.

[Mumbling]

Let me start off by saying that voicing Littlefoot's mother in our dubbed version was a true honor. And a struggle. Man, she has some emotional scenes.

1. I do not remember witnessing her death for the first time, as I was very young when I watched it. However I'm sure I bawled my eyes out when I re-watched it as a teenager. Like I said, pretty emotional.

2. It is odd that she does not get mentioned more often in the sequels. I guess the limited runtime of each movie in combination with a theme other than LF's mom doesn't leave much space for that. Realistically, watching your mother die in front of you after she was basically murdered probably creates some trauma. We know that some of this was dealt with by Rooter's appearance, but I'm sure some part of Littlefoot will struggle with this for the rest of his life. If this show was aimed at a slightly older target audience, I think we would have seen more of that.

All in all she is a lovable character. She gives Littlefoot courage, lets him roam free to play with other dinosaurs, and has the patience to answer his many questions. I'm pretty sure that most toddlers go through a "but why" phase, and most mothers will eventually pull out their hairs Her death is tragic, but well orchestrated. Even in her parting words she shares wisdom with Littlefoot and tries to make sure that her only child will get the life she intended for him. That is some true love and dedication, right there.

[Gentle Sharptooth]

1.  For many of us seeing Littlefoot's mother meet her end in the first film was a very emotional moment.  Do you remember your reaction to witnessing that scene for the first time?

I was traumatized. It made me is a child contemplate losing my own mother. I became empathic with Little Foot’s loss, it felt like  I was losing Momma Longneck.

2.  With the possible exception of Littlefoot's portion of "Always There" in the fifth film, the passing of Littlefoot's Mother and its effect of Littlefoot were only substantively covered in the first film.  Do you think this subject should be brought up again in any future film or television series?

I do believe Little Foot’s Mother and lising her needs to be revisted. The closest we got was Bron saying goodbye to her in LBTX.

A great way would be to establish that Little Foot has a remembrance day and pulls out his Mother’s treestar.

[LittleDas75]

1.  For many of us seeing Littlefoot's mother meet her end in the first film was a very emotional moment.  Do you remember your reaction to witnessing that scene for the first time?

I was traumatized. It made me is a child contemplate losing my own mother. I became empathic with Little Foot’s loss, it felt like  I was losing Momma Longneck.

2.  With the possible exception of Littlefoot's portion of "Always There" in the fifth film, the passing of Littlefoot's Mother and its effect of Littlefoot were only substantively covered in the first film.  Do you think this subject should be brought up again in any future film or television series?

I do believe Little Foot’s Mother and lising her needs to be revisted. The closest we got was Bron saying goodbye to her in LBTX.

A great way would be to establish that Little Foot has a remembrance day and pulls out his Mother’s treestar.

There's one problem with that. His mother's treestar was stomped on by Sharptooth in the first movie.

[Gentle Sharptooth]

Good point. Pehaps he kept the stick his mother gave him he was chewing on?

[LittleDas75]

Good point. Pehaps he kept the stick his mother gave him he was chewing on?

I'm not sure how he would be able to do that but maybe.

[Gentle Sharptooth]

Retcons, retcons. Or should I say Rhettcons.

[StardustSoldier]

Lol, I still need to post my thoughts in here. I'll try and remember to do that soon.

Haha! And it took me another two-and-a-half years after my original post to finally get to it! Well hey, better late than never!

But yeah, I had commented on all of the showcases throughout 2019 and 2020. And then after that I fell off the wagon. Even though I'd still wanted to participate in the ones after that, but I got distracted with other things and just stopped for a while. Well, here I am now. I shall be picking up where I left off and gradually making my way through the remaining showcases.

1.  For many of us seeing Littlefoot's mother meet her end in the first film was a very emotional moment.  Do you remember your reaction to witnessing that scene for the first time?

The Land Before Time is something I can remember from my childhood and my family used to own the first film on VHS, so I have a multi-part answer to this question:

- While I can broadly remember the film from when I was a kid, I don't recall my first time seeing it, per say, and so I'm not exactly sure what my first-time reaction would've been to that scene. But I remember I liked the film and so chances are that I would've thought it was pretty emotional and sad.

- After childhood, I didn't see the movie again for a looooong time. Possibly around 18 years or so passed before I saw it again. My memories of it had grown rather scattered and distant by that point. Yet, Littlefoot's mother's passing was one of the few moments I could still remember well, and so the scene had clearly left an impression on me.

- And then of course when I finally rewatched the movie all those years later. And yes, I teared up when I saw it again.

2.  With the possible exception of Littlefoot's portion of "Always There" in the fifth film, the passing of Littlefoot's Mother and its effect of Littlefoot were only substantively covered in the first film.  Do you think this subject should be brought up again in any future film or television series?

I do think it should be brought up in any future stories, yes. Not only that, but I also wish it had been brought up in some of the previous sequels. It didn't need to be mentioned constantly or anything, but I do wish it'd been brought up more than it was. It would've added more emotional weight to some of the later stories.


A bit of a fun side note. Back in 2020, I was going through a rough patch and so I started seeing a counsellor (I am thankfully doing much better nowadays). During one of our sessions; I don't remember exactly how it first came up, but I mentioned I was a Land Before Time fan and we got into a conversation about it. This inspired my counsellor and so he told me that he was going to watch the original Land Before Time that upcoming weekend. Later at our next session, he told me he'd watched the movie with his wife, and him and I talked about the movie's themes and characters. I also told him how the movie has helped me cope with my own grief with some of my losses, since that was one of the things I'd been struggling with at the time. Even in the midst of my rough patch, talking about LBT with my counsellor is a nice memory I have.