The Gang of Five
The Land Before Time => General Land Before Time => Topic started by: Animeboye on March 27, 2010, 01:18:37 AM
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I've read a lot of people's opinions on the sequels on sites like Thatguywiththeglasses, IMDb, and RetroJunk. And a lot of the comments on them pretty much say the same thing. "The sequels ruined the original!!!!111, Why did they make so many?!!!!, These movies are godawful!!!, etc." I get that not everyone is going to like these but comments like "These movies were made by Satan!" or "These are a crime against humanity!" (Well not exactly that dramatic but you get the point) are just ludicrous. Sure the sequels aren't masterpieces but they are far from being as bad as some make them out to be(Well, some of the sequels. Others are just that bad). Now will they ever replace the original? Of course not! And I don't think that's what they're trying to do. Are they as good as the original? Depends on who you ask.
If these movies were really as bad as sites like RottenTomatoes makes them out to be, then why were there so many? Obviously kids were enjoying them if they made so many films. And a lot of popular characters like Chomper, Ali and Pterano were from the sequels so these films must have done something right.
Now I do think that the sequels could have offered a lot more. Littlefoot and Chomper's relationship, for example, could have had a LOT more depth behind it. Littlefoot meeting his dad could have been handled in a number of different ways. And LBT 13 could have had a different plot entirely. Yes the sequels are flawed, moreso than the original but that doesn't make them bad. It just makes them imperfect, just like every other movie. Nothing is perfect.
I think people need to ease up on the sequel hatred. You may not like the sequels but there are people that do, me being one of them. Besides, there are much worse things that kids could be watching than cute dinosaurs singing.
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Are you kidding me? I LOVE VII- "Stone of Cold Fire"
that's MY favorite.
Because of Pterano (his ONLY appearance in ANY of the 13 movies) and he never appeared in the t.v. series.
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I was referring to comments like these http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/forums/vi...and+before+time (http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2733&hilit=land+before+time)
You'll get what I mean from reading this. It's nothing but people bashing the sequels.
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I already know that Ptyra will strongly disagree that the sequels were cruddy.
All the movies were great (up to the Big Freeze) (Journey to big water- onward was crap)
and the dreaded yellowbellies from XIII AAARGHHHCKK :x :x :x :x :x
And they made petrie (the cutest and cuddliest thing, who was brave in the beginning) more cowardly later on in the movie series. (OMG- I can't believe he's afraid of clouds (Look out, Petrie, it's the dreaded "sky puffies".. :blink: :crazy WEEEIRD.), has an UGGGLY imaginary friend ??? :o yet we saw him take on a sharptooth in the first movie.
But I LOVE his personality up to "Big Freeze" though. (I just want to hold him in the palm of my hands and pet & tickle him) :lol: ha ha.
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My guess is that most of those people haven't even SEEN a majority of the sequels, and that they get so bored all they can do is troll something harmless.
Indeed, the sequels started getting REALLY bad after seven or eight...I'd say when BRIGHT COLORS started being used, which would have been nine...also the time the characters' personality boxes began to wear down...or in Petrie's case, completely demolished.
If you think about in An American Tale had quite a handful of sequels as well...however, Fivel Goes West was VERY well liked (after all, how often do you get to see John Cleese as a cat that's aptly named Cat R. Wawl :lol )...AND All Dog's Go to Heaven (even got a reeeally cheesy Christmas special...Christmas Carol...bleh). Yet those don't attract much attention. I guess it's because it eventually began to die down, but LBT didn't.
Another thing that probably caused major dislike was the songs. I gotta say, some of the songs were quite ridiculous (...ly long in 13).
My conclusion is that people have no life and just sit there and bawwwwwwww at something they really shouldn't bawwwwwwww at...then again, we ALL do it at some point.
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Sequels hardly ever live up to the expectations of the originals, and people can't seem to learn that little lesson for some odd reason.
Because of this, there are few who can see a movie for it's true value. And that is the case of the sequels.
People never come with an open mind when they watch a sequel. (If hardly ever.) They always have some sort of expectation, that pretty much matches that of the original and goes beyond that of what a movie is normally required. They set themselves up to hate the sequel from the start and not even realize it.
Simply put, they expect the sequels to be much like the original, and since it wasn't, they just can't like it.
This is why you should always keep an open mind when you watch a movie, regardless of what it may be. You never know what you may end up liking.
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Petrie doesn't like the sequels either.
My guess is, they grew up with the original and thought the second was nothing like the original... Therefore disliking it. Not that lbt 13 helped a lot.
I grew up when there were already 5 or 6 sequels out... So yeah, it's normal and should be part of lbt in my opinion :)
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Personally, I consider it an enormous shame that LBT is apparently best known for its large number of sequels. Regardless of the quality of the sequels, the original film was magnificent, and I wish it would receive more credit for being so. Alas, it seems that all the reviews out there that do praise the first LBT invariably denigrate the sequels to some extent as well, while the rest condemn the series as a whole, with no credit given to the masterpiece that started it all.
I wouldn't be surprised if a large number of the people who accuse LBT of "sequelitis" have never actually seen most of the sequels. Indeed, a large number of the reviewers on Animeboye’s link apparently stopped watching the series after a given number of sequels, and base their opinions of the later sequels on the words of others alone. (Some appear to be judging the films by the look of the DVD covers alone, which is irritating, considering that the cover art of just about every film past XI is cheaply done, and often poorly represents the movie.)
Perhaps LBT suffers from a stigma of sorts, due to being a show about dinosaurs whose intended audience is primarily children, and featuring large amounts of singing. (I despise the notion of drawing parallels between LBT and Barney, :x but you see what I'm getting at.)
Admittedly, there does seem to be a general consensus that the quality of the sequels has decreased over time, and there are some sequels (namely LBT XIII) and songs (“Oops-Eeps”, “Feel So Happy”, etc.) that are widely disliked by even the fans. Still, as pokeplayer984 pointed out, shouldn’t it be common knowledge that sequels are generally inferior to their originals?
Sequel quality aside, one thing that confuses me is why it is wrong for a movie series like LBT to go on for so long, but the same is not true of a TV series that lasts for the same length of time in terms of total minutes of footage. The combined running time of all of the LBT films (not counting the TV episodes) amounts to approximately 16 hours and 12 minutes; the rough equivalent of 21 to 24 episodes of a TV series in a one-hour timeslot. I know of TV series that go through that many episodes or more in a single season. So if a TV series can be considered successful for lasting for several seasons, what makes a film series containing many sequels a “zombie franchise” overdue to be put down?
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People are always gonna judge actions such as making 12 sequels to an original movie as a bad ploy if not a lot changes between each installment. Granted there has to be some key elements that remain so the affiliation of the movies' theme is still present but something like LBT is not going to shine with a mass audience because of its intended target recipients. As much as I love the Nostalgia Critic, I doubt the majority of those guys who posted up on his forum page have seen even a handful of the LBT sequels are are just looking to pick holes in whatever tiny snippet they can easily access. I hate to say it, but the appreciation of LBT's sequels is a ticked box for a realisation of fandom (another factor of modern society which is apparently subject to immediate ridicule and humiliation nowadays). Only more dedicated fans are willing to give the series a watch over and THEN cast their opinions on it. Others are just going to bitch about it purely because of its existance and probably won't go near a copy of an LBT sequel with a 60ft barge pole.
As always with me, people can say what they want. Each to their own. Their opinions don't relay back to me so I can just shrug it off. Let them rant coz their huff and puffs ain't gonna rock my house :p :DD
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I love the original movie but I won't deny for a second that if it wasn't for the sequels I would have never become the land before time fan that I am.
However, even the very first sequel, which I really like a lot, posed a major breach with the original movie; a breach that was not everybody's cup of tea.
A friendly purple sharptooth sounds a lot like Barney to many and given the fact that LBT 2 seems to play just a few days after the end of the original movie I do think it is a flaw in the movie that they don't mention Littlefoot's mother a single time and that we never ever see him having any problem with the idea of a sharptooth leafeater relationship. I think the movie misses some good chances there. I think many people are annoyed about the songs. Personally I feel I can take some of the dreadful ones into account so long the good ones continue as well.
After the breach in style between the original and the first sequel there was another clear breach in style when Roy Alan Smith stopped making them and Charles Grosvenor took over. No offense to Grosvenor (who faced the tricky situation of many stories having already been told so it became more difficult to come up with something new) but I preferred Smiths' style. Smith sort of maintained the image of the dying world from the original movie. What we see of the Mysterious Beyond is much of a landscape of decay or else subjected to changes that make the land uninhabitable for dinosaurs (LBT 4) so the Great Valley remains a somewhat special place (though arguably LBT 4 was the first movie to scratch that image).
Grosvenor made the setting a lot more harmless. The Great Valley was turned into a place "just as nice" as many others, in case of danger everything turned red, danger was not driven to far anymore as sharpteeth all of a sudden turned as stupid as skies and lava tended to turn green, and aliens made their landfal in the Great Valley :rolleyes
Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying that all of Grosvenor's movies were bad. He did have some really good ideas. But I can't help feeling that very often where he did have good ideas he often realized them in a poor matter by caring too little about details. The dumbing down of sharpteeth and the extreme lack of concern for sensible plots made me care a lot less about the later sequels than about the early ones.
It is for that reason that I have a higher opinion about the TV series than about some of the later sequels. Of course there are some weaknesses in the TV series as well, but I think that it mended a good number of the weaknesses of some of the later sequels and I think the series goes to show that LBT still has a good potential for stories even if those stories don't necessarily cover an hour.
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I was referring to comments like these http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/forums/vi...and+before+time (http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2733&hilit=land+before+time)
You'll get what I mean from reading this. It's nothing but people bashing the sequels.
And I didn't help out the sequels much myself on that topic. Then again, me requesting that a basher of bad movies goes after 10 and 13 (especially 13) should be no big surprise to those who know me.
You know what else, they actually have the gull to call ALL the songs of the sequels bad. Anyone wish to point out just how good Always There, It Takes All Sorts, No One Has to be Alone, etc. were to them?
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And I didn't help out the sequels much myself on that topic. Then again, me requesting that a basher of bad movies goes after 10 and 13 (especially 13) should be no big surprise to those who know me.
Asking anyone to bash any movie for any reason is not a good idea in my opinion. It's one thing if it's something like the Nostalgia Critic; it's just for humor. It's another to do it solely because you hate the movie so much that you want someone to tear into it just for the delight of seeing someone rip the movie apart. I mean really; what is the point of bashing a movie? What will that accomplish? The movies will continue to exist; bashing it won't make the movies "unexist".
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If it weren't for LBT II, I probably would've never known about LBT until later on. I was introduced to our pals when LBT II came out.
Unlike some others, I actually like the sequels. Sure, LBT XIII was the worst of 'em all, but I still found it tolerable. I don't care what anyone says. I like the whole series :yes.
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I like many of the sequels, yes. "Like" being the word, as opposed to "love". They were...okay, but nothing special. I think many saw this as a huge let-down after the brilliance of the original.
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Thats life there will be people judging one thing or the other but honest they don't need to over do it, some originals especially LBT had some good sequels I wasn't a big fan of sequels either but I was always curious to see what they are all about. In the end I learn from them so in conclusion rather the sequels suck or not their is a moral behind them all. So people shouldn't complain at least the sequels are there to reduce Boredom
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If it weren't for LBT II, I probably would've never known about LBT until later on. I was introduced to our pals when LBT II came out.
LBT 2 was my first also
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I like many of the sequels, yes. "Like" being the word, as opposed to "love". They were...okay, but nothing special. I think many saw this as a huge let-down after the brilliance of the original.
In YOUR opinion they're nothing special. To quite a few people on here (me included), these movies are special. I grew up with the first five LBT movies and loved them all as a kid. I still have vivid memories from my kindergarten years. How when we would have nap time, I would sometimes bring in one of my Land Before Time movies for us to watch.
The first five movies have a very special place in my heart. Sure they weren't the best movies ever made but did they really aim to be? I love the first five movies because they were a big part of my childhood. They're fun, entertaining, likeable movies if given a chance. They're not Oscar winners but at least they don't sink to the lowest common denominator like most "children's entertainment" today does.
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I like many of the sequels, yes. "Like" being the word, as opposed to "love". They were...okay, but nothing special. I think many saw this as a huge let-down after the brilliance of the original.
In YOUR opinion they're nothing special. To quite a few people on here (me included), these movies are special. I grew up with the first five LBT movies and loved them all as a kid. I still have vivid memories from my kindergarten years. How when we would have nap time, I would sometimes bring in one of my Land Before Time movies for us to watch.
You don't have to get angry with clawandfang. He always takes the opposite site of the discussion to keep it interesting :lol
And yeah, the fact that they were made later on as well was probably just good, since otherwise people might not have even noticed the land before time.
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I wasn't angry. I was just saying, that to some people, these movies are special. If I came off as angry then I apologize. That wasn't my intent.
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I like all of the sequels, but I personally think that the worst sequel was 11. If it wasn't for the sequels, a lot of us probably wouldn't have been introduced to this series in the first place. Also, if you go to amazon.com, you'll see that some of the sequels actually got really good ratings. I think that because we're all fans of LBT, some of us have really high expectations for the sequels. Also, these sequels were designed for young kids who are open-minded and just wanna have some fun.
However, we really should appreciate the sequels that we have. I've watched most of them, and they're pretty good. The songs were catchy, and they never fail to extend the legacy of the first LBT series. Stay open-minded, and you'll appreciate the sequels just as much as I do. :DD
And yes, the LBT series did play a huge role in my life. It was the first movie I've ever watched in English, and they drastically improved my English. It also brings back so many memories. Even today, I still watch them, at the ripe age of 13. :lol
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It's guilt by association that get the LBT sequels so trashed. It has something to do with what kind of film usually gets this many sequels. Think of Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, and the like. The originals for those weren't that great to begin with and their sequels were absolutely atrocious. As such, films like Land Before Time get thought of in the same light, whether or not it's true or fair.
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The vision of the original and the sequels is very different; the first was actually kinda harsh, the later ones were very kid-friendly.
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I grew up with LBT up to LBT VI. After that I had no idea they were still making more of these movies. I think it really hit me when I saw a trailer for LBT X I was like, wait, they are still around?
I personally don't mind the sequels up to LBT IX. The voice of Littlefoot during LBT V - IX was obviously getting older and it didn't sound that good in IX. Also, by that point, besides X, the plots were unoriginal.
I guess, like most people here have said, everybody remembers the original for being a masterpiece, but then all of the sequels are of nowhere near the same quality and therefore ruin the original.
I don't necessarily think they ruin the original, but I will not deny that they are nowhere near as good.
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Let's face it: sequels never seem to live up to the original. Regardless, I still love the LBT series and always will. I'm only aging on the outside, after all ;).
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Let's face it: sequels never seem to live up to the original. Regardless, I still love the LBT series and always will. I'm only aging on the outside, after all ;).
Unless they're called The Empire Strikes Back or Terminator 2 :lol
Horray for being young on the inside!
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Let's face it: sequels never seem to live up to the original. Regardless, I still love the LBT series and always will. I'm only aging on the outside, after all ;).
Unless they're called The Empire Strikes Back or Terminator 2 :lol
Horray for being young on the inside!
Yeah, those are probably two of only a handful of sequels that were better than the originals.
I think the people who watch these movies now hate them because they are just realizing now that they were too young to notice how bad they really were. Then again, I enjoy them regardless so it's all whatever to me.
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I am not sure if I do like the sequels. There are some that I find okay but most sequels can never compete with the original movie.
The Land Before Time was a magnificent masterpiece which I do feel that it is a shame that the characters are known today (with the younger generations) through either the television show or the sequels.
The first movie had a plot, likeable characters and great scenes (backgrounds). The sequels vary and that depends on the different directors, editors etc that they had. Some have okay plots whilst others are awful. Some have likeable characters whilst others have annoying characters.
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To be honest, I'm just glad that the characters are remembered period. Too often animated movies that aren't under the Disney or Pixar logo have a tendancy to be forgotten about after awhile. Even Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, which everyone and their grampappys were raving about back in '09 has pretty much been forgotten about.
I agree completely that the first LBT was a masterpiece and I praise the movie for having a beautiful yet haunting story, characters with their own individual personalities and flaws, and for giving us reasons to like said characters aside from them being cute. Truly it is one of the best animated movies and in my opinion doesn't get the credit it deserves. But I still believe the sequels are good in their own right. To me they're fun, have (usually) good stories, have good messages(Not counting 11 and 13) and are able to have genuinely humorous moments without having to resort to the dread slapstick or overused gag.
Now I'm just speaking for the first six sequels. When it got to eight, then the movies were either okay (10) or just painfully bland and boring (8).
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As most people know...SEQUALS SUCK!!!!!!!!!! But some have the odd exception of the second or third being better than the first. Sadly, this wasn't the case. I guess the producers just wanted it to be a kids series, so they probably didn't put a lot of effort into it because they didn't think they would need to because most young kids can't tell the difference whether or not it's a crappy movie or a good movie.
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A lot of people talk about how bad the sequels were next to the original, but really the sequels started out better then the original. Then at 5 this changed. Grosvner took over, and things got nasty.
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A lot of people talk about how bad the sequels were next to the original, but really the sequels started out better then the original. Then at 5 this changed. Grosvner took over, and things got nasty.
I disagree. The original was better than the sequels. The sequels were never as good as the original. Sure they had suspense and such, but they could never match what the original gave.
Not saying the sequels were bad. It's just that I never felt they were as good, or better, than the original. I do feel that if the sequels were more like the original, they would have been much better. But instead, right from LBT2, the tone completely changed. As a kid, I didn't mind. But now that I'm older, this change in tone did start to aggravate me, I admit.
And in all the sequels, the only one that felt like it returned, kind of, to the spirit of the original is LBT9, and even that couldn't match the original, in my opinion.
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right from LBT2, the tone completely changed. As a kid, I didn't mind. But now that I'm older, this change in tone did start to aggravate me, I admit.
I felt the same way when I first saw LBT 2. I bought the original and LBT 2 when I was 7. I watched the original first and loved it. When I watched the second I felt that there was just far too much fluff! The singing was unbearable and unnecessary to me and very little of these perilous situations impacted me as a kid. I was willing to watch the rest of the sequels but I found them all to be forgettable. To me, all of the sequels weren't entertaining. Especially when I got older.
The only sequel that had somewhat of an "edge" to it was LBT 5 but the movie could've been better.
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I think people hate them is because of the value in the messages which it contains. The first one was basically coping with new environments while the others were like friendships. The message were told to a younger audience in which others found not interesting.
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Everything up to 4 was great. From 5 to 9 it was liveable ,if not barely at times and unbearable in certain moments. 10...was a little too much. 11 was way too much. So was 12. 13? :x :x
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there was already a topic on this I had some feeling there was already on a topic on this then why did I do one when there already was.
;)
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I like them..though they got more and more dumbed down with each one.
I quite liked the 10th...ALLL DE LONGNECKS :D
13 on the under hand..*shudder*
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I like the sequels. Though, to be honest, I think they are never as good as the original movie, which is a masterpiece, that started them all. Personally, I see them as some kind of officially released fan-fictions that have nothing to do with the original movie. I guess I think of them this way probably due to having watched the original movie before any of the sequels.
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It can be hard to cope with the dramatic change in style, I guess. Both in art and in themes.
It can be easy to forget that with a movie like The Land Before Time, the story within it was meant to be just the way it was. I mean, with all the death, and sacrifice and poverty themes, etc. in LBT 1, with the tragic story and traditional animation style, I don't see how any sequel after the gang made the trip to the Great Valley could have ever matched the first movie. How do you up the stakes? Destroy the great valley as well? See what I mean? The sequels are just to relive the characters and explore the great valley :) yknow.
EDIT: The great trek, and joining up with other 'races' (well, species) and getting along to find home can't be repeated in a sequel
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The sequels ain't bad! See, I just watched 'Wisdom of Friends' and you know what? I enjoyed it :D See, if you just switch off your brain and relax you'll find it easier to let those flaws be flaws... Just ignore them and enjoy the movies :) LBT 13 is still waaaaaaaaay better than most of the stuff running on the screen nowadays!