The Gang of Five

The Land Before Time => Land Before Time TV Series (2007) => Topic started by: Bruton the Iguanodon on December 23, 2011, 10:27:01 PM

Title: Whats wrong with the series?
Post by: Bruton the Iguanodon on December 23, 2011, 10:27:01 PM
It has terrible animation---the cast are drawn much more simply and cheesily then in the films, espicially the earlier ones.  The music is a complete departure---instead of the usdual beautiful orchestral score we hear, the music is...well, it sounds like African or Carribean music or something. I liked the orchestral stuff wayy better...its a bit of a shock. Everything is toned down, even from the sequels (except 13 maybe.) What else?
Title: Whats wrong with the series?
Post by: guidolover on December 24, 2011, 10:12:27 AM
yes , I agree . What I find really anoying is when  they turn 3D from a distance but its still really noticible , also it seems to be aimed for younger kids like 5 year olds unlike the films , lastly the animation ........  this is my responce :  :)  :huh:   :blink:  :o  :unsure:  <_<  :(  :bang  :anger  :(  .............. yeah

Although I  complain about it Im 11 and still like watching it  :lol  :)

ps. theme tune : :blink:  :blink:  what country am I in ??????? :crazy
Title: Whats wrong with the series?
Post by: DarkHououmon on December 24, 2011, 04:07:12 PM
Well television material is usually of lower quality than full movies. They have less time and less resources to work with. So you can't really fault them for it.
Title: Whats wrong with the series?
Post by: Chiletrek on December 25, 2011, 02:13:59 PM
Hello:
 And I agree with DarkHououmon, because sadly, for television, you have far less budget, people and time to make the stories.

 You can see the differences in many (if not all) animated tv series based on movies. Cartoon Network (when it used to be a good channel) allowed me to see this first hand, for example: After watching the movie: "All Dogs go to Heaven", after that, they aired some episodes of the tv serie that was made and the differences were BIG!.

 But compared to other animated series, the LBT one wasn't that bad.
Title: Whats wrong with the series?
Post by: guidolover on December 25, 2011, 03:58:12 PM
I geuss you are right and I dont like picking fault with the lbt   :oops  but I wish it could be as good as the films .....

anyway I still love the lbt !!!!! :lol  :lol  :smile  :smile  :angel  :exactly
Title: Whats wrong with the series?
Post by: LBTLover1 on December 26, 2011, 08:31:08 PM
Inconsistent plots
repetitive songs
bad acting
animation mistakes
unrealistic messages.
Title: Whats wrong with the series?
Post by: Bruton the Iguanodon on December 26, 2011, 11:52:13 PM
Pussycat Sharpteeth---Redclaw runs away from fruit that gets thrown at him, and ran away from Spike just cause he was stinky---what a sissy, where the hell did Chomper and Ruby hear that he's the meanest, most feroscious sharptooth ever? I bet the only thing he could really ever manage to kill is a yellowbelly...and even those ***holes might fool him by doing that thing of sticking their heads into the ground...
Title: Whats wrong with the series?
Post by: trulyfantasticme on December 27, 2011, 12:32:28 AM
Quote from: guidolover,Dec 24 2011 on  09:12 AM
yes , I agree . What I find really anoying is when  they turn 3D from a distance but its still really noticible , also it seems to be aimed for younger kids like 5 year olds unlike the films , lastly the animation ........  this is my responce :  :)  :huh:   :blink:  :o  :unsure:  <_<  :(  :bang  :anger  :(  .............. yeah

Although I  complain about it Im 11 and still like watching it  :lol  :)

ps. theme tune : :blink:  :blink:  what country am I in ??????? :crazy
 :blink:  :blink: WHOA!! You're 11?? Wow! You must be the youngest here!

Anyway, I think the series are funny! Like when Spike got pinched in the nose by a crab, and Littlefoot and Petrie being chased by bees!  :lol  :lol  :lol

The thing I do find annoying about the series is, the songs! They are so annoying! Except of course, for Remembering. That one is just...BEAUTIFUL!!!
Title: Whats wrong with the series?
Post by: DarkHououmon on December 27, 2011, 01:02:08 AM
Quote from: Bruton the Iguanodon,Dec 26 2011 on  10:52 PM
Pussycat Sharpteeth---Redclaw runs away from fruit that gets thrown at him, and ran away from Spike just cause he was stinky---what a sissy, where the hell did Chomper and Ruby hear that he's the meanest, most feroscious sharptooth ever? I bet the only thing he could really ever manage to kill is a yellowbelly...and even those ***holes might fool him by doing that thing of sticking their heads into the ground...
Well keep in mind that the creators at the time were trying to make LBT out to be even more kid friendly, so the sharpteeth were made to be even less dangerous as to not scare the children. So in other words, Redclaw probably really was one of the most dangerous sharpteeth at the time, but because of the studio trying to make LBT more kid-friendly, he comes off as a joke when compared to some of the older sharpteeth we've seen, like the swimming sharptooth of LBT 9.

And in Redclaw's defense, both those behaviors make sense.

First off, the fruit made him sick. Very sick, as in as soon as one was tossed into his mouth, it was obvious how much pain he was in.

And secondly, predators do run away from things that smell. Why do you think skunks use stink spray? If something smells very bad, it could be a sign that something is wrong with it, and chances of getting sick may be high, thus the predator leaves anything that smells bad enough alone.

It's called survival. Predators don't have pride; all they care about is surviving. I doubt Redclaw really cares about being the "biggest, baddest sharptooth" that Ruby and Chomper claim he is. All he wants is a decent meal. And like any predator, Redclaw would want to avoid injury if possible.

Being sick would mean he'd be less likely to hunt effectively, and he wouldn't be able to eat. Predators eat less than herbivores because they have to kill their food to eat. And who knows how long Redclaw goes without eating.

So frankly, he wasn't really being cowardly when he ran away from the fruit and bad-smelling Spike; he was surviving.

And survival is more important than pride.
Title: Whats wrong with the series?
Post by: Bruton the Iguanodon on December 27, 2011, 01:24:28 AM
Alright, but try telling that to original Sharptooth of movie 1... :lol:
Title: Whats wrong with the series?
Post by: guidolover on December 27, 2011, 07:24:56 AM
:lol  :smile well actually Im neary  12  :lol  :smile
Title: Whats wrong with the series?
Post by: Malte279 on December 27, 2011, 08:01:45 AM
Personally I feel that with all the shortcommings there is a very strong tendency to overlook / ignore good aspects of the series or to make it worse than it was. I maintain that it was better than many (myself included) had prophesized it to be. Back in 2008, after watching ten of the episodes I started this thread (http://gangoffive.net/index.php?showtopic=3102) on behalf of the series. There are many aspects to criticize about the series, but there are also many aspects which I feel deserve credit that the TV-series is often denied.
Title: Whats wrong with the series?
Post by: BigFriendlyGun9000 on December 28, 2011, 12:43:47 AM
Let me count the ways:

(mostly) Bad plots
HORRID animation
Plot holes big enough to used as tunnels
3d shots out of nowhere whenever the camera is behind the characters
Voice acting at times sounding like they're high
The fact that every time they point, they use the middle finger (could that be the animators giving the creators a subtle "fuck you"? I don't know.)
Title: Whats wrong with the series?
Post by: DarkHououmon on December 28, 2011, 12:47:19 AM
Quote from: BigFriendlyGun9000,Dec 27 2011 on  11:43 PM
The fact that every time they point, they use the middle finger (could that be the animators giving the creators a subtle "fuck you"? I don't know.)
Well they usually only have 3 fingers. They don't have a choice but to use the middle finger (otherwise it'd look too awkward).
Title: Whats wrong with the series?
Post by: Dr. Curzon on December 28, 2011, 01:09:26 AM
Well, if you look at their fingers, they have a thumb, index finger and third finger, so technically, the middle finger isn't the bad finger.

@trulyfantasticme- Youngest? Maybe not. maybe there are other members who are younger.
Title: Whats wrong with the series?
Post by: Malte279 on December 28, 2011, 06:17:50 AM
What is so bad about the majority of the plots? Personally I found the majority of the plots acceptable with some stricking exceptions, but for all I saw most of the plots were not too bad.
Title: Whats wrong with the series?
Post by: LBTDiclonius on December 28, 2011, 04:23:53 PM
While I admit, there are a lot of points wrong with the series, there are some great ones too. Like Malte said, I think most of the wrongs were acceptable for the situations they were in. It also seems like we're talking more about the bads than we are about the goods lately.

Dr. Curzon - Actually, she is. Before she came, I was the youngest, at age 13. She's almost 12, so that makes her the youngest.
Title: Whats wrong with the series?
Post by: guidolover on December 29, 2011, 05:16:45 AM
:lol  :lol  :smile  :smile  :lol  :smile
Title: Whats wrong with the series?
Post by: LBTLover1 on December 29, 2011, 12:02:49 PM
@Malte279 Well, to me, the plots were horrible (strong word for what I am saying) because they were predictable.  Someone does something that gets another in a hazardous moment.  That someone is saved and everyone sings a song about how happy they were.
Title: Whats wrong with the series?
Post by: Petrie85 on December 30, 2011, 11:28:39 AM
Ah my first post in five weeks sorry I've been busy with my other forum. Any how the show wasn't really all that good. Most of the episodes seemed the same to me. And they seemed very dull and boring.
Title: Whats wrong with the series?
Post by: LBTFan13 on January 08, 2012, 11:58:58 PM
There are flaws with the show, but I wouldn't say they are as bad as people are making them out to be.

I find it really surprising that people are picking the acting apart, because it's more or less the same cast from the later sequels. Cera, Ducky and Petrie are all from LBT V and later, and Littlefoot is from LBT XIII. If I'm being honest, I thought the acting was fine. We were lucky that the producers even bothered to grab voice actors from the sequels to do this show. It's normal tradition for a TV show based off of a movie to have completely different voice actors for a lot of the characters, while there are some exceptions to this. Now if we are talking about the acting of the side characterss (Ali, Hyp, Rhett, etc...) then I can see where the acting is unsettling. But looking at the main seven, I didn't really see any problems with the acting.

While I agree that some of the songs are not the best, the repetitiveness I'm a little forgiving towards. It's not surprising that a lot of the songs are reused because it is a TV series, so it's more cost efficient to just use different versions of the same song. Does it make the songs tolerable? Not all of them. However, I can understand why they would be repetitive.

I found the plots acceptable for TV episodes. Of course, some were better than others, but I didn't find them terrible. Sure they were not as expansive as the plots for the movies, but they are suitable enough to fulfill the requirements for a TV show. As for the plot holes, they are only so jarring because we are already long time fans of LBT. The target audience of the show, younger kids, are not going to be as familiar with the history of the franchise and its characters, so they won't notice any of the plot holes that we do. Yes it's not cool to us, but at the same time lets remember who the show was supposed to be geared towards.

The animation isn't the best, but it's not terrible. Sure Universal and Amberlin have created animated shows before, but there was a nine year gap between this and its previous show (I think Pinky, Elmira and the Brain was 1998), so I think it's only natural that the animation is not the best. Yes, they've been doing all of the sequels, but at the same time the sequels had a bigger budget than the TV series.

Is it a perfect series? Of course not. But does it really deserve the harsh criticisms some of us are giving it? I don't think so. It's not the best, but it could have been a lot worse.
Title: Whats wrong with the series?
Post by: Malte279 on January 09, 2012, 07:12:47 AM
I agree. Personally I found the TV series not as bad as many people make it out to be and certainly much better than I feared it would be after it was announced. It does have its flaws of course (sometimes Littlefoot for example is drawn unusually "square jawed"), but there are also quite a few elements which I think do not get much credit though they are arguably entitled to get some.
One of the flaws of the series is of course that there is never a thorough explanation on where Ruby came from and how she and Chomper ended up in the Valley and why nobody had a problem with a sharptooth and a potential eggstealer living in the Valley. Perhaps that story would have been one for a future LBT movie that by all likelihood is not going to ever be made, but this gap also allows for us to think of our own stories. Which brings me to an important point that I feel works in favor of the series; the stories. Nearly everyone is bitching about the stories of the TV series, but quite frankly, personally I prefer them by far over the majority of fanfictions which have a deplorable tendency to mix up LBT with all kind of other franchises to the ends of some major bloodbath. I challange everyone complaining about the stories of the TV series to come up with stories of their own within the limits set by the land before time before before talking down the stories of the series too much.
True, there was room for improvement at points and true within the limits of LBT there is the consequence of repetition of the relatively limited number of possible events. But this very limitation of options I think was dealt with quite well by the plot writers of the series who did come up with some ingenuous ideas.
Another point I liked was how in the series they shiftet attention a little more to some of the other characters beside Littlefoot. There had been attempts to do that in the movies, but I do not see any of the movies of which one could say that Littlefoot was not THE maincharacter, while there were TV episodes focussing a lot more on the others to the point that in said episodes they really deserve the claim to that status that had up to then been reserved for Littlefoot.
And as for characters, there too the series deserves some credit. I was highly sceptical about Ruby at first, but I feel she does fill some character gaps that had not been covered by the other characters while she is given a very distinct personality and (very important) not a total Marry Sue either. The TV series also included the return of many characters from earlier movies which is exactly what LBT fans had always been asking for. Now okay, I do admit that with the high hopes long stuck to the announcement at the end of LBT 4 the return of Ali was a real disappointment. I don't like her showing up in the TV series either, but in defense of something that I didn't like I think one could make an argument that with Rhett being the only other longneck kid we ever see in that herd of adult and oldtimer longnecks Ali may be desperate enough to pretend to believe just about anything for the sake of some contact with someone not old enough to be a parent of her.
Title: Whats wrong with the series?
Post by: Dilopho on January 09, 2012, 08:25:40 AM
Why is Ruby an eggstealer?
Title: Whats wrong with the series?
Post by: vonboy on January 09, 2012, 09:08:31 AM
It's because she's Omnivorous, her species could resort to eating eggs if they can't find anything else to eat.

I'll just say that I HAVE thought of some good ideas that fit in the bounds of LBT. If you'd ever look at my fanfic (Which you've been avoiding just because it has a human in it, for shame), you'd notice there's actually some great ideas in there.

Let's see, one of my ideas is that longnecks use Saurus Rock as a sort of spiritual place where they can go to speak with relatives that passed on.

I came up with a story for how Chomper came to be accepted in the Great Valley. (Yes, I'm gonna knock the series for that.)

I give a reason why we never see the tinysauruses in the TV series. They're all scared of Chomper, so only come out at night to look for food. He discovers them one day when he falls into a cave.

I have an episode where Chomper get's caught up in a group of young fast biters, and is pretty much for to live with them for a bit. This group tries to hunt the Gang, and Chomper stands up and tries to stop it.