This is a cool idea for a thread! I agree with just about everything OP suggested.
I could probably think of more changes I'd make but here's three that comes to mind:
Rooter
I could probably think of some more later but the one that really comes to mind is Rooter, the friendly Scolosaurus Littlefoot bumps into (literally) after losing his mother. He seems to be a kind and caring dinosaur, yet it doesn't seem to occur to him to help this recently orphaned, starving child?
I know dinosaurs at the time mostly just cared about themselves but even so, it doesn't make much sense to me. It sorta lessens the impact of that scene a little bit.
The fix would be simple. Just make him some semi-aquatic species, and show him swimming off before giving Littlefoot some important advice. That would have indicated to the audience that Rooter couldn't have followed Littlefoot on his journey.
Greedy longnecks
In the scene where the gang discovers a lone cluster of trees, only to see it abruptly depleted by a herd of apatosaurus, I would have changed them to some non-longneck herbivore. Iguanas maybe. I'd also have them crush trees and fight over the remaining treestars. It would make the scene more intense, give the kids a reason to just stay behind as they do and really shows the desperate, dire state of the world.
Plus, if they were longnecks, it introduces the question of why Littlefoot just couldn't go with them. Surely, they'd accept one of their own? Besides, I think the story works better if Littlefoots mother and grandparents are the only longnecks he sees before reaching the valley.
Domeheads => Raptors
I would have also swapped out the domehead Pachycephalosauruses to some raptor species. A. because raptors are cool, and B: it just makes more sense. It'd also have an establishing shot of the raptors hiding behind some rocks or something as the gang reach the tarpits.
The original scriptb]
Just about every deleted scene I've read and heard of from the original script seems like they would have improved the story. Especially Littlefoot finding the valley before going back to tell his friends. It just works better that way.
I actually like the Rooter idea. Not only would it have probably resulted in a fascinating water scene, but it would've made Rooter's role in the film more sense.
Yeah, I think so too! As it is, he just kinda shows up, gives his little pep-talk and in the next scene, he's gone and Littlefoot is teleported to another location. He's the one friendly adult we encounter after his mother's death in a dying wasteland without trees or water. Rooter is clearly a friendly dinosaur so why would he leave this recently orphaned cub to survive on his own?
I always saw Rooter as perhaps an angelosaur, like the Rainbowfaces who shows up to comfort Little Foot with some words.
However, say Rooter is just a regular dino, he probably felt he actually would be a burden on Littlefoot. Being old and not as strong, he’d slow Littlefoot down and Sharptooth would likely have found Littlefoot even more easily with Rooter.
The Greedy Longnecks worked for me because it showed all the dinos are in survival gear, thinking of themselves or their immediate herd. It is the Gang and then the Great Valley herds who break with survival gear and think of those outside the pale of survival needs.
I actually liked the domehead antagonists. Sharptooth being the only Carnivour antagonist gives him more prominence, and we have to rember that T-Rex was the ultimate beloved carnivour at that time, raptors didn’t become famous till Jurassic Park (1993), which came out five years after The Land Before Time (1988).
Good points!
Yeah, the idea of Rooter is one of those metaphysical angel-dinos is super-interesting and would explain a lot! Where he comes from. Why he's alone. Why he just disappears. And as you said, it's also possible he's simply too old to travel with Littlefoot. That too would make sense, but isn't suggested by the movie itself. So I still find it a bit jarring.
I still feel the The Greedy Longnecks scene would have worked better if they weren't longnecks. There are so many other herbivores you could have picked! Iguanodons maybe. I also would have made the adults represented more of a threat. Fighting, trashing trees in a desperate feeding frenzy. That would have given the kids a reason to stay back and would have made it more clear that following this herd simply wasn't an option. And it would have driven home the sheer desperation of the situation.
As for the raptors - yeah you're right. I just like raptors, lol. And the fact that this was before JP would mean that this movie would have been uniquely posed to introduce moviegoers everywhere to these swift fast-biters. An the other claw, the domeheads were really scary. It just didn't feel right that a bunch of herbivores would attack like that! But they were defending their swamp lol.
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