The Gang of Five
The Land Before Time => Land Before Time TV Series (2007) => Topic started by: jonk012 on January 06, 2017, 04:43:32 PM
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It had 26 episodes and then...that was it.
Was it always meant to be one season just to "revive" the interest in the franchise?
I hear alot of people on here say that the ratings show that it was a flop, but I disagree. Now the only source I have is from the LBT wikia and under the critical reception section of it every single episode i've seen recieved a 9 out of 10, a 8 out of 10, or a 10 out of 10 on tv.com. But then again, it was just like 3-5 reviews for all those episodes.
So could ya'll point me to websites that has way more reviews and an average rating of the show so I could get a better understanding on where the fanbase stands on the series?
Now I watch every episode 2-3 times good or bad. Just so I can go back and take in the background and rehear lines that I was too distracted to hear or missed.
But overall, i would agree with those reviews. I would give the series a 8 out of 10.
Now it does have some problems but ya'll basically covered them already.
Like for example, the series has no overarching plot. Each episode is just random and you can watch them in any particular order.
Also, the most obvious one. The recycled melodies that they used in each episode.
Also, on wide shots the walks cycles for the last few episodes was like they were still in the their computer-generated stage. Like they didn't even bother to animate them. Hmm I wonder if that was a sign that the show was running out of budget. Did ya'll notice the walk cycles on wide shots? Or was that just me?
Sorry if ya'll already made a thread on the topic. I was just really curious.
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I really need to watch this series. I will try to find it somewhere.
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Pretty much all of the TV series episodes can be found on this YouTube channel at the moment:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTXRaetwhoKvsh__pDQDLbA (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTXRaetwhoKvsh__pDQDLbA)
As for why the series stopped airing, I think it is a mixture of the series primarily focusing on appealing to a younger audience and the series appearing after the films were past their zenith. I think a LBT series in the 1990s could have lasted several seasons, especially with the more limited options in terms of cartoon-based channels and the existence of Saturday Morning Cartoons on the three major stations in the US, but it probably lacked the viewership numbers to justify a continuation of the series when released in the late 2000s.
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If perhaps some good effort could be put into it and appeal more to adults and kids alike, it can garner some attention. With the aid of advertisement and merchandise. =3
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I wonder how much continuity lockout might have played a role. If kid viewers just happened to be exposed to the Land Before Time through the TV series first, I wonder how lost they might be. There are callbacks to the movie series that the new audience mightn’t. Though Ruby and Chomper at times acted as the audience surrogates to explain these callbacks (which I think is a good idea), I’m not sure how effective the execution was.
I wouldn’t mind if the series had tacked to the tone and theme of The Sarah Jane Adventure. The Doctor Who spinoff was aimed at a young audience, but had genuine threat, great drama, and heartfelt character moments that sustained it among viewers until the lead actress’ death. I hearted that show and wouldn’t mind if other children’s television took a page out of their book.
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It was horrible with horrible episodes horrible plots the songs where god awful. There was no effort put into this at all. Each episode problems could have been solved in five minutes but they dragged it out for a full 22 minutes. It was painful to watch and sit through that.
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I have to agree.
For me, the whole show was made for youngest kids, it has nothing to do with original movie. It's the weakest part of LBT universe.
I liked only some of 26 episodes. And not because they were good but because they TRIED to be good and they HAD everything in it to become perfect small stories... But authors failed everything.
Wait. Silly me. Authors didn't fail anything if they did what they WANTED to do. Child show.
Sigh. I already said my position about TV series in some different topic here.
I don't want to see second season if they don't change anything.
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I mean a couple episodes trired very hard they did but not hard enough in my opinion. The only song that was ACTUALLY good was remembering sung by Ruby that's it. And I know it was geared towards 5-12 years olds but they could of done much better than they did.
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I have to agree.
For me, the whole show was made for youngest kids, it has nothing to do with original movie. It's the weakest part of LBT universe.
I liked only some of 26 episodes. And not because they were good but because they TRIED to be good and they HAD everything in it to become perfect small stories... But authors failed everything.
Wait. Silly me. Authors didn't fail anything if they did what they WANTED to do. Child show.
Sigh. I already said my position about TV series in some different topic here.
I don't want to see second season if they don't change anything.
But it's not just the writers. You also have to take into consideration the directors and everyone else involved. A show is a group effort (like a lot of things) and there's so many angles that it's hard to pin the blame on just one person.
And of course, there was effort put into the show. Anything that involves animation, voice acting, etc, takes time. But a lot of effort does not equate to a better product. It is difficult to say just how bad something is unless you see it for yourself. Even then, it's subjective. What is bad to one person might be just fine to another.
As for me, I did not really find the series all that bad. I'm not going to raise it above any of the movies, but it was not really gawd awful or anything. It's a harmless romp that I wouldn't mind letting children watch. It did have some decent ideas and characters.
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If my kids watched this I'd just shake my head and show them better shows than this mess of a tv series. There was hardly effort at all put into this none. The animation was bad but it was manageable at best. The characters where Down played a lot and turned them into annoyances. The problems just made me just bang my head. Sorry I can't stick up for this show.
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Like the post before you, DarkHououmon said that animation takes a lot of effort, especially traditional animation. As well as the voicing and all that. There was effort put into it, it just didn't turn out great for many.
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They could have put a lot more effort into this show. The episode plots where painful to sit through. But I guess the animation was alright just not the best. The show was a total bust but at least they tried but failed Gratefully
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so, animation was bad or alright, Adfan?.. -_-
and again, we understood how painful was to you watching it when you made first post in this thread...
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The fun part is, some scenes in the TV series look satisfactory enough, even good, but then again some scenes look horrendous. For example, the opening scene of the Star Day Celebration looks really cool but some shots from the caption section... :sducky The animation should have been more consistent.
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heh
your words reminded me about only scene where Red Claw were cool!
It was... his introduction scene. When he was in front of sun, his color turned to dark green, like legendary Sharptooth, with mighty roar. *rollseye*
clearly remember that moment...
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Okay as much as I rip this show apart I did find the red claw dinosaur pretty cool. It had a pretty decent design to it.
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Red Claw looked alright. It's just that we were constantly told how mean and dangerous he was, but that's about it. In the words of Nostalgia Critic - "show, don't tell". The way the writers and animators handled him, the main villain of the TV series looked more like a run of the mill T-Rex with a scar who somehow got quite a reputation, but was still easily fooled by a bunch of kids and defeated by an old timer like Mr. Threehorn or Littlefoot's grandfather. The viewers never actually got any proof Red Claw was worthy of all the buildup.
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The original sharptooth, the Plated Sharptooth, the Horned Sharptooth, heck any sharptooth was better than him. I still hold on to my belief that he is the sharptooth from the eighth film and that he got his scar from the log thrown at him by Mr. Thicknose, oh, and that he survived the fall, albeit with a scar and some damage...
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So you think Red Claw was the T-Tex that gave doc it's scar. Yeah it might have been that One we still don't know tho
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I don't think the Meanest Sharptooth is Red Claw...they look completely different. Tyrannosaurus aren't said to be able to live over a century as well...
The Mountain Sharptooth, on the other hand, has similar coloring to Red Claw. A log with sharp stumps will probably give you more of a scar than being whipped into a canyon.
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Tyrannosaurus aren't said to be able to live over a century as well...
Neither are longnecks, but Doc is still about and well. :lol: As for him looking different than the Meanest Sharptooth... Well, didn't we see him only in Littlefoot and the gang's fantasy? Not that I personally think that Red Claw had anything to do with the Lone Dinosaur legend. If anything it's proof that he only recently emerged from the Mysterious Beyond.
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Actually some scientists think that some sauropods may have lived for 100-200 years. The sharptooth from the climax of 6 also looks the same as the Meanest Sharptooth, and so do other male sharpteeth from 1-6 so I don't think it had a different appearance than in the fantasies.
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I thought I told it before to you, Coyote: Doc's and Sharptooth's appearance in imagination-dream story is result of Grandfather and Littlefoot's imaginations. At the end of movie, you can see HOW great longneck dinosaur looked in Littlefoot's imagination ;)
Doc together with Sharptooth didn't live for centuries.
And I "think" it is not coincidence that in Littlefoot's head Meanest Sharptooth surprisingly looked like that one who killed his mother and stalked him veeeeery hard.
Edit: though, since Sharptooth had teleportation ability... Who knows, maybe Doc like Rainbowfaces can move through space and time. *rollseye*
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It doesn't matter the appearance in Littlefoot's head, the pre-art shift (1-6) male T. rex were all dark green (except for Chomper and the imaginary ones from "The Legend of the Lone Dinosaur" song).
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Well, a little bit on-topic now...
It's really no surprise that there wasn't a second season. Some episodes were okay or even enjoyable to watch but then again... :rolleyes:
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The series' best contribution to the series was do introduce Ruby and Chomper into the Gang and it alone justified its existence. I would never say it was "good" but it did bring new possibilities and places into the franchise. It could have just been better with some more thought from Universal.
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Another video containing a few episodes of the series has been posted today on You Tube today.
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywMoskVD8Ss (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywMoskVD8Ss)
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I wonder how much continuity lockout might have played a role. If kid viewers just happened to be exposed to the Land Before Time through the TV series first, I wonder how lost they might be. There are callbacks to the movie series that the new audience mightn’t. Though Ruby and Chomper at times acted as the audience surrogates to explain these callbacks (which I think is a good idea), I’m not sure how effective the execution was.
I wouldn’t mind if the series had tacked to the tone and theme of The Sarah Jane Adventure. The Doctor Who spinoff was aimed at a young audience, but had genuine threat, great drama, and heartfelt character moments that sustained it among viewers until the lead actress’ death. I hearted that show and wouldn’t mind if other children’s television took a page out of their book.
Very astute. There are so many homages to the movies in series, hopper (frog) being one that reappears and is reference to Littlefoot and Cera first meetimg and their first encounter with Sharptooth.
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I really need to watch this series. I will try to find it somewhere.
its on youtube
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A reason I think it stopped airing was you really need to be a fan of the movies to fully appreciate the episodes. If the series is your introduction to the Gang, its not the best one. In fact, the impact of seeing Ali again or Hyp or anyone else isn’t there if you haven't seen the films.
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I mean, realistically, it's about ratings. If the show doesn't recoup enough ratings they won't renew it for another season.
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I wonder if they poorly chose the channel for this show and missed their intended audience. Cartoon Network and LBT never seemed like the best match to me. If they wanted to reach little kids (which, let's face it, was the main audience for LBT), they should've gone with something like Nick Jr., instead.
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Another reason is the songs in the series aren't as catchy like “Eggs,” “All Sorts,” “Friends for Dinner,” “Big Big Water,” and the more tear jerker songs like “Family, and “Grandma’s Lullaby.” The songs in the show tend to be repeats of “Adventuring,” and “I’m so happy, its like bright circle is shining inside of me.” The only song I have come to love is Grandpa’s Song “Remebering,” that he sings in flash backs over Saro.
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Another reason is the songs in the series aren't as catchy like “Eggs,” “All Sorts,” “Friends for Dinner,” “Big Big Water,” and the more tear jerker songs like “Family, and “Grandma’s Lullaby.” The songs in the show tend to be repeats of “Adventuring,” and “I’m so happy, its like bright circle is shining inside of me.” The only song I have come to love is Grandpa’s Song “Remebering,” that he sings in flash backs over Saro.
Yeah...if there's one thing I've consistently disliked about the series, it's the music. :bang The songs can't hold a candle to anything from the movies. Most of the time, they were nothing but shamefully obvious filler! I mean, whoever worked on this music was too lazy to even write a new tune most of the time, they just recycled the ones from the movies and changed the words.
And I will never forgive them for turning "Beyond the Mysterious Beyond" into "The Amazing Threehorn Girl." Never!!! :opetrie
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I mean, realistically, it's about ratings. If the show doesn't recoup enough ratings they won't renew it for another season.
This. Not to mention that you'll eventually run out of original ideas.
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Yeah...if there's one thing I've consistently disliked about the series, it's the music. :bang The songs can't hold a candle to anything from the movies. Most of the time, they were nothing but shamefully obvious filler! I mean, whoever worked on this music was too lazy to even write a new tune most of the time, they just recycled the ones from the movies and changed the words.
And I will never forgive them for turning "Beyond the Mysterious Beyond" into "The Amazing Threehorn Girl." Never!!! :opetrie
The Rainbow Faces would like to give the Great Valley a Cease and Desist for that. :PCera (Doesn't help that tune is yet again ripped off in a Spike centric episode). Honestly I don't mind them changing lyrics for the songs exclusive to show, but I can tell it's lazy. It would have been better to ditch songs all together or at least not do it as often as they did.
If a show revival does happen, I'd would want it to focus more on the different movie characters and have a over arcing season story. The first season had one with Red Claw, but it failed to go anywhere and was forgotten in movie 14. (Redclaw is better off as Redbelly :bestsharptooth)
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Yeah...if there's one thing I've consistently disliked about the series, it's the music. :bang The songs can't hold a candle to anything from the movies. Most of the time, they were nothing but shamefully obvious filler! I mean, whoever worked on this music was too lazy to even write a new tune most of the time, they just recycled the ones from the movies and changed the words.
And I will never forgive them for turning "Beyond the Mysterious Beyond" into "The Amazing Threehorn Girl." Never!!! :opetrie
The Rainbow Faces would like to give the Great Valley a Cease and Desist for that. :PCera (Doesn't help that tune is yet again ripped off in a Spike centric episode). Honestly I don't mind them changing lyrics for the songs exclusive to show, but I can tell it's lazy. It would have been better to ditch songs all together or at least not do it as often as they did.
If a show revival does happen, I'd would want it to focus more on the different movie characters and have a over arcing season story. The first season had one with Red Claw, but it failed to go anywhere and was forgotten in movie 14. (Redclaw is better off as Redbelly :bestsharptooth)
Redbelly shall bring peace to Berry Valley. :bestsharptppth
I agree with your points, I think the series should have left the musical numbers out. As much as I love them in the movies. I do love Grandpa, “Remebering,” to hear Kenneth Mars sing was a treat. R.I.P. :’(
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Chiming in on the topic now.
I think it stopped airing due to the terrible times and dates in which it aired on Cartoon Network. I mean, during 2007, new episodes aired on weekdays at around 9:30 am, and that’s a time where kids would be at school, how could they make that premiere in time (they could just record from a VHS tape, but still…). Then in 2008 when it returned, it’s now aired new episodes on weekdays at 10 am, still isn’t good. So I kinda think it ended due to bad times in which it aired new episodes (in the US).
Also my opinion on the TV series is good, but some episodes have no plot, either are boring, or is because of the songs, which the lyrics is pretty much a conversation (might have been filler since they really can’t think of anything). Still, I at least liked some episodes, but not a lot…
Also in case anyone asks me for proof about the times, here’s links to a schedule from 2008, and some 2007 Cartoon Network recordings of the TV series which show the banner (which mentions the time for new episodes).
https://animesuperhero.com/forums/threads/cn-schedule-january-21-january-27.4480271/
https://archive.org/details/se01e08daysofrisingwater_201912