The Gang of Five
The Land Before Time => General Land Before Time => Topic started by: NewOrder on September 24, 2004, 05:35:00 PM
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I've just watched lbt 9.. yeah yeah.. I know all of you have already watched it.. but I'm a bit behind on the sequels =p I loved it it's such a cute film... and the brazilian guys used the right names for the first time... anyway I was worried Mo wouldn't make it.. but he turned out ok.. I'd like to have seen the scene when Mo escapes fom that mososaurus. Basically thats it, just letting you know I've seen it =P
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So you liked Mo just as much as I did? :) You should hear his english voice because that was the really neat thing about him as it makes him sound like something of the water.
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Yeah.. I believe the brazilian guys did a nice work.. he sounds a bit dolphin like.. but his voice is very cute =p
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LBT 9 was really beautiful! I consider it definitely the best of the recent sequels. The music (especially "No one has to be alone") was very beautiful too, and there were scenes that actually made me almost cry!
Did you realize that there were several scenes very similar to scenes in LBT 1? I doubt this was mere coincidence.
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Hmm.. I really didn't notice that.. can you tell me witch scenes?
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Hmmm...me too...which scenes are in question here, Malte? :huh:
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There are several scenes during the fight with the swiming sharptooth that remind me very much of the final fight with the sharptooth in LBT one. I do not mean this in a negative sense (not like they copied something; they did tell a whole different story), but similar compositions seemed to "invite" to remember the first movie. Also the idea of an earthquake causing a crack in the landscape that separates Littlefoot and the others from their parents seemed familiar (though this time they had to find an "explanation" why Petrie can't simply fly across that crack. That explanation was a little week, but it was necessary to allow the rest of the nice story to take place).
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I suppose the earthshake was similar but they've used them before in other films.
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But it's the first time since the first movie an earthquake caused a crack that seperated the kids from their parents.
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Hmmm...you do have a point there. ;)
I still can't get over how much I like Mo!!! :D
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I remember I was absolutely shocked when I saw him for the first time when they published LBT 9's cover in the internet. "Pokemon invasion in LBT, or what?" was about my first reaction on this shrill colored creature.
But when I watched the movie it didn't bother me at all. With the somewhat paler colors of the grownup members of Mo's waterkin it seemed acceptible. Not before that time I realized that nobody ever had a problem with a violet sharptooth (Chomper)!
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Yeah.. I got the same inpression.. I thought Mo was gonna be somewhat too childish but when I saw him I was impressed t how different he looked from the cover... I think he's the cutest 1 time apearence ever =p
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I liked Mo even better than Chomper. ;)
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I can't say exactly whom of them I liked better, but with his sometimes a bit unsensitive sense of humor Mo definitely had more of a distinct characteristic feature than Chomper. In LBT 2 Chomper was actually little more than a Dinah and Dana character. Being unable to speak doesn't disqualify a character from being important (Spike), but actually only the fact that he is a sharptooth made Chomper a somewhat more special case. The only characteristic feature about Chomper is that he is very sensitive in both movies where he appeared. I'd actually like to learn a little more about him.
One thing about characters who appear in one (or in Chomper's case two) movie(s) is that it is almost always Littlefoot who makes friend with the character or at least deals with the character more than the others (Chomper, Ali, Doc, Mo... even Mr. Thicknose whom Littlefoot didn't like and vice versa was mainly connected to him). The only exceptions were Dinah and Dana who by nature were more attached to Cera (but here again they are characters who can't be compared to Ali, Doc, Mo or Mr Thicknose), and Pterano (the only case of a really interesting character attached more to somebody else than Littlefoot).
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Yeah, we really don't learn much about Chomper, even when he is able to speak. I can't even master what character traits he has. :blink:
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I think we can say for sure that he is a rather sensitive soul. It really hurt him (in both, LBT 2 and 5) when the others distrusted him, but he never ever said anything critical about any of them (e.g. Cera) while it was always Littlefoot who spoke up on his behalf. Neither did he show distinctly (in LBT 5) that he was hurt by Cera's words.
Actually he lacks any kind of aggression one might expect from a sharptooth. It is somewhat difficult imagining the Chomper we know so far hunting for his meals.
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I suppose I wouldn't mind Chomper being evil at times for that is the character of a t-rex...to eat another creature. ;)
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They probably wanted to keep this out of a movie for children, which is why eating a dragonfly in LBT 2 was the "worst" we ever saw of Chomper. But he obviously doesn't feed on dragonflies for all his live. In LBT 5 he comes up with an excuse to his parents about the smell of a longneck (while Littlefoot and the others are hiding in a bush nearby) coming from a burp while he had longneck for breakfast.
It would make an interesting (but difficult) story that would REALLY focus on the problems of the relationship between a sharptooth and his herbivore friends.
For example what if "food" was running low on the Mysterious island. Could Littlefoot and the others possibly try to help Chomper and his folks to get away from the island? If they do, they are bound to kill other leafeaters (and don't forget about the fate of Littlefoot's mother which was never ever mentioned to Chomper), but if they don't Chomper and his folks would be starving. And if Littlefoot and the others came to that island with the hungry sharptooth, how long would their friendship be a top priority over the hunger?
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You're right.. but like you said this is a movie targeted for children so Idought they'd want to show an evil Chomper atacking his friends... probably Littlefoot and the gang would just help them get off the island...
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No doubt on the fact they avoid such complicate issues in a movie aimed at children. However, could it even be considered evil if Chomper attacked? I mean he too wants to live. It would be evil if he attacks any of his friends who trust him, but could we blame him to attack some other leafeating dinosaur he doesn't know? I recall reading an article written by Don Bluth in which he complains about having a problem to see sharptooth as a villain at all, simply because he has to eat meat to survive.
I once wrote a land before time story during which Chomper is hunting Ali (he doesn't know her) and is only stopped because of the intervention of Littlefoot and the others. You can imagine that afterwards his relationship with Ali is somewhat "strained" over this. I tried to deal with the whole problem in that story, but I can't say for sure if I dealt with it sufficiently. No reader ever told me.
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Hmm... I haven't read your story... but I guess it depends on how the film writer wants to show Chomper, maybe if they do a lbt where Littlefoot, Chomper and the rest grow up.. I guess they had to deal with the situation in another way, since Chimper as a full grown carnivore will probably stop looking at Littlefoot as a friend but more as a meal, it's hard to say who's the good guy and the bad in a predator prey relation, but it all comes down to the aim of the Land Before Time series that is children, and they don't normally think so much about this.. maybe if they do a more teenage targeted lbt, I know some people wouldn't like it, but it would bring other types of groups to get interested in the lbt movies...
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I really don't think they would really have to let the kids grow up (an idea which I oppose unlike many others) to make a story about this. Obviously (LBT 5 quote) Chomper is old enough to eat longneck meat, so the problem we are talking about is nothing that might happen in a remote, distant future, but could happen "right now". If Chomper is in the company with of his herbivore friends for a while he doesn't even have to develop any kind of desire to eat any of them (if Chomper is half as sensitive I suspect him to be he'd rather starve than even thinking of that) but just has to go for some kind of meal to caus conflict. I mean would his friends "tolerate" his meals?
I think they were beating the bush to a certain degree so far, and I do agree that it is a very tough topic for LBT. Still I wonder if it is a matter that couldn't be dealt with.
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LBT 9 was really beautiful! I consider it definitely the best of the recent sequels. The music (especially "No one has to be alone") was very beautiful too, and there were scenes that actually made me almost cry!
Did you realize that there were several scenes very similar to scenes in LBT 1? I doubt this was mere coincidence.
You're completely right on that note! Sure, the animation wasn't great at times and most of the songs (particularly "Imaginary Friend") stunk, but it did have a lot of good moments, and yes, there were some similarities to movie 1...which makes me think LBT 9 may have originally been meant to be the series finale---I mean, the end of it all!
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Yeah the animation I never liked. It was blinding at times and the movie sucked a lot but it was still good. The songs where okay not great.
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Personally I found the animation in LBT 9 not too bad at all. There is this photorealistic water and skys, but somehow I found they did a much better job in blending it in with the whole picture than they did in other movies. We did not have the overly artificial looking CGIs which we had for example in the opening of LBT 7, we did not have any of that stupid looking effects of the most recent LBT movies where the floor under the feed of the running characters is just moving through under them with them seemingly detached from it (we had that among other in LBT 10 and 13), and in this movie Charles Grosvenor did not come up with any of the exaggerated color changes in case of danger (everything turning red) which I always disliked about his movies.
Altogether LBT 9 would get good marks for animation from my end.
But that's a matter of opinion of course.
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Like Mars Girl said I hated the mixture of CGI and regular animated mixed. It was nice at times but awful as well.
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Did you realize that there were several scenes very similar to scenes in LBT 1? I doubt this was mere coincidence
Because of this, I think...LBT 9 was originally intended to be the end. Of it all! I'm serious! Well, it is to me---it was the last one to use James Horner's old score, the last one that was truly beautiful, and the last one I saw during the days I was interested in it as a kid! There may have been a 10-13 and a cheap tv series, but in my opinion, LBT really ended with "Journey to Big Water". ;)
Things I really liked about 9:
Mo!!!!!!!
The similarities to 1
Returning to Big Water
"No one has to be alone"
The scene in the lake with the Liioplreudon. Felt like something out of a different film entirely, and shows these films could be darker
The whole ending. ;)