I've been on lockdown for 19 days and I've decided to rewatch the entire LBT series. Today was time for The Great Longneck Migration. It's incredible how after all these years this movie still fills my heart. It's hard to stop the tears listening to Bestest Friends.
I know this sequel has a lot of emotional points, but it still grinds my gears that they didn't find a way to include Ali in it. What about you guys? How do you think they should've included her?
Honestly, I've thought about it, and it made me realize something.
This is supposed to be a story about Littlefoot reuniting with his father, first and foremost. It may not look like it in the beginning, but ultimately, that's what this film boils down to. Without that, there's no other meaningful theme or message that can be gleaned. The whole Longneck migration/solar eclipse thing is just a complex excuse to get the two of them together, as well as a red herring/smokescreen to make the twist leave even more of an impact. (Plus, since this is the tenth LBT film, I assume the crew wanted to make this commemorative movie as special and epic as possible.)
Because of that, I think Ali's inclusion in the film would've been more of a detriment, a distraction from Littlefoot and Bron's storyline, than anything else. As much as I would've liked for Ali to be in the movie, I think it might've been for the best. For example, before I thought of this, I thought Ali could've played the role of Littlefoot's love interest here, and Shorty falls in love with her too, so he and Littlefoot strike up a rivalry over her. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized how out-of-place it would seem in the overall movie. I can't imagine what kind of role Bron would've played in this scenario, how it would affect Littlefoot and Bron's relationship (whether positively or negatively), and whether it would've been beneficial or detrimental to Shorty's own character arc as the writers intended it.
There's also the issue of pacing and fulfilling time quotas for the movie. The movie needs to be 85 or so minutes, otherwise I assume it would go over-budget. How much of the film would've been sacrificed just so Ali can have a role in this? Maybe there might be a sequence or two that could be cut for her sake, but once again, this goes back to my earlier argument on how out-of-place she already would be.
With that in mind, I personally can't imagine anything that would be good for her outside of a small cameo. But that's just me, though.