I was reading some of the Dinotopia stories, and I started wondering, "How would I get to Dinotopia, if I was a story character?" (Or if I just could) So I started imagining the design for my story. Unfortunately, although I often plan a story, I usually get writers block and give up. So this is more of a synopsis. But still, read and review! This is what my story would be, if I were to go to Dinotopia. (I’ll use the false name Walter, to make storytelling easier. I've used that name before and I can use it again!)

Prologue: A captain goes over the course of his ship, the M/S Olympic. They have sailed too far south, and are off course. He re-routes their course so it travels the fastest route to their port. This will take them through an area that the maps show as being clear water. There is a storm on the horizon, but the ship should be able to take it…

Chapter One: Introduce my character . Walter is travelling around the world on the M/S Olympic, one of the most advanced ships in the world. It is late, the ship is navigating the storm, and Walter is currently reading through several ancient books in the ship’s library. After dislodging a particularly old book, he notices a strange footprint text on the cover. Upon closer examination, he sees that the book is a Denison journal. He is in awe, realising that Dinotopia must have really existed. Before he can do anything else, there is a loud groaning noise, the ship tilts to the side, and all the lights go out.

Chapter Two: The Olympic has hit a reef and is rapidly sinking. In the library, several shelves rip themselves free and go crashing through a large window meant for observation. Walter leaps to the side and narrowly avoids being knocked out the window. The returns trolley crashes near him. Rummaging in the dim light, he attempts to find the Denison journal. Unable to tell which book is which, he grabs a whole pile and heads for the lifeboats. Leaping through the damaged window, he emerges on the boat deck. Finding it empty, he attempts to lower a boat himself, as the ship surely won’t stay afloat much longer. After successfully getting the various securings loose, a wave washes him and the boat overboard. Walter hits his head on the seat, and is knocked unconscious. As the Olympic sinks, the lifeboat is swept towards a mysterious island…

Chapter Three: Walter awakes on a beach on the southeast coast of Dinotopia. Unsure of where he is, and with a pain in his head from hitting it, he groggily gets up and checks what he has with him. Several books made it with him to the shore, including the Denison journal, (several undecided books, possibly dinosaur books), and some waterlogged papers that tore loose of their books, including some pages from Dinotopia: First Flight. Looking around him, Walter sees that some crates from the ship’s hold have washed ashore. Running over to them, he finds that (something in a crate) has washed ashore. Hearing sounds of a village, Walter heads into the bush, ultimately discovering a village (something like Jorotongo). He is shocked to see Dinosaurs, and then he realises that he is truly there. Meeting some denizens of the village, he is greeted warmly, and begins to ask some questions of them. However, it turns out that he has obtained injuries from his escape from the ship, and he faints from concussion.

Chapter Four: Walter awakes briefly on a cart, but is soothed back to sleep by one of the occupants. Walter later awakes in a bed in an unfamiliar house with a bandage on his head. A Gallimimus comes to check on him, briefly alarming him, before taking him downstairs to the main area. Here, Walter learns that he is in Chandara, and was taken there for medical treatment. The rest of the chapter is the “Exposition Chapter”, where all the info about Dinotopia, and the introducing of characters relevant to the plot is set up.

Chapter Five: Takes place entirely in Chandara and the surrounding areas. This chapter is basically a sight-seeing chapter. The chapter ends with Walter heading to the beach to rescue the crate, and seeing a rescue ship on the horizon.

Chapter Six: Walter returns to the village, pointing the boat out to the locals, who are curious. Walter wonders about getting home, but also thinks that the landing of this ship would most likely be bad for Dinotopia. He gets assistance from the locals, and decides to join a trading group travelling to Waterfall City, taking the crates and the boat with him, in case the officials want them.

Chapter Seven: A travelling chapter. Basically a “conversing with characters” sort of chapter (If my character has made a friend, or a potential love interest in an earlier chapter, this will involve them. Otherwise it'll just be philosophical Dinotopian talk).

Chapter Eight: Arriving at Waterfall City, Walter proceeds to register his name with the others. His crates and books are taken to the library for analysing. Walter is shown around by a member of the library. He accidentally walks into a room where several of the librarians are debating the arrival of these rescue ships. Walter joins the conversation, and learns of the bad things that could result if the ships land. Before he can answer, a team bringing his lifeboat in for analysis trip, and send the boat crashing to the floor, breaking open one of the lockers in the process. Walter rushes to check the boat for damage, but what has grabbed everyone’s attention is the flashing light that fell out of the boat.

Chapter Nine: Upon closer analysis, the light is revealed to be a signal beacon. The dinotopians deduce that the rescue ships are searching for the possible survivors of the Olympic, and as such are following the signal into what they believe is empty water. They decide not to deactivate the signal, as the boats would still head there to investigate why it stopped. The decision is made to somehow remove the beacon from Dinotopia, but people begin to panic, unsure of how to do such a thing.

Chapter Ten: A large meeting is called to discuss possible options. A descendant of Will and Sylvia who works in the library reveals knowledge of the Hand Of Dinotopia, and suggests that they attach something buoyant to the beacon, and fly on Skybax to the Hand Of Dinotopia, to let it drift away in the current, and thus send the rescue ships on a different course. The plan is made, and the meeting is adjourned.

Chapter Eleven: A preparation chapter. Again, a character talking chapter. It is decided not to take the boat, as it could not be lugged there in time. Walter wonders whether he should leave with the beacon.

Chapter Twelve: Hanging from a northropi, Walter joins a Skybax group who are flying him and the beacon to the Hand Of Dinotopia. When they get there, a hurry is made to assemble something floatable using shrapnel on the island. Again, Walter wonders whether to leave with the beacon or not. While dislodging a dead tree, one of the riders inadvertently reactivates a previously jammed part of the H.O.D. mechanism, abruptly tilting the island. Walter and the beacon (floating on a plank) fall into the water, where the current washes them away.

Chapter 13: Clinging to the beacon, and noticing the Skybaxes following him, Walter finally decides to stay in Dinotopia. He pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket (Which happens to be one of the pages he rescued from the Olympic’s library), writes a quick note on it, and then attaches it to the beacon and pushes it away. The Skybaxes fly low, allowing him to get his grip on the northropi. The riders console him about his choice, but also remind him that this isn’t a bad choice. One of them mentions that more crates have washed ashore. Walter flies away with them to Waterfall City, planning to get a job displaying and working with the objects recovered from the M/S Olympic, and possibly converting the lifeboat into a travelling boat.

Epilogue: A few months later. A relative of Walter receives a package from the rescue teams. Unwrapping it, they find a waterlogged paper torn from a copy of “Dinotopia: First Flight”. It is the page depicting Gideon arriving in Dinotopia, with Walter’s signature added beside the line “Gideon finally came ashore to a world entirely new to him”.

So what do you think? I actually thought about some changes, such as maybe me working as a librarian on board, or wrapping the picture around a sunstone, but I'm not so sure about those.

By the way, it's something that most people forget when they do these things, or make evil fan-fics/parodies, but Littlefoot and friends are in no danger from the meteorite. The K-T event is centuries away, as the end of the first film clearly states, "And they all grew up together in the valley, generation upon generation, each passing on to the next, the tale of their ancestor's journey to the valley, long ago".

With this in mind, we can actually assume that the GOF remained in the valley, grew up and had kids, and their story became a popular legend (Makes you wonder if 2-13 became folk stories, hence the moral in each of them).

As for the bizarre events that have befallen everyone (Meteor showers, famine, snow, etc), the films also state that the lands are changing. I guess it's the end of an old Cretaceous epoch and the beginning of a new one, so new plants, animals and stuff like that are arriving (Instantly, as cartoon logic shows us).

(Also, a good thing about gaps in fossil records, is that you can use them as loopholes. For instance, they say that Apatosaurs and Stegosaurs would not have lived in the Cretaceous, but that's because no fossils have been found. So, you can twist the facts to somehow, but not exactly accurately, explain things in LBT)

Actually, I'm going to continue this from the last post; The way I'd end the series, would be the same as above, but in addition, we see one of the GOF's kids telling the story of the first movie, maybe even quoting it while the GOF's ghosts watch. You could even jump forwards years and years, seeing the story getting passed down, and even end the film with the same ending words of the first. Then, as they say that, pan the camera up to the stars, and see several shining stars standing out, representing the GOF (The Big Dipper, for instance. Seven stars, that includes the GOF, Chomper and Ruby).

Well, judging by where the dinosaur fossils were found, you can take a vague guess as to what country each of the GOF would be from (With some liberties taken, as pretty much each of the GOF were only found in the US).

Triceratops were only found in the US, so that makes Cera Native American.

Saurolophus were found in Asia and North America, but the Asian Saurolophus has a longer crest, like Ducky, so that makes her Asian (Specifically Mongolian, that's where the fossils were found).

Sauropods were found all over the world, and this could make Littlefoot a British settler (Like from the time of the british empire). Pterosaurs were also found all over the place, and were pretty widespread in Europe. Littlefoot and Petrie are probably both from different countries in Europe. (Which could also be why Pterano considers himself superior, match it with the superior settler attitude of the old old British Empire, and why he claims things were once like that).

That leaves Spike, also only found in the US. This makes him either Inuit or Mexican. Alternatively, he is Native American, and Cera is Inuit or Mexican.

To include Chomper and Ruby, Ruby is an Oviraptor, and they mostly came from Mongolia (Of course, this is just where the fossils were found. To keep the whole anti-racism message of the first film, Ducky and Ruby would have to be from different countries, such as one of them being Mongolian and the other Chinese).

As for Chomper...I have no idea. To make him human would be difficult, as it would require an entire country (Representing Sharpteeth) to be hostile to everyone else in the world. I don't know.

Any thoughts on this? (I hope this doesn't come out sounding offensive in any way)

As much as I would like to see Pterano return, I think it would be difficult to work him into the story. It seems that realistically, when he returned, he would just slowly settle down, as opposed to bringing a new threat or arriving at the same time. And as a result, it would be hard to come up with a story that could include him and still hold the interest of others. The same goes for the other characters, like Ali and the bullies. It is better that they appeared in the series, as it seems like they are shorter, less epic stories.

Don't the plague dogs survive and live happily ever after in the book?

Put me down for almost all of those. LBT, All Dogs Go To Heaven, Lion King, Charlotte's Web...the list goes on.

Interestingly, the last animated thing I cried at (come to think of it, any media) was an episode of a TV show called Static Shock.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

There was an episode which started with a monument being unfurled to health workers who lost their lives curbing a riot. The main character's (Static's) mother had been shot fatally when he was little while she was saving lives of many. In the episode, Static and his friend Gear met another hero who had the unstable power of being able to travel through time. Using a machine, she inadvertantly took them and a bad guy back to the day of the riots, where Static immediately thought of his mother and took her away, telling her of what would happen and warning her to stay away. She was conflicted, unwilling to let others die, but very proud of her son. He then left her in a safe place, and went to rescue his friends. At the end, the machine started to short out, and took them back. As they began to leave, the last thing Static saw was his mother emerging from the ambulance, having returned to save others. He shouted after her, but it was too late. When he got back to the present, he ran home, to find nothing had changed (And the time travelling person went back and prevented herself from being in the area where she got her powers). I watched this and found myself in tears, and I was quite surprised, but it completely tore me up.

Ah yes. This film. My dad found it in a discount store and thought it would be funny. I started watching it and called him into the room when the dog started rapping...

I heard that apparently some versions of the DVD have a label or something that says "No-one dies in the movie". Well, maybe not on screen, but that random couple dies, and the mouse even mentions at the end that Celine Dion (I mean, the singer) died. Oops.

I am a fan of the ship Titanic, so when watching things like this, I can't help but laugh at mistakes, like how several rooms seem to have been merged together in some scenes. In one scene, the main guy smashes a window to free third class passengers. I don't know why, the room is clearly the First Class Palm Court, and there should be a HUGE screen door to his left. Or he could have just gone back the way they came and taken the door outside. They're on A deck, a first class deck with exits everywhere and no locked doors. (Ok, that's enough of that)

I also wonder how they didn't get complaints for portrayal of people. James Cameron got into a heap of trouble after showing Officer Murdoch killing himself. In this movie, there is that one officer who continously changes character, going from jealous, to friendly, to full-blown evil, who sneaks onto a boat, and is a general jerk. They say he is the First Officer, how did they get away with such disrespect towards the real people?

What do you think will happen to him? Definately, he will need more food that is available to him in the great valley, but I imagine he would never eat any of the denizens, as he knows them too well. Plus, he would never risk his friendship for one meal. I brought this up as I've seen several stories out there which handle the subject, and I wanted to know what you guys thought.

I wonder if he could learn to fish. Or only scavenge from carcasses outside the valley (Dinotopia does this, with carnivorous beings eating mostly fish or the elderly animals who choose to give themselves up for food). Maybe he will have to leave, and seek his life somewhere else. Or he could even eat other Sharpteeth! I wonder if he stayed, managing to eat food of some kind, would he become a guardian of the valley? Imagine Chomper chasing away potential invaders!

Any theories on this?

I don't think it is love in a relationship sense, more like love in a best friend sense. I remember Cera gets very jealous of Mo in LBT 9. This seems similar to her anger towards Ali. (I haven't seen 9 in a while, I may be wrong) I seem to remember her saying her anger towards Mo came from that the others wouldn't pay attention to her. So basically, Cera's jealousy and anger comes from fear of losing her friends.

I imagine that each of the GOF will eventually find mates, and that Spike will start talking by then (Although not neccessarily in every scene).

(Darn, I had a good theory about this, but I forgot it! Oh well. If I remember it, I'll post it.)

Hmm, after thinking about it, the Saurus Rock area could be in the west. In that case, just swap it with the 8 areas.

I ignored the sun placement over the SR valley in 6, as that would place it in the east, which we know from 1 & 3 to be barren. However, if it is in the west, then it would have taken enough time to travel there for the sun to appear in the west. In 1 & 4, several mountain shots suggest that the mountains don't run North-South, more on an angle. This could explain the contradictory sun shots.

One problem I found (Which is really a mistake on the film-makers part) is that there are routes out of the valley and green lands around, so why did they all leave via a desert route in 5? The only answer I can think of is that the areas were also attacked by the locusts, or the area has too high a risk of sharpteeth.

On the other hand, why did the Spiketails leave in 8? Using my maps, that places them heading north, which should be worse, and colder!