The Gang of Five
The Land Before Time => General Land Before Time => Topic started by: LittleDas75 on January 02, 2021, 03:38:14 PM
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Since XIV is almost 5 years old at this point I thought it would be a good idea to revisit the film and see how it hold's up.
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I haven't watched it for a while, so for me it's an absolutely good idea to watch it again. Five years are a long time, the time span between the release of the first film and the production of the first sequel. I think that says a lot about how our view on things can change during a few years. @LittleDas75 Would you like to watch it again and to share your thoughts about it with us next week? Maybe you and I could do this together.
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Maybe. I haven't watched it myself entirely since it first came out.
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Coincidentally, I watched it two days ago. It is one of the movies, which I watched least, and I was surprised, how much I forgot.
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I might re-watch it next weekend. I am curious to see if I have the same problems with it that I did when I first watched it.
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^How did you feel about it the first time around?
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I saw it like on Netflix for 3 years, and then I thought, “huh? I didn’t know another sequel came out” and I felt surprising when I saw it
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I thought it was alright when I first saw it on Netflix.
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I've watched it today and here are my thoughts about (https://i.imgur.com/KYVCcXo.jpg)
The story:
The plot is pretty easy and self explaining. The gang has to cross logs to get on the other side of earth cracks, flees from sharpteeth, gets into arguments, does things it has done many times before, but also some interesting new elements can be found in the film. The film tries to give every main character a few moments in the spotlight, what can be considered as good and bad at the same time. Etta and Wild Arms are also interesting additions to the cast and contribute both their part to the plot. The opening was good, while the end feels a bit too short. XVI is one out of two films that doesn't end in the Great Valley and I largely prefer the other twelve endings.
The animation:
It was okay, but some could have been done better especially the 3D and computer animated elements.
A few scenes with 3D elements that were good in my opinion:
(https://i.imgur.com/FhDUnzt.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/IOIFM6W.jpg)
Here come the scenes that could have definitely been done better:
(https://i.imgur.com/moWWAFT.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/9QgpBJX.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/bDlrsEk.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/ptdU2sn.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/l8hjeaF.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/YKVpMER.jpg)
There were also a few other elements, that I didn't really liked.
Elements in the background for example looked a little washed out sometimes.
(https://i.imgur.com/fa6BToa.jpg)
Not only is here again one of those bad 3D effects, but also a detail that shouldn't have looked so 2dimensional, in my opinion:
(https://i.imgur.com/DNoUoxl.jpg)
His teeth.
How could I forgot about this?
(https://i.imgur.com/xVxmZSO.jpg)
The lava looked pretty realistic.
(https://i.imgur.com/BgRMGfT.jpg)
The water didn't.
The music:
There are many new tracks in XVI and though none of those stands out in particular they were not only a welcoming change from the ones that I had already heard in three or four movies before, but also sounded like The Land Before Time. I remember, that when I first watched JOTB the first thing that stood out for me was the music.
So here is the continuation of the post:
It is just some things that I noticed, while watching it and that I didn't mention in the post yesterday.
First of all, I think the biggest missed opportunity XVI had was in the introduction of the dinosaurs. In III and the other sequels it was the well done and the animals looked a lot more impressing. I did expect the same from this film, but the first sight of a dinosaur was this:
(https://i.imgur.com/y3bMqdV.jpg)
Things look smaller from the air, so why make dinosaur this size small?
How much time has passed between the first and the fourteenth film can be seen here:
(https://i.imgur.com/XyP2qDS.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/s8wFCPx.jpg)
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Thanks for the in-depth review, @Sarah. I enjoyed reading it. The screenshots were a nice touch too. :)
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I still think this movie was, by far, more superior than XIII. That aside, a lot more could've been done with the concept at hand, and there were some missed opportunities. But it's kind of hard to put any blame on that, in my opinion, because of the circumstances behind this sequel. Universal dug this franchise back up after a near-nine-year hiatus, which means a lot of the main crew (if not ALL of the crew) was different, which means the storytelling and creative decisions would naturally be off compared to previous sequels. Plus, I got the feeling that this movie had a much tighter budget compared to previous sequels, which might explain the problems @Sarah described with the animation.
So yeah, I personally think it's hard to judge the film based on the circumstances of the production.
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I get the impression that Universal made the film as sort of a trial run to see how well it would do. If it had been more successful, then they might've made more films, and/or a continuation of the TV series. But since that didn't happen, LBT 14 sticks out as a bit of an oddity in the franchise for not quite feeling in sync with the older films, nor having any follow-ups of its own to connect it with.
Still, it's been a while now since I've seen it and I would like to give it another chance sometime.
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I get the impression that Universal made the film as sort of a trial run to see how well it would do. If it had been more successful, then they might've made more films, and/or a continuation of the TV series. But since that didn't happen, LBT 14 sticks out as a bit of an oddity in the franchise for not quite feeling in sync with the older films, nor having any follow-ups of its own to connect it with.
Still, it's been a while now since I've seen it and I would like to give it another chance sometime.
That's a pretty good point there. It's sad to see this movie might not be getting the continuation it deserves.
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I get the impression that Universal made the film as sort of a trial run to see how well it would do. If it had been more successful, then they might've made more films, and/or a continuation of the TV series. But since that didn't happen, LBT 14 sticks out as a bit of an oddity in the franchise for not quite feeling in sync with the older films, nor having any follow-ups of its own to connect it with.
Still, it's been a while now since I've seen it and I would like to give it another chance sometime.
That's a pretty good point there. It's sad to see this movie might not be getting the continuation it deserves.
But let's not lose hope yet. If we keep demanding for a XV then we might get it.
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Here's hoping then. :littlefoot:)
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Hope is kindled.
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I get the impression that Universal made the film as sort of a trial run to see how well it would do. If it had been more successful, then they might've made more films, and/or a continuation of the TV series. But since that didn't happen, LBT 14 sticks out as a bit of an oddity in the franchise for not quite feeling in sync with the older films, nor having any follow-ups of its own to connect it with.
Still, it's been a while now since I've seen it and I would like to give it another chance sometime.
That's a pretty good point there. It's sad to see this movie might not be getting the continuation it deserves.
But let's not lose hope yet. If we keep demanding for a XV then we might get it.
Hopefully.
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Journey of the Brave suffers from the Wisdom of Friends dialouge (infantile) but it was considerably better in terms of adventure. I am sad Chomper and Ruby were pretty much worthless. They’re arch was futile.
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Journey of the Brave suffers from the Wisdom of Friends dialouge (infantile) but it was considerably better in terms of adventure. I am sad Chomper and Ruby were pretty much worthless. They’re arch was futile.
But technically isn't most of the dialogue in the sequels infantile? I am not saying your wrong but I am pointing out that's not a thing limited to XIII and this one.
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Journey of the Brave suffers from the Wisdom of Friends dialouge (infantile) but it was considerably better in terms of adventure. I am sad Chomper and Ruby were pretty much worthless. They’re arch was futile.
But technically isn't most of the dialogue in the sequels infantile? I am not saying your wrong but I am pointing out that's not a thing limited to XIII and this one.
I feel like the dialogue after LBT X was like that, to be perfectly honest.
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Journey of the Brave suffers from the Wisdom of Friends dialouge (infantile) but it was considerably better in terms of adventure. I am sad Chomper and Ruby were pretty much worthless. They’re arch was futile.
But technically isn't most of the dialogue in the sequels infantile? I am not saying your wrong but I am pointing out that's not a thing limited to XIII and this one.
I feel like the dialogue after LBT X was like that, to be perfectly honest.
Fair enough.
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I'm glad it came out. It was an above-average LBT sequel, introduced Ruby into the movie canon and, most importantly, ensured LBT 13 wasn't the last film in the franchise.
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I love that Journey of the Brave gave us the Horned Sharptooth, Carnotaurus! :whatdidyousay
Carnotaurus is my favorite carnivour and to finally see one in the LBT franchise was a blessing.
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It’s a good film to be honest, it’s just that I’m disappointed Chomper and Ruby were on-screen for only about 8 minutes, which in my opinion, is not how you treat main characters. It feels as if they realized they existed post-production, so they made a small amount of scenes for them. Oh yeah, and the sound effects were annoying, very unusual for a LBT movie. Although, I did like Wild Arms though (that is just my opinion, you don’t have to like him) he was at least a funny comic relief character. Overall, it’s still a good movie that holds that good title for 5 years. :yes
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I was meaning to rewatch this one sometime soon. I only ever saw it once. Posting in here as a reminder to myself.
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It’s a good film to be honest, it’s just that I’m disappointed Chomper and Ruby were on-screen for only about 8 minutes, which in my opinion, is not how you treat main characters. It feels as if they realized they existed post-production, so they made a small amount of scenes for them. Oh yeah, and the sound effects were annoying, very unusual for a LBT movie. Although, I did like Wild Arms though (that is just my opinion, you don’t have to like him) he was at least a funny comic relief character. Overall, it’s still a good movie that holds that good title for 5 years. :yes
100% agreed. If there was one thing I could change about that movie, it would be Chomper and Ruby's role. They absolutely should've been in there more, I wanted to see them officially become part of the gang. Better yet, some backstory at to how they became friends and came to the valley would've been awesome. (I know, I know, my hopes were up too high.)
I know some people thought Wild Arms was annoying, but I enjoyed him, too. He brought in a type of humor that you usually don't see in LBT, and at the same time his jokes didn't feel cringy. Etta was also likable--just a very sweet, motherly sort of character.
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I remember the lead-up to JotB coming out, with myself and a few others going around like Holmes and Watson trying to figure out every single thing about the film. :lol
Then it came out, I watched it almost immediately, then got to the end and was like 'is that it?' I think I set my expectations way too high for this. The premise was promising, Littlefoot's dad going missing and him and his friends having to go on a rescue mission did have a lot of promise and I was hoping maybe the series would try going back to its roots in terms of atmosphere or at least the first few sequels. It seemed like it was more similar to 11-13 especially with the dialogue, and they are my least favourite sequels. So I was pretty disappointed and at that point, realised that maybe new LBT content just wouldn't appeal to me like I thought it would.
Five years later, I watched it again. I watched it immediately after watching all of the other sequels, and yeah... it's not as bad as I remember it, not at all. I'll put my full thoughts into a bigger review I'm writing, but for now I'll just say, yep, it's an average LBT sequel. And, like 11-13, I did not have the privilege of going in with 'nostalgia goggles' like I did with the older sequels, so I think I'm going to judge those ones more harshly anyway.
I did feel like some parts were rushed (especially the ending), having the sharpteeth be distracted from the hiding kids/adults by something much smaller than them not once, but twice, was pretty lame, the CGI was pretty jarring in some scenes, I'm not really sure why they put Ruby and Chomper in the film without any kind of explanation, especially considering their role ended up being so small anyway (and could have been covered by Wild Arms alone), and I am still bitter about the lack of a certain green longneck. When the narrator mentioned Littlefoot's mother I was pretty excited but given that she wasn't brought up again, when the potential of losing his dad as well would have been the perfect opportunity to do so, was kinda sad (I live for the Littlefoot's mother references :lol).
On the other hand, I personally love the new score, seeing a HD LBT was pretty cool, the songs were fine, I liked Etta and her morbid sense of humour, and my hot take of this one? I liked Wild Arms. He did have a Yellow Belly-ness about him and when I first saw him my first thought was 'oh no', but keeping him with the adults and only showing him every so often worked so much better. I actually found myself laughing a couple of times at the adults' reaction to him.
There certainly are a lot of flaws in this one but overall I think it's an alright LBT sequel. It still hangs towards the lower end of my preference list, but not as far down as it used to be. Not the best, but certainly not the worst (XIII still proudly holds that title).
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I remember the lead-up to JotB coming out, with myself and a few others going around like Holmes and Watson trying to figure out every single thing about the film. :lol
Then it came out, I watched it almost immediately, then got to the end and was like 'is that it?' I think I set my expectations way too high for this. The premise was promising, Littlefoot's dad going missing and him and his friends having to go on a rescue mission did have a lot of promise and I was hoping maybe the series would try going back to its roots in terms of atmosphere or at least the first few sequels. It seemed like it was more similar to 11-13 especially with the dialogue, and they are my least favourite sequels. So I was pretty disappointed and at that point, realised that maybe new LBT content just wouldn't appeal to me like I thought it would.
Five years later, I watched it again. I watched it immediately after watching all of the other sequels, and yeah... it's not as bad as I remember it, not at all. I'll put my full thoughts into a bigger review I'm writing, but for now I'll just say, yep, it's an average LBT sequel. And, like 11-13, I did not have the privilege of going in with 'nostalgia goggles' like I did with the older sequels, so I think I'm going to judge those ones more harshly anyway.
I did feel like some parts were rushed (especially the ending), having the sharpteeth be distracted from the hiding kids/adults by something much smaller than them not once, but twice, was pretty lame, the CGI was pretty jarring in some scenes, I'm not really sure why they put Ruby and Chomper in the film without any kind of explanation, especially considering their role ended up being so small anyway (and could have been covered by Wild Arms alone), and I am still bitter about the lack of a certain green longneck. When the narrator mentioned Littlefoot's mother I was pretty excited but given that she wasn't brought up again, when the potential of losing his dad as well would have been the perfect opportunity to do so, was kinda sad (I live for the Littlefoot's mother references :lol).
On the other hand, I personally love the new score, seeing a HD LBT was pretty cool, the songs were fine, I liked Etta and her morbid sense of humour, and my hot take of this one? I liked Wild Arms. He did have a Yellow Belly-ness about him and when I first saw him my first thought was 'oh no', but keeping him with the adults and only showing him every so often worked so much better. I actually found myself laughing a couple of times at the adults' reaction to him.
There certainly are a lot of flaws in this one but overall I think it's an alright LBT sequel. It still hangs towards the lower end of my preference list, but not as far down as it used to be. Not the best, but certainly not the worst (XIII still proudly holds that title).
Yeah I just realized how rushed the ending was. Usually I see that ending in these sequels last for a few minutes. This sequel made the ending feel like it was only for a few seconds. What?
I mean, was Universal too busy helping Illumination with other project that they chose to rush the ending and make it short just in time for release?
Like to be honest, it felt like they cut the budget last-minute to keep budget for they’re other animated projects.
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Can't wait when it will be a turn to watch this movie again. I watched it only twice, there was short period of time between that two views, it was years ago. Let's see how my opinion would change...
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I rewatched the film myself not that long ago. I still need to do a proper review of it sometime; it's one of the few that I never did a full review of. But I will say that it was more fun than I remembered it being on my first go round.
I think I set my expectations way too high for this. The premise was promising, Littlefoot's dad going missing and him and his friends having to go on a rescue mission did have a lot of promise and I was hoping maybe the series would try going back to its roots in terms of atmosphere or at least the first few sequels. It seemed like it was more similar to 11-13 especially with the dialogue, and they are my least favourite sequels.
I think, yeah, that was part of the issue I originally had as well. Returning to the tone of the first movie seems like a bit of a pipe dream at this point, but I do wish they had at least styled it closer to the earlier sequels.
When the narrator mentioned Littlefoot's mother I was pretty excited but given that she wasn't brought up again, when the potential of losing his dad as well would have been the perfect opportunity to do so, was kinda sad (I live for the Littlefoot's mother references :lol).
Agreed here too.
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I think, yeah, that was part of the issue I originally had as well. Returning to the tone of the first movie seems like a bit of a pipe dream at this point, but I do wish they had at least styled it closer to the earlier sequels.
Yeah, a style like that would be pretty fine to see. A compromise between the original's dark tone and the more lighthearted one that we've come to expect from the later sequels.