The Gang of Five
The Land Before Time => General Land Before Time => Topic started by: Serris on May 08, 2008, 06:20:16 PM
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After looking through some of the posts on this forum, I was wondering what everyone's opinions would be if the producers were to return to the darker more menacing feel of the Original LBT?
I personally would LOVE it, but do what Shakespeare did and mix in some comedic moments (referring to Hamlet and the gravedigger scene).
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No. LBT 1 was supposed to be dark to have the feeling of despair and hopelessness on the journey to the valley. This is no longer needed and the show needs to maintain the feeling of a good family childhood film.
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Hmm, I personally voted the third option - a mix - but, after reading your post, landbeforetimelover, I also feel the way you do... Oops. Oh well, it's only a vote... But, it's currently tied three ways, as I write this...
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I voted yes.
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Yeah, I think a little darkness could be very good for the LBT series. Nothing too drastic, but something to spice it up a little.
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Yes. I'm sick and tired of the silliness of children's shows these days <_< . However, it should have some LIGHT humor.
Now, S1 and S2 of the Animals of Farthing Wood is a PERFECT example of a good children's series. Could have done better with S3, but hey, it wasn't like Ferngully 2 or LBT series!
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I like a mix of the dark and comedic elements. Though more like the earlier sequels then the latter where it is mainly comedy with some serious moments.
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Would be nice to see, but as a realist, I'm only going to see this in fanfiction. ^^
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Would be nice to see, but as a realist, I'm only going to see this in fanfiction. ^^
Very true. If they did any more sequels they likely would have the same feel as the latter movies.
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I voted on mixing the elements. LBT should not be as dark as the original, but instead more threatening villians and suspense should be added to the series :yes.
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Which are the lighter elements of the sequels anyway? It is not like there hadn't been some "light" humor scenes in the original movie. The darker elements in the original movie (which I think would do very well in future stories, though I agree with Adam that this is not likely to happen) are easier to track down than specifically sequel-bound "light" elements. The songs are the most striking thing that comes to my mind. So long they keep up making good ones I would be willing to accept a few poor once along with them. The songs however would probably not fit at all into the mood created in the original movie.
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I like it as it is now. But voting, I'd say mix it. But I'm more on the "no" side.
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not in
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I am thinking they should mix it a bit. Some of the LBTs seems a bit hmm, kiddish to me? But that¥s my opinion, I like all the LBT, no like them anyway.
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I really think they should mix them up. I think it would be nice if they brought back some of the darker elements. However, I've grown so used to having the lighter elements in LBT that it just wouldn't feel the same without them.
So yeah, I feel it's best to mix them up. :)
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The theme of the original movie was getting to the valley. So it wasn't just walking there and doing nothing, they had to have an antagonist who wanted something that contradicted with the protagonist. The sharptooths main function was to start the story off by killing Littlefoot's mother. Then it took up the role of chasing them so there's a certain sort of danger and an urge to reach the valley. There's no way to reproduce that in the later sequels, sorry. That is, unless they wanted to make a really lame movie where the gang gets lost and is constantly chased by a sharptooth. It's pretty hard to make a dark movie when the setting is a place such as the great valley. Unless they leave it, the films are never going to get too dark. Without the great valley, there can't really be any happy endings and there would be no where to go "adventuring" to because the gang wouldn't be allowed to go far from their parents. There's no real way for the sequels to get very dark. It's not so much that they choose not to make them dark, it's more that it's almost impossible to do the way they have things set up. If you want them darker, there will have to be some very drastic changes. The things that make LBT what it is would have to be radically changed over night to get that sort of thing.
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You do raise some important and interesting points, though the early sequels did have a bit more of the dark elements to them. Not like the first one, which may not fit for the sequels. I, personally, like a mix, though some can have less dark elements then others. Though with the current sequels most of the folks (the masses) watching those would likely be upset if things suddenly switched to being as dark as the early sequels were.
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The question of this thread was also brought up in a fairly large GOF-MSN chat yesterday.
One thing to note is that slapstick moments, which contribute a lot to the "light" rather than "dark" atmosphere of a movie, are by no means an invention of the sequels and on the other hand sharpteeth didn't turn harmless right after the first movie either.
Still there is a distinct difference between the general mood of the first movie and the sequels which I think is based on a number of points.
Most important, I think, is a kind of sense of a "changing world" and the passing away of dinosaurs as a whole in the original movie. While this idea is certainly not found in the sequels.
In the original movie we have the impression of a "dying" world with the Great Valley being the very last save heaven. There are unproven but not incredible rumors that the original concept of LBT meant Littlefoot and the others to die and find the Great Valley as a kind of dinosaur heaven rather than a real place (a place to see with your eyes rather than with your heart only). Now I'm just guessing, but apart from that being a rather tough story the similarity to the (more lighthearted) "All dogs go to heaven" may have played a role in the decision to choose a different way for LBT. If that original idea really existed and if it had been realized there would have never been any sequel at all.
Anyway, the sequels' image of the world of LBT is a very different one. The first two sequels (LBT 2 and 3) still at least don't contradict the image of the Great Valley being the last green heaven. The Mysterious Beyond is depicted as VERY hostile there (dinosaur skeletons everywhere) and we never hear of any other places like the Great Valley. LBT 4 was the first to break with that tradition by including the Migrating Herd. The Great Valley is no longer the only place where dinosaurs could live. Nevertheless a some of the elements of the original movie are maintained, but while the changes in the original movie were clearly changes to result in the doom of dinosaurs LBT 4 gives a very different outlook on these changes. The nice little quote: "The land is changing. Maybe we will all live together some day." Certainly gives a very optimistic interpretation of changes that does not seem to fit at all to the changes mentioned in LBT 4 (the land of mists becoming uninhabitable for Ali's herd).
LBT does show a struggle for the life of the characters with the strenuous journey of the Valley inhabitants. This journey however was only a short scene and we never actually saw somebody dying (we only got to see the skeleton of a duckbill who didn't belong to the Great Valley herd). Nevertheless I find Pokeplayer's recent theory that it may have been during this journey that Cera's mum and her siblings died quite interesting. In the end of the movie however we get a glimpse at another "Great Valley" for the first time in the series.
LBT 6 finally kills of everything that may have been left about the Great Valley's mythological status "This place is nice, but there are others just as nice out there somewhere."
The status of the Great Valley as just one among many in a basically healthy world is in my opinion an important factor to change the general mood of the movie. There are still "dark" elements in some later sequels (Pterano incident in LBT 7, a "good" sharptooth in LBT 9) but none of them comes even near to the dark mood of the original movie.
Personally I don't think lighthearted elements in general are to be condemned, so I guess my vote too would go for a mix of dark- and light-hearted elements. I suppose that such a mix would look similar to the early sequels which I prefer over the late ones.
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Some true and valid points. In the sequels one could say the appearance of the mysterious beyond around the Great Valley was due to perhaps 1 or several factors. Maybe a drought that was happening for a few years or longer before the first movie started. Maybe leaf gobblers had passed through one or more of the areas before the first movie started, and perhaps others as well. One could then say that by the time that the mysterious beyond seems greener is since by then it had recovered by then. Not the exact thing they meant in the first movie or the early sequels perhaps, but one can insert some of the reasons I said before into the new version of the mysterious beyond LBT world.
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We must understand that the earth is very large so of course the great valley wouldn't be the only life-filled place on the planet. If that were so, nothing else could live and the entire dinosaur race would go extinct because there wouldn't be enough genetic variation to keep producing offspring if the only living dinosaurs were in the great valley (wow, that run-on sentence sounded okay :lol ). There's no way any dinosaur could travel all over the world. There's obviously other places like the great valley, some even larger. Perhaps even one the size of an entire continent exists somewhere (notice I said the SIZE of a continent, seeing as there were no little continents. Only pangea existed at that time).
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Some very true points you raised and pointed out.
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i love the first one just the way it is i like the cute warm feeling i get at the end part and the sad journey to the valley part. I think that it should be mixed with both because it should not just be one way and not the other i like the land before time being cute and i do like a little of the dark feeling it gives me when something scary is about to happen it dose get a little exciting there. both are good for me as long as it is the land before time than i like it. :)
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I think a mix of both is best since it enhances and improves the story I think. Though each movie or story doesn't need to be exactly 50/50. Some could have more of one then the other.
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i agree with that not all should have the same feeling every time in every movie.
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Yes, some darker and some lighter. That could keep things interesting and would make sense to me.
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What do you all mean by Darker Feel?
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I think Roy Allan Smith did a good job in 2-4 mixing the lighter and darker elements. Everything up to 4 was great. And then Grosvner came in with 5. It wasn't god-awful, seeing as Roy Allan Smith was still partly working on it, but it was a sudden and unexpected drop from where things had been. And then with 6 everything went downhill. 10 years ago, when movie 8 had just been released, I would have said "mixing the lighter and darker elements" (which I voted for before thinking) but after how bad wisdom of friends was, I think we NEED to return to the feel of LBT 1. That is, if LBT still continues to exist. :unsure:
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Funny, it's been nearly 2 years since I made the last post in this topic.
I feel we'd need to return to the feel of the first movie if the franchise were to revive. I know it's all impossible, but it's the only way I would forgive Universal for WOF.
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I agree, Bruton. Though I both like the darker and the lighter sequels.
I think it would be almost impossible to think of an idea that is as dark or even darker the LBT 1 and still appropriate for kids at that.
All fanfiction ideas I had so far (and RPs, too) are rather dark I guess... though I try to mix in funny and less serious scenes as well :)
Anyway, I voted for a mixture since I both enjoy dark and light scenes and I also think the mixture in LBT 2-4 was pretty good.