In light of this year being the 10th anniversary of The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration, I feel we should take some time to commemorate it.
But its going to be very embarrassing if someone else has already made such a page...
Anyway, let us discuss it like so:
Favourite parts- The song, 'Bestest Friends.' Whatever your opinion on including musical tracks within the movies are, this is undeniable one of the better choices. I have yet to meet an LBT fan who doesn't like this. The original clip isn't available on YT, which is a bit annoying, <_< but hey, who says that won't change?
- The character of Bron. His story may have a few holes, but on the whole (no pun intended) he is a good choice for a character. Littlefoot's father was going to have to be approached at one point, and I also like how Littlefoot's reaction was not cliche and he trusted him immediatley.
- The character of Sue. A minor character, but none-the-less one I took to instantly. Her voice and personality is sorta cute/likeable/etc and she is one of the first non-parent characters to play a sort of guardian role. Not to mention she is one of the only characters (besides Topsy and Tria) to actually have a proper love-story. I like the idea of her being miffed at being tall, as supposed to being small. XD.
- The character of Shorty. Honestly, Shorty is one of my favourite characters in the entire series, on the basis of this one film. I didn't like his personality in the TV series, and having Rhett's voice actress made him irritating...
The possibilities of Shorty's past are a fanfic writer's dream. Why did he lose his family? Why did he take to looking after those Camarasaurus hatchlings? I also like those hintings of lonliness and inferiority complex that has dotted his life up until now. As he said to Littlefoot:
'Now that he (Bron)'s found you, he'll ignore me, just like everybody else.' I swear, I've gotta write a Shorty fanfic one day...or just stop being lazy and read one.
- The battle scene. The battle sequence between the various longnecks and those three sharpteeth on the crater was, I think, the first fast-moving true battle scene since the first movie. Not to mention, it was quite large scale, had some awesome music in the background. It was generally just awesome. My other favourite battle scenes include the one between the original sharptooth and Littlefoot's mother (you can't beat the classics) and the one in the fifth movie, simply because it was sharptooth vs. sharptooth.
- The Sarcosuchus. I don't think I need to say more...
Least favourite parts- The song, 'Me and My Dad.' I don't know why...it just irks me somewhat. Maybe it seemed to me Littlefoot had developed an arrogant streak. That was certainly my first impression when I watched it, but perhaps I just don't like the tune...I dunno!!!!!!!
- How they treated the sharpteeth. Bron calling sharpteeth 'cowards' is still one issue I have with his character. Whether that's me just being over-protective of the sharptooth cause or not, it certainly seemed to me that there was something darker in the character of Bron at that moment. In any case, Littlefoot should have corrected him! He has seen first-hand that sharpteeth are indeed sentient like other dinosaurs and can even form loving families. This also brings me to my annoyance with the fact that Chomper wasn't mentioned at all in the films he did not appear in...
- Longneck centralism. For a series that is supposed to discourage racism, they made longnecks seem quite like royalty in this film, saving the world, battling sharpteeth etc...just a thought, but still...
- No Doc or Ali. A mass gathering of longnecks for some noble cause? Why wasn't Doc, the fabled hero longneck, there???????? Was it really too much of a social gathering for to show up? And if he had battled the sharpteeth too, we could have seen the Lone Dinosaur in his proper action. And Ali - her return would have marked quite a good subplot in my opinion, especially if she were to interact with Littlefoot and Shorty in a way that would further develop Shorty's character. Maybe I should write that someday...
When I first watched itI first watched this film, like I first LBT in general, on the wonderful British Cartoon Network partner Boomerang. Back in the day, they had these Land Before Time marathons, where they showed all the LBT films that had to been made at that point on TV, back-to-back.
I will admit, I got a bit lost after watching the first four, but when I saw a TV trailer (for it being shown on Boomerang, as supposed to the DVD) for LBT X, I thought, 'Why not?' I was sceptical at first about the character of Littlefoot's father - I mean, where had he been all this time??? But I grew to like the film, and I have re-watched it many times.
Over to you now - set out your memories and thoughts of this film the way I have. I look forward to seeing them!
- Toby.
