Discuss: The Canyon of Shiny Stones

[NewOrder]

It's believed that great sauropods could live for more than 100 years, taking in consideration that none of the gang have grown an inch since the original film, you could think not such a long time has passed.

[Noname]

Well, Chomper is noticably larger than in movie II, maybe even larger than in movie V. I would like to point out that we don't know how much time passes between the movies or tv episodes. In some cases, it could be only a few weeks, or in the case of the tv series, days. It's possible that only a few years have elapsed since the first movie. As it is, the gang of... seven... seems to be significantly larger in the tv series than it appeared in the second movie (except for Ruby, who isn't even in the movies at all; maybe she will appear in movie XIII; in fact, i'd expect her to appear in it.)At the very least, we can agree that during the first movie, all of the characters (save Spike) grow significantly.

P.S.: An example of (possible) growth can be seen by comparing movies III and X. In movie III, in the scene where the valley caught on fire, one can see the size of the Littlefoot and his friends next to his grandfather. In this scene, they look like a mouse next to a human; if even that. Now, in the tenth movie, the size difference between Littlefoot and his father (Bron), isn't as big; it's like comparing a kitten to a human, rather than a mouse. Keep in mind that Bron must be at least as large as Littlefoot's grandfather, if not larger. I think that someone else on this board mentioned that the difference in size appears if one compares movie II to XI.

[pokeplayer984]

Well, Chomper is noticably larger than in movie II, maybe even larger than in movie V. I would like to point out that we don't know how much time passes between the movies or tv episodes. In some cases, it could be only a few weeks, or in the case of the tv series, days. It's possible that only a few years have elapsed since the first movie. As it is, the gang of... seven... seems to be significantly larger in the tv series than it appeared in the second movie (except for Ruby, who isn't even in the movies at all; maybe she will appear in movie XIII; in fact, i'd expect her to appear in it.)At the very least, we can agree that during the first movie, all of the characters (save Spike) grow significantly.

P.S.: An example of (possible) growth can be seen by comparing movies III and X. In movie III, in the scene where the valley caught on fire, one can see the size of the Littlefoot and his friends next to his grandfather. In this scene, they look like a mouse next to a human; if even that. Now, in the tenth movie, the size difference between Littlefoot and his father (Bron), isn't as big; it's like comparing a kitten to a human, rather than a mouse. Keep in mind that Bron must be at least as large as Littlefoot's grandfather, if not larger. I think that someone else on this board mentioned that the difference in size appears if one compares movie II to XI.

I definately recall me saying something like that.

If you just compare the two, you end up seeing quite the difference.  I believe that as the sequals progressed, the animators only slightly changed the hieght with each on coming sequal.  The growth just snuck up on us.

[Noname]

Thank you for having said that. I thought I was alone in suggesting that the characters grew over time, and that nobody actually said what I said you said.

[Stitch]

I think another example of how the characters have grown during the series is Tricia.  She is a current example of how big a "newborn" is.

[Noname]

Tricia is still very young. She was probably put into the series for the practical effect of having a small, cute, baby dinosaur around in order to conjure up memories of the first movie, as well as give Cera a half-sister. Anyway, we haven't really seen Tricia grow by any apprceable amount yet, and she still is mostly unable to speak; if i'm not mistaken, she only said one word in the 12th movie: "Cera", and she doesn't speak in the fourth TV episode. And... that's it for Tricia. Not much to say.

[Malte279]

At long last I finally got around to watch the episode. There is not much left to say for me, as basically I agree with what has been said already. I'm especially pleased to agree with this one:

All in all, it was a good one!

I did notice the shortcommings in the animation too though. They were kind of annoying in the third episode and regretably they showed quite distinctly throughout episode number 4 as well. I must also agree that Cera's half sister (I didn't see her in LBT 12 yet) looked somewhat too chubby.

For us here in America the movie isn't out yet, so this is our first sight of Trisha.  :^.^:

For you in America (or me in Germany) Episode 4 isn't officially out yet either, so we can't blame anyone else for mixing up the sequence :
As for the animation, I'm willing to accept shortcomings in the animation rather than in the plots and the plot of episode 4 was good enough as far as I'm concerned.
One realizes that the makers of this episode's plot did think about the characters. Funnily enough it is often elements which some might consider negligible which I really like. Petrie's superstition about the burning mountain was quite funny and so was Ducky's rebuking of Chomper not to look at her when saying that he is hungry (They didn't forget his being a sharptooth after all  ).
Altogether a very good job about the dialogues
Ducky's and Petrie's comparing Cera to the burning mountain and the looks he gave them for it were just great.

[...] but I wish they would be more creative with the names ('Canyon of Shiny Stones'? That's like naming something 'Place Where the Trees Grow High and Needley.' Maybe it's just me, but I don't like obvious literal things that often)

Yes and no. On the one hand I see where you are coming from with your argument that overly descriptive names may sound kind of childish, but then again I wouldn't consider "Canyon of Shiny Stones" overly descriptive. The vocabulary of the dinosaurs is more limited than our own. Shiny Stones seems to be more proper than if they came up with precise terms such as "Quartz" or "Diamonds" (I don't expect it would make a difference to a dinosaur so long it looks nice and shiny) or whatever, for this would presuppose a certain awarenss of mineralogy and I don't see how the dinosaurs should aquire this. I suppose that shape, color, or special features of something (e.g. shiny) are the major points for dinosaurs to come up with a name for something.
How would you have them call the Canyon of the Shiny Stones Ratiasu?
Comparing it to 'Place Where the Trees Grow High and Needley.' may be somewhat exaggerated, as that example is artificially drawn out while Canyon of the Shiny Stones is not. A more likely LBT term for 'Place Where the Trees Grow High and Needley.' would be "The high needle trees" (the dinosaurs know that it must be some place and also that trees usually tend to grow, so why would they mention it?).

Ooo, the lava! Whatcha gunna do now, kids!? I can see that being another minigame on some LBT CD-rom or something. Ah, the conveniently placed (fallen) tree...it returns. Did that remind anyone else of LBT 2?

Or of LBT 5 and 6, only that they were running from a sharptooth rather than from Lava in that case. Trees often come in handy
None of us would have wanted to see the characters being fried for lack of a tree and a ledge though. Perhaps they could have made it a bit more "dramatic" and actually let the characters show some real fear. Also it wouldn't just be "hot" (as Ruby called it) that close to a stream of lava. It would be burning hot. With the younger target audience in mind I suppose they are carefull not to make it too "scary". Oh well :

I also found that weird. I thought Littlefoot and the others were going to tell Chomper to hide, but they didn't. In the movies the grownups never met Chomper, I believe we have to wait for episodes 1 and 2 to sort things out.

I don't suppose there is any way they could hide Chomper in the long run and at the same time play with him regularly. It didn't work out with the Tinysaurs, and I don't suppose Chomper would be happy having to stay in a cave all the time. Come to think of it, it might make for an interesting story to have Littlefoot and the others try to hide Chomper; an attempt doomed to fail. A story in which Chomper is finally discovered but for some reason or the sheer perception that he is not a thread yet (and might not become one if he grows up valuing the Great Valley inhabitants as friends so he would ultimately leave rather than attack any one of them) is tolerated by the grownups. I think there could be some real emotion in such a story.

Well, Chomper is noticably larger than in movie II, maybe even larger than in movie V.

Is he really? He was bigger than Ducky and Petrie from the moment he hatched. I don't really think he has really grown very much, between LBT 2 and 5 (whatever else he may have claimed in LBT 5) there doesn't seem to be much of a difference about his size in the TV episodes if compared to the movies either. They seem to be kind of inconstand about the size of characters in general. In LBT 3 we have scenes in which Ducky is about as tall as Littlefoot's knees (and thereby considerably larger than Littlefoot's head) while during the song Kids like us She and Petrie both fit comfortably on Littlefoot's head. This is just one out of many other examples.
It seems though that dinosaurs grow very quickly in the first time after they hatch. Tricia is considerably larger than Cera was when she hatched in the original movie. Spike is perhaps the best example of quick growing. I think he more than trippled his size in the first seconds of his life. What do I say, he must have grown more than five times the size of his egg within moments (much more even).

I too wonder why Cera didn't carry the stone in her mouth. It would've indeed been easier.

I guess that's what everyone must have though. It was the first thing that came to my mind too when she was balancing that stone behind her horn. But if she had put it in her mouth, there would have been nothing to worry about for the audience, and perhaps the makers of the movies want the audience to feel with the characters (which I think is a good thing).

[novaflare]

Oh, and by the way, we already knew Chomper ate bees - the animation is in the credits.

That's true, but we didn't know about the 'fuzzy crawlers'

Come to think of it, isn't that what they called the cute little rodent in Journey to the Mists? Didn't they make friends with it? I think this would be the first time we see that it's acceptable for Chomper to eat something that they might consider a friend.  :blink:

I dont remember if they gave it a species name. I just remember ducky saying fuzzy ticklies and calling him tickles.

What im more intrested in is how they will or may deal with chomper as he is older? If they decide to age out the chars in a future wrp up film i think they should show chomper as turng toward fish or varioud seeds. Remember meat eaters eat meat for protein. This same protien can be had from various seeds. Peanut butter was used by a african doctor to act as a protein substitue for aboriginal people who could no longer chew normal food. It would not be much of a stretch for a meat eating dino to b able to survive doing somethign along the same lines. Fish are another option. In the first ep i seen here i beleive cave of many voices where chompers cave sprung a leak. It clearly shows ruby eating a clam or clam like creture. We also know the the orignal chars are not to fond of under water creture and infact fear them. Most fish back then would have been preditory in nature them selfs meanign they are sharp teeth swimers to the dino kids.

So it would be plausable to have chomper eating fish and seeds as his diet.

Something i picked up on in the mysterious island is the fact that the island where chomper lives is full of sharp teeth. And they are dangerous to him and his parents. My guess is these sharp teeth are killing and eating each other. This would be a reason that explains why chomper was sent away. It got to dangerous for him. Elsie from the mysterious island likely took chomper off the island to live with ruby and her folks. At some point it became to dangerous do to redclaw and his crew for them in the mysterious beyond. In fact maybe redclaw was also on the island and was knocked in to the ocean. Possibly chompers own parent attacked him and thought him dead. This could be what made them decide to send chomper some where safer for him. But some time during the time he left the island and went to the vally redclaw showed up.

Oh and just incase any one was trying to figure out what the stinky flowers really are from the mysterious island. They are corpse flowers. They smell like rotten meat when fully grown the "bloom" is between 4 and 6 feet tall.

[Noname]

I think that Chomper might be able to survive on fish when he is a little older (human sized and still growing), but there's no way a 6-ton predator could survive on seeds when fully grown. I'm sure he would have to leave the valley, this time for good. But yes, the fish idea would work if the series advances the time to a few years in the future, provided that fish can be found in suffcient quantities. Also, eating moderate sized lizards would work as well.

[novaflare]

I think that Chomper might be able to survive on fish when he is a little older (human sized and still growing), but there's no way a 6-ton predator could survive on seeds when fully grown. I'm sure he would have to leave the valley, this time for good. But yes, the fish idea would work if the series advances the time to a few years in the future, provided that fish can be found in suffcient quantities. Also, eating moderate sized lizards would work as well.

You forget though that many prehistoric fish were quite huge. Some could hit close to 500 pounds going on muscle density of current fish. So if a fish was say 6 foot long it could easly reach 300 to 400 pounds in weight. Thats a pretty hearty meal. What does a killer whale eat per day in pounds somethign around half a ton i beleive? And if you go by the warm blooded dino ideas then this would be about what a preditor like trex would need per day. If you buy in to the cold blooded dino ideas then the ammount of food needed is even less. Plant eaters are the real heavy weights when it comes to food consumption. So a single kill by a rex could likely feed them for days or even weeks if not for scavengers.

Remember most carniverous dinos would have been scavengers as well as hunters much like the big cats of today.

Simply put one trex makes a kill eats his fill leaves alot laying there another trex comes by eats his fill and repeat a few more times for a large kill. Id say for a adult trex they would need about 400 to 1000 pounds of meat a day at most depending on activity level time of year etc. Given that during times when it would be colder they would need to build up fat stores they would eat more. When it was hot out they likely ate much less. Less calories burned up to generate body heat. Now with a trex if like todays preditory animals the time when they would need the most food is when they are say more than half grown say 75% Alot of calories would be used for their growth and for maintaining body heat etc. As a adult their needs for calories like every other living thing would go down.

[Littlefoot Fan]

Oh and just incase any one was trying to figure out what the stinky flowers really are from the mysterious island. They are corpse flowers. They smell like rotten meat when fully grown the "bloom" is between 4 and 6 feet tall.

Omg I didn't even think of that! I remember reading about those things, and I was actually fascinated in them because of how tall they grew, and how bad they smelled.

Gosh, I feel bad for those kids. That must have been awful!

[novaflare]

Oh and just incase any one was trying to figure out what the stinky flowers really are from the mysterious island. They are corpse flowers. They smell like rotten meat when fully grown the "bloom" is between 4 and 6 feet tall.

Omg I didn't even think of that! I remember reading about those things, and I was actually fascinated in them because of how tall they grew, and how bad they smelled.

Gosh, I feel bad for those kids. That must have been awful!

They had one at the cleveland zoos rainforest. Lets just say after gettign a with i made sure to give it a wide wide birth. Stinky is not the word for it. Know the old term gag a magot well if you could gag one the corpse flower would most assuradly gag it...

[Malte279]

What im more intrested in is how they will or may deal with chomper as he is older? If they decide to age out the chars in a future wrp up film i think they should show chomper as turng toward fish or varioud seeds.

That would be the way they "solved the problem" in Madagascar. Sometimes I wonder why in some movies or stories of this sort the eating of fish is presented as less problematic than the eating of any other living being. When they came up with that "fish eating solution" in Madagascar I suddenly had to think of finding Nemo
Perhaps Littlefoot and the others would have to think of Mo if Chomper started eating fish. Then again, Mo too would be a fisheater.

Also, eating moderate sized lizards would work as well.

In which case the Tinysaurs from LBT 11 should better stay hidden
I think we can take it for granted that they won't let the LBT characters grow up in the movie or go too much into details which might cause little kids to pester their parents with tricky questions about whether a particular fish had agreed to be eaten by Chomper. We are not going to be given any detailed answers on these matters from the producers, we have to figure it out ourselves.

Something i picked up on in the mysterious island is the fact that the island where chomper lives is full of sharp teeth. And they are dangerous to him and his parents.

But there is a scene in which Chomper mentions that he and his parents are the only sharpteeth around. He wasn't aware of the other sharptooth who had set foot on the island, but that one was washed away and it seems unlikely that very many sharpteeth would take the risk and effort to swim to the island after the destruction of the causeway. Shortage of food (Chomper mentioned there wasn't much to eat) seems a more plausible reason for Chomper and his parents to leave the island.
But how did they manage to get away? It doesn't seem very likely that Elzy could (or would) give a ride to two fully grown sharpteeth. Natural disasters could create a chance to leave the island again, whether by the creation of a new causeway, or a temporary retreat of water which often occurs before a Tsunami (which could have resulted in quite an unpleasant exodus for Chomper and his folks).

Oh and just incase any one was trying to figure out what the stinky flowers really are from the mysterious island. They are corpse flowers. They smell like rotten meat when fully grown the "bloom" is between 4 and 6 feet tall.

I'm not really sure, are there corpse flowers which look like the flowers we saw in the movie? I know little about flowers, and corpse flowers are certainly not in any of our plant pots, but I think those flowers usually get very big, while in the movie (comparing the flowers size to Petrie's) they seemed to be quite small. Moreover the smell of dead meat might not be considered repulsive by Chomper or any grownup sharpteeth. It might even be a dead sure way to lure sharpteeth to the place where the flowers grow (which is the basic idea of the flower. The smell is meant to attract insects). I don't know what kind of flowers are shown in LBT 5, but I doubt they are meant to be corpse flowers.

[novaflare]

What im more intrested in is how they will or may deal with chomper as he is older? If they decide to age out the chars in a future wrp up film i think they should show chomper as turng toward fish or varioud seeds.

That would be the way they "solved the problem" in Madagascar. Sometimes I wonder why in some movies or stories of this sort the eating of fish is presented as less problematic than the eating of any other living being. When they came up with that "fish eating solution" in Madagascar I suddenly had to think of finding Nemo
Perhaps Littlefoot and the others would have to think of Mo if Chomper started eating fish. Then again, Mo too would be a fisheater.

Also, eating moderate sized lizards would work as well.

In which case the Tinysaurs from LBT 11 should better stay hidden
I think we can take it for granted that they won't let the LBT characters grow up in the movie or go too much into details which might cause little kids to pester their parents with tricky questions about whether a particular fish had agreed to be eaten by Chomper. We are not going to be given any detailed answers on these matters from the producers, we have to figure it out ourselves.

Something i picked up on in the mysterious island is the fact that the island where chomper lives is full of sharp teeth. And they are dangerous to him and his parents.

But there is a scene in which Chomper mentions that he and his parents are the only sharpteeth around. He wasn't aware of the other sharptooth who had set foot on the island, but that one was washed away and it seems unlikely that very many sharpteeth would take the risk and effort to swim to the island after the destruction of the causeway. Shortage of food (Chomper mentioned there wasn't much to eat) seems a more plausible reason for Chomper and his parents to leave the island.
But how did they manage to get away? It doesn't seem very likely that Elzy could (or would) give a ride to two fully grown sharpteeth. Natural disasters could create a chance to leave the island again, whether by the creation of a new causeway, or a temporary retreat of water which often occurs before a Tsunami (which could have resulted in quite an unpleasant exodus for Chomper and his folks).

Oh and just incase any one was trying to figure out what the stinky flowers really are from the mysterious island. They are corpse flowers. They smell like rotten meat when fully grown the "bloom" is between 4 and 6 feet tall.

I'm not really sure, are there corpse flowers which look like the flowers we saw in the movie? I know little about flowers, and corpse flowers are certainly not in any of our plant pots, but I think those flowers usually get very big, while in the movie (comparing the flowers size to Petrie's) they seemed to be quite small. Moreover the smell of dead meat might not be considered repulsive by Chomper or any grownup sharpteeth. It might even be a dead sure way to lure sharpteeth to the place where the flowers grow (which is the basic idea of the flower. The smell is meant to attract insects). I don't know what kind of flowers are shown in LBT 5, but I doubt they are meant to be corpse flowers.

Well the shapes are right as is the way they are growing. Im sure the animators and artists had these as inspiration. Most true preditors wont eat bad meat. So it makes sense that sharp teeth would avoid these things for the most part. Or they tried eatign them once and then found out that they were not what they smelled to be. Also a field of such plants would be sensory overload. Hunting for a pred that uses its sense os smell would avoid this type of place and not try to hunt there.

Regardless time to stop the off topic. If i recall invision allows topics to be split up and moved to a new topic. This little sub topic does have soem value so maybe a nice move to its own topic for further replies?

[Teresa]

I love this episode. Especially "Oops Eeps ! I made a mistake !" i just wish they didn't then use the tune in 'Stranger From the Mysterious Above' for the song "My Way"  <_<

[Malte279]

The Canyon of Shiny Stones is another episode I watched last year already and I wrote about it before, so I’ll try to skip what I have written already and focus on random thoughts not yet mentioned.
Cera’s reaction at Tria’s question about what she did with the Shiny stones is certainly very much in character. Rather than trying to explain anything, making up any excuses, or apologizing right away her first reaction is to attack. Though she regretted this very soon we may understand her reaction with “Ooops Eeeps” as the unpleasant alternative
The German translation by the way made Tria appear a little harsher than the English original. While in the English version she asks “what happened to my pretty stone” the German transltation is more like “what did you do with my pretty stone”, pushing Cera in a more defensive position.
Interestingly Ruby was “counting treestars” rather than merely counting during the hide and seek game. I consider that an interesting idea and plausible too. Dinosaurs in the land before time, with all their similarities to us, probably wouldn’t think along the same lines as we do. I am not sure if they would understand numbers as a concept so long they don’t know what exactly they are counting. In spite of Ruby’s announcement “Ready or not here I come” she was leaving not ready Chomper quite some time to get ready or rather “being made ready” by Littlefoot. I love Ducky’s look in the scene when she feels she is about to be spotted by Ruby. Thinking of some of the scenes from other episodes I wonder how much sense it would made to play hide and seek with Chomper for a seeker. His sense of smell would most likely make it a rather short game. But Cera too made a remark about Spike’s smell in “The Meadow of Jumping Waters” (refering not just to his smell after he fell in the stinking mud in that episode) which makes it kind of strange that Ruby wouldn’t find Spike while she is standing right in front of the bush behind which he is hiding. During the hide and seek game they seem to be somewhat anthropomorphized relying on their eyes only rather than on their other senses as well. I imagine playing hide and seek may be a bit more complex for dinosaurs if for example they have to make sure to always be in a position from the seeker that ensures that the wind is blowing the scent of the hider away from the seeker. In this respect I also remember one of the final scenes of LBT 2 in which we saw Ducky seeking the others while she was blindfolded with a leaf. Perhaps they developed ways of disabeling the sense of smell as well in order to make the game more difficult for the seeker?
It struck me as kind of strange that neither Ruby, nor anyone else seemed to have noticed Cera’s absence at the beginning of the game. It’s not like Cera is so inconspicuous a character as to make her absence something to be easily missed, is it?
Chomper seemed to be a bit absent minded in suggesting to bring fuzzy crawlers or buzzy flyers to Tria as an apology. What would she do with those? Apparently Chomper was thinking more with his stomach at that moment.
By the way, these things are not meant to be harsh criticism of the sequel. If all the sayings or actions of the characters would be well thought through and perfectly reasonable I suppose this would shorten the episodes and sometimes make them more boring with much less dialogue, so these are more like random points.
I wonder if Cera and the others have been in the Canyon of Shiny stones before. They all seemed to be well aware of where it is, but still they were very impressed when at last they arrived there. I suppose a place like that Canyon will stay fascinating and impressive even if you are not seeing it for the first time.
One thing I realized is that they were very ready to accept Petrie’s not going to the smoking mountain, while in “The mysterious Tooth Crisis” they (Littlefoot and Chomper) were not as ready to accept Ducky’s going to a place where she wanted to go.
There was another lyricless melody in the scene when they were heading for the smoking mountain. Short though as those melodies are I still think they are not uninteresting.
Same as the counting of treestars there are two other scenes which I think may allow for some guesses about the ways LBT dinosaurs think (though these guesses are not really new ideas but have been suggested elsewhere already). One of these thinks is that they think of the smoking mountain as if they were thinking of it as a living being with thoughts and moods. In the end they conclude that it is probably “just a mountain” after all. But they don’t seem to be absolutely sure. I don’t suppose these thoughts about the mountain are just “kid’s thoughts” but might be shared by the grownups as well.
The other thing is that the dinosaurs don’t strive for posessions the way humans do (something that I think has been suggested in a couple of fanfictions). Tria’s “owning” the shiny stone might suggest differently, but she just liked the look of it and presented it in a way (along with the other shiny stuff) so everyone could see it, rather than hiding it somewhere for fear of thieves (what most humans would do). Also, with the Canyon of the Shiny Stone being a well known location it would cease to exist within a few days if the dinosaur’s thoughts on “owning” and “posessing” were the same as human’s thinking about the terms. They would just plunder it if they were thinking the way humans do. Maybe Tria’s pile of shining stuff is kind of like “art” rather than “posession” (Maybe I just got an idea for the draft of the next fanart award ).
I like the way they showed the peril in this episode as such. Unlike some of the later sequels where the moment there is any danger the seen the dramatic moment will be defused by some sharptooth slapstick or the like on behalf of the younger audience. Not so in this episode. Ducky seemed to be in very immediate danger and Petrie’s first rescue attempt had failed. I do think that dramatic moments like this are a very good thing to keep the stories more exciting than some of the “too harmless” stories.

[Kor]

I enjoyed this episode. It does seem to be one of the better written ones.  Also nice to have some danger and have it not be one the ultimately slapstick type.  That can be funny, but it can be overdone also.   I also liked how the kids had to have the grown ups rescue them instead of rescuing themselves.  A nice touch and something that was nice to see sometimes.

[rosie]

Is this the episode where Ducky gets too greedy and keeps all the shiny stones for herself? If so, it would contradict the false notion that she is just a goodie twoshoes. YEPYEP!

[Kor]

That is the episode: Search for the Sky Color Stones, where Ducky does that. & it shows a side of Ducky that I think wasn't shown before.

[The Friendly Sharptooth]

I also liked how the kids had to have the grown ups rescue them instead of rescuing themselves.

That ended up being the part of this episode that I found to be the most unrealistic. Do you guys remember the grownups reactions when they saw that their kids had snuck away into a dangerous place and almost didn't make it back alive? Littlefoot's grandparents, who helped all the characters get out, except Chomper and Ducky, were actually smiling at the kids and made very casual comments like, "Time to go for a ride," as they got on his head and he got them out. The grownups didn't look angry, worried, or scared about the kids' near death experience at all. It was like molten lava was just no big deal, even though it would end any dinosaur's life that fell into it. Seriously, watch the rescue at the end. Do see any emotion from the grownups towards their kids at all? I know Tria shows gratitude that Cera risked her life for a shiny stone, since she said how Cera is more important than any shiny stone. But even when Cera almost falls off a cliff into the lava to keep stone from being lost, Tria didn't seem scared by that at all. She just walks up to Cera cooly after Cera stops and then starts a conversation with her. Perhaps their kids have had so many near death experiences but always make it through somehow, it just isn't as big a deal to the grownups when it happens again, it seems, in this episode at least. Did you hear the grownups asking if they were hurt or if everything was alright? Or even what they could possibly have been thinking to risk their lives like that? The writers just don't seem to give the characters the strong emotions they displayed in the movies. Danger just doesn't seem as serious an issue as it used to be. Later.