My review on –the cave of the many voices“ is going to be very random I suppose. While watching the episode for the first time (German version) I wrote everything I was thinking of on the back of an envelope (which I noticed later on was one which I might have better kept clear of pencil scribbles) while watching the English original I was scribling on the back of a library voucher. The result were these two pieces of paper randomly scribled with German, English, nonsense and a few symbols:
My overall impression of the episode was rather positive. The translators had some tricky things to translate and I must say they mostly did a good job in transfering the message rather than trying forcibly to stick to the literal meaning. There were some passages where they rhymed in English but not in German and the other way round. There were a few strange terms though. In the German version Ruby’s “Oh dear” from the English version was translated to “Ach Du dickes Drachenei”. Litterally translated back to English this would mean “Oh you thick dragon-egg!” and would stand for a kind of “lizardized” version of “Oh dear”. It still is funny to think of LBT dinosaurs as thinking about dragons. Interestingly Chomper’s “planteaters” was translated to “Flachz‰hne” (“flatteeth”). Cera’s (English) use of the term “appetizer” made me think of her “raw, medium, or well done?” question in LBT 5. At times the dinosaurs of LBT seem to be surprisingly familiar with human terms, but I count this as funny rather than annoying if it is not too excessively used. They translated “Redclaw” to “Rotklaue” which is quite correctly translated, but I still prefer the English name.
I noticed red claws claw was red, which (though it seems to make sense) is rather strange. I don’t see how a claw consisting of horn only without any blood vessels in it could be scarred into redness. One of the effects not to be thought about too much I reckon. I was quite pleased not to see another type of redness in the episode. They did not turn everything red in a dangerous situation. They did use another “effect” unseen in the sequels though. In case of danger they increase the suspension by screening of (when Littlefoot, Cera, and Chomper were sliding towards Redclaw) and leaving the screen black for some moments. I was happy with the animation in general.
I found the topic of “talking big” somewhat appealing. They translated “talking big” as “talking loud” which I don’t think hits the mark. After all it is not just that Ducky is talking quieter than Ruby, is it? Ruby had an interesting way of talking but I must say I am not quite convinced about some of the effects ascribed to her talk. For example I don’t really see why those two bigger domeheads would be scarred into dropping Ducky’s treestars at Ruby’s demand. Nor do I see why the domeheads would go after Ducky’s tresstars in a Valley full of treestars in the first place? Why was Ruby the only one to help Ducky, while the others were around too? These things are somewhat strange, but I doubt there will be any more point in discussing them as in discussing the unrealistically “pouring” stalactites in Chomper’s cave (more like pipes rather than stalactites). Speaking of the dripping in Chomper’s cave, he seems to be more sensitive about the sound of dripping water than Ruby. She did not appear to be tired the next morning, while Chomper certainly was. Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike were all out in the open (with no real cave whatsoever) and just seemed to be somewhat annoyed, but not overly troubled by the water. Chomper seems to be somewhat “hydrophobic”. Perhaps this makes kind of sense for a sharptooth. The planteaters on the other hand seemed to feel much less at ease in the cave than Chomper did.
There were several more interesting points about Chomper and his relationship with the others for anyone who has not seen the TV episodes so far. First of all, he sure has not just a “hatchling’s bite”, gnawing through stalactites in his fury (Redclaw and his cronies proved surprisingly capable at digging through solid rock too). The others aluded to Chomper’s being a carnivore but in a somewhat joking manner (“don’t look at me!”). Petrie led Chomper to his food. There is definitely no “guilty conscience” about dooming a tribe of insects, even though he is not interested in the “details”. I think this is quite “okay” for the LBT characters. No other way to keep Chomper in the Great Valley for sure. One might see this as a minor conflict with Littlefoot’s interest in such creatures as a frog (“hopper” in the original movie) and a dragonfly in LBT 4. Maybe the dinosaurs in the Great Valley consider creatures like insects and “not talking non-dinosaurs” of any sort pretty much the way we would consider animals. An exception for this rule would be Tickles from LBT 4, a creature probably of a proper size to make a meal for Chomper; I guess I’m getting a bit off topic here.
Ruby too is shown as no vegetarian. I wonder if her eating habbits ever provoke similar comments as those given to Chomper? We see Ruby eat a shell in the movie (very likely a creature even less likely to be regarded a “creature” than insects).
The movie clearly stated that the parents of Littlefoot and the others left the caves to Chomper and Ruby. For all I know there has never been any real explanation neither for their being in the Valley, nor for Ruby’s being kind of a “nanny” for Chomper. It would sure be interesting to learn more about this.
Notably there was the reference to Saurus Rock from LBT 6. Also I noticed they used one background we have seen before. This image has been around for a while:
It is associated with LBT 11 though (same as a couple of similar pictures refering to LBT 11) it is definitely not a screenshot. We do see the same background in one scene from “The cave of the many voices”.
One interesting fact was that Chomper recognized that there would be an echo in the cave before he had even given it a try. He seems to be very well aware of physics of sound. The same is not true for much older (and probably more experienced) Redclaw and his cronies. Unlike the kids they were very confused and scarred by the echos. Again I suppose this is minor lack of realism not too hard to tolerate. The final statement of Ducky appeared a little mawkish; but never mind.
