A Trend

[Shinji-Lee]

i don't exactly remember, but i think, i recognized something. comparing the sequels there is indeed a visible change in the character's outlooking. the reason might be a change in the team of the drawers.
please correct me if i'm mistaken.

the early movies were drawn by a korean art studio, the later ones by an american.

in case i'm wrong, i wait with further speculations.

[Kor]

It could be.   It is not uncommon that some animated things are down by a Korean art studio.  More of the outsourcing things to a country to save in production costs and up one's profit margin, the same many computer and isp companies have their helpstaff are outsourced to India.

[Shinji-Lee]

so far with the art style.
people said, the 5th movie was kind of the changing point, so this could have been the last one of the korean team. and well, americans are, let's say, likely to overreact when it comes up to the degree of suspense in children movies.
you probably know: 11 minutes of the 1988 movie were cut out because of horror-stuff, as they said.

finally i'm tempted to say that the amis took the suspense away. that'd be my conclusion.

edit: i have to correct myself. after The Secret of Saurus Rock the art work wasn't taken over by an american, but a taiwanese studio. just found it out.

[Bruton the Iguanodon]

Yeah, the magic of the first three sequels is unfortunately long gone.  

In LBT 2 we had one of Chomper's parents defeat Littlefoot's grandpa (and it would have been grandpa's death had it not been for the distraction provided by a flyer, whom I presume to be Petrie's mum).

You're right, It was Petrie's mom (action girl! ) , although when she first appeared she was accidentally drawn as a giant Petrie, which has since become a reacurring animation goof