Littlefoot Getting rid of Sharptooth

[pokeplayer984]

Okay, I'm sure we all know that this was coming for a long time, but why do you think Littlefoot wanted to get rid of him once and for all?

For one reason or another, Littlefoot wanted to get rid of Sharptooth forever.

Why did he want to get rid of him?

I have two guesses to this.

1: Avenge his mother.  It's great reason in the end.  Sharptooth did cause that wound that made Littlefoot's mother bleed to death.  He wanted to end the pain he was feeling.  The only way to do that was to kill Sharptooth.  However, he knew it meant his death if he did it alone.  So he asked his new friends to help him.  He avenged his mother in the end, but at the cost of nearly losing Petrie.

2: If he didn't kill him, the Valley would've been in danger.  With how often the gang ran into Sharptooth through out the movie, it did seem that he was following them.  If he didn't kill him when he did, chances are that he would've followed them to the Valley.  And we all know how bad of a thing that would've been.

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What do you guys think?

[Malte279]

Though I don't think that even Littlefoot is absolutely above such low emotions as revengefulness I don't think that it was his main reason for killing sharptooth.
I really think that it was mainly the threat of sharpteeth possibly finding the Great Valley. The movie as it is does not support this point of mine as Littlefoot hasn't found the Great Valley by the time they fight with sharptooth.
However, I have good reasons to believe that the original concept of the movie was different. When the movie was first made Littlefoot found the Great Valley right after the quarrel with Cera and he returned to lead the others there. In this case the 2nd theory becomes much more likely.
I own a book from 1988 which was published along with the movies and which tells the story variant of Littlefoot finding the Valley before he returned to get the others. I do not have the book at hand right now, so I cannot quote the literal text, but I'm positive that in the book they say sharptooth is about to find the entrance to the Valley when Littlefoot and the others decide to kill him.
Even with the movie being the way it is now I still don't think Littlefoot was compelled by mere revenge. Sharptooth was too dangerous to take the risk of combating him for the mere satisfaction of "getting rid of him". If the choice had been left to Littlefoot I suppose they would have stayed as far from sharptooth as possibly possible. However, with sharptooth right on their route to the Great Valley there was hardly another choice.

[Stitch]

I have that book.  Here's the text from chapters 8-9 that shows the alternate storyline:

There, on the plain that overlooked the Great Valley, was Sharptooth.  He was searching for the entrance to the valley!

Littlefoot realized that they had led Sharptooth to the valley.  He knew that the herds would be helpless against the monster.  He and his friends had to stop Sharptooth.

(Littlefoot) "We've got to get Sharptooth away form the high rocks before he finds the entrance...And then we'll have to work together to kill him."

The way it is portrayed in the final movie, it seems that Littlefoot and the others were just fed up with being chased by sharptooth and decided to strike back.  I agree in thinking that he realized the danger sharptooth possessed and decided to risk it in order to prevent any future losses.

[Petrie.]

Makes you wonder why they ever bothered to delete that portion of the film.  I think it would explain the really bad cut when Littlefoot does find the valley but the pan of him clearly is in a different place...  :

[WeirdRaptor]

1. Not only were they running into sharpteeh every inch of the way throughout their journey, but it was the exact same Sharptooth that they kept having encounters with. This means that he was deliberately stalking them. Heck, I'd kill him, too.
2. Through stalking them, he might have found the Great Valley.
3. He killed Littlefoot's mother.

I, for one, think that the big, bad sharptooth had his fate coming to him.

And good points on the original cut of the film versus the current cut, everyone. It makes one realize how we've actually been screwed over, doesn't it?

[pokeplayer984]

Okay, terribly sorry for not responding earlier.  I ended up completely forgetting about this topic.

Anyways, yeah you're right Malte, the second one seems more logical.  Considering everything, it makes alot more sense.  However, what really got me into believing the revenge thing was basically Littlefoot's tone and quick debating on what to do.

He basically didn't think things through, and didn't realize the full extent of the danger that he was putting everyone in.  He even went and put Ducky at the biggest risk.  I know she was the only choice left to lure Sharptooth, granted.  However, Ducky was incredably reluctant.  So reluctant in fact, that it seemed impossible to convince her.  I must say, her bravery to go through with the plan definately exceeds her small size.

Anyways, I noted that Littlefoot seemed to have a devlish smirk on his face when he looked at Ducky for something to use as bait.  To me, in the fullest jurisdiction, it seemed that revenge was highly on his mind.  It is true that we don't see such a thing in his mind these days, but what about back then?  Before the final battle against Sharptooth?  The thought of revenge plauging his mind, begging him to do so?  With him believing that Sharptooth was dead, probably not.  However, he seemed to have a great amount of recklessness in him.

Basically, Petrie nearly dying was a wake-up call to him.  It finally hit him.  True, it was probably the best plan that could be thought up at the time.  However, does that justify that he nearly lost a friend?  I think not.

In all truthfulness, I believe Littlefoot did have revenge on his mind and it took nearly loosing a friend to wake him up from this.

He lives with the pain, because of how wrong he knew it was for him to get revenge.

That's basically my two cents really.

[Malte279]

Hi pokeplayer984!
I will not question that Littlefoot probably felt a certain satisfaction beside the relief about getting rid of sharptooth. We would not have wanted him standing there beside Ducky saying: "Poor, poor sharptooth!"
There was no need for a message like: How horrible we had to do it, but we had to for nobody would have demanded a great deal of sympathy from Littlefoot for that particular sharptooth. It would have either come across as Littlefoot being the utopian character bare of any negative emotion (which he mercifully isn't), or he would have come across as a hypocrite.
I don't doubt there must have been something like satisfaction for him to get rid of that sharptooth.
However, if it comes to the question on whether that was the reason for him to kill sharptooth and risk everybody else's life by doing so, I say definitely not!
Had there been a way for Littlefoot and the others to get to the Great Valley without taking another huge risk (which positively lessened their chances to ever see the Great Vally) I doubt not that they would have done so.
Littlefoot is just not the revengeful nature who would stand there proclaiming something like: "Never shall I set a foot (however little they may be ) in the Great Valley before I haveth not spilled my foe's blood and satisfied my thirst for revenge!" Nor do I believe that he would think along these lines (lest in a poor imitation of middle English
He must have seen that particular chance the terrain offered to attack the sharptooth (not one of those LBT 10 whimps that will almost drop death if a hazelnut sized peble is hurled at it) so what other debate would have been necessary. While he laid out his plan to the others there was a look of grim determination on his face; nothing like dreamy thoughts of revenge.
As for that look of Littlefoot's, you undoubtedly meant the one shown on this image: http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte279/The%20la...0the%20bait.jpg
I have a very different interpretation of that look.
To me it seems to be an attempt of an ingratiating look at Ducky who natuarally is not keen on being the bait. Look at Petrie, he is looking just the same way. There was a cut in the movie, so we don't know how long they needed to convince Ducky, but according to some book versions she accepted the unavoidable relatively quickly (being the only one who was able to swim (at least being any good at it) and lure the sharptooth to the deeper parts of the pond.
I don't think that Littlefoot or anyone imposed that task on her because they just didn't want to go. Neither Spike's nor Littlefoot's strength could have been spared at the rock (theirs wasn't even enough) while Petrie was least of a swimmer and also presumably very slow on his tiny feet (he rode most of the time; so did Ducky, but there are more scenese in which Ducky is walking than there are of Petrie doing so).
Back to that look; it really doesn't seem like the evil smirk we see from someone endulging in revengeful thoughts (there are good examples from Ozzy and Cera).
While I do not question the possibility of satisfaction on Littlefoot's part after Sharptooth's death I really don't think it was among the main reasons for him to kill sharptooth.

[Petrie.]

^ Malte, I had to make that picture a link....it was so large it messed the forum up!

Actually, I think Petrie looked like the the evil sort in that picture with that smug grin that he wasn't going to be the one luring Sharptooth.  

[Malte279]

I think Petrie's face is the perfect match to Littlefoots with neither of them looking really evil (though I doubt not that Petrie probably was relieved not to be the bait).

[WeirdRaptor]

I think that everyone who ended up not being the bait was probably relieved.  

Well, except for Spike, who didn't seem to be grasping the situation to any degree.  -_-

Back to the point, I never thought that that wa sa devilish smirk.

[DarkHououmon]

Reviving an old topic.

To add my thoughts in, I do believe that, in the final version of the movie, Littlefoot's main motivation of getting rid of Sharptooth was revenge.

Though I don't think that even Littlefoot is absolutely above such low emotions as revengefulness I don't think that it was his main reason for killing sharptooth.
I really think that it was mainly the threat of sharpteeth possibly finding the Great Valley. The movie as it is does not support this point of mine as Littlefoot hasn't found the Great Valley by the time they fight with sharptooth.
However, I have good reasons to believe that the original concept of the movie was different. When the movie was first made Littlefoot found the Great Valley right after the quarrel with Cera and he returned to lead the others there. In this case the 2nd theory becomes much more likely.
I own a book from 1988 which was published along with the movies and which tells the story variant of Littlefoot finding the Valley before he returned to get the others. I do not have the book at hand right now, so I cannot quote the literal text, but I'm positive that in the book they say sharptooth is about to find the entrance to the Valley when Littlefoot and the others decide to kill him.

Perhaps in the original concept of the movie and in the books, the main reason of killing Sharptooth was to prevent him from entering the Great Valley. But since, in the final version of the movie Littlefoot has not even found the valley yet, this could not possibly be the reason for killing Sharptooth.

The only other reason that seems to fit is revenge. They could not have been protecting anything because they didn't know there was anything there that needed protecting.

Even with the movie being the way it is now I still don't think Littlefoot was compelled by mere revenge. Sharptooth was too dangerous to take the risk of combating him for the mere satisfaction of "getting rid of him". If the choice had been left to Littlefoot I suppose they would have stayed as far from sharptooth as possibly possible. However, with sharptooth right on their route to the Great Valley there was hardly another choice.

I have to disagree with this because they did not know the Great Valley was there. They could not have known Sharptooth was right in the path to the Great Valley. They could have easily taken another path to stay out of the Sharptooth's way. But they didn't. They stayed and plot to kill the Sharptooth.

Once again, this points in the direction of revenge. The Sharptooth being in the way could not have been the reason, in my opinion, simply because they did not know the valley was there. The only other reason I can think of for Littlefoot to try to kill Sharptooth is, indeed, revenge.

[action9000]

I'm not sure that revenge is the only other possibilty.
There could be another reason for the attack on Sharptooth: Self-preservation.
I know it sounds a little far-fetched but here's my reasoning:

The Gang has encountered Sharptooth 3 times (including Cera's encounter underground) prior to the final encounter with him.  All three of these times, Sharptooth caught the gang unaware and off-guard.  During the 4th encounter, the gang had the luxury of catching Sharptooth off-guard for once (until it somewhat backfired when Sharptooth snuck up on Ducky, but in theory the Gang had him off-guard.  The gang still had the more tactical positions during the fight).

The Gang didn't know how much further away the Valley was at this point.  After being surprised while they were asleep, I can completely understand if the Gang wanted to prevent that from happening again (of course it can't be prevented as there are multiple sharpteeth in the world but from the perspective of the film, it would have helped).  When one is unaware that they will be attacked, it is very likely that a tragic outcome could result.  If the Gang could eliminate the most likely attacker while They were on the offense, while they were the ones doing the surprising, and with a cunning plan to achieve victory, odds are much greater of winning the fight than if Sharptooth spontaneously arrives on the scene and attacks.

If the Gang had days or weeks left in the journey to the Great Valley, I can certainly understand why they would use such an opportunity to finish off their mortal enemy when they had the tactical advantage, for the sake of survival later on the journey.  It is also very possible that revenge was a contributing factor as well.

[General Grievous]

Another reason might be because kids in the audience might not have been happy if some kind of retribution wasn't delivered for all the hardships Sharptooth caused the gang.

[Threehorn]

I know this might be a big pain to speak here but I was wondering, this book could anyone type down the whole story if it not too big onto a email or something so'd I can read it as well. that if the book isn't too big. I would love to read the readable version to the movie.

[F-14 Ace]

Yeah, me too.  I didn't even know there were any LBT books out there.

[LBTFan13]

I definitely agree on the danger of Sharpteeth finding the Great Valley, but as we saw in the second movie, they obviously didn't do a good job of keeping them away, even though it was accidental.

I honestly thought Littlefoot wanted to prove to himself that he could survive without the help of any adults, especially since he went through the whole movie without his mother. I mainly thought of this because after the encounter when Littlefoot sees his mom in the clouds he becomes sad and explains how he tried to do what she told him.

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
 I'd like to know too, afterall if getting the book is difficult there, then imagine it would be a pain trying to get it here.
 Sharptooth was a menace and they got rid of it, but of course that will not stop other Sharptooth from getting to the Valley, after all if many herds can get to the Valley, then why not Sharptooth can, if other herds can get to the valley there may be meat-eaters following those herds as the original Sharptooth pursuit Littlefoot and Gang. So the Sharptooth menace is never over after all.

[Malte279]

I'm sorry, but typing of the whole book is not something that can be done without a great investment of time, something which you woefully lack during university studies. Rest assured though that I quoted the passages of relevance to the discussion about Littlefoot's motives to get rid of the Sharptooth to the letter.
The book is frequently offered at ebay so it won't be more difficult for anyone else to buy than it was for me (I don't live in the US and I am no native English speaker myself).

I honestly thought Littlefoot wanted to prove to himself that he could survive without the help of any adults, especially since he went through the whole movie without his mother. I mainly thought of this because after the encounter when Littlefoot sees his mom in the clouds he becomes sad and explains how he tried to do what she told him.

Not sure on that one. There are a few moments in which Littlefoot really seems to think remotely along the lines of being "the lone dinosaur" who can do it all by himself. But I am not sure that these moments were mainly inspired by his desire to prove anything to himself.
There is the moment in which he blocks Ducky's first attempts to make friends with him. But his behavior in that scene is clearly inspired by Cera's behavior in the preceding scene and possibly by what his mother told him about longnecks sticking to the own kind. I don't see any indication that "doing it all by himself" was a motive for Littlefoot in that scene. On the contrary, his behavior towards Ducky changed right away after she mentioned that she is all alone.
We see Littlefoot looking very disappointed and sad when the others huddle to Cera rather than to him during the night in the little valley. There was nothing about him suggesting any "I can do it by myself! who needs them anyway?" - kind of conduct.
Another scene of Littlefoot going of all by himself is after the quarrel with Cera. But he didn't really mean to be on his own. As he had to follow the way his mother had described to him he had little choice but to go on alone as the others wouldn't follow him (and he was to upset about the quarrel with Cera to make a real effort to convince them of his way).
I don't think that Littlefoot felt he had to prove anything by getting rid of the Sharptooth without the assistance of a grownup.

[lbt/cty_lover]

I think everybody is forgetting that Littlefoot did not know that the valley was so close. It is possible that this is how he spends his spare time   (disturbing though).

Revenge is actually the most likely.

[Malte279]

But in the original concept of the movie (before they relocated and cut the respective scenes) Littlefoot was perfectly aware of the Great Valley being nearby and Sharptooth being about to enter it.