What do you DISLIKE the most about TLBT?

Kor · **Reply #40 on:** January 02, 2009, 08:50:55 PM

Some of that would be good. It would give the adults something they could enjoy written at their level. Though that is a thing not often thought up by others, that you can write for adults and kids at the same time.

RFZT · **Reply #41 on:** January 04, 2009, 08:17:07 PM

This is my first post on this site. Maybe I won't come off with such a good first impression.

While I LOVE the original LBT and some of the sequels (2 - 7; 5 and 6 were alright), there are undoubetedly things about the recent/current LBT that annoy me.

First off, how the movies seem to get kiddier as they go along. I'm not saying older people can't enjoy them, but I'm sure most of them prefer the earliest LBTs. That'd be around the first five movies. I understand that the idea of using dinosaurs in a show is a little iffy and a lot of people would assume it'd be for kids, but Don Bluth completely turned that around. I watched the original twice recently, and I was amazed at what a masterpiece he created. I understood so much more in comparison to when I was younger.
Admittedly, when I was younger, I preferred the second and third movies to the original. I guess it was because they were aimed at a younger age so I understood them more. But I didn't find them TOO kiddish. These days I almost feel like the current scriptwriters are roping off the series to kids only. Obviously, plenty of older folks still enjoy the series, myself included, but overall I feel like there's a decrease in the "family" quality of the films as the series goes on.
It actually reminds me of Disney. One reason why kids could so easily get their parents to take them to the theatre for an animated feature all the time was because Disney used to make films for kids AND adults. These days, it's like Disney is ATTEMPTING to make movies that adults would enjoy too, but overall it feels like they're trying to influence kids to act like teenagers, IMO.

Also, the pushing of morals. The original sent PLENTY of messages, but they weren't straightforwardly thrown out through attempted "meaningful" dialogue. In short, I think LBT is getting preachy.

Of course, the songs. I admit there are a good handful of them I like ("When You're Big;" "Very Important Creature;" and "Beyond the Mysterious Beyond" for a start), but most of them really get on my nerves. I'm listening to music from the original movie (yes, going back to that again

) and it is simply wonderful. The whole movie was wonderful...and they managed it without singing.

This is a new one, but the animation is starting to bother me too. LBT 7, as good as it was, will forever reign as the worst animated LBT of them all.......aside from that, I'm missing the animation from, say, the first four movies. Now the animation is more cartoony. Some really good shows have cartoony styles, but I miss the original animation style of LBT. Oh well. At least it isn't computer-animated.

Thus ending my long, rantish first post on GoF. x3

Malte279 · **Reply #42 on:** January 05, 2009, 12:25:37 PM

Welcome with us RFZT

I must say I'm positively delighted that of lately several of our newer members have introduced themselves with posts which really contribute to respectively trigger discussion. As far as I am concerned this is about the best impression anyone can make

The increasing childishness of the later land before time movies is indeed a very sad trend. Even the covers of the movies have (beginning with LBT 7 I think) stopped to depict the characters the way they appear in the movie but rather show them in a more "kiddified" version. Mercifully those versions of the characters did not find their way into the movies.
As for the sequels (which from the first sequel on present LBT in a very different way from the way the original movie did) I too prefer the early sequels made by Roy Alan Smith (LBT 2 - 4) over the sequels made by Charles Grosvenor. In all fairness it must be said that with many ideas already covered by the original movie and Smith's sequels Grosvenor and his team probably had a harder time to come up with something new than their predecessors, but still in some respects they could have really done a lot better, especially with the very late sequels.
LBT 5 is often named among the favorite LBT movies of fans and to prevent any misunderstandings, I too liked LBT 5. Nevertheless the movie already did show a lot of the things which I came to dislike about Grosvenor's movie for example such exaggerated effects as everything turning red in case of danger and his neglect or disregard for details such as having a tsunami roll from the shore towards the open sea.
When it comes to the preaching you mentioned I tend to agree that the overdoing of morals is a problem, but not one that is limited to the later sequels only (even though I admit it has been very strong in the latest installments). One of the most preaching LBT movies however was LBT 3. I like LBT 3 (though that one is regarded by many with much more criticism than LBT 5 is) but especially the final scenes really overdid the wielding of the moral club.

Kor · **Reply #43 on:** January 05, 2009, 06:15:08 PM

3 did overdo the moral message by quite a bit. I guess kiddifying the movies may be a current trend, or it may be the fact they get cheaper writers to save money instead of getting good writers who know how to write to all age groups. & the director may prefer to aim the movies at just kids since it is easier for them to do then the more complicated all age groups, even though it seems, to me at least, aiming at all age groups leads to a better product. I find the turning red and green annoying. Also the getting things wrong as well. Not to mention characters going poof after the movie they are in & certain things being not clear.

jedi472 · **Reply #44 on:** January 05, 2009, 11:51:23 PM

I believe crazedwriter's suggestion might actually be the best. Sure, a movie can still have a lacking plotnand one-shot characters, but if it's funny, it still seems like an Ok or good movie.

By the way, the LBT/SNL thing you said gave me a great idea...

Cancerian Tiger · **Reply #45 on:** January 06, 2009, 03:00:50 AM

Quote from: Nimrod,Aug 18 2008 on 07:09 AM

No matter what we dislike. We all have to remember that it¥s at least a kids show. And kids don¥t really think of what happens in a movie. They just watch it.

To Maltes quote: The movie turns into red in dangour situations. I think that¥s just a more understandable way to show the little ones that there is dangour. To be honest. As I was young I really got confused with some scenes in the film because I didn¥t know is that what happens there good or bad.

Actually, the red in times of danger have always helped me out. A problem with Asperger's Syndrome is that the individual seems to lack a sense of danger. They may panic over non-threatening things and not recognize a life-threatening situation as dangerous. Plus, the inability to "read" folks. Unless I see an extreme expression of terror, such as the image of Ducky Malte posted in the Land Before Time section (can't recall the topic name

), I can't really tell if someone is in jeopardy unless they've been injured or caught up in some disaster. Perhaps I can clarify this better using LBT as an example. It seems that, to avoid spooking the little ones, the Gang's expressions of fear or terror are restricted compared to the original, therefore making it difficult for me to sense or feel the emotion of fear. So, to get to the point, adding the red in helps me. However, I know there are many neurotypical fans of LBT and this visual effect may annoy them, so I'm not trying to convince y'all to like this effect.

In response to a statement The Friendly Sharptooth made, I have to disagree with him saying Cera has had a lot of experience as being a deceiver. As far as I'm concerned, Cera is the most straight-forward, down-to-earth member of the Gang. She has the ability to be tactful and may exaggerate things sometimes, but she does not hesitate to to tell anyone what she really thinks or feels. I'll stop with Cera as this is not the character discussion area. I love how they showed that our adorable little swimmer, Ducky, actually has a dark side. I mean, we've seen everyone else's shortcomings: Petrie can come across as opinionated (he started that nonsense about Cera in "The Amazing Threehorn Girl" and never suffered the repercussions when the truth was exposed <_<), Littlefoot has (lately) been arrogant to the point where ya want to knock it out of him, Spike tends to eat far too much compared to the others, and Cera seems to be quite insecure (perhaps she liked the recogition she received during the episode mentioned 'cuz it made her feel good; then again, it seems everyone likes recognition at times) and does not like to be seen as weak or vulnerable. So... it was nice to see Ducky's dark side finally.

Speaking of "The Amazing Threehorn Girl" ep, this is one fine example of falling off the continuity of the series. The Gang, as far as I can remember, have always stuck together and accepted each other no matter what. To see them shun Cera was both a shock and a disappointment to me. If my friends ever did that to me, especially if one of them was the culprit and never took responsibility for his or her actions, I don't think I would ever want to associate with them again

. True friends don't abandon someone when he or she is in a pickle. To see the Gang do a member dirty is downright mean and does not fit well in a series which teaches devotion, love, trust and forgiveness. Well, that's my two-cents for now. *Takes deep breath* Universal has a lot of work to do on LBT.

Malte279 · **Reply #46 on:** January 06, 2009, 05:53:11 AM

As for the red, I really don't think it to be necessary for even a young audience to get across the message that the characters are in trouble. The red usually appears when the characters are running and screaming or if there is somebody with really big teeth around.
The movies up to the 5th did well enough without the red and so did some of the later sequels which did not use that feature (e.g. LBT 9). I think it is another of the cases where, as you mentioned in another thread recently, the makers of LBT are considering their audience too "dense".
The Ducky picture you mentioned is probably the one from the deleted scenes thread.
As for Cera I agree with you. Same as you I don't want to push character discussion too far in a thread not made for it, but I don't think Cera to be subtle enough to be a deceiver. When she is not telling the truth it usually comes as so exaggerated boasting that others will see through it right away but are aware that it would be pointless to start a debate with Cera. In "The Amazing Threehorn Girl" it was even Cera's father who was mainly behind the whole boasting on her part while she was originally telling the truth. I also agree that they probably would have done better if they had closed on a more conciliatory note regarding Cera and the rest of the gang.

Spartanguy88 · **Reply #47 on:** January 06, 2009, 10:26:14 PM

I guess what I dislike the most about LBT is how the adults switched from having common sense and co-operation with each other; to always arguing and not getting anything done when there is a serious problem in the Great Valley (Which for some reason seems to happen on a 24 hour basis). And it all comes down to the Gang of Five (or sometimes Seven) to deal with it themselves. This is greatly shown in the seventh movie and the Forbidden Friendship episode.

But then again this is a show made for a very young audience, and they don't know much about show continuinity (forgive me if I spelled that wrong).

Kor · **Reply #48 on:** January 07, 2009, 04:57:38 AM

I still say kids are not as dumb, some anyway, as Hollywood thinks that they are. No idea why they do the red in danger, seems pretty stupid. Maybe it's the kids's danger sense, that only pops up when they are in danger, and not otherwise very useful, sorta like spidey's was very early on. I would guess it and the other things are the new director's ideas and doings.

Explorer · **Reply #49 on:** January 07, 2009, 01:54:56 PM

Quote from: Kor,Jan 7 2009 on 08:57 AM

I still say kids are not as dumb, some anyway, as Hollywood thinks that they are.

Once again, I'd have to agree with Kor. As far as I'm concerned about the LBT in general, that's one of the negative points: INOVATION, people.

But let's not go too far with the inovation, it may end up with a bad result. <.<

stars · **Reply #50 on:** January 09, 2009, 09:58:58 PM

This was odd when in the tv show Littlefoot said people. How did he know about people? He could of said dinos. I dont know if the word people is apart of the lbt world or not, but it was funny hearing it said by a dino when people were not around. Than again it was cool and made sence the way he said it to let us know what he ment.

gloverboy2 · **Reply #51 on:** February 16, 2009, 10:10:29 PM

topsy is such jerk about chomper.

sense darkness in him!

babidikrakenguard · **Reply #52 on:** February 16, 2009, 10:27:49 PM

So far i dont know of many things i hate about LBT except the one part in the first movie when Cera wins the fight after calling littlefoots mother a "Stupid Longneck". That one kinda bothered me.

gloverboy2 · **Reply #53 on:** February 16, 2009, 10:34:55 PM

I'd grab her by the neck and hang her high and watch her face turn blue and make take that back by farce!!

Malte279 · **Reply #54 on:** February 17, 2009, 06:41:52 AM

Quote

I'd grab her by the neck and hang her high and watch her face turn blue...

Good example for why I'm not keen on ever seeing humans in LBT.
As for the quarrel of the original movie, I do agree though that it was left kind of unsolved. Perhaps Littlefoot is just too composed a character to demand of Cera to take back which I'm sure she regretted saying.

DarkHououmon · **Reply #55 on:** February 17, 2009, 11:23:34 AM

I'm not surprised Cera won the fight. I actually believe it was Littlefoot who initiated the fight. Cera didn't want to. And I highly doubt she even knew Littlefoot's mother was dead at this point.

Cera was the stronger fighter, more experienced. As soon as the fight started, it was a sure thing that she would win.

As for Cera calling Littlefoot's mother "stupid", it was likely because she couldn't believe LF's mother would want to go through all that hardship (the climbing up we see in the movie) or because the threehorns knew of another way and they thought it was the only way to go, or something. Or perhaps it could just be that she felt important and felt that she should lead and not Littlefoot.

But as for the fight, I don't think Cera was intentionally provoking Littlefoot. She even looked shocked when he got angry at her. It just seemed like she just blurted something out due to the "heat of the moment" so-to-speak. As for not taking it back, it just seems part of her character. She probably thought she would appear weak if she took it back. All she wanted to do was leave, but it was Littlefoot who tried to stop her and it was Littlefoot who made the first move.

I do agree with Malte. Cera likely does feel bad for what she said. And while we never see it, she probably does apologize at some point in the LBT timeline. And Littlefoot has forgiven her, so maybe she had apologized, or maybe Littlefoot just has a soft heart and couldn't hold a grudge against her.

Kor · **Reply #56 on:** February 17, 2009, 11:40:27 AM

I always took it in the spirit of some little kids who at times get annoyed and spout out something without thinking and later on may wish they hadn't said it. And as Cera winning (I've not seen the first movie in it's entirety in a while) I'm sure Cera's dad and maybe her mother started her training early on. Look at his personality, do you think he'd not teach her how to fight early on, and look how she was acting before she had fully hatched and hatched. By then she likely had some training from her dad or both parents and Littlefoot may have had little if any battle training.

The things I dislike a some of the inconsistencies and plot problems and characters being in 1 movie and going poof never to be seen again when they do live in the great valley and should be seen here and there. & why not get good writers for all the movies.

and that there are not 50 lbt movies.

Malte279 · **Reply #57 on:** February 17, 2009, 12:06:38 PM

Quote

I'm not surprised Cera won the fight. I actually believe it was Littlefoot who initiated the fight. Cera didn't want to. And I highly doubt she even knew Littlefoot's mother was dead at this point.

I do not really agree with all of this. Even though we never actually see a scene in which Littlefoot tells Cera (or anyone else) about the death of his mother I still think he very likely must have on some occasion. He mentions finding his grandparents to Ducky (which would pretty much provoke the question about the parents). Also note that Cera said about Littlefoot's mother "Then she was a stupid longneck too."
In the past tense it does not sound like what one would say about someone whom one deems still alive. While I suppose Cera was taken by surprise by Littlefoot's attack I would not go so far as to say that her being unprepared signaled any actual reluctance for a fight. Though she was understandably frustrated I would not "absolve" Cera from displaying a total absence of consideration here. Taken by surprise by Littlefoot's attack as she may have been I still think it would go too far to suggest that she really did not want to fight at all.
Whatever her intentions in that particular moment I take it for granted that she did feel remorse about it later on (it is also spelled out like this in at least one of the LBT books I have; possibly in more, but I would have to check out to make sure).

DarkHououmon · **Reply #58 on:** February 17, 2009, 12:12:25 PM

I could easy say "Cheyenne was very silly, digging up the yard and hiding the bones." but I am in no way implying that he's dead (he's alive and well). So I do not think that Cera saying "was" indicates that she knows that Littlefoot's mother was dead. I'm sure by the sequels she knows, but in the first movie, there's just no clearcut evidence to me that she knew LF's mother was dead. She never even saw her die, and she was seperated from her parents, so I think it's logical to assume that she thought Littlefoot was just seperated from his mother due to the earthquake.

Malte279 · **Reply #59 on:** February 17, 2009, 12:24:49 PM

Cera however made a general statement about Littlefoot's mum rather than one particular action of hers (which is what your statement on Chayenne would be).
I do not argue the point that it would be possible to interpret: "Then she was a stupid longneck too." as "In case she was here with us now and intended to walk through the rugged ground ahead of us she would be a stupid longneck too.", but by comparison I think the interpretation that Cera was aware of the death of Littlefoot's mum seems more likely.
Cera did not witness the last breaths of Littlefoot's mother, but she did see Sharptooth inflict the wounds that would ultimately kill her. If up to that quarrel Cera had, under those conditions, never bothered to ask about Littlefoot's mum at all, I think this would suggest her to be much less considerate and concerned than even a deliberate snide at Littlefoot's dead mother.