Time span between LBT movies

[crazedwriter]

I know most such stories are frozen in time, like most comic strips. The characters never age or die. However, since LBT does deal with sickness, survival and death, I wonder how much time goes by between each episode. I've noticed in the original LBT and the first sequel Littlefoot and pals seem less "babyish", somewhat larger physically,  and the voices seem to lose that toddler tone.

So what is the time span from LBT I to the latest sequel? Months, years? How long did it take to get to the Great Valley in the '88 movie? Or do we suspend belief that time really stands still?

I'm just glad LBT is not a soap opera or our favorite kid dinos would be SORAS-ed (Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome) to mid-life crisis.

[Malte279]

Many of the movies could happen within a relatively short time span. LBT 2 for example could well start just a few days after the end of the original movie (giving a couple of days to the characters to get to know some landmarks in the Valley). The song Peaceful Valley "...we finally found a peaceful valley" seems to be a reference to a relatively recent discovery of the Great Valley.
After / within the movies number 3 and 5 the whole Valley had to regrow which realistically would take years. If we apply realism too strongly on LBT we would have to explain why Littlefoot (for example) doesn't grow by several kilograms a day. In LBT 6 and 8 we have clear references to the seasons (fall respectively winter) while LBT 7 would fit easily between the two. The time passed between the beginning of LBT 6 and the end of LBT 8 could easily be just a couple of weeks (or maybe month if one considers that there may have been a longer time leap in LBT 8 between the scenes where the dinosaurs still enjoy the snow and where they come to realize the problems. The epilogue of LBT 11 suggests that a year has passed (allowing for the treesweets to regrow and for Littlefoot to grow enough to reach them) but seeing that epilogue was just that, an epilogue, it seems quite possible that the events of LBT 12 and 13 may have taken place within that same year. The sequels 9 and 10 also don't seem to cover much more than perhaps a few weeks (depending on how long we believe the time leaps during the journeys to be) and LBT 4 is covered just three days. There is some chance that some more days or weeks having past in the time leap between the healing of Littlefoot's grandpa and Ali's departure, but there is no indication of a long time passing.
So allowing for the miraculously quick reqrowth of the Great Valley after LBT 3 (in case of LBT 5 it would take no more than a year) one may cram all the story within relatively few years.
As for the age of the characters my guess is that they would be not much older than ten years or so (seeing how unaware they are of some things, even though they do show an unusually sensible attitude at times).

[Pangaea]

A slight issue I have with the idea of the second movie taking place very shortly after the first is the spiketail hatchling Spike meets during the credits. It’s entirely possible that the filmmakers forgot (or just didn’t know) that Spike had been a hatchling himself in the first movie. Alternatively, we could assume it to belong to a pygmy species of stegosaur (something like a spiketail version of the tinysauruses, but bigger). Or maybe that spiketail had simply not experienced the same growth spurt as Spike immediately after hatching.

Also, at the end of LBT IV, we appear to see Littlefoot’s grandpa standing up and walking for the first time after recovering from his illness after Ali’s herd leaves. Given the incredible healing properties of the night flowers (Grandpa Longneck had barely swallowed them before opening his eyes and declaring that he was feeling better :blink:), I doubt much time had passed between the gang’s return and Ali’s departure.

As far as temporal conundrums within (as opposed to between) the LBT films are concerned, the amount of time the gang took to reach the Great Valley in the first movie is definitely a biggie. If we were to make an estimate based merely on the number of days and nights shown in the film, it would appear to be only a few days; I seriously doubt the trip was actually that short. My guess is a couple of weeks at least.

Another imponderable is the time it took for the Great Valley to dry up in LBT III. Blind observation (how’s that for a contradiction in terms? ) would indicate that the meeting between the adults at which Littlefoot was accused of wasting water took place on the same day the Thundering Falls stopped. This certainly couldn’t have been the case. I know little about droughts, but I would expect that it would take several days at least for the water level in the big river to drop noticeably, let alone for the tree stars (however hydrophilic they may be) to dry up. Only three or four nights are explicitly indicated to have passed in the entire movie, so, as with the first film, we can really only guess at how much time has elapsed.

One hypothesis of mine concerning the rapid regrowth of the Great Valley’s vegetation is that the soil in the Valley is unusually fertile due to the area being very volcanically active (as evidenced by the frequent earthshakes, smoking mountains, and abundant hot springs, tar pits, and volcanic mud pools both inside and outside the Valley). Of course, even with this excuse, the Great Valley’s flora should realistically take quite some time to recover from the fire in LBT III (especially as far as the trees are concerned), but as we all know, LBT has an elastic sense of realism.

[Kor]

As for Spike, he did a fast grow during the first movie, between scenes.  (gave me the idea way back when I did an insane crossover post that certain chars could have a power)

1 could say maybe a year goes by between the movies and the tv series if one assumes Ali and Tippy's herd has regular path they travel since Ali's herd were there during what seems to be spring or summer and in the movie Tippy's herd arrived just before the cold period started, and in the tv series they came towards the end.  Though with the Great Valley regrowing so fast, that is pretty unrealistic.

[Alex]

The Land Before Time...

No time passes in between movies, time doesn't exist yet. :]

[Kor]

Yes, a thousand years later everyone will be the same age.  Like in a lot of fiction.

[Pangaea]

The Land Before Time...

No time passes in between movies, time doesn't exist yet. :]

You know, I was thinking about making that exact same joke when I wrote my post!

Yes, a thousand years later everyone will be the same age. Like in a lot of fiction.

Littlefoot won't be happy about that.

[landbeforetimelover]

To sum it up, if we look at the relative sizes of the main characters it seems hardly any time passes at all but if we look at the logical sequence of events that span the sequels MANY years pass between LBT 1 and LBT 13.  Realistically, the gang should be virtually grown up by now if we're looking at the events side of things.

[Littlefoot3897]

well I I think Littlefoot is 1 year old now.
because he maybe hatched in Spring [since thats when most animals are born]and the next time we see spring is like LBT 11-12. LBT 13 looks like it takes place in Summer

[Paradise Bird]

By far
At land before 3 no doubt at least a year would have past due to the depth of events.
LBT 5 shares somthing similiar it could be at least a year or more
LBT 8 despicts winter thus LBT 9 is an end of a year
Tricia mated with topsy after unknown periods of time tricias was born than we have the yellow bellies
2 cold times past in the TV series
Minimum age
    3 <age>16(Inclusive of tv episodes)
Likely age is definitely about 6 or 13

[Littlefoot3897]

By far
At land before 3 no doubt at least a year would have past due to the depth of events.
LBT 5 shares somthing similiar it could be at least a year or more
LBT 8 despicts winter thus LBT 9 is an end of a year
Tricia mated with topsy after unknown periods of time tricias was born than we have the yellow bellies
2 cold times past in the TV series
Minimum age
3 <age>16(Inclusive of tv episodes)
Likely age is definitely about 6 or 13

I highly doubt that a year past after LBT 3.
I notice that the looks of the weather in LBT 3-6 its fall  and 7 looks like the start of winter hint: Grandpa longneck say Pterano will be banish 5 COLD TIMES. I think a few weeks later thats when LBT 8 happened. LBT 9-10 looks like it was almost going to be Spring. LBT 11-12 looks like Spring LBT 13 looks like summer.

I know what u mean about the fire in LBT 3 and how everything was regrown later in LBT 4. but I live in California where theres fire storms sometimes. after a fire, plants seem to grow out fast like a month later
Edit: the TV series I think doesnt make sense, the time is all confusing

[landbeforetimelover]

Instead of looking at the events which are virtually impossible to be 100% certain of their validity, I look at how the characters act.  They're all about the same age so if I look at the most mature of the gang (which I'd say is Littlefoot or Cera), I'd guess they're around the maturity of a 11-12 year old human.  Now we just factor in the lifespan of their species and we can get a general idea of how much time passes.  If a longneck can live 40 years then we use the equation .115x40 and we get the answer of 4.6 years.  That is of course if a longneck actually lives that long.  It all depends on an estimation of their approximate human age based on maturity and understanding of concepts along with the average lifespan of their species.

[lbt/cty_lover]

Instead of looking at the events which are virtually impossible to be 100% certain of their validity, I look at how the characters act.  They're all about the same age so if I look at the most mature of the gang (which I'd say is Littlefoot or Cera), I'd guess they're around the maturity of a 11-12 year old human.  Now we just factor in the lifespan of their species and we can get a general idea of how much time passes.  If a longneck can live 40 years then we use the equation .115x40 and we get the answer of 4.6 years.  That is of course if a longneck actually lives that long.  It all depends on an estimation of their approximate human age based on maturity and understanding of concepts along with the average lifespan of their species.

Did you have to bring science and mathematics into this discussion?

Even though I don't like the idea of mathematics in the analysis, I have to agree with you, Austin.

[landbeforetimelover]

Math and scientific reasoning with probability/elimination is the only way to go when you're working on a puzzle with too many missing variables.  You can never get the exact answer, but you can get close.

[Kor]

It's like marvel and dc, no one really gets any older.  Littlefoot and his friend should be teenagers at least by now.  Just like Franklin Richards, Peter Parker, Bruce Wayne, should be much older then their single never changing age.

[Bruton the Iguanodon]

and LBT 4 is covered just three days.

I don't get why this needs to be pointed out. Most of the films are covered in under a week. Movie 2 took place in under 2 days, movie 5 took place over about 4, movie 6 took place over about 3 days, from the looks of it, but according to wikipedia, the "bad luck" took place over "the next few days":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Land_Befo..._of_Saurus_Rock

But really, the ill-fortunes had to occur relatively close to Doc's arrival for Topps to have reason to blame him, and I doubt Doc would stay in the valley for long, so I'm saying...3 days.

Movie 7 took place over the span of just over 3 spans of  24 hours (3 whole days, since the movie beings in late day and ends at the night of the third "proper day")

Movie 8 took place over the course of about...umm...5 days, I think, not counting the last 30 seconds, which could be weks later for all we know.

Movie 9 takes place over the course of clearly 5 days, unless the scene in the lake towards the end didn't take place at night and it's just dark cause it's raining.

Movie 10 takes place over the course of about just under a week---sometimes it's hard to tell, since it starts at night and ends in the morning...if we are to assume that after crossing the swamp that Cera, Spike, Ducky and Petrie went to sleep at ight, and the shot during "Me and my dad" where Bron watches Littlefoot sleep was real, then about 6.5 days.

11...I think it took place over the course of about 3 and a half days, not counting the ending.

12 took place over about...a while, since there was a montage sequence. I'd say a week at most since most every film apiece takes place under that amount of time.

[LBTLover1]

I feel that the time span could potentially be everyday, (maybe even minutes).  Because of the same age of characters.  There could be no such thing as time in the Valley.