Sharptooth's Eye

[DarkWolf91]

Quoted from the LBT wiki:

In the first entry of Land Before Time, a male Tyrannosaurus Rex served as the main antagonist. He was unintentionally blinded by Littlefoot in his right eye by a thorn-covered vine, so he kept his eye closed; Cera later identifies him by this, serving to mark him as the Sharptooth to plant eating dinosaurs.

I read this entry on Sharptooth quite some time ago and decided to do some digging
As it turns out, and it's quite obvious when you're looking for it, Sharptooth's eye injury pre-dates the vine incident. From the first shot of him we're given, his tendancy to keep it closed is already in effect. Just wondering if anyone else caught this!
Also, they go on to say that Sharptooth "persistently stalked Littlefoot and his friends throughout the film for seemingly no reason other than cruelty, though a Junior novelization of the original film cited vengeance for his damaged eye as his motivation."
It always seemed to me that Sharptooth and the gang ran into eachother more or less unintentionally, and that the ensuing chases were a result of extreme hunger. After all, it would make sense that they'd be moving in the same direction- the gang in pursuit of their herds, Sharptooth in pursuit of 'the food'
Anyways, just a few thoughts!

[DarkHououmon]

In a novel of the movie, the injury was indeed caused by Littlefoot accidentally hitting him with the thorns. In the movie, however, they are, unfortunately, less consistent, with Sharptooth opening his supposedly blinded eye after the incident. So yeah, in the movie, the injury I believe is supposed to have been caused by Littlefoot, but the animators were not as consistent with it and ended up making that eye closed at points before the injury and open at some points after the injury.

[DarkWolf91]

That would make sense given the disjointed order in which scenes are animated, but if that were the case it seems like it would just stay closed throughout. As nonchalantly as it's treated, it really feels like there's no connection between the injury and the vine, or perhaps a connection was suggested somewhere in the filmmaking process but never really solidified.
Maybe it's not an injury at all- just a nervous tick

[DarkHououmon]

In the movie, due to inconsistency, it seems there is no connection between the vine and the eye, however it is made more clear in the novel based on the movie, from what I understand. I do think the movie was going for Sharptooth being enraged by Littlefoot hurting his eye. After all, those thorns went straight into his eye, hit the mark. There's no way that the eye would not be injured as a result of this, unless Sharptooth's eye is made of super strong material. I just think that the animators were not being as consistent with this. Of course it could make more sense if the eye was hurt before and Sharptooth opened it at the wrong time (when the vines came at him) and thus it got injured even further.

[DarkWolf91]

Junior novels, in my experience, usually aren't reliable sources of canon information. The novelist may have been infering something that wasn't implied, though I'll admit that there is ample reason to believe that it was an implication.

I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to say that sharptooth's eye was made of a superstrong material, given the way he reacts to damage in the rest of the film though that is a good point.
It may have also been a weak/blind eye that prevented him from reacting reflexively to the coming vines, though they were moving at such a speed that it may not have been possible in the first place.

[DarkHououmon]

I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to say that sharptooth's eye was made of a superstrong material, given the way he reacts to damage in the rest of the film

Like him falling thousands of feet into an abyss without, well, splattering?  

To be honest, I don't really have the junior novel to look at. The only things I know about it were what Malte had posted up on the board in the past. I think the novel was released in only Germany. It also had the original ending of LBT (with Littlefoot having discovered the Great Valley prior to going back and saving his friends) from what I recall.

[Stitch]

I do possess a copy of the novel, but it was pretty hard to come by.  I had to search through several second-hand book sellers and library sales to find it.

I think that it was rare because it was released as a JCPenney exclusive, so they may not have had a large print run.  It notes that the film is scheduled for a november 1988 release, so it was probably written before they made the scene cuts (it has the oasis scene and the original ending).

The novel does connect the vines with the injured eye.  The text states:

At the very last moment Littlefoot freed himself.  One of the hard thorny branches snapped back and hit Sharptooth right in the eye.  The monster bellowed in pain and reared back from the branches.  Then, with a terrible fury, he plunged back into the thicket, searching for the puny creature that had dared to injure him.

If there are any questions about the novel, I'd be happy to answer.

[Malte279]

The only things I know about it were what Malte had posted up on the board in the past. I think the novel was released in only Germany.

As Stitch said, it is in an English book (it is offered at ebay with various covers and with some regularity).
As with so many things there is a lot of contradictory stuff that can be said about the story with sharptooth's eye. Take note for example of the fact that the eye Cera is looking into when sharptooth is waking up again at the bottom of the land devide is the one that ought to be injured.
However, I think the story about the eye is kind of sensible and would add at least a minor trace of viciousness (thirst for revenge) that is not exclusively based on the understandable desire to survive.
Given the comments of Don Bluth in his toon talk magazine according to which he had a problem seeing sharptooth as a "villain" for merely obeying the laws of nature I think it is likely that the thought was there during the production of the movie even if it wasn't really pulled through as it was never explicitly mentioned in the movie. Maybe some of the deleted sharptooth scenes were a bit more explicit about this, but this is entirely speculative as I don't have any information about the content of the scenes that were cut for being "too scary".

[Almaron]

Although, if you compare his injured eye to his other eye, it does remain bloodshot for the entire film, so there's a definite possibility that it got hurt.

Of course, even though Don Bluth was generally fine with scaring kids in his films, good luck getting a realistic eye injury into a kids film.

[pokeplayer984]

Although, if you compare his injured eye to his other eye, it does remain bloodshot for the entire film, so there's a definite possibility that it got hurt.

Of course, even though Don Bluth was generally fine with scaring kids in his films, good luck getting a realistic eye injury into a kids film.

Oh?  Tell that to Dink, the Little Dinosaur.



And yes, that is a kids show.

Well, guess I can add another superpower to the list.

"Invulnerable Eyes"

They may not be able to be injured movie-wise, but he'll still feel pain.

[Pangaea]

Although, if you compare his injured eye to his other eye, it does remain bloodshot for the entire film, so there's a definite possibility that it got hurt.

I think both of his eyes were always naturally bloodshot, just to make him look scarier (Same principle as the Great Owl from The Secret of NIMH having no pupils).

It was actually years before I became aware that Sharptooth had one bad eye. :blink: I noticed that one of his eyes was closed a lot, but since there aren't many shots where you can see that one eye is open and the other is shut, I just thought he closed or squinted his eyes a lot (Another example of my incredible capacity for stupidity ). Even when I did find out, I think I read in a synopsis that his eye was wounded, rather than noticing it myself.

Personally I think the inconsistency of Sharptooth's eye injury (it's not even the same eye all the time; there are a few scenes in which his left eye is shut and his right is open) is simply due to poor continuity, as a result of the scenes being animated in a different order than that in which they appear in the film (and the occasional need to flip the animated image). I think he was intended to originally have two good eyes (as evidenced by the scene in which Littlefoot is caught in the vines, immediately before Sharptooth is blinded; both of Sharptooth's eyes are clearly open), one of which gets put out by the thorns, leaving him with one bad eye for the rest of the film. Apparently the animators in charge of the scenes that took place before Sharptooth's injury were just not aware of this.

I think it’s plausible that Sharptooth’s injury motivated his pursuit of the gang, at least in part. The way I see it, all three suggested reasonsóhunger, revenge, and coincidenceómay have been the case. He was following his food source (the migrating dinosaur herds), so he was heading in the same direction as the gang; when he did come across them (perhaps he was even tracking them beforehand), he obviously saw it as an opportunity to fill his stomach; and if he recognized Littlefoot and/or Cera as the hatchling(s) who cost him his eye, it might have fueled his desire to kill them.

@pokeplayer984: That's still a pretty tame-looking wound, and was that dinosaur actually shown receiving it? I imagine the event of the injury itself would be quite messy in real life.

[pokeplayer984]

@pokeplayer984: That's still a pretty tame-looking wound, and was that dinosaur actually shown receiving it? I imagine the event of the injury itself would be quite messy in real life.

No, he just came onto the scene without an eye.  Believe me when I say that I was quite shocked to see that out of all things in a kids show.  Sure, they only did this to tell kids which one was the leader, but seriously, no eye?  Really?  Yikes! :blink:

[DarkWolf91]

Alas, it feels so anticlimactic to blame it all on continuity issues...  
I will continue to speculate and theorize as if 'continuity' did not exist, but concede the upperhand as far as logic is concerned to the majority, for it is certainly not mine
Actually, I'm pretty intrigued by the movie novelization. How many pages is it?

[Stitch]

It's a 64 page hardcover book, including several full-page illustrations.

[DarkHououmon]

Alas, it feels so anticlimactic to blame it all on continuity issues...  
 

But, from what I understand, such issues can occur. One example, not LBT-related, is the ending of TLK1 and beginning of TLK2. At the end of TLK1, Simba and Nala clearly had a son, but at the start of TLK2, which is supposed to pick up right where the first movie ended, suddenly their son turned into a daughter. This continuity issue, though, is explained by a fan theory that Simba had a son first, who then was killed by Zira or another Scar follower, which caused him to banish part of his pride and caused him to be overprotective of Kiara.

So yes, I don't think it's too unusual to blame some problems on continuity issues.

[DarkWolf91]

Oh, I'm certainly aware that it happens! Plans change, some new ideas come to light, old ones are dropped, and people simply forget about things. I suppose my point is that such things can either be ignored or be used to add an element of interest- such as the instance you mentioned of fans speculating about Simba's 'lost son.' An obvious case of story indecisiveness transformed into a plot element.

[Bruton the Iguanodon]

I wouldn't have even realize his eye was ever injured had I not read this stuff. It was so minor a part in the film it wasn't even necessary. It was never mentioned or brought up, and it was never even implied in the film that Sharptooth wanted "revenge" on Littlefoot for injuring his eye (how juveile..it was an accident, dude, get over it!)  <_<

[DarkHououmon]

I wouldn't have even realize his eye was ever injured had I not read this stuff. It was so minor a part in the film it wasn't even necessary. It was never mentioned or brought up, and it was never even implied in the film that Sharptooth wanted "revenge" on Littlefoot for injuring his eye (how juveile..it was an accident, dude, get over it!)  <_<

Interestingly enough, if Don Bluth had his way, Sharptooth would have had more personality than just being a predator looking for food. And if this were the case, the revenge thing would have made sense, since he probably would have had a bad temper and a jerk attitude, or maybe just liked being malicious. I'm not sure what Bluth had in mind for Sharptooth exactly though.

[Bruton the Iguanodon]

I'd like to know what he did have in mind...that guy was amazing.

[Bruton the Iguanodon]

Anyways this injury was 1 of practically 0 injuries in the total series. I googled "injuries in LBT" and got results for this happening to Sharptooth and Littlefoot's mother getting her back torn open---neither of which happened to the main cast and both of which were in the same film. Really, the original cast, over the course of 13 movies and a 26-episode TV series suffered about an injury apiece. I even have a topic on this:

http://gangoffive.net/index.php?showtopic=10283

Have fun discussing in it  


But really, his motivation is really juvenile.