The animation and color tones of the films

[Kron the Iguanadon]

This film series has been through a lot of animation changes over the years, and not many of them were for the better. Movie 1 used an old kind of animation, which works to give it the feel of the original, and used mostly brown tones. Right on, seeing as much of it is set in barren wasteland.

In movies 2-4 the animation looked new but it was still all very nicely drawn. The colors were lighter and softer but still quite subtle. There were many green tones in "The Great Valley Adventure" (of course!) as well as soft blue and dark blue ones---dark blue was used a lot in 4. This all made the sequels beautiful and convincing in my opinion.

In 5 that changed. The animation was the same...but something was happening to the colors. This time, mainly for the portion on the island, there were way too many yellows. The whole island seemed to have a sort of yellow glow. It gave the movie a weirdish feel. Movie 5 suffered a bit because of this.

In 6 the animation was still the same, but this time it felt like Grovsner had gone for red tones this time. That didn't work either!

I could forgive it all, though, if the animation of the next films didn't happen. 7's animation was thick and soupy and plain awful. I don't know how else to describe it, it just looked quickly drawn, instead of being drawn beautifully, like 2-4 espicially were. 8 introduced another new animation, and this one was too...shiny and glossy and new. I didn't like it either. Movie 9 kept this up...but with one major change.

THEY ADDED CGI INTO THIS CRAPPY ANIMATION.

That was just too much. But it was the animation of the last four films that took the cake. They were brighter, shinier, CGIer, and more badly colored then 5-9 put together. No wonder Land Before Time is supposedly done!

And then there's the series. The animation is not shiny or glossy, but it's not the animation of the earlier sequals i love, since the colors are too bright and everyone is drawn crudely. Anyways, what are your thoughts on this?

[DarkHououmon]

I preferred the animation from the original movie. Not sure if I can explain why I prefer the animation of the first movie. There's just something about it that I feel makes it look better than the later movies. I guess the best way I can explain why I like it more is in how the characters were drawn. They felt a bit sketchier, and more expressionate than in later movies.