Land Before Time Retrospective #16
Quote from rhombus:
1) What do you think that Ali brings to series? Do you wish that she had more appearances in the series besides her run in the fourth film and in the Brave Longneck Scheme?
2) And here is a silly question… Who do you prefer: the Ali of the fourth film or the true pairing of Ali and Rhett in the Brave Longneck Scheme?
Being one of my favourite guest characters of the series, if not my favourite, it’s no surprise that I’d have to stop by and share my thoughts. In fact, I rewatched Journey Through the Mists earlier today just for the occasion, which also inspired my new avatar. 😛
(Edit: This was my avatar at the time.)
From a previous post I made: I just love the idea of Littlefoot meeting a female longneck around his age. It was an interesting dynamic because all of Littlefoot’s friends so far are different species, yet here he finally has a playmate who’s a longneck just like him. And I liked her personality too; she had a shy yet more openly playful side to her. She also contrasted nicely from Cera.
Expanding on from that, it also struck me during my rewatch that she’s the one who initially doesn’t want Littlefoot’s friends along for the journey when she and Littlefoot go to retrieve the Night Flowers. Yet then she’s the one who is forced to go back and rely on Littlefoot’s friends for help after he gets trapped in the cave-in, which ultimately turns out to be a good thing as it paves the way for her learning to overcome her prejudices. I found that interesting.
Ali mentions that, because she was part of a migrating herd, that was why she never got the chance to meet other species of dinosaurs, which made me wish to learn more of her backstory. I feel like there was potential for a storyline there.
The migrating herd also harkens back to the dinosaur segregation seen in the first movie, but I like how Ali’s prejudice was shown to manifest in a different way than for characters like Cera. Whereas Cera and her father were aggressive with other dinosaurs, Ali is merely timid and afraid of them, but not outright mean. Another way in which Ali and Cera are foils. And yet it also makes Ali a foil to Littlefoot, as while they were both raised to be affiliated with only their own kind, Littlefoot didn’t end up prejudiced.
I’ve lamented before that I really wanted for Ali to appear in more films, especially since the ending of #4 pretty much outright states that she’d return. Although I can see now why maybe she wasn’t made a regular part of the Gang, in the sense that it would’ve been two longnecks (or “two Littlefoots,” as Ducky says :P), whereas the rest of the Gang consists of only one member per species. But I still think Ali could have (and should have) been a recurring/supporting character at the very least.
I haven’t seen “The Brave Longneck Scheme” yet (an episode of the TV series), but that’ll be coming soon, before the end of the month. I’m sure I’ll have some things to say about it.
