Land Before Time Retrospective #39
As mentioned here, I had the idea to do fanfic novelizations of all the LBT films. I didn’t think of as many ideas for each sequel as I did for that wall of text I wrote on the original, and would probably have come up with more ideas had I actually started writing these novelizations. Nonetheless, this is everything that I did come up with.
In general:
• The Gang’s siblings would be more prominent in my novelizations than they were in the movies. They wouldn’t be made into major characters or anything, but would otherwise have a more consistent presence throughout the series, to help paint a better picture of the Gang’s family trees.
• The sharpteeth in the later sequels would be portrayed in a more menacing way.
• Cera’s abrasiveness in some of the later sequels would be toned down and she’d be characterized more like she was in films #2-4.
II – The Great Valley Adventure
• The style and tone here would be made closer to the film film, moreso than some of the later sequels. There would be a lot of parallels between the first film/novelization and the second. It would be shown that Littlefoot misses his mother, and he has PTSD and occasional nightmares about the Sharptooth encounters from the original.
• It would be made more clear that this takes place shortly after the first installment (unlike in the film where it was simply implied). The dinosaurs are still adjusting to their new lives inside the Great Valley, and the different species are still shown to be rather segregated from each other. They haven’t yet learned to overcome their prejudices and mingle together, which makes the Gang of Five an uncomfortable oddity to their dinosaur society at large.
• Cera’s mother and siblings would be given a supporting role, more prominent than their appearance in the first novel (to help set up what will be an even more prominent appearance in the third novel).
• Here, Littlefoot would be the least insistent about caring for baby Chomper, at least initially, considering he lost his mother to a sharptooth. Rather, it’s Ducky and Petrie who decide to care for Chomper, although eventually Littlefoot warms up to Chomper as well.
• Despite the darker tone, Ozzy and Strut would remain as fairly comical characters… up until they’re killed by Chomper’s parents! This would happen shortly before the climax (and would be different from the film where their ultimate fate was left ambiguous).
• When Littlefoot’s own grandparents and friends are threatened and nearly killed by the adult sharpteeth, it gives Littlefoot a fierce determination to take them down, again similar to the first film/novel. He and the other kids devise a plan similar to the one they had last time to try and kill Chomper’s parents.
• ^The only thing that stops Littlefoot at the last minute is his realization that the adult sharpteeth are in fact Chomper’s parents. Seeing that sharpteeth have families too is what convinces Littlefoot to spare them. The three sharpteeth reunite and end up leaving the valley together.
III – The Time of the Great Giving
• Much of the film’s structure would be kept similar in the novelization for the most part. Compared to The Great Valley Adventure, I couldn’t think of as many changes I would have wanted to make for this one.
• The biggest difference would be that, again, Cera’s mother and siblings would have a supporting role here. There’d be more focus on Cera’s family dynamics in general, given Topsy’s role in the plot, and how each family member reacts to him trying to control the water supply.
• Cera’s mother would be wounded during the climax with the fast biters and she would pass away shortly after the battle, explaining why she isn’t around in any of the later films. Although Cera’s siblings would survive in my version, and would continue to occasionally be seen later in the series.
• Because of this, the ending with the Time of the Great Giving and the redeemed bullies would remain, albeit with a much more bittersweet air given the circumstances.
IV – Journey Through the Mists
• The aftermath of Cera losing her mother would be explored, and it’s shown that it gave her and Littlefoot something to bond over.
• Ali’s mother would be slightly more fleshed out, and has a similar temperament to Littlefoot’s mother. Early on, a scene where Littlefoot observes Ali and her mother from a distance with longing, and even some jealousy.
• The Old One and the other migrating longnecks still don’t want to venture out to find the Nightflower, but their reasons for feeling this way would be better explained. Namely, that some of their herd members were killed while they were in the Land of Mists and that’s why they don’t want to go back there.
• As with the second novel, the story would be made darker and more emotional in places, since we are dealing with Littlefoot potentially losing another family member.
• Archie would be portrayed more closely to how Rooter was, to the point that Archie even reminds Littlefoot of “someone I met once.”
• More time spent in the Land of Mists, showcasing its dark, ominous landscape.
• Despite that, Ichy and Dil would remain as comical characters. Maybe a bit more threatening, but their bickering dynamic with each other would remain. But as with Ozzy and Strut, their demise would be more clearly shown.
V – The Mysterious Island
• The story from the film would be expanded and adapted into two separate books. “The Mysterious Island – Part 1” would cover everything leading up to the island, while “Part 2” would begin once they arrive on the island. Because of this, both the desert trek to the island, and the kids’ time on the island itself, would be longer and more fleshed out. (Update: Or at least, that was my original idea. I realize in hindsight that with a book, you can easily just make it longer, more easily than you can with a movie adaptation. But still, I’d thought of it being a two-book novelization at the time.)
• The trek through the desert would explore the herd/character dynamics more (contrasting from the second part in which the majority of it is just the kids on their own), and would be expanded enough in general to tell a mini-story of its own to wrap up “Part 1” with.
• On the island, there’d be more scenes of them struggling to find food and water, encountering various dangers, and showing off more of the island’s creepy atmosphere.
• Topsy’s prejudiced comments against other dinosaurs would be removed (which would apply to the later sequels as well). He would still be somewhat grumpy and stern, but otherwise I want to more clearly show that his character development from the third film stuck.
• The Plated Sharptooth would be made more threatening (even though I still liked him as he was in the film). To a lesser extent, Chomper’s parents would also be made more threatening, up until the end when it turns out they’re not so bad.
VI – The Secret of Saurus Rock
• I considered reintroducing Ali here. Not right at the very beginning, but fairly early on (before the bad luck starts). The idea being that she would be a recurring character from this point on, delivering on the fourth film’s promise that we would be seeing her again. However, I decided that The Great Longneck Migration would be a better place for her reintroduction.
• Part of Littlefoot’s admiration for Doc is stated to stem from how Doc reminds Littlefoot of his father. Also the first time Littlefoot’s father would be mentioned in the series.
• As mentioned in my novelization notes for the first film, Cera is established to have older siblings, which would come into play here. Namely, that one of her older sibs is the parent of Dinah & Dana, to likewise better explain how Cera is their aunt.
• The Western elements would be played up a little more.
• As with the first novelization, this one would incorporate some removed elements that were in the movie’s script: (See here for my original script review)
• The darker opening flashback scene would be retained, where the Meanest Sharptooth is shown eating a small dinosaur, to make the next part more intense when the mother longneck is trying to protect her son.
• While it would still be ambiguous whether or not there truly was a bad luck curse (as was the case in the finished film), the element from the script would remain in that nothing bad starts to happen until after one of the Saurus Rock teeth has fallen off.
• As in the script, there’d be more time spent with the Gang wandering through the forest and getting lost on their way to and from Saurus Rock, with the forest being described as noticeably dark and creepy, to help build atmosphere. It seems to get even darker and more foreboding still after Saurus Rock is damaged and the curse (apparently) comes into effect.
• And of course, I’d have to include Cera’s epic declaration of going on a “Sharptooth Hunt”. How could I not? 😛
• There’d be four Sharptooth antagonists here, which would build up to a more violent and intense climax when the protagonists try to fight off all four of them at once.
• At the end, the characters would come across an area of the landscape with snow and ice, to which Grandpa Longneck points out that the world is getting colder, serving as an eventual lead-up to The Big Freeze.
VII – The Stone of Cold Fire
• Of the fourteen films, this might be the one I would change the least.
• A minor thing, but the Gang’s dialogue at the beginning about Pterano and him getting kicked out of the herd would be removed and perhaps added into a later scene instead. It always seemed a bit too convenient to me how they talk about him, and then he just happens to show up in the Great Valley soon after despite no-one having seen him for a long time.
• There would be a myth or legend of some kind surrounding the Stone of Cold Fire, in regards to what sort of (supposedly) extraordinary powers it contains. It would also be explained a little better exactly why Pterano, Rinkus, & Sierra want it so badly; as in, what do they believe it will do for them? (I remember it was kinda explained in the film, but I feel they could’ve gone further with the explanation.)
• It’d be noted a couple times that the weather is slowly getting colder, again as a lead-up to The Big Freeze.
• As with previous villains, Rinkus and Sierra’s demise would be more clearly shown.
• At the very end, the entire Gang would see that the Rainbow Faces are (supposedly) aliens, not just Littlefoot.
Well that’s all for now. Next time I’ll report in with my thoughts on #8-14. ^^
