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wazoo_22
Reviews
The Land Before Time (1988)
The Bambi of dinosaur movies- an instant classic!
(the only spoilers i give are at the beginning to set the scene) this is one animated movie that just shines. most likely the best ever 2-d animated movie not made by Disney! First of all, we've got Littlefoot, a "long-neck" (guess what kind of dino that is!) who lives with his mother and grandparents in a herd, which is separated after an "earth shake", and Littlefoot's mother is killed, and he is separated from this grandparents, with only a "tree-star" (a leaf of some kind) to keep him secure about finding the herd again at their destination and rendezvous point: the fabled Great Valley. things never come easy to little dinosaurs on the move, so Littlefoot meets some friends along they way, like Sara, a "three-horn" (I won't insult your intelligence by telling you what she is), Ducky, (a hadrosaur, she never says the dino-speak version of her species name)Spike, a baby stegosaurus Duck adopted (so baby, he can't talk and he doesn't have plates, but he's a stego.)and Petri (not the dish, a pterosaur) together, they head off on a search for the great valley. Pros- Amazing realism in dino names. no matter how much we want to believe it, dinosaurs would never call each other "brachiosauri" (the real plural ending of something that ends with us is i) or "hadrosauri" or anything else. those are derived from Latin dinosaurs did not speak Latin. they would describe each other by their features, like "Long Neck" or "Three-Horns" It's original no other movie is like this. sure, the "kids travel to a faraway land to find their parents" is less original, but the setup of dino society (if you want to call it that) is incredible. great setup. It has Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. I know two other projects that these two collaborated on: Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Star Wars: Episode III: the Revenge of the Sith. all three of these movies rock. Cons: This is a perfect movie. the only con is TOO MANY POINTLESS AND INCREASINGLY KIDDY SEQUELS. the original was unsuitable for small children, the newest ones seem tailor made for them. and while the dino names were ingenious in the first one, they're getting so overused and dumb I know 2 kids who use the dino names to describe the dinosaurs.
in conclusion: This movie is a must see. the sequels are a must not see. I wonder what George and Steven would think...
Power Stone (1999)
great show ruined by competition
Tragic things happen in the world of showbiz. good shows are cancelled (read: 50% of the shows on Fox) for no apparent reason, and the inferior ones that are just more popular (pokemon in it's variously and increasingly stupid incarnations) remain on the air practically forever (nobody I know even watches it) and shows like this crash and burn after a few seasons. the three main factors that brought this show down were: 1) lack of fan support. power stone isn't a very well-known game (not like the Mario games or Grand Theft Auto) and quite a few fans were miffed that the plot varied so much (I won't spoil it, but let's just say in comparison, the TV show is an adventure across the world, following Edward Falcon try to find his father Pride, and finding power stones and the people who use them, and then restore them to their original place so there can be a (unoriginal) "new age of peace and prosperity" according to the narration before the theme song. in the video game, it's about a group of fighters trying to control the stones in a tournament. long story short: it doesn't have the hype and fad-ieness like pokemon had. 2) too much competition. a little-known show up against Pokemon itself can't survive on being a good show alone, further augmenting cause 1. and 3) it had a plot which meant it HAD to end eventually. they couldn't drag out the "looking for dad" routine FOREVER. and the second goal, restoring the power stones, wasn't much of a hurdle once they were all found. here's a spoiler which won't surprise you (probably) because if you're reading this that means you've probably seen the show. they find pride and all the power stones by the end of season 4. there are 5 seasons. so they had to create a whole new plot involving valgas as the supervillain (a problem in itself, because a truly sinister villain needs a pre-developed character. the only character he had was when they were in woodland and wang tang tells falcon that he donated to orphanages, and when falcon grouses (no pun intended) about not being able to see him fight. poor writing towards the end and Pokemon's popularity conspired and it wasn't long before it was written off. ah well, it was fun while it was on YTV, and hey! that's what DVD's are for.