This article is about characters in the fictional Land Before Time universe.
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Main Characters
Littlefoot
Littlefoot is an Apatosaurus but is called a Longneck in the films. He is the central character of the film The Land Before Time and most of its sequels; however it is not always necessarily the largest role. He is contemplative and quiet, though he enjoys playing, and often becomes leader in any quest.
Cera
Cera is a Triceratops (in the film called a "Threehorn") and a friend of Littlefoot. Cera is a bossy dinosaur who tries to show no fear. She is prone to bragging about her accomplishments, but will run away at the first sign of any real danger. She is very sweet and caring; but that side of her personality is usually masked by her normally gruff exterior.
Ducky
Ducky is a Parasaurolophus, which is also called a "Bigmouth" or a "Swimmer". She tends to say "Yep yep yep" quite a lot, which is frequently quoted today in popular culture and everyday life. Ducky rarely speaks in contractions, except when singing, and is almost never heard to utter a generalization.
Petrie
Petrie is a pterosaur (a Pteranodon to be exact), also called a "Flyer". He is talkative, but (uniquely to himself) speaks in a form of broken English.
Spike
Spike is, as his name implies, a 'Spiketail' (Stegosaurus). He is one of the youngest members of the group, Chomper being the only major character younger than himself. Ducky witnessed his hatching. Ducky's mother adopted him upon their reaching the Great Valley, as his family has yet to be seen. A Stegosaurus family did offer to take him with them, although he decided to stay with Ducky. Spike rarely speaks, though he has been known to vocalize in songs. The one notable occasion of Spike's use of speech appeared in The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists.
Chomper
Chomper is a Tyrannosaurus, which is known as a sharptooth in the Land Before Time movies. He is bilingual, being able to speak both the herbivore language of Littlefoot and his friends (heard as English to the viewer), and the "Sharptooth" of language of Tyrannosaurus, which seems to consist of grunts, roars, and clicks. He is the youngest of the seven main characters.
Ruby
Ruby is a new friend of Littlefoot and his friends and appears in the television series. She is a female Oviraptor. Ruby is quite compassionate.
Parents, Foster Parents, Relatives and Adoptees
Residents of the Great Valley
Big Daddy
The leader of the Tinysauruses. He is the voice of authority, is over-protective, and thinks he is the biggest of the Tinysaurus herd. He has been met with much derision from his daughters. His name is doubly ironic, considering he is short even for a Tinysaurus, being dwarfed by his own daughter.
Chatter
One of the Tinysauruses.
Guido
Guido is a Microraptor gui who appears in The Land Before Time XII: The Great Day of the Flyers. Although rumored to be multicolored, his feathers are, in actuality, presented in warm shades of green and yellow, mostly Jade. He has never seen another creature like himself. He is more of a comic relief character than previous guest characters. He is voiced by Rob Paulsen. He also appeared in the TV series episode where he truly learns how to fly (The Hermit of Black Rock).
Hyp
The leader of the trio of bullying dinosaurs in The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving, who tried to cause trouble for Littlefoot and his friends. Hyp, along with his other friends Mutt and Nod, often hides his cowardliness to make him look braver, or "bigger". Eventually, Hyp and his friends help Littlefoot and his friends with helping their parents deal with a pack of Sharpteeth, and later find some food to share with others. His name may derive from the ornithopod Hypsilophodon. The trio has not appeared since in the further sequels, although they have appeared in an episode of the TV series. Whit Hetford voiced Hyp.
Hyp's Father
An often grumpy dinosaur, who yells at his son when concerned for his safety. Like his son, his attitude may have an effect on others, including Topsy, who realises the errors of his ways on raising his daughter, Cera, after witnessing Hyp's father telling off his son with the exact same words Topsy used with Cera ("I'm your father, and I know what's best for you!"). Hyp's father is not cowardly and he is not always angry; he can also be kind to others, as shown at the end of the film. In Film V he can be seen when the dinosaurs are leaving the valley.
Kosh
Kosh is the gluttonous Ankylosaurus appearing in some of the The Land Before Time films and "The Star Day Celebration" episode of the TV series. His name is revealed in the end credits for "The Star Day Celebration" episode of the TV series, whereas he was once referred as "Mr. Clubtail" in some films. He shows up commonly in the series, usually for one-liners, and most often for comic relief. He is almost always seen eating. While he initially refuses to share sweet bubbles with the kids, he changes his mind when Ducky tells him it is for Ruby's Star Day. He was voiced by Rob Paulsen in The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving, The Land Before Time XI: Invasion of the Tinysauruses, and The Land Before Time XII: The Great Day of the Flyers, Jeff Bennett in The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island, and Peter Sepenuk, who also voices Red Claw and Screech, in the TV series.
Lizzie
Lizzie was one of the Tinysauruses Littlefoot and friends met in Invasion of the Tinysauruses. A daughter of Big Daddy, she was fed up with her father's over-protectiveness and distrust of Littlefoot and his friends, similar to Cera's situation with her father, Topsy. Lizzie and Cera quickly became friends and made amends with their fathers. Voiced by Cree Summer.
Milo, Lydia, and Plower
Three beaver-like mammals, featured in Stranger from the Mysterious Above. They believed Spike to be "The Big Wise One". Milo was voiced by Jeff Bennett, Plower by Rob Paulsen, and Lydia by Nika Futterman.
Mutt
One of the bullying trio, he is dim-witted and more dependent on his friends. Because he is not clever, he is more of a coward than Hyp or Nod. He usually needs a nudge from Nod in order to know when to speak. He is a Muttaburrasaurus , hence his name. Voiced by Jeff Bennett.
Mutt's Father
He can be seen briefly in the fight against some Velociraptors. Like his son, he is controlled by fear.
Nod
Another of Hyp's friends, a Nodosaurus. Nod was the depressed one of the group. He tried to be funny, but none of the others liked him. He often repeated what he said to make more sense, or tried feebly to emphasize a case made by Hyp. Scott Menville voiced Nod.
Pat
An old but not always wise Apatosaurus, who offered to look after Littlefoot's friends on their way to the crater in The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration. When they realise they cannot make the journey by themselves, Pat finally looks after them. His leg was severely burned from erupting lava after telling the longneck creation myth to the gang; they help Pat get up. When they arrive at the crater, he helps defend the other children against three sharpteeth. At the end of the movie, the children ask him to come with them to the Great Valley, which he slowly accepts. Pat is shown to be a lonely traveller, as he offers twice to look after Littlefoot's friends, takes a different route to the crater, and does not travel with a sauropod herd. He is gentle, but because of his age he is physically weak. He was voiced by James Garner and has not appeared since in the further sequels.
Rocky and Dusty
Twin Tinysauruses. Rocky is a male and Dusty is a female. They usually speak in fragments, with one starting a sentence, and the other finishing it.
Skip
A mammal-like creature who knows a lot about the Mysterious Beyond. Voiced by Jeff Bennett.
Skitter
A Tinysaurus, one of the first to befriend Littlefoot.
Mr. Thicknose
Mr. Thicknose, a Pachyrhinosaurus, is, or was, a very respected individual in the Great Valley community and served as a teacher to the children of the Valley. However, his pedagogy was that of being a "know-it-all." The adults of the Valley would send him their children to receive a primary education; they assumed that Mr. Thicknose was indeed a polymath and could effectivily instruct their children. He appeared in the film The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze and has been seen in The Land Before Time TV series.
Tinysauruses
The Tinysauruses are a small herd of kitten-sized, multicolored sauropods that made their debut in The Land Before Time XI: Invasion of the Tinysauruses. Their name is a portmanteau of "tiny" and "-sauruses". Unlike their slower relatives, they are quite fast and are very lightweight, and their small size is useful for crawling into small spaces. In the film, Littlefoot accuses the Tinysauruses for knocking down and stealing tree-sweets from the tree-sweet tree. Because of this, the other dinosaurs are eventually fearful of these rather alien creatures, and have a desire to kill them if they could. When Littlefoot befriends these creatures, however, they turn out to be more sentient than he imagined. The Tinysauruses can be spotted in The Land Before Time XII: The Great Day of the Flyers during the song Flip, Flap and Fly.
Wanderers
Ali
Ali is an Apatosaurus who bears a striking resemblance to Littlefoot, apart from her darker pink skin color and light blue eyes. In the TV series, she have a more purplish color of skin. She and her mother belong to a herd that was forced to leave their homeland due to flooding and excess rain. With their old home turned into swamp, called the Land of Mists, Ali's herd, led by the matriarch called the Old One, was forced to leave. During Migration, Ali's herd found the Great Valley and were welcomed by their cousins, Grandpa Longneck's family. Grandpa Longneck fell ill during this time, whereupon Ali and Littlefoot left the Great Valley to search Ali's old home for the fabled Night Flower that would heal him. Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike soon followed them, and met up with Littlefoot and Ali. Together, the group found the Night Flowers and brought them to the Great Valley to heal Grandpa Longneck. Afterwards, Ali and her herd left the Valley to continue their migration even though she and Littlefoot would one day meet again. Though fans began to despair of that promise ever being fulfilled, the "other story" remarked upon by the narrator is seen to be The Land Before Time TV series, when Ali returns with the herd. She meets a new friend, Rhett when her herd had merged with another. The episode mainly focuses on Ali meeting and reacting to Chomper. Like most dinosaurs outside of the Great Valley herd, Ali was wary of trusting dinosaurs outside of her species and, on her part, Cera initially didn't trust Ali, but later learned to accept her and the two became friends. Fanfiction often has Littlefoot and Ali fall in love and marry as adults; others disagree, calling such a match incestuous on the grounds that they are cousins. [1] [2] [3] [4] She was voiced by Juliana Hansen in Journey through the Mists, and by Nika Futterman in the TV series.
Doc
Doc is a wandering Diplodocus (longneck) who goes "where the road takes him." He is shown to be very taciturn and not forthcoming of his past. The Dinosaur Filmography describes his voice as being as gravelly as a bone bed. Shortly after appearing in the Great Valley, he saved Littlefoot, who quickly went on to idolize the wanderer. Littlefoot believed Doc to be the legendary "Lone Dinosaur", who saved the Great Valley long ago from the most terrible Sharptooth. He bases these assumptions on the fact that Doc can do fancy tricks with his tail; that he had been to the Great Valley before; that he has a scar on his eye (attributed to an especially vicious Sharptooth); and that he has a resemblance to Saurus Rock. To a degree, Littlefoot places Doc above his own grandfather and defends him when he is accused of bringing bad luck to the Valley. Towards the end, Doc and Grandpa Longneck work together to save Littlefoot from an Allosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus; Littlefoot asks Doc to stay in case the Valley should ever need a hero; Doc replies that the Valley already has a hero and looks towards Grandpa Longneck. Doc appears in The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock. Prior to The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration, some fans asked if Doc was in fact, Littlefoot's long-lost father. In an episode of the TV series, The Lone Dinosaur Returns, Doc returns to the Great Valley. In the episode, he shows a great hostility toward the fact that Littlefoot is friends with Chomper. This severely weakens Littlefoot's view of Doc, but his respect for him is restored at the end of the episode when Doc apologises to Chomper, saying that he realizes that Chomper is different from other Sharpteeth. He is voiced by Kris Kristofferson in the film.
Foobie
Foobie, the mute Yellow Belly, is considered the "Wise One". Voiced by Peter Sepenuk.
Loofah and Doofah
Loofah and Doofah are two new creatures in The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends. They are hadrosaur-like reptiles with plumed feathers on their heads and tails and are weighty in both appearance and movement. It is possible that these characters are Beipiaosaurus (referred as Yellow Bellies). Loofah is voiced by Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Doofah is voiced by Sandra Oh.
Mo
Mo is a colourful Ophthalmosaurus who first made his debut appearance in The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water, The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration, The Land Before Time XI: Invasion of the Tinysauruses, The Land Before Time XII: The Great Day of the Flyers and The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends. He is incredibly playful, especially with his "mud brother", Littlefoot, but his boisterous antics erode the patience of Cera. He is bilingual in that he can speak both Littlefoot's herbivore and his native dolphin-like languages, which the dinosaurs don't understand but, apparently, other aquatic creatures can. This is evidenced when Mo asks a crab to release Cera's horn in his own language. Mo now appears as a notable cameo in the latest sequels. In The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration, wherein he is seen jumping out of the water during the Adventuring musical number. He can also be seen jumping out of the water and saying "And fly!" during the song Flip, Flap and Fly in The Land Before Time XII: The Great Day of the Flyers. Mo also appeared in an episode of the TV series.
Old One
She is the matriarch of the migrating Apatosaurus herd in The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists. She is regarded by her herd as the wisest, although some find her claims hard to believe. She may be related to Grandma Longneck, who speaks of her as a cousin. She makes a reappearance in an episode of the Land Before Time TV series, where she and the herd runs after Chomper, who had pretended to be a mean sharptooth. She nearly kills him, until Chomper startles her by tearfully begging her not to hurt him. The fact that a sharptooth was talking to her distracted the herd long enough for Littlefoot, Ali, and his friends to rescue Chomper. In the Spanish language version, she was given a male voice in the movie, but a proper female voice in the TV series.
Rhett
Rhett is an Apatosaurus who resembles Littlefoot, and has large, green eyes. He was introduced in The Land Before Time TV series, when Ali and his herd shows up in The Great Valley. At first, Rhett boasts about himself and tells Ali truthless stories about him protecting his herd, convincing her that they were real. Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Spike, Petrie, Chomper and Ruby plan a scheme to convince Ali that Rhett has been making up all of the stories when Chomper acts as a mean Sharptooth, and scares him away. This alarms the longnecks, who believe that Chomper is dangerous, and they give chase. Afterwards, Rhett admits to making up the stories when the Old One finds out. He then becomes friends with the gang. He is voiced by Elizabeth Daily, who was also the voice of Tommy Pickles on Rugrats and All Grown Up! and Buttercup on The Powerpuff Girls.
Saro
An old friend of Grandpa Longneck, who appears in one episode of the TV series. Voiced by Peter Sepenuk.
Tippy
A pink Stegosaurus, who is Spike's playful companion during the stegosaur migration in The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze. When a stegosaur herd moved into the Great Valley, Spike immediately became close friends with Tippy. Unlike Spike, Tippy is very vocal; his catchphrase is "Fun, fun, fun!", similar to Ducky's "Yep, Yep, Yep". He was voiced by Jeremy Suarez, who later did the voice of Koda in Brother Bear and Brother Bear 2, and then Cree Summer in the TV series. Tippy and his herd have since appeared in the TV series episode The Forbidden Friendship.
Tippy's Mother
A kindly mother who invites Spike to travel with her herd when they migrate out of the Great Valley to find food during the freeze. She is very friendly towards Spike and loves her son, although after learning that Spike had been fostered by a dinosaur outside of his species, allows him to spend more time with Tippy and his herd. Tippy's mother finally realizes that Spike really belongs with his foster family. She appeared in the episode of the TV series The Forbidden Friendship.
Others
Archie
Archie was an old Archelon and appeared in The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists. He may have been inspired by Crusty the Turtle, a character who appeared on a 1989 animated series very similar to The Land Before Time called Dink, the Little Dinosaur. Both characters were shown to live in caves and give advice to the main character, an Apatosaurus (Littlefoot/Dink), and his multi-species group of friends, including a Pteranodon (Petrie/Flapper) and a hadrosaur or duck-billed dinosaur (Ducky/Amber and Scat).
Elsie
Elsie is a kind Elasmosaurus that Littlefoot and friends met in The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island. After trying to find food for the dislocated members of the Great Valley, in order to keep the group together, Littlefoot and the others are marooned on an island, where the ocean surrounding it prevents the homesick Littlefoot and gang from leaving. Their problem is eventually solved when Elsie appears, offering the kids a ride to the mainland. They accept, and they travel safely back to the other members of the Great Valley, who have found enough food to last them until they could finally return to the Great Valley. Elsie is suggested to have an inconsummable soft spot for Grandpa Longneck, and claims that Littlefoot has inherited his "good looks" from his grandfather. Cera, because of her tendency to experience motion sickness, objects to further "rides" on Elsie's back.
Mo's Water Kin
Mo's water kin is Mo's family. Mo's relatives all look nearly identical except in that they have different sizes and colors.
The "Rainbow Faces"
In The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire, two dinosaurs (Gallimimus), superficially similar to Zippeau of the Dinotopia miniseries, appeared. These two were called the "Rainbow Faces," because their bills were colored red-orange and navy blue. One was male, the other female. They continually remind Littlefoot that the world is full of thought-worthy unknowns, to be found "beyond the Mysterious Beyond". The male, whose exact relationship with the female is unclear, seemed rather more eager than his companion to reveal scientific knowledge of physics unexpected of dinosaurs. Twice he allows himself to do so, but is checked by the female. It is these two who plant the rumor of the "Stone of Cold Fire"'s magical powers, which are proven a fabrication. Their motive seems to have been the broadening of saurian minds, with whose narrowness they had grown frustrated. At the end, after they talk to Littlefoot, they disappear when they are suddenly surrounded by a shimmering pillar of light. When the light fades away, they are gone, whereupon Littlefoot looks into the sky and watches a bright light in the stars fly upward to the stars. The identity of the Rainbow Faces remains ambiguous; because of their knowledge and means of departure, the most popular suggestion is that they were extraterrestrials who had taken on saurian form in order to interact with the natives.
Rooter
Rooter was an old armored dinosaur, possibly a Nodosaurus. He made only one appearance—in the original The Land Before Time—but was one of the more powerful characters from the film. After Littlefoot was orphaned, he met Rooter, who cantankerously admonished him for crying. When Rooter had learned of the true reason for Littlefoot's tears—that being his mother's death—he softened toward Littlefoot and advised him in these words: "It is nobody's fault. The Great Circle of Life has begun. But you see, not all of us arrive together at the end." When Littlefoot asked for further advice, because of missing his mother, Rooter replied, "You'll always miss her. But she'll always be with you, as long as you remember the things she taught you. In a way, you'll never be apart, for you are still a part of each other." When Littlefoot complained of a stomachache, Rooter said, "Well, that too will go in time, little feller. Only in time." He then departed, leaving Littlefoot. Rooter was added to the film to soften the emotional blow from the intensely frightening Sharptooth attack and the scene depicting the death of Littlefoot's mother. Though it was Rooter's only appearance, Bron would later remember somebody telling him of what happened to Littlefoot's mother. Some mistake the dinosaur he mentioned to be Rooter, but Bron also mentioned he heard no word about Littlefoot from this dinosaur. However, he may have meant that Rooter did not know what happened to Littlefoot after they parted ways. Rooter's voice actor was also the narrator of the first film, Pat Hingle.
Sue
A bright pink Supersaurus, she saved Littlefoot from a crocodile by simply crushing its face in The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration. She wishes to meet somebody who is taller than her, and once in the crater, she finally finds an Ultrasaurus, a sauropod taller than herself. Sue is kind and gentle, but her real personality remains a mystery because of her short amount of screen time. She was voiced by Bernadette Peters.
Tickles
The mouse-like Tickles is the first mammal seen in The Land Before Time film series. He is of unknown species (possibly a Megazostrodon, though this may be unlikely) and was so named because he, in Ducky's words, had "tickly fuzzies all over him." He appears in The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists. He is very intelligent and very brave, but unable to speak except through high-pitched squeaks, which are translated via his body language. His mute but brave nature makes him very relatable to Spike.
Tickles's Family
Tickles's family appear in the branches of a tree, connecting them to the inconveniencing creatures who had crowded the Longnecks out of their feeding grounds. This competition is not mentioned again.
Villains
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Film series: The Land Before Time (1988) • The Great Valley Adventure (1994) • The Time of the Great Giving (1995) • Journey Through the Mists (1996) • The Mysterious Island (1997) • The Secret of Saurus Rock (1998) • The Stone of Cold Fire (2000) • The Big Freeze (2001) • Journey to Big Water (2002) • The Great Longneck Migration (2003) • Invasion of the Tinysauruses (2004) • The Great Day of the Flyers (2006) • The Wisdom of Friends (2007) |
