Cera

Cera Gallery

“	"My father told me that flatheads have very small brains."	”
— Cera

Cera
Physical traits
Species	Triceratops
Gender	Female
Color	Orange w. Cream underbelly
Eye color	Green
Character
Status	Alive
Alignment	Neutral, later good
Favorite food	Flowers, particularly yellow ones
Family	Daddy Topps (father) Cera's Mother (mother) Cera's Siblings (sisters) Tria (step-mother) Tricia (Paternal half-sister) Dinah (Niece) Dana (Nephew)
Associations	Prehistoric Pals
Titles	Sweet but Strong-willed Cera (website)
Production
Voice actor(s)	Candace Hutson (I - IV) Anndi McAfee (V - present)
Appearances	The Land Before Time The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving The Land Before Time IV: Journey through the Mists The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze 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 The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends The Land Before Time television series The Land Before Time XIV: Journey of the Brave

Cera (also known as Sweet but Strong-willed Cera^{(citation needed)} or simply strong-willed Cera), is the deuteragonist and primary female character in The Land Before Time franchise. She is also the secondary antagonist of The Land Before Time. She was voiced by Candace Hutson from The Land Before Time to Journey Through the Mists, after which her voice was provided by Anndi McAfee. She is a Triceratops, which is known as a "Threehorn" to the characters in the franchise. Cera's most recognizable trait is her bossy, skeptical and proud demeanor, which covers up her caring and sensitive side. As seen in The Wisdom of Friends and the television series, Cera can also have a fun-loving side if given proper stimulus first, the yellow bellies admiring her horn in the case of The Wisdom of Friends and Tria's secret mud pools in the case of the television series.

She has a father named Daddy Topps, whose personality is quite similar to hers, but much more severe. In fact, it is very likely that she learned her gruff, stubborn, bossy, and sometimes just plain mean side from her father. Her biological mother has not been seen since the original movie, but as of the eleventh installment, Invasion of the Tinysauruses, she has a stepmother named Tria. She also has numerous siblings, but the only prominent one is her half-sister, Tricia, the daughter of Tria and Daddy Topps. Cera is friends with the other six main characters of the franchise: Littlefoot, Ducky, Petrie, Spike, Chomper, and Ruby (that are Cera's friends), although her strongest friendships appear to be with Littlefoot and Ducky. In most instances in which the main characters are listed in order, she is placed second, after Littlefoot.

The character has come under a comfortable public reception, and has spawned plenty of merchandise, along with being mentioned in many other media. Similarly to the character Ducky, there has been confusion over Cera's species, although it has not been labelled incorrectly as often as Ducky's. The spelling of her name, however, has suffered from much more dispute. She is most commonly mistaken to be a Monoclonius, while her name is frequently mistaken to be spelled as "Sarah".

Personality

Pleasantries

Cera is often portrayed to be sweet and caring, but this side of her personality is masked most of the time by her more gruff exterior. A major example of her softer side is shown in The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock, when she is watching over her niece and nephew. Although very stern, and at times cold towards them, especially when they start to play mischievous games, she still tries to be nurturing towards them. When they are too tired to walk home after Grandpa Longneck's storytelling, she agrees to carry them home, and endures having the horns in her frill playfully tugged at. Later, when returning them home after their venture to Saurus Rock, she gently lifts them out of the trunk they had hidden in from the pursuing Allosaurus, and smiles as she places them down again so they may cross it like a bridge, over the canyon. She also comforts them when they are upset about the tooth which fell off of the neck of the rock formation, although she returns to her no-nonsense authority when they say she told them to get lost the day before, after she blames Littlefoot for the events that day.

Another instance of her caring demeanor is in The Land Before Time XI: Invasion of the Tinysauruses, when she softly tells Tria that she believes the reason Daddy Topps was so mean to the Tinysauruses was because he felt that they had effectively hurt Tria when they ate the tree sweets off of the tree, as she could no longer have the first one of the year.

Cera is also shown to be very polite and ladylike when relaxed, in "The Mysterious Tooth Crisis". When Littlefoot and Ducky run to Tria's secret mud pool in search of Ruby, they meet up with Cera while she is mudbathing. They at first mistake her for somebody else, until she lifts up a lily pad she was wearing as a hat, and are surprised to see that she is in a calm, gentle state.

Cera dancing with the Yellow Bellies shows that she can change her views other species quickly.

Another example of Cera's ever developing character is in The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends, during the "Yellow Belly Bounce" scene. At first, she claims the Yellow Bellies "look so silly" singing and dancing, but after one of them complements her horn, Cera is later seen singing and dancing with other yellow bellies. This shows that despite her sharing her father's views in the first movie and later sequels, Cera has become open to all species, even ones such as the Yellow Bellies who have a different way of doing things than most dinosaurs do.

Bigotry and Dominance

In the original The Land Before Time, Cera had an antagonistic side because she is very bitter, arrogant, obnoxious, argumentative, and (like her father) bigoted towards other species (an allegory for racism). This is first shown when she tells Littlefoot that "threehorns never play with longnecks" and that "they only talk to other threehorns and they only travel with other threehorns", and was made explicit when she told Littlefoot that "My father told me that flatheads (a racial slur directed at longnecks) have very small brains." As they were searching for the Great Valley, she takes control of the group from Littlefoot after his search for the Great Valley yields no results. She begins to reform only after a rather severe humiliation when she begs for Littlefoot or any of the others to save her from a tar monster - not knowing that the tar monster is in fact Littlefoot and the others. She angrily leaves. Then, she turned sad and cries because, as the narrator says, "Cera was still too proud to admit that she'd gone the wrong way."

In later films, Cera is not as bigoted as she had been in the first film. In fact, by the events of The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island, Cera is so used to living in a diverse-species community that when the Great Valley herd is forced to leave the Valley and perhaps break up and join other herds, Cera says "I don't wanna live with a bunch of threehorns, they're too bossy!" In other films, she is shown to be aggravated when her father, who is still somewhat of a segregationist, warns her against interaction with other species, as in The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving, when Daddy Topps tells her not to play with Littlefoot after he mistakenly believes the latter deliberately wasted water. She then says that he just doesn't want her to have fun, and hides away in the tall grass.

Screenshot of Cera, reflecting her more arrogant behaviour.

However, she still has maintained her dominant and egotistical behavior, as seen on multiple occasions, such as in the beginning of The Mysterious Island, when she says that the remaining treestar on one of the trees should go to her, professing that she is the oldest of the group (despite the fact that Ducky was shown to be born before Cera). Later in the film, when the herd of the Great Valley is migrating in search of a place with food, and Daddy Topps and Littlefoot's grandfather begin arguing over which direction to walk in, she gets angry and attacks Littlefoot when he says that her father was being impolite to his grandfather. More noticeably, in Journey through the Mists, she is upstanding to Ali after she shows fear towards Cera and the rest of Littlefoot's friends, believing her to be cowardly. She also grows jealous and offended after Littlefoot thanks Ali for getting help from the others when he had been trapped in the cave after the earthquake, but does not thank Cera for knocking down enough of the rocks blocking the entrance to one of the chambers, that he could get out. Also, in The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water, she is jealous of Mo for the attention and popularity he quickly receives from her friends, and deliberately insults him. Her dominance and impatience often times quarrel with Littlefoot; this is usually towards Littlefoot's actions and persistance which at most times is pointless, and mundane in her opinion; implicating that she stays to code with Threehorn's beliefs that everybody should survive on their own. This high strung ignorance is what normally causes conflicts with Littlefoot amongst their group, concerning on their own well-being and their worrying parents and who is in charge in the realms of their situations, and in some cases it has escalated to where both characters have gotten into physical confrontations this being seen in the first, second and fifth films. When confront with Littlefoot, Cera is often seen by the others as the word of reason and listen more to her when their adventures are ongoing and seem to have no end as the press onward; relatively though this is due to her being a Threehorn, being more equipped with a offense/defensive horn and her aggressive behavior.

Bravery

Cera tries her best to show no fear, and often professes that she can defend the others, as in The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island, when the children see the tracks of a predatory creature heading away from their direction, and she states that she'll fight it if it comes back. In the TV episode "The Spooky Nighttime Adventure", she denies being able to have sleep stories (dreams) in order to hide the fact that she has been having nightmares about the "Hidden Runner (character)". She has no problem bragging about her accomplishments in dangerous situations, even going so far as to fabricate entire portions of the story to improve her image. However, in the TV episode "The Amazing Threehorn Girl", she tries at first to be modest and truthful when everyone in the Great Valley believes that she gallantly dealt with the belly draggers who had been pursuing the children, and frightened them away. She only begins to act more like her normal self after the citizens pressure her to tell them the story of how she did it, many times over. Despite her usual self-proclaims, Cera typically runs away at the first sign of any real danger; an early instance of this being in the first The Land Before Time, when she encounters the Sharptooth in the big underground, and out of spite, headbutts him in and around the eye several times, but screams and runs away when this awakens him.

Cera has a fear of heights, as shown in The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island when she feels nervous about walking across the log Chomper showed them, and in The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock, when she is reluctant to hop on the pillars which originally stood in the canyon. She also has a fear of lightning, shown in the original film, when a thunderstorm breaks out shortly after her hatching, and she hides under her mother for protection; also, in The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure, she refuses to follow her friends into a cave until lightning flashes in the sky, and she runs screaming into the cave in terror. In The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island, she mentions in the song "Always There" that she possesses a fear of storms in general. It is also revealed in this film that she is violently prone to sea-sickness.

Skepticism

Cera is shown to be very skeptical on many occasions. In The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire, she mentions in the song "Beyond the Mysterious Beyond" that she only trusts what she can see with her eyes, and she continually expresses doubt that the "Stone of Cold Fire" really has any magical powers. In The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water, she assumes Littlefoot imagined Mo when Mo dives under water before she and the others see him. In the TV episode "The Meadow of Jumping Waters", she expresses disbelief in the existence of "water that jumps" (erupting geysers), until she finally sees the meadow. She also refuses, like the others, to believe that the red tickly treestars Spike ate have brought them bad luck. Also, in the episode "Through the Eyes of a Spiketail", she quickly doubts the existence of the hardwater sweets (frozen grapes), despite Littlefoot's reminders that Mr. Thicknose had said they are difficult to find.

In "The Bright Circle Celebration", Cera dismisses Petrie's explanation that the Bright Circle Celebration is done because the Bright Circle (sun) likes to be thanked for shining every day. Interestingly, it appears in this episode that Cera and her father believe that the sky is round and the earth is flat, similarly to the accepted theories of the Middle Ages.

Relationships

Family

Cera, trying to break free from her egg, while her mother and sisters look on.

Cera has siblings from several litters, the younger of which can be seen briefly in The Land Before Time. Her nestmates are apparently all sisters, as she states at one point in the first movie. Whether she has any brothers or not is unknown. Cera also has a nephew, Dana (voiced by Nancy Cartwright, who also voices Bart Simpson on The Simpsons and Chuckie Finster from Rugrats to All Grown Up!), and a niece, Dinah (voiced by Sandy Fox). As of The Land Before Time XII: The Great Day of the Flyers, Cera now has a half-sister named Tricia; the daughter of Cera's father, Daddy Topps, and her stepmother, Tria.

Cera's father, Daddy Topps, is seen in every film in the Land Before Time film series, except The Land Before Time IV: Journey through the Mists, but her real mother is only seen in background shots of the original Land Before Time. She may have died, broken up with Daddy Topps, been lost, or followed Pterano away from the herds (taking Cera's siblings with her). Cera's stepmother Tria first appears in The Land Before Time XI: Invasion of the Tinysauruses. Cera initially doesn't get along with Tria, although Tria tries to show her love and care, because she does not like sharing her father's attention. At one point, however, Tria finally confronts her on the matter; offering to become "Someone who will help your father worry about you", to Cera (which by coincidence, Cera had told Lizzie, a Tinysaurus girl, that she wanted, the night before). Cera accepts the offer after some thought, and by the end of the film, she and Tria begin to bond very well.

Friends

Other main characters

Cera seems to be closest friends with Littlefoot, although their friendship was off to a bad start. Cera is especially unkind to Littlefoot in the first film, partly because her family had raised her to be prejudiced towards those of other species, and partly because he had assumed leadership of the baby dinosaurs, and she was not used to following anyone other than her parents. She may also have disliked the fact that he was the least manipulated by whatever she said. When they all climb over a hill and find nothing but more deserted land beneath them, she grows unfaithful of Littlefoot's intuition, and when he protests that they are going in the direction his deceased mother had said to go in, she says she was stupid, and the two begin to fight. Despite this, at the end of the film, she returns to the gang, and made amends with them, after which Littlefoot finds the Great Valley with his mother's spiritual guidance. In later films, she and Littlefoot still argue frequently, and occasionally get into physical fights again, but remain friends, and make up for it later. In The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving she states that Littlefoot is her friend and will always be her friend.

As Cera is very straightforward in her beliefs, she often gets irritated by Littlefoot's openmindedness, and in turn, Littlefoot is frustrated by the inability to persuade Cera. An example is in The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire, when Cera, along with most of the residents of the Great Valley, openly expresses skepticism towards Littlefoot's sighting of the "Stone of Cold Fire", and Littlefoot yearns for a way to convince them. In The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water, when Littlefoot tries to introduce the others to Mo, but he has dived underwater in that time, Cera mocks Littlefoot; stating that he likely invented the creature. Another instance is in the TV episode "Through the Eyes of a Spiketail"; as the gang searches for the hardwater sweets (frozen grapes), Cera begins to doubt if such a thing exists, while Littlefoot remains confident that they are indeed real. This again leads them to argue multiple times, to the disappointment of the others. Despite this, Littlefoot and Cera still have a strong friendship with one another.

Cera, reflecting with annoyance on Spike during the sequence for the song "Family", in The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze

Cera appears to have developed a confidence with Ducky, as when Ducky is upset with her brother Spike in The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze, she asks her what the matter is, and helps her to realize she is mad at Spike. When Ducky asks her how to ventilate her anger, she willingly shows her what a Threehorn would do. Cera's entire opinion of Spike is unclear, but she does get irritated by his eating habits, and the problems they often cause, as in The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire, when the gang are crossing the vines along the canyon above a fast river, and Spike eats a flower he finds along the way. As he bites it, a chunk of the vine comes off, and the vine splits, sending them swinging into a cave in the side of the rocks below. She then angrily tells him not to do such a thing again. Cera notes with disdain upon Spike's eating when singing in the song "Family" from The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze, and in the television episode "The Canyon of Shiny Stones", when Cera wants to make up for losing Tria's shiny stone, and Petrie suggests bringing her tonnes of treesweets, she remarks that Spike will eat them all before they get to her. Spike nods, before realizing that it was a biting remark. Cera is shown to be annoyed by Spike's habit of going off-course on their adventures in the episode "Through the Eyes of a Spiketail". She also insulted his hygiene and intelligence in "The Meadow of Jumping Waters". When Spike gets covered in mud, and the others comment on his resulting odor, Cera says that he stinks "worse than usual", and when Littlefoot tells Spike that it was clever of him to use the stench to frighten off Red Claw and the fast biters, Cera mutters "There's a first time for everything". In "Stranger From the Mysterious Above", when Littlefoot and Petrie inform Cera, Chomper and Ruby that Spike is in trouble, Cera asks in a tired tone, "What did he do this time?"

At the same time, when Spike was nearly carried off by the current in the episode "The Star Day Celebration", and the vine the others used to pull him to safety snapped, Cera hastily fetched a long stick to perform the task with. Likewise, Spike has helped Cera on other occasions, as in The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island, when Cera is flung off the log by the swimming Sharptooth, and swims back, Spike and Littlefoot help her up again. Spike also assists Cera home when she injures her ankle in "The Great Log Running Game". The two have collaborated on tasks as well, such as in The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure, where Cera lures Papa Sharptooth over to Spike so he could push a rock onto his head. This happened while he and his wife were attacking the Great Valley in search of Chomper.

Cera, frowning up at Petrie as he perches on her head, during the song sequence of "Good Inside".

Cera and Petrie also have a rather uneasy friendship, which was further strained in The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire, because Cera was more distrusting of Petrie's uncle Pterano than the rest of the gang were, and also because she angrily questioned his honesty after he proclaimed that he was interested in the stone himself, rather than simply acting as a mole for his uncle. Nonetheless, she ran to his rescue when he was nearly crushed by a falling rock on top of Threehorn Peak, and in The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze, she is worried when Petrie again appears to be falling to his peril after ice forms on his wings while flying high up in the atmosphere. She then cheers when the ice melts in time for him to catch flight again.

Although Cera resented Chomper in the second film, because he had bitten her tail by instinct, and showed extreme wariness of him in the fifth film which was understandible, the two of them seem to have no qualm around each other in the television series, and in The Brave Longneck Scheme and The Lone Dinosaur Returns, she tries to help protect Chomper from Ali's herd and Doc. Likewise, in the opening teaser for "The Amazing Threehorn Girl", when Cera temporarily trips and falls, Chomper stays back to help her, until she assures him she's alright. However, whenever Chomper mentions that he is hungry, she hastily tells him to look away from her, as in "The Cave of Many Voices". She is also not against teasing him about his small arms in "The Missing Fast-Water Adventure", until he successfully reaches the rock blocking the fast water from flowing through a log (his arms were thin enough to reach it from a hole in the side), upon which she congratulates him.

The friendship between Cera and Ruby seems to be well-off, with little arguing or criticism between the two. In "The Star Day Celebration", when Ruby, after reflecting on her previous star days (birthdays), feels nostalgic and wanders off, Chomper goes after her to comfort her. Cera, understanding Ruby's mood, cautions him away from doing so; suggesting that he might make her feel even worse. On the other hand, in "Search for the Sky Color Stones", the two girls become very openly competitive with each other; with Cera calling herself "the best sky-color stone finder" and telling Ruby that she will find one first, all the while Ruby firmly states that she is sure she'll find one before Cera. At the end of the episode, however, when they notice that Ducky is acting in an extremely paranoid and aggressive way over her stash of stones, they realize they were behaving similarly towards each other, and make up.

Miscellaneous characters

Cera does not view Ali very highly at first, in the fourth film, and later is envious of her for receiving Littlefoot's gratitude for saving him, when she does not receive any for her part. After Ali saves Cera from the rapids in a river a little farther away from the cave, and from the Belly Dragger and Sharp Beak, Ichy and Dil, she befriends Ali. In "The Brave Longneck Scheme", she, along with Littlefoot, are most concerned about Ali being fooled by Rhett's made-up stories, and the two of them think up the plan of having Chomper act like a mean Sharptooth, in order to scare Rhett and prove to Ali that he is not really a "scarer of Sharpteeth".

Cera does not seem fond of Mo in the beginning of The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water. She openly criticizes his extremely playful attitude, and tells the others off for trusting him so easily, when he is from the Big Water. However, near the end of the film, when the Swimming Sharptooth attacks them for the final time, and Mo appears to sacrifice himself to save them, the five all mourn him. Cera then confesses that the only reason she didn't like him was because of the fact that the others had been obsessing over him; she wanted to receive some attention as well. Mo, however, openly likes Cera as well as the others, and when she panics over a crab (called a "Sand Creeper" by the characters) who grabs her horn in one scene, he hastily communicates to the animal, telling it to let go.

Cera gets along well with Shorty, Littlefoot's foster-brother, in The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration, after they meet. To her delight, Shorty is particularly impressed by Cera's ability to butt into various objects, without damaging her skull or getting a headache. However, in the television series episode, "The Big Longneck Test", Cera, along with the others, gets annoyed when Shorty brags to them about having already passed his test, and being such a skillful leader.

In The Land Before Time XI: Invasion of the Tinysauruses, Cera immediately bonds with Lizzie, as she has similar family-related problems to those Cera has at the time. They then sing a song about the difficulties worrying fathers can bring for young girls.

Character Development

Creation

A character sheet for Cera used in production of the movie.

Cera/Bambo with brow-horns.

Cera's newer appearance.

During the production of the movie The Land Before Time, the character of Cera started out as a male Triceratops named "Bambo". As the character was in mid-animation, George Lucas made the suggestion to change him to a female named "Cera". Cera was also originally designed with brow-horns on her head, and more armor on her back, similar to her father. It is likely she was designed this way when she was still Bambo.

Modifications

In The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure, Cera's design was slightly modified, possibly in order to make her look more mature and appealing. The shape of her head and face is now less rounded and more angular, although her body design remains true to the original film. It might also be noted that, as voice actress Candace Hutson was around six years older at the time The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure was released to video, than she had been when The Land Before Time hit the theatres, her voice had deepened. Coinciding with this, the character's voice was less nasally and more developed than it had originally been.

Voice acting

From the original movie until the fourth, Cera was voiced by Candace Hutson. Hutson was the only voice actor or actress from the original film to return for the sequels, and her departure after The Land Before Time IV: Journey through the Mists marked the last time a voice talent from the original film performed in the sequels.

Since The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island, the character has been voiced by Anndi McAfee, who also, incidentally, voiced Amber from Dink, the Little Dinosaur, an early '90's television series which was heavily modeled off of the original The Land Before Time.

Cera was voiced by Japanese singer Maaya Sakamoto in the Japanese dubs of The Land Before Time and The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure. After Sakamoto left, the character was voiced by singer Rica Matsumoto, who has voiced her from the third film to the present; Later, Matsumoto would also voice Ash Ketchum in Pokemon. Other foreign-language voice actors for the character include Hanna Alström (in the Swedish version of the original The Land Before Time), Sauvane Delanoë (in the French version of The Land Before Time), Paula Fonseca (in the Portuguese version of the TV series), and Satu Nurmi (in the Finish version of The Land Before Time).

Reception

Analysis

After the character's premiere in the original The Land Before Time, she was described by the critics as "bullheaded" and "too stubborn to admit she needs others" (Wendy Miller, Mohave Daily Miner), "a fiercely cute and rambunctious little dynamo" (Hal Hinson, Washington Post), and "cute and pugnacious" (Mark R. Leeper, rec.arts.movies.reviews). Ian Wojcik-Andrews, author of the 2000 book, Children's Films: History, Ideaology, Pedagogy, and Theory compared Cera's act of leading Ducky, Petrie and Spike away from Littlefoot after they began to despair of finding the Great Valley to the temptations which might pull followers of Christ away from the path to salvation, with Littlefoot being in the role of the saviour. He then comments on her inability to admit she was wrong, saying that she "has commited the ungodly sin of pride".

British journalist MJ Simpson wrote that he disliked the fact that the most commonly used video sleeve for The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze replaces Cera with the guest character Tippy, quoting, "This installment in the saga is much more about Duckie and Spike than Littlefoot and Cera, although Cera does get to sing a song and ultimately saves the day by yelling loud enough to cause a snowfall, so it’s a bit rotten that she has been cut from the most commonly used video sleeve. She needs a better agent."

Commendations

See also: List of Awards won by The Land Before Time

Cera's current voice actress, Anndi McAfee, together with Thomas Dekker as Littlefoot, Jeff Bennett as Petrie, Aria Noelle Curzon as Ducky, and songwriters Michele Brourman and Amanda McBroom, received a 2003 nomination for her performance as Cera while singing the song "Imaginary Friend", from The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water. The award ended up going to Jennifer Love Hewitt and Chris Canute for the song "I'm Gonna Love You", from Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame II.

Public dispute

Species confusion

Cera's species has been the subject of some dispute, although the confusion over what she is has not been as drastic as it has been for the character Ducky. Mainly due to the fact that the character only possesses a nasal horn, while Triceratops also had two horns on its forehead, some have suggested that the character is in fact a Monoclonius, a one-horned member of the ceratopsian order of dinosaurs, to which Triceratops also belongs. However, her father, Daddy Topps, has the correct amount of horns for a Triceratops, as did her mother in the original film, and official sources continue to state that she is a Triceratops. Furthermore, in The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends, during the song "Yellow Belly Bounce", one of the Yellow Bellies comments on her horn, and she states that she's going to develop two more. This is in fact consistent with modern palentological thought, based on the analysis of several juvenile Triceratops skulls, which indicate that baby Triceratops were born with pre-developed horns, and that only the nasal horn was developed in early childhood. The brow-horns would have developed more during the pubic stage.

Comparison of species

Life restoration of the dinosaur Triceratops; which Cera is consistently identified as in official material.

Life restoration of Monoclonius, a dinosaur Cera has been occasionally mistaken as.

Screenshot of The Land Before Time character Cera. Her single facial horn, sprouting from her nose, is what has primarily led to the confusion over her species.

Screenshot of Daddy Topps, Cera's father. Daddy Topps has all three of the facial horns a Triceratops is supposed to have.

Name Spelling

Although official material also consistently spells her name as "Cera", the spelling has been the center of much dispute, with some believing it to be spelt like the ancient Hebrew name "Sarah". The name was deliberately misspelled as "Sarah" in the Los Angeles Times review of The Land Before Time, by Shiela Benson, with Benson saying "It's spelled Cera, but Sarah it is to our ears".

Cultural Influence

Cera's logo on the official Land Before Time website, featuring the shortened version of her real-world nickname, "Strong-willed Cera".

Although arguably not as influential on culture as Littlefoot and Ducky, Cera has become quite a popular character among fans of the series. For her domineering behaviour covering a nicer personality, the official Land Before Time website refers to her as "Sweet but Strong-willed Cera"; she is also called this by fans. A shorter variation on the nickname is just "Strong-willed Cera".

Merchandise

To promote the original The Land Before Time, Sullivan-Bluth Studios tied with Pizza Hut, and issued hand puppets resembling Cera and the other characters. For a year, the characters were associated with the restaurant's children's menu and birthday parties. There have also been numerous plush dolls and action figures portraying the character. In 2001, Molly Goode, Judy Freudberg, and Tony Geiss wrote the book "The Land Before Time: Cera's Big Day Out". In 2007, Catherine Hapka wrote the book "Cera's Shiny Stone", based upon the television episode "The Canyon of Shiny Stones". The book was illustrated by Charles Grosvenor (who has directed the Land Before Time sequels since 1997).

Fanfiction

Not a lot of fanfictions use her personality to make her an antiologist. In fanfiction, Cera and Littlefoot sometimes fall in love with each other, despite Cera being a Triceratops and Littlefoot an Apatosaurus. This often comes into contrast with the more popular Littlefoot/Ali pairing. One fanfiction out there describes her past, her father's past, and her grandfather's past, and a bit more into her personality.  

Refereces in media

• Cera, together with Littlefoot, is referenced in the book, Pretend Play as Improvisation: Conversation in the Preschool Classroom, by Robert Keith Sawyer.
• Cera, Littlefoot, Littlefoot's Mother, and the first Sharptooth are all mentioned in another children's psychology book, Early Years Education: Major Themes in Education, by Rod Parker-Rees and Jenny Willan.
• Cera, Ducky, and Littlefoot are referenced in the 1993 book Children's Voices: Children Talk about Literacy, by Sally Hudson-Ross and Mara Casey.
• In an 2008 article focusing on Black History Month, on Listgasm.com, Cera is interestingly listed along with numerous well-known African-Americans.
• Cera and the other main characters were featured in the 1997 Easter Egg Roll at the White House.
• The original main characters (Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike) are altogether referenced in question 43 of "Test 6: Animation", in Test-Prep Your IQ with the Essentials of Film, in which the question concerns which character is not a dinosaur.
• They are referenced together again in the "Throwback Trivia" in The Good Book for Great Times by Connor Pritchard and Dominic Russo.
• In April 1995, costume actors dressed as The Land Before Time characters Cera and Littlefoot, together with members of the Atlanta Knights hockey team, visited the Egleston Children's hospital in Atlanta, and gave gifts to the patients, including video cassettes.
• In Universal's Islands of Adventure,there is an attraction called Triceratops encounter (http://jurassicpark.wikia.com/wiki/Triceratops_Encounter) and one of the three Triceratops is named Cera, a reference to this character.
• Cera also has a reference in the game [11]World of Warcraft and she can be found on the Isle of Thunder as a level 37 orange Triceratops with green eyes. She is a summonable boss which can be a pun to her bossy behaviour. (https://www.wowhead.com/npc=69396/cera)

Trivia

As Cera climbs onto a log acting as a bridge over a river, while singing in "Things Change", the whites of her eyes temporarily turn light blue. After a distant shot of the other characters joining her on the log, the eyes return to normal.

• Cera is five years old at the time of the first movie.
• Cera has appeared in all of the movies so far, and in all but one episode of the TV series's first season. The only story to-date in which she hasn't appeared is "The Great Egg Adventure", because she is at the mud pools with Ruby and Spike, instead of being off on the adventure with Littlefoot, Ducky, Petrie, Chomper and Hyp, Mutt and Nod.
• Plothole: Cera claims to be the oldest of the gang in The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island, even though Ducky was shown to be born first, in The Land Before Time. Further, Cera is the youngest among her nestmates, having been born last due to difficulty breaking her egg. It is unknown how she "knew" she was born first though, so it is possible she assumed it. This suggestion may hold some support as well when comparing Cera to her nestmates which shows them being somewhat larger than she is, this could also mean that Cera is among the only litter in nest to have hatched rendering her an only child much like Littlefoot.
• Although she has a tendency to grunt angrily when singing, Cera is viewed by many to have a surprisingly good singing voice, especially in the later films, in which she developed a slight vibrato in her singing voice. Her solo song "Things Change", from The Land Before Time XII: The Great Day of the Flyers, is considered her best song by many fans.
• The whites of Cera's eyes inexplicably change to light blue for a moment during the song "Things Change". Since this is only present for a single shot, it can be assumed it was an animation mistake.
• On the Land Before Time sequels' (1994-2000) VHS covers, Cera's eyes are colored blue instead of their usual deep green color.
• In the Italian dubs of the series, Cera is known as "Tricky".
  • Coincidentally, her name in the Italian dubs is the same name as a character from Star Fox Adventures.
• Cera is spelled C-E-R-A, referencing the name of her genus (Triceratops), not S-A-R-A-H, as in Sarah Silverman or S-A-R-A, as in the bread brand Sara Lee.
• Cera appears to get seasick easily, as she was seasick both when riding the log in the unsuccessful attempt to cross the Big Water and also when riding across on Elsie later, to which she says that she doesn't want to take any more rides on Elsie.
• In the first two movies, it appeared that Cera was afraid of lightning. However, as lightning has appeared in subsequent films and the TV series, she didn't freak out over it. It appears that she has gotten over that fear.
• It is implied much later in the first film that Cera might have felt responsible for the death of Littlefoot's mother. If she was too proud to admit going the wrong way the second time, she may have also been held back by a much greater guilt.
• It is implied in movies V and VI that Cera is afraid of heights.
• Her name is a pun on the common name "Sarah".
• Cera is mistaken a Ceratosaurus in Complete Idiot's Guide to Dinosaurs.

Gallery

Land Before Time Wiki has a collection of images and media related to Cera.

See also

• List of Cera-related quotes
• Cera's Siblings
• Daddy Topps
• Cera's Mother
• Tria
• Dinah & Dana
• Triceratops

External links

• Cera at the Internet Movie Database.
• Video clip of Cera's birth at Youtube.com
• Video clip of Cera's encounter with Sharptooth at Youtube.com

Main characters in The Land Before Time
Characters
Littlefoot | Cera | Ducky | Petrie | Spike | Chomper | Ruby
See Also
Main families