Littlefoot's Mother

From Land Before Time Wiki

The Land Before Time character
Littlefoot's Mother (name unknown)
Gender:	Female
Color	Brown/Dark Blue
Eye Color	Brown
Species	Apatosaurus
Favorite Food	Unknown
Debut:	The Land Before Time
Finish	The Land Before Time (deceased)
Voiced by:	Helen Shaver

Littlefoot's Mother (a.k.a. Mama Longneck, as she is referred to as by fans,^[1]), voiced by Helen Shaver, was a fictional character in The Land Before Time film series. She was an Apatosaurus; one of many sauropods referred to as "Longneck" in the franchise, and the mother of the main protagonist Littlefoot, the wife of his father Bron, and the daughter of Grandma and Grandpa Longneck. She, like her parents but unlike most of the dinosaurs in the first Land Before Time movie, was not bigoted towards other species, although she would generally avoid those of other species because things had been done that way for a long time.

She played a major role only in the original film, during which she was killed by the original Sharptooth (the scene for which the character is most famous), but she is referenced several times in later films.

Contents 1 Character 1.1 Personality 1.2 Family 1.3 Death 2 Prominence 3 Production 4 Reception 5 References in Media 6 References 7 External links

Character

Personality

She was one of the wisest and most enlightened of all the dinosaurs (Although not quite to the extent of her son); however she tended to accept the fact that a lot of the dinosaur herds tended to be segregated. Even she did not understand why this was so; all she could tell her son was that "it's always been that way." When the only other child around at that time - Cera - was not allowed to play with Littlefoot because he is a longneck and Cera a threehorn, Littlefoot's mother comforted him by telling him that in the Great Valley "there will be many, many longnecks for you to play with". However, the fact that she saved both Littlefoot and Cera from Sharptooth shows that she was willing to abandon racial taboos. Like Littlefoot, she has brown twinkling eyes.

At the time of her son's birth, the land was suffering geologic and ecologic upheavals that included drought, flooding, famine, predation, and earthquakes. Determined not to let her son not grow up in such an environment, she led her herd in search of the Great Valley. She described it to her son as "a wonderful, beautiful place" with green food, "more than you could ever eat, and fresh, cool water, more than you could ever drink." She had no proof that the Great Valley even existed, but was guided by her belief that "some things you see with your eyes, while others you see with your heart".

Family

Littlefoot was the only son of Mama Longneck. As shown in the beginning of the movie, she had laid several eggs, but all except the one Littlefoot hatched from were broken. She was shown to be a very loving mother to her only son. When Littlefoot's egg was snatched by an Egg Stealer, Littlefoot's Mother attacked the egg stealer, causing him to drop the egg into the river. When the egg rolled down onto dry land, and hatched, she and Grandma and Grandpa Longneck came down to where it had landed. Mama Longneck then licked her son clean, and when he showed fear of several small creatures who were congratulating his family, she lifted him up and put him on her back.

When Littlefoot grew older, she told him all she had heard about the Great Valley, and how she planned to take him there, as it would be safe from predators and abundant in food and water. She also warned Littlefoot, after Cera's father told Littlefoot to stay away from his daughter, that the species tended to be segregated.

Her husband was Bron, a brown-colored longneck who first appears in the tenth film. The two loved each other very much, and Mama Longneck named their son after Bron's childhood nickname. Littlefoot's mother was likely the daughter of Grandpa and Grandma Longneck, as Bron refers to Grandpa Longneck as "Papa Longneck" instead of "father". She also had the same under markings as her suggested father.

Death

The original Sharptooth fighting Littlefoot's mother.

Littlefoot's Mother, in spirit form, speaking to her son.

The canonical, Bambi-like death of the parent occurred when, late one night near dawn, she died protecting Littlefoot and Cera from Sharptooth. She put up a tremendous fight and cast him into the "big underground," the bottom of a Grand Canyon-like gorge that had just been torn open by a tremendous earthquake. However, Sharptooth was not dead, and even this fleeting victory cost Littlefoot's mother her life, as Sharptooth had bit a large chunk of flesh out of her back and gashed her neck in their fight (implying that she may have died from blood loss). With her last breath, she told her son to search for the Great Valley and that she would be with him. Later, her ghost would appear to her son in times of need and aid him in the quest for the Great Valley. Her last appearance was at the end of the first film when Littlefoot despaired of ever finding the Great Valley; she took to the form of a longnecked cloud to guide him into the Great Valley, whereupon a beam of light came from her heart. The light shone on Littlefoot and spread to illuminate the Great Valley below. She hasn't appeared to him again since.

Prominence

Littlefoot's mother (blue) with Bron; seen in a flashback in The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration.

Littlefoot's mother, in front, with Grandma and Grandpa Longneck in the background; from The Land Before Time.

Though long since dead, she is periodically mentioned through the film series and may have made an appearance in The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island. Littlefoot remembers his mother and looks at a star shining brighter than the others. Littlefoot also wished his mother had given him a brother in The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water. She also made an appearance in a flashback in The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration. In this film, she is seen blue-ish, and looks more like Grandma and Grandpa, though in the first movie The Land Before Time, she is seen brown like Bron. During Grandpa's flashback in "The Legend of the Story Speaker", a young longneck is shown playfully sliding down his tail into the water, from a distant shot, while Grandma Longneck looks on. This may be the only instance in which Littlefoot's Mother is shown as a child. If so, the scene also implies that she had at least one sibling, as another young longneck of similar color was in the pool of water.

Production

Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were worried that some of the scenes in the original movie, especially the fight sequence between Littlefoot's Mother and the Sharptooth, and her resulting death, would be too frightening or even psychologically-damaging to young children. Her death was originally going to be one of the scenes that were cut from the original footage, until it was realized that this would bring problems in explaining why Littlefoot would have to venture on his own to the Great Valley. The producers decided to call in several psychologists to examine the scenes, and give their feedback. It was then decided that the scene would stay, but that the character of Rooter would be added in a later scene to soften the emotional blow of Littlefoot's Mother's death.^[2]

Reception

The critics and reviewers of The Land Before Time were quick to notice the resemblance between the concepts of Littlefoot's Mother's death, and that of the main character's mother in the Disney movie Bambi,^[3][4][5] although Washington Post staff writer Hal Hinson remarked with some disdain upon the way a character was used, in this instance, "to address the issue in an instructive manner".^[6] Steve Rhodes, on Internet Movie Database, wrote that he thought the character's death, as well as the other perilous sequences surrounding the scene, was treated gingerly, and with respect for children.^[7] In his review, Roger Ebert mistook both of Littlefoot's parents to die in the film,^[8] although Bron, Littlefoot's father, made no appearance until The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration.

References in Media

• Littlefoot's Mother's death is referenced in the 233rd issue of the webcomic xkcd.^[9]
• Her death is also referenced on page 180 of Journey with Jesus Iv' 2004 Ed., by Honrada, Et Al.^[10]
• Littlefoot's Mother, Littlefoot, Cera, and the Sharptooth are referenced together in Early Years Education: Major Themes in Education, a book on social behaviour with young children, by Rod Parker-Rees and Jenny Willan.^[11]
• Littlefoot's mother, together with her son, are referenced in Ray Pons' Finding My Way: And How You Can Find Yours, on page 36.^[12]

References

External links

• Littlefoot's Mother at the Internet Movie Database
• Baby Littlefoot with mother on YouTube.com
• Littlefoot's Mother's Death on YouTube.com

Main family members in The Land Before Time
Characters
Grandma and Grandpa Longneck | Ali | Bron | Littlefoot's Mother | Shorty | Old One | Daddy Topps | Dinah & Dana | Tria | Cera's Siblings | Tricia | Mama Swimmer | Papa Swimmer | Ducky and Spike's Siblings | Mama Flyer | Petrie's Siblings | Pterano | Chomper's Parents | Ruby's Parents | Ruby's Siblings |
See Also
Main characters