Pterano

Pterano
Info
Gender	Male
Status	Alive
Color	Brown and orange
Eye color	Baby blue
Species	Pteranodon
Food	Unknown
Voice actor	Michael York
First appearance	The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire
Last appearance	Unknown

Pterano, voiced by Michael York, is a character and anti-hero in The Land Before Time film series. He is a Pteranodon, called a "Flyer" in the films and TV series, and is Petrie's long lost uncle. He is related to Petrie on his mother's side, being her brother.

Role in the stories

In The Stone of Cold Fire

After reuniting with his sister in the Great Valley, he, along with his henchmen Rinkus (a Rhamphorhynchus) and Sierra (a Cearadactylus), began searching for the "Stone of Cold Fire ", a comet which he thought would grant him magic power. Because Ducky had been eavesdropping on their plans, and because they saw her as a useful object in their mission, they kidnapped her during the night, and carried her off into the Mysterious Beyond. Littlefoot and the others followed them, to save Ducky, while Pterano began to gradually realize the mistakes in his actions. He ultimately failed in his mission when it was found out that the stone did not really contain any magical powers, and wound up putting Petrie and the other children in danger. However, he ended up saving them at the end. Rewarding the rescue, Grandpa Longneck and the other adults exiled Pterano to the Mysterious Beyond for a (reduced) period of five cold times (winters/years). Pterano appears to have truly changed his ways, having accepted responsibility for his actions and hoping that he can make up for them once he is allowed to return to the herd.

Prominence

Pterano has not been seen since The Stone of Cold Fire. However, in The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration a lone Pterosaur somewhat resembling Pterano - albeit skinnier and with different colors - is seen when Littlefoot and his grandparents leave the valley. He has also been mentioned multiple in the TV series by Petrie; once in "The Meadow of Jumping Waters" when he said Pterano told him that whoever ate ticky red treestars would have bad luck, and another time in "The Spooky Nighttime Adventure" when Petrie tells a story about a sharptooth-eating flyer. Petrie tells Cera that Pterano was the one who told him the story in the first place. It was originally rumored that he was going to appear again in The Great Day of the Flyers, however, the idea was apparently dropped, if ever considered.

Character

While idolized by his nephews and nieces, namely Petrie, he is not trusted by his sister, nor by Littlefoot, Cera, Grandma and Grandpa Longneck, or Topps. The reason for such suspicion is seen in how, after the combined herds joined in search of the Great Valley, Pterano promised one faction an easy way to the Valley and, due to his incompetent leadership, blundered them into a sharptooth ambush that only he survived.

He is a sort of anti-hero of the seventh film as he is not truly bad and does some good but really cannot be considered good as his motives are usually less than noble.

Personality

Pterano is at first shown to be proud and cold, though less aggressive than his comrades Rinkus and Sierra. His pride is seen to be a sort of superiority complex, if not on a narcissistic personality disorder. However, he shows his softer and more mature side throughout the film as he scolds his companions for continuously acting violently toward the young dinos; feeling remorse when he believed Ducky had fallen through a hole to her death; taking responsibility for the action instead of blaming his henchmen; ordering the sidekicks to leave the young ones alone after Sierra had recaptured Ducky; refusing Sierra's idea to feed the children to the Sharpteeth once the trio had "taken over"; and at the end he personally gets the chance to redeem himself by saving Ducky from a fatal fall off the mountaintop. He is showed, although he often manipulates him, really caring for his nephew Petrie and somehow his others friends. At the end of the movie, he appears to have completely reformed as he says goodbye to Petrie and tells him he will miss him.

Pterano is also shown to be charismatic when he manages to lead a faction of the herd away from the main group and follow his leadership. Even though this faction was wiped out by Sharpteeth, it does nonetheless show Pterano's ability to persuade others to his way of thinking.

Reception

Michael York received a Video Premiere Award nomination for Best Animated Character Performance in 2001, for voicing Pterano. The nomination was shared with supervising animator Zeon Davush.

The character has become extremely popular among fans, featuring prominently in fanworks and cited by many fans as their favourite character outside of the five main characters, or their favorite new character. Many fans claim that his voice-actor is what makes him such an appealing character, being one of the few new characters to be voiced by an actor other than a voice-actor. His voice-acting has even been compared to that of Tim Curry, due to their similar overacting and English accents.

Many fanworks depict him returning to the Great Valley, either as a good character, or as a bad character. Among the fanfictions where he is a good character, he is also presented as having a (very) long-lost daughter and a mate that he believed to be dead.

Pterano is also a recurring character in the parody videos of the YouTube user JitteryDragon, where he actually gets huge powers from the Stone of Cold Fire and turns into a god-like creature called "God Pterano".

Trivia

• Pterano is very similar to Ripslinger from Disney's Planes because they both have henchmen: Pterano has Rinkus and Sierra while Ripslinger has Ned and Zed. And they both have the same: Pterano has claimed Littlefoot (Dusty) has seen a magic stone of cold fire and wanted to rule the heard while Ripslinger tries to get rid of Dusty during the Wings Around The Globe Rally.

Gallery

Pterano with his sister

Quotes

Petrie (to Pterano): "I no understand why you do this!"

Rinkus: "None of your buisness you little gnat, now buzz off!" (Rinkus knocks Petrie out of the sky) "He he he-" (Pterano whaps him)

Pterano: "If there's one thing I will not tolerate, it's violence!"

Rinkus: "Then why are you hitting me?"

Pterano: "Right, make that two things. Violence, and stupid questions." (Whaps Rinkus again)

—Pterano reprimanding Rinkus for hitting his nephew