The Land Before Time character
Rhett
Gender:	Male
Color:	Brown
Eye Color:	Green
Species:	Apatosaurus
Favorite Food:	Unknown
Debut:	"The Brave Longneck Scheme"
Finish:	Ongoing
Voiced by:	Elizabeth Daily

Rhett, voiced by Elizabeth Daily, is character who is introduced in the Land Before Time television series episode, "The Brave Longneck Scheme". He is an Apatosaurus, which is known as a "Longneck" by the characters in the series. He is Ali's friend, who met her when their two herds joined up.

CharacterEdit

Role in the storiesEdit

At first, Rhett boasts about himself and tells Ali truthless stories about him protecting his herd from Sharpteeth and convincing her that they are real, saying he did things such as build a mountain of rocks with his tail, and knock down trees so that Sharpteeth couldn't get by. Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Spike, Petrie, Chomper and Ruby decide to plan a scheme to convince Ali that Rhett has been making up all of his stories. Their plan is to have Chomper act as a mean Sharptooth, pretend to be his prey, and ask Rhett to save them. The plan works and Rhett runs away to his herd, showing Ali that he isn't as brave as she thought. After he tells the adults in the herd, they became convinced that Chomper is vicious and gave him chase. The Longnecks corner Chomper, but the gang soon come to his rescue. When the Old One hears from the children that Rhett had been making up stories about Sharpteeth fearing him, and fooling Ali into believing him, she sternly tells him that it isn't good to tell lies, but also warns the other children that a Sharptooth attack is no laughing matter. After that, he apologizes, and befriends the gang.

RelationshipsEdit

Rhett is a good friend of Ali, who appears to be the only other young Longneck in their herd. It is evident that he wants to impress Ali, as with his made-up stories and wanting to play "rescue" with her often. He is somewhat controlling of her, putting her into a situation where she has to choose between playing with him or her other friends, and ignoring her when she wants to play something else. Ali is close enough to Rhett that she gets mad at Littlefoot when he accuses Rhett of making up his stories, saying that Littlefoot is just jealous that he can't knock down trees with his tail. He is genuinely upset when the Old One hears of the stories he had been telling Ali, and only admits to telling them when Ali tells him that it's okay, hinting that he was worried about losing their friendship.

Rhett's relationship with Littlefoot gets off to a bad start when Littlefoot mentions that he doesn't think it's very brave to not play with kids you don't know (referring to Rhett). It is further strained when Littlefoot doesn't believe the stories Rhett is telling. He acts as a sort of rival to Littlefoot, and is visibly smug when Ali sides with him over the latter. Littlefoot is severely annoyed by Rhett's antics, to the extent where he even surprises his friends with his anger. However, after the downhearted Rhett begins to walk away after being scolded by the Old One, Littlefoot sympathizes with him and invites him to play, from where their relationship starts to improve.

Cultural InfluenceEdit

References to MediaEdit

Rhett shares a number of similarities to the character from Bambi II, Ronno, such as being a rival to the protagonist (Littlefoot/Bambi), and making up stories of their bravery to impress a female friend of the protagonist (Ali/Faline), while being a coward in reality. Other similarities include him being a darker shade of brown than Littlefoot (as Ronno is to Bambi) and having green eyes. One of the storyboard artists of "The Brave Longneck Scheme", Robert Sledge, was also a storyboard artist for Bambi II,^[1] which may have inspired this.

ReferencesEdit