Littlefoot



Littlefoot is the main protagonist in The Land Before Time. Littlefoot is a young brown (Movie boxes) and lavender (Movies and TV Shows) Apatosaurus which 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 his is not always necessarily the largest role.

He is followed by Cera the Triceratops, Ducky the Saurolophus, Petrie the Pteranodon, Spike the Stegosaurus, Chomper the Tyrannosaurus, Ruby the Oviraptor, and Guido the Microraptor. Due to his skill at befriending others, he is also friends with many other creatures, although his friendships with dinosaurs and other animals outside his species is often viewed as a taboo, as many of the dinosaurs practice racial, or species based, segregation, which is based upon the days of racism in America.

The character has been received very well by critics and become a favorite among Land Before Time fans, and has been featured in much of The Land Before Time-related merchandise, along with being referenced frequently in the media.

Personality
The leader and "heart" of the group, Littlefoot is a curious, bright and sensitive longneck. He has a positive attitude, and encourages the rest of the group to work together.Littlefoot is a modest, intelligent, playful longneck who, despite his traumatic upbringing, believes that friendship goes beyond species boundaries. He is good at making friends, but his clique is with his seven best friends, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, Spike, Chomper, Ruby, and Guido who are collectively call the Prehistoric Pals by fans. Although these are his closest friends, all living in the great valley together, he has friends in many other places, including Ali, Mo, Doc, and many others. He, along with his friends, go on many adventures together. Littlefoot tends to be ethical, mature, caring, and protective of all of his friends, believing that there is good in everyone. He is very caring of his friends, and acts as both their leader and the voice of guidance among them. In the TV series, Littlefoot is most often seen singing Adventuring, showing his love of going on adventures with his friends.

Role in the Series
In the original movie, the viewers are introduced to Littlefoot, his mother, and his grandparents. His father is not yet seen. His mother was devoted to her only son, and defended him at all costs. She even gives up her life fighting against the sharptooth in order to save Littlefoot and his then acquaintance; later friend, Cera. After her death, her spirit still stays by him, and her voice is often heard overhead, telling him to carry on; she would always be with him. When he finally decides near the end of the movie that he can't go on any further, she takes on cloud form and blows towards the other side of a rocky tunnel. When he reaches the opposite opening, he finds the Great Valley just below him. He is then reunited with his grandparents. Littlefoot finds treestars, his favorite food, symbolic with his mother, as a treestar was the last gift she gave him before she died. Littlefoot's grandparents are seen in all the films, and in the television series. Littlefoot has a strong bond with his grandfather, and generally looks up to him as an idol. Littlefoot's father, Bron, was finally seen in the tenth movie, and from that point the main plot focuses on Littlefoot adapting to the fact that he has finally met his father. Bron comments in this film that he was called "Littlefoot" as a nickname when he was young. Littlefoot states in the ninth film that he wishes he had a brother. In fact, he likely might have had one, or several siblings, as in the original film it is seen that there were several eggs in the longneck's nest. However, all of them except the one which contained Littlefoot were broken. Later in the ninth movie, he and his new friend Mo, the Opthalmosaurus, make a "mud-brothers" pact. In the tenth movie, along with Bron, a young Brachiosaurus named Shorty is introduced. Although he bullies Littlefoot out of jealousy, as Littlefoot now has all of Bron's attention, Littlefoot tries to be his friend, and even suggests that they pretend to be brothers. At the end of the film, Littlefoot asks Bron to adopt Shorty, which he does. In The Land Before Time IV: Journey through the Mists, it is revealed that Littlefoot has cousins, who are implied to be related to Grandma Longneck; a migrating herd of Longnecks led by an elderly matriarch called the "Old One". Among the longneck herd is a young female named Ali, whom Littlefoot quickly befriends. In a lot of fanwork, Littlefoot and Ali fall in love with each other, and if the story focuses on their adult years, they often get married. Some fans argue this theme promotes incest, as they are cousins (although not first cousins). His closest friends are Cera, Ducky, Petrie, Spike, Chomper and Ruby. Due to his aforementioned skill at befriending others, he is also friends with many other creatures. His friendships with dinosaurs and other animals outside his species is often viewed as a taboo, as many of the dinosaurs practice racial, or species based, segregation, which was based upon the days of racism in America. A notable reference to this period is the concept of Threehorns never play with Longnecks, which is based on an American motto which in today's decade is considered racist: Coloreds never played with white folk.Although Littlefoot and Cera are best friends, they are opposites in many ways, and the two fight constantly. This, on rare occasions, sometimes even leads to physical confrontations, the most famous being when Littlefoot fought Cera in the first movie for insulting his mother. Some fans have written fanfictions in which Littlefoot and Cera get into a relationship, which often evolves into a conflict with his relationship with Ali.[3][4] Littlefoot has no problems with being Chomper's friend, and was even the first to realize he wasn't scary, and needed to be looked after in The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure, even though Chomper is the same type of Sharptooth as the one that killed Littlefoot's Mother. In fact, Littlefoot has an almost brotherly bond with Chomper, and supports him in nearly everything he does. Littlefoot looks up to Doc, a lone Longneck with infamous Sharptooth-fighting abilities. When Littlefoot hears Doc's opinon on him being friends with Chomper in the episode The Lone Dinosaur Returns, his admiration in him is considerably shaken. However, his respect in Doc is restored at the end of the episode when Doc apologises to Chomper.

Character Development
Littlefoot was originally going to be called "Thunderfoot", until it was found out that there was a Triceratops in a children's book who already had that name.The character has, like Cera, Spike, Ducky and Petrie, undergone a design-modification since the original film, but unlike the characters Cera and Spike, his change is not as obvious. Littlefoot is now drawn a few shades lighter, similarly to Ducky and Petrie.

Voices
Littlefoot was voiced by Gabriel Damon in the original The Land Before Time, from 1988. From 1994 to 1996, in the films The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure, The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving, and The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists, he was voiced by Scott McAfee, the brother of Anndi McAfee, who has voiced main character Cera from The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island (1997) to present. For that same film, Littlefoot was voiced by Brandon LaCroix.From 1998 to 2002, in the films 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, and The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water, the character was voiced by Thomas Dekker. Dekker won a Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Voice-Over Role in 2003, in this role. Two years earlier, he was nominated for a Video Premiere Award, for Best Animated Character Performance, again for Littlefoot. The nomination was shared with supervising animator Zeon Davush. After Dekker's last performance as Littlefoot, the character was voiced by Alec Medlock in The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration (2003), Aaron Spann in The Land Before Time XI: Invasion of the Tinysauruses (2005), and Nick Price in The Land Before Time XII: The Great Day of the Flyers (2006). Littlefoot's current voice actor is Cody Arens, who voiced him in the television series and in The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends (2007). In the Japanese-language dubbing of the first through to the twelfth film, Littlefoot is voiced by Minami Takayama. In the Japanese version of the television series, he is voiced by Etsuko Kozakura.

Trivia

 * Character animation supervised by John Pomeroy.
 * His nickname out of the series is "Lovable Littlefoot".
 * Littlefoot was incorrectly called a Brachiosaurus on the original video cover for the first film. He was also called a Brachiosaurus at Rotten Tomatoes.com and at Movies.com.
 * As Littlefoot is shown to hatch right after Cera, he is five years old at the time of the first movie.
 * Littlefoot's personality was possibly a reference from Walt Disney's The Brave Little Toaster movie (which was released before The Land Before Time), as both protraying the main characters. Littlefoot and Toaster are quite similar including leading their pals out of danger and having a sense of Adventure.