Pterano

Pterano is a character and anti-hero in The Land Before Time film series. He first appears in The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire. 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. He is the brother of Petrie's Mother, the uncle of Petrie and his siblings and Rinkus and Sierra's former boss.

In the TV show, Pterano was mentioned a few times.

He is voiced by Michael York. There was a rumour that Pterano was going to appear again in The Land Before Time XII: The Great Day of the Flyers, however, he did not appear in that film.

The character has been well received by the fans and critics of the series that he became extremely popular among fans.

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 times in the TV series by Petrie; once in "The Meadow of Jumping Waters" when he said Pterano told him that whoever ate tickly 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 Land Before Time XII: 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, unintentionally blundered them into a sharptooth ambush that only he survived.

He is considered an anti-hero of the seventh film as he is not truly bad and does some good things.

Personality
Pterano is at first shown to be proud and cold, though less not cold unlike his comrades Rinkus and Sierra. His pride is seen to be a sort of superiority complex, 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 somewhat for his other 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.

Pterano has been received very well by the critics and reviewers of the series. 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.

Trivia

 * Where he met Rinkus and Sierra is unknown.
 * Though many including Littlefoot, Mr. Threehorn, Grandpa Longneck, and even his sister can see thorugh him, his nieces and nephews appear to idolize him, especially Petrie. He brings out the worst in Petrie, getting him to lie to his friends to try and help Pterano get information about the Stone of Cold Fire and also making excuses for Pterano's bad behavior and belittling his friends for not believing Ptearno.
 * Pterano is one of the few characters with a muscial suite. Other characters that have a musical suite are the Diggers and Hyp and his gang.
 * Despite being Rinkus and Sierra's boss, Pterano is an anti-hero as he does good things despite doing bad things whereas Rinkus and Sierra were always villainous and they never did anything good. In fact, Pterano reformed while Rinkus and Sierra didn't reform so that means Rinkus and Sierra are worse than Pterano.
 * In the tenth Land Before Time film, there was a pterosaur who resembles Pterano.

Quotes

 * Petrie (to Pterano): "I no understand why you do this!"
 * Rinkus: "None of your business 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