Sharptooth (character)

Sharptooth is the main antagonist of Universal's 1988 animated feature film The Land Before Time. He is a homicidal Tyrannosaurus rex that seeks to cause death and destruction, and seeks revenge on Littlefoot and the others for damaging his eye. He is also the archenemy of Littlefoot and his friends.

His true name is never revealed; the name given by the characters, 'Sharptooth', refers to the name of his species, and in production art, he is simply labelled "Tyrannosaurus Rex". Sharptooth was also referred to as "the Rex" in the 1987 draft of the film's script, and is referred to as "Rex" by Littlefoot in the same draft. Sharptooth has sometimes been referenced in media.

History[]

Sharptooth first appears when he approaches Littlefoot and Cera, who are playing together in a swamp. Sharptooth, who is probably hungry, chases them into a thicket of thorns. He plods through the thorns after them and leans down through the thorns to catch Littlefoot. The young Longneck tries to run but gets caught on a vine. As Sharptooth nears him, he escapes and the thorn-covered vines snap back at Sharptooth's face, injuring his right eye and causing him to bellow out in pain. Furious, Sharptooth stands up and resumes his pursuit of the two children, only for Littlefoot's Mother to intercept him. In the ensuing fight, Sharptooth is hit several times with her tail but eventually, succeeds in jumping onto the large Longneck's back and tears off some of her flesh. She manages to dislodge him and knock him back again, but as the herbivores attempt to escape, a massive earthquake strikes the area. Quickly recovering, Sharptooth charges in the direction of Littlefoot and Cera again, partially trying to dispose of the two youngsters and partly in an attempt to save his own life from the raging earthquake. In their panic, the children are flipped onto Sharptooth's foot, and at that moment the quake tears the ground beneath them apart, and Sharptooth slides down the slope with his would-be prey on his back. As the children yell for help, Littlefoot's mother comes to the rescue; she grabs the children and knocks Sharptooth off the edge, sending him falling into the chasm below. Littlefoot's mother dies later that night, probably due to severe infections from the wounds on her back inflicted by Sharptooth.

Later, after falling into the "Big Underground" herself, Cera finds Sharptooth's apparently dead body. Cera rams his head repeatedly until he suddenly awakes, having only been knocked out and was staring straight at her with his not completely damaged eye. The young dinosaur quickly flees in terror as the beast rises behind her. Shortly afterwards, she meets up with Littlefoot and his new friends; Ducky, a Bigmouth, and Petrie, a Flyer. Cera explains her encounter with Sharptooth, but exaggerates it, making it sound as if she bravely fought him. While Ducky and Petrie believe Cera immediately, Littlefoot is convinced that Sharptooth has been killed.

He holds this belief until, one morning, the fearsome beast himself ambushes the gang (by then including a Spiketail named Spike). The children barely manage to escape Sharptooth though a small hole in a rock wall, which he tries to squeeze through while snapping and clawing at the children, but, is too big to fit through and they escape.

The next day, a humiliated Cera has left them after they escaped a volcanic region she herself lead them into. Littlefoot, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike happen to see Sharptooth nearby while they are swimming in a deep lake. Tired of running and intent on avenging his mother, Littlefoot, guessing that Sharptooth can't swim, comes up with a plan to get rid of him for good. Baiting him with Ducky, they set their plan into motion. Sharptooth chases Ducky to the lake, while Petrie stands on a nearby ledge waiting to give a signal to Littlefoot and Spike, who are waiting to push a huge boulder off of a ledge onto Sharptooth. However, even after Sharptooth accidentally helps Petrie master his flight abilities, the plan is seemingly doomed to fail until Cera returns and helps push the boulder down onto Sharptooth.

In a final act of rage and desperation, Sharptooth takes Petrie down with him as he plunges into the lake sinking to the bottom which kills him, ending his terror and avenging Littlefoot's mother. After moments, the remaining children start to walk away, believing Petrie to be dead. However the Flyer manages to surface and fly back to his friends, and they all rejoice and then they go to The Great Valley. (Note: If you watch the scene where Sharptooth lands in the water in slow motion, you can see that Sharptooth had opened his mouth before the boulder crushed him. This could explain why Petrie was safe and wet.)

Sharptooth is mentioned in the Land Before Time book, Grandpa and Me. Littlefoot says that he'll someday scare Sharptooth away, but for now Grandpa protects him. This shows that this part of the book takes place before Littlefoot finds the Great Valley. It is quite an understatement, as Sharptooth would easily kill Grandpa if he was able to kill Mama Longneck.

Sharptooth is also mentioned briefly in The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration, when Bron mentions to Littlefoot that he met someone who told him what happened to Littlefoot's mother.

Personality[]

Little of Sharptooth's personality is seen in the film, but Sharptooth is just a normal and desperate predator looking for food during the course of the movie, as confirmed by Don Bluth in his Toon Talk Magazine. However, the novelization that was sold along with the original movie gives more insight on his actual thoughts. Sharptooth appears to be very persistent and indefatigable, given by the fact that he continues fighting Littlefoot's Mother despite the Earthshaker and his multiple wounds, and that he continues to pursue the main characters throughout the movie, even though they would be of little food to him.

According to the novelization, much of this persistence is derived from vengeance, as he takes pleasure in cornering Littlefoot and Cera after the former had accidentally blinded him in one eye with a thorn. It is evident that he will continue fighting even when it is obviously hopeless, snapping at the children even when his head is trapped in a small tunnel and they are far out of reach. He doesn't stop trying when he is in extreme danger, as he tries to crush Littlefoot and Cera while falling to his apparent doom in the Great Earthshake, and pulls Petrie down with him in his last moments, plummeting into a lake.

It is shown in the novelization that Sharptooth does not forget grudges he holds against others; it is explained that after he spots the main characters for the second time, he immediately recognizes them and makes a thunderous noise towards them in about of hatred. Even after they escape through the narrow pathway, he continues to claw and snap at them with rage. It is also said in the novelization that Sharptooth enjoys killing, as it is said that when he finds the entrance of the Great Valley, he sniffs the air with "evil joy", showing that he gets more out of killing than just food.

Power and Abilities[]

Sharptooth appears to possess a near (if not outright) supernatural level of strength, durability, and athleticism, even for a Tyrannosaurus, as shown by him crawling through sharp thorns after Littlefoot and Cera with hardly a scratch, withstanding multiple blows to the face from Littlefoot's Mother, slamming his head through solid rocks with no apparent ill effects, and surviving a long drop into the canyon opened up by the earthquake. He is also shown to be capable of massive leaps, even jumping straight up into the air onto a cliff at the film's climax, as well as apparently being able to see just fine despite having only one good eye.

Relationships[]

Sharptooth's relationships with the characters he has been shown to interact with have all been negative. He attempts to eat the protagonists and fatally wounds Littlefoot's Mother. His relationship with Littlefoot is particularly hostile, as he despises him for (although inadvertently) blinding his eye with a thorn. It is stated in the book that he wants revenge on the children for the trouble they've caused him.

Cultural Influence[]

Merchandise[]

Sharptooth has not gotten as much merchandise as other characters but has received a moderate amount compared to other one-movie characters. He is also the only known antagonist to receive merchandise. A hand-puppet of him was distributed at Pizza Huts along with the other main characters during the movie's theater release.

Music[]

The San Francisco-based punk rock band "Set Your Goals" released a song called "Sharptooth" on their first demo tape, claiming while the song's content doesn't touch on the character himself, they were big fans of the movie as kids.

Gallery[]

Sharptooth's defeat as he is now crushed by a large boulder and drowns.

Trivia[]

• He is often confused to be black, but he is actually dark green.
• A junior novelization of the original film reveals that vengeance for his damaged eye was Sharptooth's motivation.
  • Dried blood is shown around his damaged eye all throughout this book.
• Sharptooth is the first of his kind to appear in The Land Before Time media.
• Sharptooth appears in a 2000 Marshmallow Alpha-Bits commercial featuring The Land Before Time characters.
• He is similar in appearance to Papa Sharptooth, The Biggest, Meanest, Most Ferocious Sharptooth Ever & The Canyon Sharptooth.
• The Land Before Time book Grandpa and Me reveals that Littlefoot's encounter with Sharptooth in the film was not his first. The film also indicates that he is well known by the herds, as the characters call him "Sharptooth" instead of a Sharptooth. It also appears that Sharptooth is extremely feared by all the characters in the original film, even more so than Red Claw, as most of the characters (including Ducky and Petrie) generally react in horror when they hear his name. The Land Before Time: The Illustrated Story states that he is "the most ferocious and deadly creature in all the land".
  • A number of fans believe that this Sharptooth may in fact be Red Claw, or at least be related to him, though there is no conclusive evidence to support either theory.
• The scene where Sharptooth's eye is poked by the thorn was originally much more graphic; scenes from a chase scene, including one where the main characters are trapped underneath him, were also cut, due to the amount of gore that the test audiences were concerned about.
• He may have been based upon the Tyrannosaurus rex from The Rite of Spring of Walt Disney's 1940 animated feature film Fantasia, as both are non-talking animal "villains" that do not intend to kill for evil, just wanting to get something to eat.
  • Nevertheless, it is implied in some Land Before Time literature that Sharptooth actually enjoys killing for fun, and the fact that he is extremely persistent about killing Littlefoot and his friends suggest he is acting out of hatred towards the children rather than just predation (although it is also shown there are no other suitable prey around, which in turn implies Sharptooth was desperate with hunger and persistently chased the easiest prey around). The book canon is not to be confused with the film canon, however. Multiple fanfics tend to demonize him as well.
• The Tyrannosaurus that appears in Action Forms' hunting simulation video games Carnivores and Carnivores 2, as well as the mobile port developed by Tatem Games, has a behaviour somewhat reminiscent of Sharptooth. The T. rex in the games are very persistent, and will not stop chasing the player until it or the player is killed. The T. rex in the games also must be shot in the eye to be killed.
  • Similarly, there is a female T. rex in the 2008 Turok video game named Mama Scarface who shares several similarities with Sharptooth and even reuses most of his roars.
• Usually, so not to confuse this character with other Sharpteeth or Sharpteeth as a whole species, fans tend to refer to him as "the Original Sharptooth" or "The Sharptooth".
• The fight between Sharptooth and Littlefoot's Mother has been compared by many critics and fans to the fight between the Tyrannosaurus and the Stegosaurus from Fantasia.
• El Oloroso from What's New, Scooby-Doo? shares the head design, and textures.
• In the movie We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, Rex's natural prehistoric state is similar to Sharptooth. At this point in time, many cartoon versions of T. rex that extend outside The Land Before Time franchise were based off the Don Bluth's design and Rex was one in particular.
• Sharptooth was incoherently mentioned in TV series by Littlefoot when proving to Rhett on what most Sharpteeth aren't afraid of by "The ones we've seen aren't scared of Earthshakes, Flying Rocks or Smoking Mountains".
• In the Danish dub of DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon 2, Valka calls one of the dragons a "Sharptooth".
• He appears light brown in some scenes, like right before he sticks his head into the brambles while searching for Littlefoot and Cera.
• Sharptooth's previous design with armored plates on his back seen in storyboards is possibly influenced by some 80s depictions of Tyrannosaurus which portrayed the theropod as having a speculative coat of spiky osteoderms on its back. It also gives him a slight resemblance to the Vastatosaurus rex, a fictional descendant of T. rex depicted in Peter Jackson's 2005 remake of King Kong.
• Over time, Sharptooth's roars and vocalizations, provided by renowned voice actor Frank Welker, have become recurrent sound effects which are commonly reused for monsters and dinosaurs in most popular media.
• There is a theory that Sharptooth is Papa Sharptooth’s brother (due to looking alike), which would make him Chomper’s uncle.
• Sharptooth actually does have his own "theme". It can be heard when he is woken up by and goes after Cera, and later this theme recurs when he goes after the group again after finding them resting in one of his footprints. This theme is totally different from the one often associated with Sharpteeth in the sequels (that particular theme only played when Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike were lost in the Mountains that Burn, a scene, in fact, totally devoid of Sharpteeth of any kind.) 
• Sharptooth is similar to Indominus rex from Jurassic World.
  • Both are giant carnivorous theropod antagonists.
  • Both kills for sport.
    • Both try to kill childrens. (Sharptooth: Littlefoot and Cera, Indominus rex: Zach and Gray)
    • Both killed Apatosaurus. (Sharptooth: Littlefoot's mother, Indominus rex: Herd of Apatosaurus)
  • Both possess temper and strength.
  • Both have red eyes.
  • Both die from drowning.
• Some people have believed that Sharptooth wasn't a villain, although he is a villain because Don Bluth made the villainous predator of both versions in the film and novelization which he shown to be sentient predator who seeks revenge on Littlefoot and the others for damaging his eye. Most of the sharpteeth are sentient predators which they aren't normal animals at all.
• Sharptooth is seen with his eye shut before it gets hit by the thorn, even though it shouldn't be injured yet. This is most likely a mistake on the animators' part.
• An audio glitch occurs when Sharptooth's eye is put out by the thorn, as Cera's scream can be heard from him.
• Originally, Sharptooth was going to have more scenes throughout the film chasing after Littlefoot and his friends. The developers feared these scenes would be too scary for children, so these scenes were either trimmed or removed.
  • The scene where Sharptooth's eye is "poked out" was originally much more graphic, and scenes from a chase scene, including one where the main characters are trapped underneath him, were also cut.
• Occasionally, Sharptooth would open his damaged eye, like when Cera charged towards him after his fall into the chasm, and he managed to open it, and towards the climax, he opened it several times. This may be an animation mistake, or it may be that the swelling on his eyelid had eased, and thus, he could open it.