Spike (The Land Before Time)
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| The Land Before Time character | |
| Spike | |
|---|---|
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| Gender | Male |
| Color | Green |
| Colored eyes | Brown Magenta in original animation |
| Species | Stegosaurus |
| First appearance | The Land Before Time |
| Portrayer | Rob Paulsen (II-V, VII-present) Jeff Bennett (VI) |
Spike, the spike-tail (Stegosaurus)[1], is a friend of Littlefoot in The Land Before Time film series.
He is the "mute" of the group, in that he almost never speaks. However, as his foster sister, Ducky says in The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists he can indeed speak though only when he wants to. The only times that he has truly "spoken" in the series are when Ducky is almost eaten in the same film, and he shouts her name out while looking on: "Duh... duh... DUCKY!!!!!". The other was in The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze; when he shouted "Mama!" while drowning in the hot water. In The Land Before Time XI: Invasion of the Tinysauruses, he mutters to Petrie while telling Littlefoot that it's hard to tell why they're mad at him. It sounds like "Yeah. Uh-huh." Furthermore, in the Finnish version he speaks in the original film as well. He says a single word; exhausted from climbing but very clearly. He says "ruokaa", which means "food".
Spike has also articulated in other ways, such as Scat singing the tune to the bad luck song while the other young dinosaurs are singing in The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock. He also mimicked "Sharptooth speak" in The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island.
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[edit] Voice of Spike
In the original Land Before Time Spike is heard laughing after the gang saves Cera from attacking Pachycephalosaurus. It is unknown who actually provided his laugh; the voice actor was never credited. Spike was voiced by Rob Paulsen from the second film on, but he hardly said any dialogue at all. Also, Jeff Bennett, the voice of Petrie, replaced Rob Paulsen for the voice of Spike in The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock (according to the end credits). In the Land Before Time TV Series episode Through the Eyes of a Spiketail, Spike's thoughts are heard as English while he sees the other dinosaurs speaking in grunts, but he seems to understand the residents of the valley.
[edit] Character history and development
When Spike was an egg, he was separated from his real parents. He was adopted as a brother by Ducky, a young swimmer (Parasaurolophus) and readily accepted by her parents and siblings as part of the family. This is despite the fact that most dinosaurs tend to show prejudice towards others not part of their species. Spike has a big appetite, constantly eating plants that are in his sight (including the plants that surrounded the nest he hatched in). In The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island, when he and his friends first arrived at the Big Water, he actually swallowed some water that entered his mouth despite (for us) the fact that seawater tastes very salty. He drank salty water again (twice) in The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water.
In The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure, his design was modified; he no longer had any small spikes on his tail and had more developed ridges along his back. This is presumably to make him easier for the animators to draw, but, compared to Cera's modification, Spike's isn't as drastic.
[edit] Personality
For a long time, Spike's personality was completely unknown. Then, the TV series featured the episode Through the Eyes of a Spiketail, with the entire episode showing Spike's inner thoughts. He reveals that he is silent all of the time in order to hear the leaves 'sing', and comments that his friends never hear these songs because they are always so busy talking. He is quite observant, noticing the traits of everyone around him almost immeadiatly. He also dislikes excess arguing, which is another reason he prefers not to talk. However, in times of great importance or peril, he finds that his muteness can be a hinderance. He openly says that he would rather stay home and eat than go out on an adventure, but always follows his friends just the same. He often thinks of these adventures as dangerous, much in the same manner as Petrie, and can't understand why his friends are always doing such dangerous things. Despite this, he is shown to care deeply about his friends, pushing himself to go into dangerous situations to save their lives. The episode also reveals that Spike is just as intelligent as his friends in his thoughts.
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