Ozzy and Strut, voiced by Jeff Bennett and Rob Paulsen, are villains in The Land Before Time film series. They are the main antagonists of The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure. They are Struthiomimus brothers, as verified in a line of the song "Eggs". Ozzy is the primary antagonist and Strut is the secondary antagonist of the two.
Personalities[]
Ozzy is the dominant and usually the brain of the duo. He is usually the one who makes plans and also the most cruel of the two brothers and shows a real obsession about eggs, according to the song Eggs. He dominates even his brother Strut and generally abuses him, often by whacking him with his tail, or blames him when something is wrong about their plans. He's showed caring very little for his younger sibling and generally when a situation is dangerous, he is often the one to run away in crying "Me first". However, he could deep down care for him as he want to take him away from his soft spot for plants.
Ozzy, much like Sierra, appears to be a psychopath. He seems to be cruel to everyone around him, including his own brother. He wants to harm Littlefoot and his friends over an egg. He later tries to give the kids lava baths after being foiled of getting eggs a second time. Later, he shoves Strut out of the way when lava is coming and runs across the log first, yelling "I'm first. I'm first. I'm always first." Ultimately, he tries to murder Littlefoot by throwing him off the Great Wall, a move that was thankfully foiled by Chomper. In addition, despite Strut saying he is very hungry, he continually knocks the green out of Strut's hands when he tries to eat it, demanding that Strut eat eggs like him.
Unlike his brother, Strut is the dominee of the duo and usually Ozzy treats him like his slave. He doesn't make an obsession about eggs like Ozzy but likes plants, much to Ozzy's irritation. He is afraid of his brother, and makes everything Ozzy wants and it's unknown if he cares for him or not. Strut actually is less antagonistic toward Littlefoot and the others, as he tries at first to get Ozzy to back off, reminding him that it was just an egg. However, as the movie progresses, he becomes more aiding to Ozzy, culminating with him proposing to kill Littlefoot near the ending of the film and his attempt to strangle Chomper, a move which led to him and Ozzy being chased by Chomper's angry parents.
History[]
They entered the Great Valley in hopes of stealing eggs, although the more relaxed Strut was willing to eat plants, much to Ozzy's fury. It was because of this duo's failed attempt at stealing an egg from Ducky's nest, that the five protagonists found Chomper's egg in "The Mysterious Beyond," mistaking it for Ducky's unhatched sibling. Ozzy and Strut were bumbling villains who were vengeful of Littlefoot and the gang because if it weren't for them, Ducky's little brother or sister would have been dinner. Ozzy thought that the egg that contained Chomper was the egg that they attempted to steal, and thus when Cera told him that the egg hatched, he was even more vengeful towards Littlefoot and the gang.
The two characters seem to have a knack for getting into trouble. Ozzy first tried to get an egg from a mother Pteranodon's nest, only to have that egg replaced as a rock when he got hit by the gang, and him biting into it. Later, after they unsuccessfully took one of Ducky's unhatched siblings, they were un-fatally crushed under a mountain of rocks. In the middle of the film, they jump off a cliff when they were mistaken to Chomper's shadow and they thought it was a Sharptooth coming for them. Ozzy and Strut were later chased off on the ridge of the mountain when they were about to steal eggs from a mother Pteranodon. While chasing Littlefoot and his friends across a tree-bridge during an eruption by the Smoking Mountain, Ozzy attempts to cross but the lava sets the tree on fire and he falls. Strut jumps off after him. Near the end of the film, they are shown to have survived their fall and go after Littlefoot and Chomper, but discovered dinosaur rule number 1: even hunters get hunted, when they were chased out of the Great Valley and into the Mysterious Beyond by Chomper's angry parents, after they saw the duo strangling Chomper. Whether or not they were eaten remains unknown and neither of them have been seen since.
Other Possible Appearances[]
Their first appearance was in The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure. However, that was not the first appearance of a Struthiomimus, or Egg Stealers/claw-hands as they are called. The first was in the original The Land Before Time where one tried to steal an egg that contained one of the main protagonists, Littlefoot. Also, during the first film's end credits, a Struthiomimus, or egg stealer is shown creeping into the Valley (which lightens the sequel's plot) and one appears in The Great Earthshake running with some Parasaurolophus. This may or may not be Ozzy or Strut; so too might one of the panicked Struthiomimus who are seen leaping past Cera and into the river in The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists. Also in the fourth film, when the Old One tells the story about her herd happening to leave the Land of Mists two Struthiomimus are seen running across the water that look exactly like Ozzy and Strut, which could possibly be them. Though this is highly unlikely since the Struthiomimus resembled more of Ozzy than Strut in appearance by with the majority of their color scheme.
Egg Stealers do not appear in The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire, but Cera does say "It smells like egg stealer breath" at one point during the film.
Egg Stealers do not appear and are not mentioned in any future films.
Trivia[]
- On the back of the movie case and in the scene selection, Ozzy's name is spelled "Ozzie". However, in the subtitles and storyboard for the movie, his name is spelled "Ozzy".
- They were the first two antagonists who are defeated by a Sharptooth, the third was Ichy when he was swatted by Dil, and the fourth was her when she was chased by the Swimming Sharptooth. And finally, the fifth was (most likely) the Plated Sharptooth.
- Strut is voiced by Rob Paulsen, who uses the same voice and accent for the character of Pinky from Amblin's WB show Animaniacs and it's spinoff Pinky and the Brain, Steven Spielberg who worked on the first film was a big part of the shows too.
- Ozzy is voiced by Jeff Bennett, who uses the same voice dialogue for many of his role characters most notably particular is Kowalski from Nickelodeon's Penguins of Madagascar.
- The way Ozzy has a suggestive addiction to eggs is possibly a subtle spoof of drug addiction.
- Ozzy is the first and only dinosaur in The Land Before Time series to mention and know what dinosaur species he is.
- Littlefoot indirectly mentions Ozzy and Strut in The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island when talking about Chomper ("This is Chomper, remember? We saved him from "egg eaters".)
- Ozzy may be prejudiced against Leaf Eaters. He never refers to them in a positive way, but always calls those who eat green (including his own brother Strut) names like "Grass snippers", "Weed wackers", "rotten little sprout crunchers", "Leaf-loving, Bush-burping, Stem-smelling, Garden-gorging, Plant-popping, Tree-tasting, Dirt-devouring beast!", "Sap sucker", etc. This most likely stems from his dislike of eating plants.
- They are the first proper villains to appear in the franchise.
- The name "Ozzy" may actually come from the name Henry Fairfield Osborn, the man who coined the genus name Struthiomimus.
- The first time this was ever considered was in 2017.
- The name "Ozzy" might also come from the character's genus name Struthiomimus meaning "Ostrich mimic" and may act out as an allusion to the definition of the name.
- "Ozzy" may also be of reference to lead singer of Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne.
- This conclusion is very plausible, as Osbourne's energetic personality and long sought dreams can be seen in Ozzy's character.
- Likewise, Strut's name is in reference to his genus name, Struthiomimus.
- Similarly to Ozzy, Strut's characterization seems to be based off of Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath.
- In Osbourne's life he is filled with indecision, which can be seen between the two egg-stealing dinosaurs; while Ozzy is more energetic and yearns for a food source that constantly endangers the pair, Strut is shown to be more centered, cautious and rather eat plants; a most reliable food source that doesn't involve the character being put into harm's way.
- Similarly to Ozzy, Strut's characterization seems to be based off of Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath.
- The constant gag conflict between Ozzy and his brother Strut's diet may well be in reference to paleontological debates on whether ornithomimids (specifically Struthiomimus) were either carnivores, herbivores or both, as the dinosaur's appearance suggests it could be either or. Still, decades after its discovery, nobody knows the true diet of Struthiomimus, causing the debate to rage on to this day.
