Ozzy and Strut are the main antagonists of The Land Before Time: The Great Valley Adventure. They were a pair of greedy Struthiomimus brothers. Ozzy, the older brother, was the leader, and Strut, the younger brother, was the comic-relief follower. Ozzy had a craving for eggs, while Strut was formerly a vegetarian. This was an irritation to Ozzy, as he was constantly seen trying to get Strut to eat eggs. However, the scenario appears to subtly interpret these eggs as a prehistoric form of drugs, making Ozzy seem like an addict.
Ozzy was voiced by Jeff Bennett (who later voiced Ichy in The Land Before Time: Journey through the Mists, also voiced Owen Burnett and Malibu in Gargoyles, Dr. Hamsterviel in Lilo and Stitch Series, Tong Fo in Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness and Bradley Uppercrust III in An Extremely Goofy Movie), while Strut was voiced by Rob Paulsen (who also voiced Rinkus in The Land Before Time: Journey Through the Mists, Thud in the 2007-2008 The Land Before Time TV series, Banzai in Timon and Pumbaa, Broccoli Overlord in The High Fructose of Annoying Orange, and Helios in Gargoyles).
History
Ozzy and Strut were amateurish villains who arrived up in the Great Valley in hopes of stealing eggs. However, the more relaxed Strut was ready to eat plants, much to Ozzy's fury. The two characters seem to have a knack for getting into trouble. Ozzy tried to get an egg from a nest of a mother Maiasaura. And yet, the egg was replaced with a rock (thrown by Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike) which hit his head. Then Ozzy (still thinking he had the egg) bit into it. Then, the mother Maiasaura asked the gang to stop rolling rocks down the hill, because her nest was there.
Later, they attempted another egg heist, resulting in their villain song. When they unsuccessfully took one of Ducky's unhatched siblings, they were crushed under a mountain of rocks, though surprisingly, it wasn't fatal to them. It was because of their failed attempt at stealing the egg that the five children found Chomper's egg in "The Mysterious Beyond", mistaking it for Ducky's unhatched sibling (which had shockingly rolled back down the mountain and into the family's nest without anyone being the wiser). Ozzy and Strut were vengeful toward Littlefoot and the others, because if it wasn’t for them, Ducky's unhatched little brother or sister would have been their supper. However, during a landslide that happened while Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike were pursuing them, Strut lost the egg they were stealing, and to cover with Ozzy later on, he fibbed that the five kids were stealing it from them to avoid his brother's wrath. Ozzy thought the egg that contained Chomper was the egg that they attempted to steal. And --after Ozzy asked Cera, Petrie, Ducky, and Spike what they did to his egg-- when Cera told him that she --and the rest of the gang-- didn't do anything with his egg and it hatched, he (Ozzy) was even more vengeful towards Littlefoot and the gang. (That was, as Ozzy said to Cera --after she told him that the egg hatched-- "IT HATCHED?! BEFORE I COULD EAT IT! MY EGG HATCHED?!".) They were chased off a cliff by the shadow of a sharptooth, who was really Chomper trying to save Littlefoot. Later on, they were seen climbing back up top finding no trace of Littlefoot and his friends, or the baby sharptooth, in which they believed he ate them. So they ran off to get themselves another egg.
In the middle of the film, they found another nest and attempted to each pick an egg, until they got startled and dangled off a cliff by the kids' shouting, who were off trying to find Chomper on the volcano mountain. Unfortunately for the egg-stealers, the kids shouting drew the attention of the mother Pteranodon of the nest, who angrilly chased Ozzy and Strut. After not wanting to be pecked by the mother Pteranodon, they escaped into a nearby cave. And the mother (Pteranodon) flew back to her nest and rested on the eggs (after missing them). Then Ozzy angrily told himself that the main characters had ruined their food "for the last time". While chasing Littlefoot and his friends, along with Chomper (who bit Strut's tail to save the main characters), crossed a tree-bridge (during an eruption by the Smoking Mountain) Ozzy attempted to cross, but the lava made contact with the tree and set the tree on fire. And he (Ozzy) fell into the crevice. Worried for his brother and not wanted to be left behind, Strut jumped off after him.
Near the end of the film, they were seen for the last time when they were shown to have survived their fall. And they ambushed Littlefoot, whom they successfully caught and abducted. To have got revenge on him for meddling with their plans, they planned to "get rid of [him] once and for all" by throwing him off the Great Wall of the Great Valley (a plan hatched by Strut, much to Ozzy's shock and delight, as he hadn't expected him to think of something so evil). However, Chomper (having heard Littlefoot's cries for help) managed to find his friend just as Ozzy and Strut were about to carry out their murderous plan. However, his attempt to rescue Littlefoot failed. Because Strut managed to grab him by the throat and began strangling him (the new plan was being to slay Chomper as well). Before Strut tried to throw Chomper off the Great Wall too, Ozzy said to him that he liked him better when he was an egg (meaning that he liked him better before he hatched so he was to eat his egg). (That was, as Ozzy --to Chomper-- said, "You, I liked much better as an egg!".)
When Chomper's sharptooth parents saw the egg thieves trying to throw both Littlefoot and their son --Chomper-- off the Great Wall, they (Chomper's parents) fortunately rescued Chomper. And they unknowingly did the same with Littlefoot. Finally, Ozzy and Strut ended up getting chased out of the Great Valley and into the Mysterious Beyond by Chomper's infuriated parents, who had seen that the Struthiomimus brothers were nearly harming their child for Ozzy and Strut feared the adult sharpteeth. The sharpteeth --after saving both Littlefoot and Chomper-- left the Great Valley (as they were chasing Ozzy and Strut into the Mysterious Beyond). After they --the sharpteeth-- left, Chomper (subsequently) followed his parents out of the valley. (That was, before the entrance --between the Great Valley and Mysterious Beyond-- was closed by the Great Valley's residents.) And whether or not they (Ozzy and Strut) were eaten, it remained unknown. Because neither of them had been seen since. They were mentioned by Littlefoot after he and the others got stranded on the island, when they reunited with Chomper.
Personalities
At the outset of the film, Ozzy was clearly the brainier, more merciless of the two brothers. He was the apparent leader of the duo. He kept a sharp focus on their main goal, which was devouring all of the eggs that they could. He was also highly testy, with a temper to match, as he had no problem striking Strut whenever he said something that set him off. However, it can be assumed that, in spite of his aggravation with Strut, he still cared deeply for his brother, since he was trying to "wean" him off vegetation and onto eggs, because he wanted him to grow up and be able to survive the way that they should. As he demonstrated, he was a very vengeful dinosaur who could hold a grudge easily, as well, based on his obsession with exacting revenge on Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike for stopping them from devouring the egg from Ducky's family's nest. As a matter of fact, his vengeance rose to murderous levels very quickly, as shown by his agreement with Strut's last plan for Littlefoot.
In the meantime, Strut came across as simpler-minded than Ozzy. He was more even-tempered and relaxed, at first, not getting mad all that easily. He also showed himself to be more passive, as he did not have any agency when it came to stealing eggs and had to rely on Ozzy to motivate him into it. He was also attentive, as he tended to recoil from Ozzy's verbal attacks and scoldings and didn’t seem to fight back against any of the physical abuse that he took from his brother. He was so fearful of Ozzy, in fact, that after losing Ducky's family's egg, he actually lied to Ozzy about who had truly cost them said egg to keep himself from getting hurt by him even more. However, as the movie progressed, it was clear that Ozzy's wickedness had started to rub off on him, as his own level of vengeance against the five young heroes eventually began to grow, as well, and he got just as eager to take revenge on them as Ozzy, as shown by him laughing wickedly at them when they cornered them near the tree-bridge. It can even be said that he grew even more sinister than Ozzy, given that he was the one who, upon their kidnapping of Littlefoot, very contentedly and eagerly suggested murdering him by throwing him off the Great Wall, even surprising his own sibling (although pleasantly so) with how evil he had become by that point. He also thought nothing of strangling Chomper when he tried and failed to rescue Littlefoot from him and Ozzy, showing that not even being a child would spare someone from his wrath.
In the end, it can be said that Ozzy was evil from their very first appearance, while Strut slowly, gradually grew into almost as evil of a villain as he was (possibly even more so) by the end.
Gallery
Trivia
- Ozzy and Strut are two of the only Land Before Time villains to speak, the others being Hyp, Mutt, Nod, Ichy, Dil, Rinkus, and Sierra.
- They are also two of the few Land Before Time villains to utter evil laughs, with Ozzy doing so just as they are about to eat the egg from Ducky's family's nest, and Strut doing so just as they ambush Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike near the tree-bridge.
- Ozzy and Strut share some similarities to Ichy and Dil in terms of their dynamic, as one is clearly the leader (Ozzy/Ichy), and the other is the follower (Strut/Dil). However, they are also different in that Ichy was evil to his very core, while Dil was more pragmatic than inherently evil, simply acting according to what occurred to her naturally as a predator, whereas Ozzy and Strut were both confirmed in-universe to be actually evil (even though Strut had to grow into it throughout the events of the movie).
- It has been a huge debate about what the real-life Oviraptor and Struthiomimus (along with Ornithomimus and Gallimimus) ate if they were really omnivorous theropods. However, a lot of people say that these theropods (Oviraptor, Struthiomimus, Gallimimus, and Ornithomimus --all seen in the Land Before Time franchise and film series) ate both plants and meat. (Because animals --who are omnivores-- eat meat and plants.) Strut shows such symptoms of being an omnivore after favoring Ozzy to eat plants instead. And Ozzy ate eggs.
- In reality, the real dinosaur Oviraptor was an omnivore (meaning it ate meat and plants, in addition to dinosaur eggs).
- Ozzy's name and behavior is a pun to Oviraptor, a real-life omnivorous theropod that was once believed to have preyed on dinosaur eggs.
- However, the brothers behave more like old depictions of Oviraptors, because they ate eggs in said movie. They indeed should've been Oviraptors instead of Struthiomimus. (Because Struthiomimus was most likely not an egg robber.)
- Their defeat is similar to Dil's, as they were chased by a Sharptooth, and it is unknown if they were killed by said Sharptooth.
- Strut has the same voice and accent as Pinky from the Animaniacs and Pinky and The Brain franchise possibly because they both have the same voice actor Rob Paulsen.
- Ozzy and Strut have British accents; however, Oviraptor fossils have never been found in England or outside of Asia at all. On the other hand, Hyp is a Hypsilophodon, whose fossils have been found in England (on the Isle of Wight, specifically), yet he and his father lack British accents. Rinkus, however, is a Rhamphorhynchus, whose fossils have also been found in England, and he does have a British accent.
- Ozzy and Strut are the first villains in the Land Before Time film series to be defeated by a Sharptooth.
 Villains
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