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Title card

The Land Before Time is a 1988 animated adventure drama film directed by Don Bluth and executive produced by Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall and distributed by Universal Pictures. It is Don Bluth's second and final film to be a collaboration with Amblin Entertainment, the only Don Bluth film to be a collaboration with Lucasfilm, as well as his third feature film overall. It was also the first Don Bluth film to be edited to remove PG-level subject matter. It also the first and most famous installment of The Land Before Time franchise.

Plot[]

A narrator (Pat Hingle) opens the film by saying: "Once upon this same earth, beneath the same sun, long before you, before the ape and the elephant as well. Before the wolf, the bison, the whale, before the mammoth and the mastodon, in the time of the dinosaurs," a drought is occurring and some dinosaurs are heading to the "Great Valley", a land still lush and green.

A "Longneck" (Apatosaurus) herd gives birth to a single baby, named Littlefoot (Gabriel Damon). Years later, Littlefoot comes across Cera (Candy Hutson), a "Three-horn" (Triceratops), practicing head-butting while trying to smash a beetle with her horn. The dinosaurs play together until Cera's father, Topsy (Burke Byrnes), intervenes. Littlefoot's mother (Helen Shaver) explains the different kinds of dinosaurs: "Three-horns, Spiketails, Swimmers, Flyers" and that they never do anything together, and it's always been that way, but she promises Littlefoot that there will be other longnecks for him to play within the Great Valley.

That night, as Littlefoot follows a "hopper" (frog), he encounters Cera again, and they play together briefly until a "Sharptooth" (Tyrannosaurus rex) (Frank Welker) attacks. During their escape, Littlefoot accidentally blinds Sharptooth in one eye with a thorn. Littlefoot's mother battles with Sharptooth and suffers severe injuries, but defeats him by pushing him into a deep chasm. At the same time, an "earthshake" (earthquake) occurs, opening a deep ravine in the ground. It swallows up the Sharptooth and many other dinosaurs, separating Littlefoot and Cera from their herds. Littlefoot finds his mother when the earthquake ends, but she is near death. Just before she dies, she gives Littlefoot instructions on how to get to the Great Valley: to follow the "bright circle" (sun) past the "great rock that looks like a longneck" and then past the "mountains that burn" (volcano).

Now feeling depressed and confused, Littlefoot by chance slides down a ravine, where he meets an old Polacanthus named Rooter (Pat Hingle), who consoles him upon learning of his mother's death. After mourning for some time, Littlefoot begins to search for the Great Valley. He encounters Cera again and tries to get her to join him, but she refuses. Littlefoot meets a young "Bigmouth" (Saurolophus) named Ducky (Judith Barsi), who has also lost her family in the earthshake. They journey on together, and as they try to find food, they encounter an aerophobic "Flyer" (Pterodactyl) named Petrie (Will Ryan), who joins them on their quest.

Meanwhile, Cera finds Sharptooth's body and begins playing with it. However, it is not dead, only unconscious, causing Cera to flee in terror when he wakes up. Cera later bumps into Littlefoot, Ducky, and Petrie and warns them of Sharptooth, but Littlefoot is convinced that Sharptooth is dead. As Cera describes the encounter (exaggerating her bravery), she accidentally flings Ducky near a patch of grass, which has a hatching egg containing a baby "Spiketail" (Stegosaurus). Ducky names him Spike and brings him into their group.

Seeking the Great Valley, they find a river leading to a cluster of trees, which is abruptly depleted by a herd of starving Diplodocus. Searching for remaining growth, they discover a single leaf-bearing tree and obtain food by stacking up on top of each other and pulling it down. Cera remains aloof and arrogant, boasting that she is independent, but at nightfall, she, along with the others, gravitates to Littlefoot's side for warmth and companionship. Sharptooth attacks them in the morning. They escape through a cave tunnel too small to admit him, then discover the Longneck-shaped monolith mentioned by Littlefoot's mother.

Although they pass other landmarks, such as a string of volcanoes, Cera grows impatient as the search begins to yield no results. She quarrels with Littlefoot, causing a schism in the little herd following a fight between the two in which Cera drives her head into Littlefoots stomach, butts him, launches him back first into a solid wall and easily overpowers him in several situations. Littlefoot continues in the direction he was told, while the others follow Cera, who goes another way, which she claims to be the easier way. As Ducky, Spike and Petrie fall into danger involving lava barriers and a tar pit, Littlefoot rescues them. They find Cera being harassed by a pack of Pachycephalosaurus, and, having been coated in tar, scare them away. Ashamed and humiliated, Cera, still unwilling to admit that she had gone the wrong way, goes off to be alone.

While frolicking in a pool of water, Littlefoot and his friends spot Sharptooth in the distance. Surmising that Sharptooth cannot swim, Littlefoot formulates a strategy to lure him into the deep end of the pond, and push a nearby boulder onto him, drowning him. As Ducky lures him to the water, Littlefoot and Spike have trouble moving the rock. During the proceeding struggle, a draft from Sharptooth's nostrils enables Petrie to master his powers of flight. The plan nearly fails when Sharptooth leaps on top of the boulder, until Cera rejoins the group, allowing Littlefoot and his friends to push both Sharptooth and the boulder into the water below. However, as he falls, he grabs Petrie in his jaws and drags him into the pond with him. As the young dinosaurs mourn the loss of Petrie, he re-emerges, having escaped a similar fate to Sharptooth.

Littlefoot encounters a large cloud that appears to be his mother in some sort of spirit form. As he laments to her that the journey is just too hard, she departs. Littlefoot follows the cloud through a cave and emerges just as the sunlight illuminates the landscape beneath him: He has found the Great Valley at last. The others join him and hurry down to the Valley, where the children's surviving relatives are already settled. Petrie impresses his family with his new-found flying ability, as Ducky introduces Spike to her family, who adopt him. Cera reunites with her father, and Littlefoot joins his grandparents. As Littlefoot reminisces on the events of the story, from his hatching all the way up to when he encounters his mother's spirit, Cera calls him to play. The group then races to the top of a hill and embrace each other in a group hug as the narrator closes the film by saying: "And they all grew up together in the valley generation upon generation. Each passing on to the next, the tale of their ancestor's journey to the valley long ago."

Cast[]

List of Dinosaur species[]

Production[]

During production of An American Tail, talk began of the next feature with Bluth and executive producer Steven Spielberg. Bluth and Spielberg wanted to do a film similar to Bambi, but with dinosaurs. Steven Spielberg's longtime friend George Lucas was also brought in on the project after being interested with it. The three persuaded An American Tail writers Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss to write the screenplay for the film. Their initial draft was based on their early ideas, but when it was felt the story was too juvenile, Stu Krieger was brought on to revise their draft. Early into story development, the film was about a group of young dinosaurs looking for a wise, older dinosaur. Later on, Bluth explained, "...we came up with another idea that none of these dinosaurs get along with each other, they all hate each other. They're taught from the time they were born not to associate with each other, that's racism." An early working title for the film was The Land Before Time Began. Bluth, Spielberg and Lucas originally wanted the film to have no dialogue, like The Rite of Spring sequence in Fantasia, but the idea was abandoned in favor of using voice actors in order to make it appealing to children.

Animation[]

As work on the script continued, Bluth delegated some of the animation staff to begin creating concept art. As with his previous films, Bluth handled the storyboarding but with final revisions by Larry Leker. Production was initially delayed by several months as the studio moved to Ireland. Production would eventually begin in spring 1987, a few months after the release of An American Tail.

Editing[]

It's too scary. We'll have kids crying in the lobby, and a lot of angry parents. You don't want that."
Steven Spielberg, on the scenes from The Land Before Time which hit the cutting room floor

Throughout production, The Land Before Time underwent a severe cutting and editing of footage. Spielberg and Lucas thought that some scenes in the movie would appear too dark and intense for young children. Spielberg told Bluth while looking at the scenes from the film, "It's too scary. We'll have kids crying in the lobby, and a lot of angry parents. You don't want that." About 11 minutes of footage, comprising a total of 19 fully animated scenes, were cut from the final film, to attain a G rating instead of a PG rating. Much of the cut footage consisted of the Tyrannosaurus attack sequence and sequences of the five young dinosaurs in grave danger and distress. Examples can be seen in the storyboards of the chase sequence in the briar patch. POV shots of Sharptooth's snapping jaws were deleted, and shots were rearranged to shorten the sequence. This results in continuity errors, depicting the Tyrannosaur with his right eye still open after it had been blinded.Some screams were re-voiced using milder exclamations.

Soundtrack[]

The theme song "If We Hold On Together" was sung by Diana Ross and released as a single in January 1989. The soundtrack was composed by James Horner and released on November 21, 1988.

The music for The Land Before Time was composed by James Horner, who had previously provided the soundtrack for An American Tail, and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and the Choir of King's College. An official soundtrack was released on audio cassette and vinyl record on November 21, 1988, and later on CD by MCA Records, and features seven tracks from the movie. The film's theme song "If We Hold on Together", written by Horner and Will Jennings, was sung by Diana Ross and was released as the soundtrack's lead and only single on November 5, 1988, peaking at number 23 on the US adult contemporary charts, and was later included on her 1991 album The Force Behind the Power. A digital version of the soundtrack was released on a number of services on January 22, 2013 by Geffen Records.

Track listing[]

  1. "The Great Migration" 7:53
  2. "Sharptooth and the Earthquake" 10:36
  3. "Whispering Winds" 9:00
  4. "If We Hold On Together" 4:14
  5. "Foraging For Food" 7:16
  6. "The Rescue/Discovery of the Great Valley" 12:46
  7. "End Credits" 6:24

2020 Expanded edition track list[]

An expanded version of the soundtrack album was released by the Intrada label on October 27, 2020. This release featured newly remastered versions of the music on the original album, as well as 15 minutes of previously unreleased material. A limited edition extended version of the soundtrack has been released in 2020, with tracks that were unused on the previous release.

Tracks in bold are previously unreleased

  1. "The Great Migration" 7:53
  2. "Sharptooth and the Earthquake" 10:36
  3. "Whispering Winds" 9:00
  4. "Foraging For Food" 7:16
  5. "Journey of the Dinosaurs" 8:32
  6. "Separate Paths" 7:14
  7. "The Rescue/Discovery of the Great Valley" 12:47
  8. "If We Hold On Together" 4:09
  9. "End Credits" 6:22

Legacy[]

  • The film generated many direct-to-video sequels. Currently, there are thirteen sequels in circulation. The sequels depart from the style of the original significantly by adding "sing-a-long" musical numbers akin to Disney animated films, and toning down the intensity seen in the original film. Don Bluth and his animation studio have no affiliation with any of the film's sequels. The sequels have generally been met with a mixed reception with several fans of the original disregarding the sequels, and when more sequels were made, fans of the original started to feel that the franchise was starting to overstay its welcome, while some have embraced the sequels into the canon of the story.
  • A 2007 television series was released in North America. It follows the style of the sequels in terms of the morality and the musical numbers (with some of the songs being shortened, reworked versions of songs from the sequels).
  • There is a wiki dedicated especially to the The Land Before Time.
  • Ducky's voice actress, Judith Barsi, was murdered by her father along with her mother four months before the film's release. Ducky's catchphrase "Yep! Yep! Yep!" is inscribed on their tombstones.

Trivia[]

  • In a picture book, The Search for the Great Valley, there is an alternate ending in which, right after Littlefoot leaves his friends for listening to Cera instead of him, the longneck meets the ghost of his mother, and encounters the Valley, only to realize that he should turn back to look for his friends, which he did.
  • This is also a work done by George Lucas, who is famous for his work on Star Wars and Indiana Jones (with Spielberg).
  • To date, An American Tail and this film are currently the only two feature-length Don Bluth films whose rights are not owned by Disney (nor 20th Century Studios) or MGM (nor Amazon), but Universal.
  • This is Don Bluth's third highest grossing film, only behind Anastasia and An American Tail.
    • This is also Don Bluth's highest grossing film to not have Russia involved in its premise.
  • This is the only Don Bluth movie made in the 1980s not to have the late Dom DeLuise voicing a character, however he was in Oliver and Company made the same year.
  • Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss and Executive Producers Frank Marshall Kathleen Kennedy and Steven Spielberg.
  • Composer of An American Tail James Horner was Composing The Land Before Time was Dinosaurs.
  • Will Ryan, He did voiced Digit in An American Tail two years earlier.
  • Judy Freudberg, Tony Geiss, Frank Marshall Kathleen Kennedy and Steven Spielberg Don Bluth Steven Spielberg Will Ryan appeared in An American Tail.
  • This is Don Bluth's first feature film to not have a mouse or any kind of mammal as its main protagonist.
  • Don Bluth's First Lucasfilm Ltd First Animated Film
  • This is the 2nd Don Bluth's animated film To be Produced by Amblin Entertainment and Distributed by Universal Pictures.
  • Second Animated Movies with the Narrator by the Previous Film of The Secret of NIMH and The Land Before Time.
  • With a runtime of 69 minutes, this is Don Bluth's shortest theatrical feature film.
  1. The Animated Films of Don Bluth Retrieved on January 23rd, 2007.
    Comparason of striped brontosaurus
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