The Land Before Time

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  October 1, 2009

  SirPant

  A very sweet film! Thinking about it though, Ice Age really ripped it off!

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  September 11, 2009

  kiriyamakazou

  The Land Before Time was a childhood favorite of mine, no surprise I watched it so many times with it's 69 minute running time. The Land Before Time (unlike it's sequels) is far removed from Disney films of the time and avoids musical numbers and OTT "comedic" characters. The fil...( read more)m feels like a genuinely real story of growing up and friendship. It depicts how terrifying the real world can be and the heartache of loss. Littlefoot's excitement at seeing his shadow, believing it is his deceased mother, will feel anybody of any age with a lot of emotion. The animation is also excellent, with one scene of the T-Rex trying to stand up showing some great detail. A classic, and at just 69 minutes you have no excuse not to check it out.

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  August 4, 2009

  franktowers

  This movie spawned my dinosaur obsession as a child

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  July 8, 2009

  Darksome

  Worst movies ever made.

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• 
  
  October 13, 2008

  FangsFirst

  There's no escaping the fact that I grew up with this film--one of the lobby cardboard stand up displays adorned my family's living room (thanks to pre-existing theatrical connections, I do believe--I was a little too young to be aware, even if I'd cared about such reasons for th...( read more)ings at that age) for many years, and the Pizza Hut promotional puppets wandered throughout our home for years. Dinosaurs were a fascination of mine (as they were of many young boys) for a very long time, and this was at least the highest profile animated children's film about them to date, if not the first overall (though I can't be bothered to research this, so I won't claim it one way or the other). Likely it was helped by the production team of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas attaching their names to it, both still well thought of in public circles (though a nonsensical anti-populist Spielberg-hating sentiment has risen in years of late, and George Lucas has spiralled into the depths of the worst kind of egotistical self-aggrandizement and soulless merchandising).
  
  Littlefoot (voiced by Gabriel Damon) is the only child born to a small herd of "long-necks" in a near-apocalyptic landscape in the time of the dinosaurs (suffering a pretty drastic drought), with neighboring children of various other species born at the same time, including the "three-horn" daughter Cera (voiced by Candace Hutson), with whom Littlefoot attempts to play, only to have the children divided by their parents, who insist their kinds don't mix (whew, does this smack of racist allegory, perhaps unintentionally, to anyone else? Especially when Littlefoot repeatedly asks why they're separate, only to be told that's simply the way it is?). As children are wont to do though, they begin playing again further along the travels of the various herds to sources of food and water. In the process, a "sharp-tooth" attempts to attack them, with Littlefoot's mother (voiced by Helen Shaver, perhaps the only name I recognize here--more on that later) comes to their defense, but is mortally injured in the process. So Littlefoot and Cera, who is separated from her family by an earthquake, set off toward the legendary "Great Valley," where there is endless water and leafy food. In the process, their strange herd grows with the addition of "big-mouth" daughter Ducky (voiced by Judith Barsi), "flyer" son Petrie (voiced by Will Ryan) and "spike-tail" son Spike (who isn't voiced by anyone, apparently) as they continue to run from "sharp-tooth" and attempt to find food.
  
  Despite animating for them earlier, Don Bluth continued his theme of darker animated children's films than Disney's with this one. This time, though, he had Spielberg and Lucas to contend with--leaving ten minutes of footage on the cutting room floor and now likely lost forever, deemed unsuitable for younger audiences for its graphic nature. Still, the darkness of the film is a little greater than many Disney pictures (the kind that have led to the colloquial term of "Disneyfication," such as the change of little mermaid Ariel's exchange from a ripped-out tongue to a magically stolen voice, and don't even get me started on what they did to Classical mythology with the abysmal Hercules) with death an accepted fact, and the mourning of Littlefoot shown quite clearly, as well as a later reminder of his mother's death. The threat is a carnivorous, likely starving, predator, who stops at very little, often appearing in intimidating environments like a thicket of thorns or a volcano when dealing with your youthful protagonists. It's not quite All Dogs Go to Heaven or The Rats of NIMH (to reference two of Bluth's other most popular films, and more specifically, ones I'm familiar with), but it's still not all happy. The advantage Bluth has is that he is not a recognized entity that over-protective parents so happily throw a blanket attack at for being dark--a perusal of many Amazon reviews of Dumbo will show how shocked parents can be at what they think is a trusted source of children's films "betraying" them. Many of the people I know my age felt this film and All Dogs were rather heartbreaking (many a post on IMDb makes reference to "crying" when speaking of this film), but I don't recall ever being that bothered. Seeing a real threat in "Sharptooth"--sure, but not truly frightened.
  
  And, in making that last reference, we come to the love/hate part of my relationship with this movie, which has existed nearly as long as my experience of it. Even as a small child it drove me absolutely nuts to see the spread of oversimplified generalized terms for dinosaurs disseminated in my classmates (and occasionally adults). Speaking as someone whose favourite dinosaur is Euoplocephalus (and has been for some years, with a similar affection for Chasmosaurus, Carnotaurus, Ceratodon, Baryonyx, Dilophosaurus, Amargasaurus and various other strangely adorned dinosaurs and dinosaurids--at one point a favourite in each well-known grouping) and has been since, oh, probably eight or nine years of age, I do probably speak for an obsessive minority. Still, it would be akin to looking out on a car trip and going "Look a furry grass-eater!"--Is it a cow? A horse? A sheep? A goat? What are you talking about? and thus encourages a rather uncurious approach to seeing any such animals--any large predatory dinosaur was instantly a "sharptooth," regardless of major physiological differences between them. Of course, I was also big on emphasizing the official change of Brontosaurus' name to Apatosaurus at the same age, so I probably am a little pedantic compared to most. The film also predates the re-alignment of Tyrannosaurus Rex' spine (as seen in 1993's Jurassic Park) and the full-fledged popularization of the endothermic dinosaur, as most emphatically publicly endorsed by Robert T. Bakker (though his book, The Dinosaur Heresies had been out two years by that time), student of earlier theorist John Ostrom, who first publicized the idea.
  
  In spite of that, though, it was a charming story with loveable characters (especially the big, dumb cuteness of Spike, and the hyperactive bluster of Petrie) so I forgave it that and simply left my annoyance to its incurious audience. Part of the reason here is that, as I alluded earlier, most of these names, even narrator Pat Hingle's, are not names that jump out at most people. This was still the period of time where the voices behind kids' cartoon heroes were not people we already knew as actors (unless we were obsessive about that instead). Something is lost when we're drawn in two directions by a vocal performance, one telling us the image we should see is that of the person we normally associate that voice with, and a dichotomy develops between the movie we're seeing and our mental perception of the voices in it,* separating us from complete suspension of disbelief and the ability to entangle ourselves in the story. I also like the work voice actors do, and appreciate the nuance of someone who does more voice-work, and their ability to create multiple distinct characters, in a way easily seen in this one.
  
  It's not a film to run out and buy as an adult with no nostalgia for it--it's not incredibly deep or complex (at a run time of 69 minutes, it doesn't have much chance to be), but it is solid entertainment for young dinosaur loveables and easily watchable for those who are watching over them. However, I simply have to note that even my undiscerning eyes noticed the transfer on this disc (and this is even the "Anniversary Edition"--the most recent release) is atrocious. Grain, edge enhancement, fuzziness and poorly balanced dark scenes are glaringly obvious to any eye but a child's. The best compliment I can give is it at least looks like an unwatched first generation VHS--which is faint praise, and becomes even fainter with special features that do not relate to the film so much as the endless DTV sequels, all oriented toward children with no attention span to speak of--and of course referencing the DTV sequels at all is not a good sign (which began to rely on the lame, clichéd device of characters bursting into song--ironically, in effect, "Disneyfying" the work of a man who intentionally left Disney, and even done to a film that beat out Disney's Oliver and Company in the box office that year). A serious thumbs down and a pretty violent slap on the wrist to the producers of this DVD, and to Universal for releasing it like this.
  
  
  *Good lord, how did I get into this from a review of The Land Before Time?!

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  November 20, 2009

  sebastian771

  a good movie from my child hood. no idea why they followed with slew of sequals and tv show.

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  November 15, 2009

  21rclemente

  Wow! Thank you Flixster for bringing this movie up! One of my childhood favorites. I wore the crap outa this tape!

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  November 7, 2009

  Ghosti

  Why is this movie so damn sad?

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  November 3, 2009

  calumprice1

  This is one of the best animation films ever made, as it is moving and entertaining. Not only is it a story of friendship, courage and love, but it also demonstrates childhood friendships which are 'not allowed' due to classism or racism - "Three-horns never play with Longnecks"....( read more) 'Land Before Time', with its tribe of various dinosaurs plus a pterodactyl, is a story about putting aside so-called 'differences' and striving together in 'united we stand, divided we fall' fashion in order to leave the unlovely wilderness and find a land of freedom and equality (in this case the Great Valley).
  
  
  
  An excellent and unmissable adventure which will appeal to anybody of any age. I love it I sure did "Yup Yup Yup!" The sequels sadly did away with the grittyness of this first film and instead turned to TV cartoonishness and pointless songs, but most of them (the boring Part 4 aside) are still very enjoyable. But in the tradition of most series of films, the original is the best.

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• 
  
  October 26, 2009

  ZRUV

  Looking back, it was probably crap.

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View more The Land Before Time reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

• 
  April 4, 2008

  a2323iuh45

  this is one of those movies you can never really forget.
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  November 24, 2007

  norbadrishah

  I've seen a few times but still I didn't feel bored.. I really love all the characters in this movie.. it is so touching
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  November 3, 2007

  beautifultiger

  Official sites for The Land Before Time
  
  
  http://www.landbeforetime.com/friends/index.html
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  July 14, 2007

  obagon

  I love this movie to bits my friend and I were trying to find it so I could buy it for my birthday but sadlly we couldn't I ueds to have it when I was little but my mum taped over it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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  June 9, 2007

  MrsJackHarkenss

  Oh my god!!! I love this movie!!! i used to watch it all the time when I was little and I still will whenever it is on. It used to make me cry at the end.
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  April 23, 2007

  livininmysecretlife

  I truly love this film! It's amazing, one of those films you never really forget as a child. The actress who voiced Ducky, was tragically killed by her father in a homocide event. I think that also makes the film more special because she was so talented, a very famous child actress who featured in many films such as all dogs go to heaven etc, she never got the chance to see how far she could have gone. People will always be able to treasure her voice, her laugh its through this film and others she lives on.
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  October 29, 2006

  MelissaAnnLegard

  this is one of the best movies i have ever seen. its def in my top 10 animated movies. i love it. its happy, sad and everything you can think of. love this film<333
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  June 21, 2006

  Clockwise

  Goodness, Hannah, you've made comments about EVERYthing!

• Gabriel Damon
• Candace Hutson
• Judith Barsi
• Will Ryan
• Bill Erwin
• Pat Hingle

Click a thumb to vote on that suggestion, or add your own suggestions.

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  The Lion King (59%)
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  An American Tail (65%)
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  Dinosaur (75%)
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  The Secret of NIMH (68%)

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• What did the dinosaurs in The Land Before Time call a leaf?  Answer »
• name 3 characters in the land before time films  Answer »
• In the "Land Before Time" what does Littlefoot call his mom?  Answer »
• In what film do a small group of dinosaurs travel to "The Great Valley"?  Answer »

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