The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island

The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island
Directed by	Roy Allen Smith Charles Grosvenor
Produced by	Charles Grosvenor Rocky Solotoff (associate producer)
Written by	John Loy Judy Freudberg Tony Geiss (characters)
Starring	Brandon LaCroix Anndi McAfee Aria Curzon Jeff Bennett Rob Paulsen Cannon Young
Music by	Michael Tavera James Horner (music from The Land Before Time)
Studio	Universal Cartoon Studios
Distributed by	Universal Studios Home Video
Release date(s)	December 9, 1997
Running time	73 min.
Language	English

The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island is a 1997 animated film directed by Roy Allen Smith. This is the first film in the series in which Anndi McAfee is the voice of Cera, and Aria Noelle Curzon is the voice of Ducky. It is also the only film in which Brandon LaCroix plays Littlefoot; it is the first in which Thomas Dekker provides the singing voice for Littlefoot.

Plot

After a cloud of swarm of "leaf-gobblers" descends upon Great Valley, devouring all plants and leaving it a barren wasteland, the inhabitants must seek another place where they can survive until the plants in Great Valley have grown back. However, the Leaf Gobblers have left a path of devastation behind them, leaving no food for the dinosaurs to find. After erring for days and days through this desolation, the herd quarrel and threaten to separate after Cera's father argues with Littlefoot's Grandfather and Littlefoot and Cera quarrel on their father and grandfather. The main characters do not want to be separated, so they set out to find a location with plentiful food. They leave a trail for the grownups to find them with, and eventually reach the "Big Water". There, they see a verdant island connected to the mainland by a thin land bridge. On their way, a Tsunami occurs, which they narrowly escape, and which wipes out the bridge.

Isolated on the island, they try out Cera's idea to return by using a log as a boat (which made her seasick). However, a swimming sharptooth attacks, and in the confusion and fright which follows, they end up on the island again. That night, they remember their families, while the herd, who followed the trail, sleep on the shores of the beach on the mainland, worrying for them and Cera's father blames their leave on Littlefoot's grandfather.

The next morning, the children wake up to the shadow of a Sharptooth. They take off, but find themselves cornered by high cliffs. They huddle together when the sharptooth approaches, only to find that it is Chomper (from The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure). He then helps them to hide from his parents, who are also on the island, and provides them with leafy food upon their request. However, an overcautious Cera openly displays distrust to Chomper because he is a Sharptooth, which grieves him, and he departs. Littlefoot follows him and apologizes, but is interrupted by Chomper's mother. She nuzzles him, then leaves. Littlefoot is intrigued by her display of love to Chomper.

Meanwhile, a larger Sharptooth living on the island finds the children, and gives them chase. Chomper tries to help, but the Sharptooth overcomes him. Fortunately, his parents come to the rescue and battle the Sharptooth near the edge of the island, during which he falls into the Big Water and takes Chomper with him, much to his parents' shock. Littlefoot plunges in to save Chomper while the sharptooth is swept away by the current. Another "swimming sharptooth" appears, but they discover it was an Elasmosaurus named Elsie who then saves the two from drowning. She returns them to the island, where Chomper's grateful family promises never to harm the children, and Chomper's father grudgingly admits that children who smelled that bad (from the fragrant flowers Chomper selected earlier for his friends' food) wouldn't taste very good anyway. Cera realizes that not all Sharpteeth are so bad and monstrous as she previously thought. Elsie offers to take them across the sea, making Cera even more seasick than before. As Littlefoot and his friends board on Elsie, Chomper and his parents happily bid farewell to them, promising that they will see them again. When back on the mainland, they find out that the herd found a lush, green, little place on the shore to stay in till the Great Valley is grows back its leaves.

Voice cast

• Brandon LaCroix .... Littlefoot
• Anndi McAfee .... Cera
• Aria Curzon .... Ducky
• Jeff Bennett .... Petrie / Mutt
• Rob Paulsen .... Spike / Kosh
• Cannon Young .... Chomper
• Kenneth Mars .... Grandpa Longneck
• Miriam Flynn .... Grandma Longneck
• Scott Menville - Nod
• Tress MacNeille .... Ducky's Mother / Petrie's Mother
• Christina Pickles .... Elsie
• Thomas Dekker .... Littlefoot (singing voice)
• John Ingle .... Narrator / Cera's father

Production

Some European releases of the film did not include subtitles in which Chomper has conversations with his parents (apart from closed captioning).

Beginning with this film, the 1997 Universal logo plays at the start. On the first film, the 1963-1990 logo plays. In the films 2, 3 and 4, the UCS logo plays.

The songs are written by Michele Brourman and Amanda McBroom. This is their second collaboration in the series. A shorter version of Friends for Dinner was heard in an episode of The Land Before Time TV series. It features Ruby singing as well. A shorter version of Big Water was heard in an episode of The Land Before Time TV series. It features Chomper, Ruby, and Mo singing as well since the song Big Water was played in this film before Chomper showed up again in this film. An even shorter version was sung in The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving and The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water.

Songs

• Big Water - Ducky, Petrie, Littlefoot and Cera (Aria Noelle Curzon, Jeff Bennett, Thomas Dekker and Anndi McAfee)
• Always There - Ducky, Petrie, Littlefoot, Cera, Spike (Thomas Dekker, Anndi McAfee, Aria Noelle Curzon and Jeff Bennett, Rob Paulsen)
• Friends For Dinner - Ducky, Petrie, Littlefoot, Cera, Spike, Chomper (Thomas Dekker, Anndi McAfee, Aria Noelle Curzon and Jeff Bennett, Rob Paulsen, Cannon Young)

Soundtrack

"If We Hold On Together" (instrumental)

Home video release history

• December 9, 1997 (VHS and laserdisc)
• December 1, 1998 (VHS and laserdisc, the last laserdisc release - Universal Family Features)
• December 4, 2001 (VHS)
• April 1, 2003 (DVD)
• December 2, 2003 (VHS and DVD - 4 Movie Dino Pack (Volume 2) and 9 Movie Dino Pack)
• February 1, 2005 (DVD - 2 Great Movies Featuring Chomper)

External links

• The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island at the Internet Movie Database