The Land Before Time (film)

The Land Before Time
The Land Before Time
	File:Landtime.jpg
Directed by	Don Bluth
Written by	Judy Freudberg (story); Tony Geiss (story); Stu Krieger (screenplay)
Produced by	Don Bluth; Gary Goldman; Kathleen Kennedy; George Lucas; Frank Marshall; John Pomeroy; Steven Spielberg
Starring	Gabriel Damon; Candace Hutson; Judith Barsi; Sterling Holloway; Pat Hingle; Helen Shaver; Burke Byrnes; Bill Erwin
Narrated by	Pat Hingle
Edited by	John K. Carr; Dan Molina
Music by	James Horner
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	November 18, 1988; September 7, 1989
Running time	69 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	USD$12,300,000 (estimated)
Box office	USD$84,460,846 (worldwide)

Template:Infobox movie certificates The Land Before Time is an animated film, produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, and directed by Don Bluth. It was originally released in movie theaters in 1988 by Universal Pictures. It features anthropomorphic dinosaurs living in a somewhat fantasy-based version of prehistoric earth.

The film's plot concerns a young Apatosaurus named Littlefoot who becomes orphaned after the death of his mother, caused from injuries suffered while battling an antagonistic Tyrannosaurus ("Sharptooth") and the effects of an earthquake. Littlefoot flees famine and upheaval to search for the "Great Valley", an area which has been spared devastation. During his journey, he encounters four young companions: Cera, a Triceratops; Ducky, a Parasaurolophus; Petrie, a Pteranodon; and Spike, a Stegosaurus.^[2] The film explores issues of prejudice between the different species and the hardships they endure in their journey as they are guided by the spirit of Littlefoot's mother.

The film was a critical and financial success and spawned numerous sequels, merchandise, and a TV series.

Plot synopsis

The film opens with an underwater scene of fish swimming with other creatures. The narrator explains that there is a drought, and the dinosaurs are heading west for the Great Valley. During a storm, Littlefoot (an Apatosaurus) is born from a last lonely egg. He is then protected by his mother, grandmother, and grandfather... all that remains of his herd.

When Littlefoot is older, his mother explains that the land is changing, and that they must reach the Great Valley. She gives him a single tree star as a gift. Later, Littlefoot encounters Cera (a Triceratops). She chases an insect, which sprays her in the face. Littlefoot laughs, which angers Cera. But Cera's father interrupts, saying that "Threehorns never play with Long Necks." Littlefoot's mother explains that every species keeps to itself, and reassures Littlefoot that there will be other Longnecks in the Great Valley for him to play with.

That night, Littlefoot is awoken by a "hopper" (frog). He chases it through a cave and meets Cera. They are attacked by Sharptooth (a Tyrannosaurus rex). They hide in a thorny growth, and Sharptooth crawls on his belly after them. Littlefoot gets caught in some thorny vines and as he breaks free a thorn snaps back and strikes Sharptooth in his right eye, blinding him. Sharptooth leaps up after them, but Littlefoot's mother arrives and engages the carnivore. Sharptooth and Littlefoot's Mother trade blows as an earthquake erupts around them, and she is seriously injured when Sharptooth leaps on her back and rips out a tract of flesh with his jaws. However, she manages to rescue Littlefoot and Cera, casting the meat eater into a deep ravine opened up by the earthquake.

After the earthquake, many herds and families are separated. Littlefoot searches for his mother and finds her lying on her side, suffering from her injury, too weak to get up despite his urgings. Before she dies, she asks Littlefoot if he remembers the way to the Great Valley, and reassures him that she'll always be with him, even if he can't see her.

The next day, Littlefoot, sad, angry, and confused, slides down a ravine and falls on an armoured dinosaur named Rooter. He explains that his mother's death was nobody's fault. A Pterosaur offers Littlefoot a cherry, but he's too upset to notice his hunger. Later, as he crosses a desert, a gold light shines upon him. When Littlefoot peers into his reflection, he hears his mother's voice guiding him. He understands, and leaves the desert. He meets up with Cera and asks her to join him. She refuses and slides down a chasm.

Littlefoot is greeted by Ducky (a baby Parasaurolophus, also separated from her family) at a lake. Littlefoot says that longnecks don’t speak to other species, so Ducky pretends to be a Longneck. The two journey together. When Littlefoot tries to eat a raw tree, they encounter Petrie, a Pterodactyl who cannot fly.

Meanwhile, Cera encounters a comatose Sharptooth. Believing him to be dead, she charges at him mischievously, accidentally awakening him. As she flees, she meets up with the others, and tries to warn them about Sharptooth. Littlefoot refuses to believe her. Cera, while describing her encounter (embellishing the story to make herself appear less cowardly), accidentally flings Ducky into a patch of grass, where she meets a hungry Stegosaurus hatchling whom she names Spike.

That night, Littlefoot settles down by himself, but soon Ducky and the others (even Cera) huddle with him for warmth. In the morning his treestar is crushed when Sharptooth attacks. They escape through a mountain cave, and emerge next to a rock shaped like a longneck. Littlefoot believes they are going the right way. Soon, ash falls from the sky, and they come to a volcanic wasteland. Exhausted, Cera opts for an easier path. She and Littlefoot fight after she insults his mother and his species. Littlefoot leaves the group, but he goes back to save Spike, Petrie and Ducky from a tar pit.

Meanwhile, Cera is being terrorized by a group of aggressive Pachycephalosaurs. Littlefoot and the others, disguised as a giant, tar-covered monster, scare them off. Cera, ashamed and embarassed about leading her friends into danger, decides to go her own way.

Later on, as Littlefoot, Spike, Ducky, and Petrie are frolicking in a pond, they spot Sharptooth in the distance. In order to stop him once and for all, Littlefoot formulates a plan to lure him into the deep end of the pond and drown him by dropping a large rock on the edge of a nearby cliff onto his head. Ducky succeeds in luring Sharptooth into the water, but Littlefoot and Spike are not strong enough to move the rock. Petrie suddenly learns to fly, rescues Ducky, and attempts to distract Sharptooth. But Sharptooth notices the trap and leaps on top of the rock. Balanced precariously on the edge, he snaps at them. In the nick of time, Cera arrives and crashes into the rock, knocking it off balance just enough to send it and Sharptooth over the cliff and into the pond. Sharptooth attempts to drag Petrie down with him, and the his friends believe him to have perished. However, he escapes by a narrow margin, to the joy of Ducky and the others.

After the battle, Littlefoot is on the ledge of a mountain, lamenting at his inability to find the valley, when his mother's soul appears in the form of a sauropod shaped cloud. He yells for her not to go, but as she dissipates she leads him through a cave and onto a cliff, where her soul shines a light that reveals the Great Valley. Littlefoot returns for the others, and they rejoin their relatives and live in peace for generations.

Voice cast

English voice cast

Crew

Directed by Don Bluth
Story by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss
Screenplay by Stu Krieger
Executive producers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas
Music by James Horner
Music performance by the London Symphony Orchestra
If We Hold On Together performed by Diana Ross

Box office

The film was a box office success, grossing $48 million, as well as beating the Disney film Oliver & Company for the Number 1 spot during its opening weekend. It has since brought in a box office total of nearly $50 million during its domestic release, more than Don Bluth's previous film, An American Tail. The movie became a hit worldwide, grossing nearly $84 million worldwide, which Oliver & Company did not surpass. It got two thumbs up by Siskel and Ebert.

Sequels and spin-offs

The movie generated many direct-to-video sequels. 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.

A recent Television series has been released in North America which 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).

The plot of Disney's 2000 film Dinosaur bears many similarities to that of The Land Before Time.

Editing of the film

Like Disney's The Black Cauldron, which was made three years earlier, and Warner Bros./Zoetrope's The Outsiders, which was made five years earlier, The Land Before Time went under a severe cutting and editing of footage. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas thought that some scenes in the movie would appear too frightening or could even cause psychological damage to young children. Around 10 minutes of footage, a total of 19 fully animated scenes, were cut from the final film. A lot of the cut footage consisted of the Tyrannosaurus rex attack sequence and sequences of the five young dinosaurs in severe situations of peril and negative stress. Another piece cut from the movie was the death of the main characters and their going to the "Great Valley," which turned out to be an interpretation of Heaven. Original audiences were displeased with this and the ending was changed. Don Bluth was unhappy with the cuts, and fought for all the footage, but in the end he had to settle on a final running time of 69 minutes, one of Don Bluth’s shortest; in fact one of the shortest feature films ever produced (depending on how "feature film" is defined).^[3]

As of today, the original cut of the film with the removed scenes has not been released on video or DVD. In fact what actually happens in the scenes is not known because Don Bluth says that the scenes have been thrown away.^{[citation needed]}

Another part of the movie that was going to be eliminated was the death of Littlefoot’s mother. However, it was thought that if the scene were removed it would simply produce problems in explaining why Littlefoot had to journey to the Great Valley alone. In the end, psychologists were shown the scene and gave feedback to the production team. The character of Rooter was brought in to the story to soften the emotional blow, and teach Littlefoot and the audience that although loved ones may die, they are always with us in the lessons we have learned from them.^[3]

Some scenes with the characters in the movie screaming were revoiced with them having milder exclamations.^[3]

Production notes

Steven Spielberg and George 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 appeal to children.^[3] It was George Lucas's idea to make Cera a girl.^[3]

The end credits for the film featured the hit song "If We Hold On Together" by Diana Ross, the only lyrical song in the original film. Animation Production took place at Sullivan Bluth Studios in Dublin, Ireland.

Inaccuracies

The dinosaurs featured existed in different time periods. Apatosaurus and Stegosaurus existed in the late Jurassic period, while Triceratops, Pteranodon, Saurolophus and Tyrannosaurus existed in the late Cretaceous period. Therefore, the period where this film takes place is unspecified.
As far as we know, some of the dinosaurs might not have cared for their young, particularly Apatosaurus.
Pteranodon ate fish and lived near beaches and coastal areas, and didn't have teeth.
Adult Pteranodon are bigger than depicted in the film.
Tarpits are not just giant pools of tar, they are supposed to have a layer of water and sand this way the creature being fooled would not realize it was a trap.
Tarpits did not form during the age of the dinosaurs, they formed during the Cenozoic era.
A Dimetrodon appears once in the film, which would have been extinct before the dinosaurs appeared. Also Dimetrodon was bigger than the way it is depicted in the film.
Pachycephalosaurus were not carnivores, and did not have horns. However, in the sequels they are seen in the Great Valley so they might not have been trying to eat Cera. They couldve been defending their territory, or trying to eat cera because of there starvation
During the series they refer to carnivorous dinosaurs as not very smart, but most carnivorous dinosaurs were smarter than herbivores.
Tyrannosaurus did not stand up straight.
Grass is often seen in the series, and did not grow until the cenozoic, shortly after the dinosaurs died out (there was grass ancestors found in titanosaur dung).
A Meganeura appears briefly in the movie, smaller than it was in real life.
Young Triceratops had no horns when hatched other than a small pick to help break the egg. All the ceratopsians that are seen hatching have proper horns on their heads.
Pteranodon did not climb trees.
When an animal is ready to hatch from its egg (including a dinosaur), it takes a few hours for the animal to hatch.
If the carnivorous dinosaurs lived in some land where their was lava being released everywhere, then they could have died from the surface being released in the air.
Young Stegosaurus were born with very small spikes on their tails.
Tyrannosaurus couldn't jump very high.

References

^ The Land Before Time (1988) at Box Office Mojo
^ The Land Before Time DVD
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e The Animated Films of Don Bluth by Jon Cawley

External links

The Official Land Before Time Site
The Land Before Time at IMDb
Detailed Info on The Land Before Time (including plot detail)
The Land Before Time at RetroJunk.com

[1] The Land Before Time (1988) at Box Office Mojo

[2] The Land Before Time DVD

[AFDB-3] The Animated Films of Don Bluth by Jon Cawley

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