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The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island

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The Land Before Time V:
The Mysterious Island
File:LBT MI.JPG
Directed byCharles Grosvenor
Written byJohn Loy
Produced byCharles Grosvenor
StarringBrandon LaCroix
Anndi McAfee
Aria Curzon
Jeff Bennett
Rob Paulsen
Cannon Young
Kenneth Mars
Miriam Flynn
John Ingle
Tress MacNeille
Christina Pickles
Narrated byJohn Ingle
Edited byJay Bixsen
Music byMichael Tavera
James Horner (music from The Land Before Time)
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal Studios Home Video
Release date
  • December 10, 1997 (1997-12-10)
Running time
74 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island is a 1997 direct-to-video animated adventure musical film produced and directed by Charles Grosvenor. This is the first film in the series in which Anndi McAfee voices Cera, Aria Noelle Curzon voices Ducky, and Miriam Flynn voices Grandma Longneck. 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 swarm of "leaf-gobblers" descends upon the 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 the 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 searching for many days, tension enters the group as Cera's father and Littlefoot's grandfather argue over changing their course, which sparks a fight between Littlefoot and Cera. The fight soon breaks up when Cera's father announces that each herd will go its own way the next morning. Not wishing to be separated, Littlefoot leads his friends off in the night, in the hope they can find food before they are caught. They leave a trail for the grownups to follow, and eventually reach the "Big Water". Although they are disheartened by the undrinkable water, they spy a verdant island connected to the mainland by a thin land bridge. On their way, an earthshake occurs, causing it to create a tsunami, which they narrowly escape. They quickly tuck in to the plentiful bounty of the island, but are then horrified to discover the tsunami has destroyed the land bridge.

Isolated on the island, they try out Cera's idea to return by using a log as a boat. The plan initially works well, despite Cera suffering seasickness and Petrie being too terrified of the Big Water to act as lookout. 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.

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, a young Sharptooth who hatched in their care before returning to his parents in the second film (who has also surprisingly learnt how to talk like the children). Whilst Chomper takes them to a safe refuge to hide from his parents, Ducky is kidnapped by a Sharptooth Flyer, but manages to escape before she can come to any harm. Chomper hides the children in foul smelling plants, 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 different Sharptooth living on the island finds and chases the children. 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; Chomper's father grudgingly admits that, after sniffing Spike (who had eaten some of the foul-smelling hideout) anything that smelt that bad wouldn't taste very good anyway. Chomper's mother also nuzzles Littlefoot, in gratitude for his actions to save Chomper from drowning. Cera realises and accepts that not all Sharpteeth are so bad and monstrous as she thought. Elsie offers to take them across the sea, so Chomper and his parents happily bid them farewell, promising that they will see each other again. When back on the mainland, they find that the herd found a lush, green, little sanctuary on the shore to stay in until the Great Valley becomes fertile again.

Voice cast

Main article: List of The Land Before Time characters

Songs

Soundtrack

Home video release history

  • December 10, 1997 (VHS and laserdisc)[1]
  • December 9, 1998 (VHS and laserdisc, the last laserdisc release - Universal Family Features)
  • December 4, 2001 (VHS)
  • April 30, 2003 (DVD)
  • December 5, 2003 (VHS and DVD - 4 Movie Dino Pack (Volume 2) and 9 Movie Dino Pack)
  • February 8, 2005 (DVD - 2 Great Movies Featuring Chomper)

Reception

Denise Lanctot of Entertainment Weekly gave the film an "A" and praised the "first-class orchestral score" and its "tail-thumping" songs.[2]

References

  1. ^ "The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island". Internet Movie Database. 9 December 1997. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
  2. ^ Lanctot, Denise (12 December 1997). "The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
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