The Land Before Time is a 1988 American animated adventure drama film directed and co-produced
by Don Bluth, and executive produced by Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Kathleen Kennedy,
and Frank Marshall.
Originally released by Universal Pictures and Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, it features
anthropomorphic dinosaurs living in the prehistoric times.
The plot concerns a young Apatosaurus named Littlefoot who is orphaned when his mother
is killed by a Tyrannosaurus.
Littlefoot flees famine and upheaval to search for the Great Valley, an area spared from
devastation.
On his journey, he meets four young companions: Cera, a Triceratops; Ducky, a Saurolophus;
Petrie, a Pteranodon; and Spike, a Stegosaurus.
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 and also
forced to deal with the murderous Tyrannosaurus that killed Littlefoot's mother.
This is the only Don Bluth film of the 1980s in which Dom DeLuise did not participate,
and the only film in The Land Before Time series that is not a musical, as well as the
only one to be released theatrically worldwide.
The film was a critical and financial success, and spawned a multi-million dollar franchise
with twelve direct-to-video sequels as well as merchandise and a television series.
Plot Near the end of the Cretaceous Period, a series
of catastrophic events are causing an intense drought and several herds of dinosaurs seek
an oasis known as the "Great Valley".
Among these, a diminished "Longneck" herd gives birth to a single baby, named Littlefoot.
Years later, Littlefoot plays with Cera, a "Three-horn", who was trying to smash a beetle
until her father intervenes; whereupon Littlefoot's mother names the different kinds of dinosaurs:
"Three-horns", "Spiketails", "Swimmers", and "Flyers" and states that each has historically
remained apart.
That night, as Littlefoot follows a "hopper", he encounters Cera again, and they play together
briefly until a "Sharptooth" appears.
He attacks them, before Littlefoot's mother comes to their rescue.
During their escape, she suffers severe back and neck injuries from the Sharptooth's teeth
and claws.
At that same time, an "earthshake" opens a deep ravine that swallows up the Sharptooth
and divides Littlefoot and Cera from their herds.
Littlefoot finds his dying mother, and receives her final words of advice in favor of his
intuition.
Depressed and confused, Littlefoot meets an old Clubtail named Rooter, who consoles him
upon learning of his mother's death.
Littlefoot later hears his mother's voice guiding him to follow the "bright circle"
past the "great rock that looks like a longneck and then past the "mountains that burn" to
the Great Valley.
Now alone in his journey, Littlefoot meets Cera once again and tries to get her to join
him, but she arrogantly refuses his help, and stalks off into darkness after falling
down a ravine.
Later, Littlefoot is accompanied by a young "Bigmouth/Swimmer" named Ducky, whose cheery
company bears him out of his depression.
Soon after, they meet a "Flyer" named Petrie, whose aerophobia makes him extremely insecure
and nervous.
Cera, who is attempting to find her own kind, finds the unconscious Sharptooth inside the
ravine.
Thinking he is dead, Cera harasses him, during which she mistakenly wakes him up, and flees.
She soon bumps into Littlefoot, Ducky, and Petrie, and tells them that the Sharptooth
is alive, although Littlefoot does not believe her.
She then describes her encounter, during which she accidentally flings Ducky into the air.
When she lands, Ducky discovers a mute hatchling "Spiketail", whom she names Spike and brings
him into the group.
Seeking the Great Valley, they discover a cluster of trees, which is abruptly depleted
by a herd of Whiptailed Longnecks.
Searching for remaining growth, they discover one tree still with leaves, and obtain food
by stacking up atop each other and pulling the leaves down.
Cera remains aloof, but at nightfall, everyone including herself gravitates to Littlefoot's
side for warmth and companionship.
The next morning, they are attacked by Sharptooth, but escape through a cave-tunnel too small
to admit him.
Beyond this, they discover the Longneck-shaped monolith mentioned by Littlefoot's mother,
and later a string of "mountains that burn".
Cera grows impatient of the seemingly resultless trip and decides to go another way, but Littlefoot
tells her that she is going the wrong way.
Cera insults Littlefoot's mother when he argues his claim, causing Littlefoot to attack her,
a move he later regrets as she bests him.
Littlefoot continues in the direction he was told, while the others follow Cera.
However, Cera's route soon leads them into danger, as Ducky and Spike become endangered
by lava and Petrie gets stuck in a tar pit.
Littlefoot rescues them, and they soon find Cera harassed by a small territorial herd
of "Dome-heads", and having been coated in tar, scare them away.
Ashamed of her fear and reluctant to admit her mistake, Cera leaves them in tears.
Later, while crossing a pond, Petrie spies Sharptooth nearby.
Tired of being stalked and determined to avenge his mother, Littlefoot plots to lure him into
the water beneath a nearby boulder, intending to drown him.
Their luring of Sharptooth succeeds, but Littlefoot and Spike have trouble moving the boulder,
putting Ducky in serious danger.
In the struggle that follows, a draft from Sharptooth's nostrils enables Petrie to fly.
Sharptooth leaps onto the boulder and the plan nearly fails until Cera reunites with
the group to allow Littlefoot and his friends to push both Sharptooth and the boulder into
the water below.
Sharptooth, who is still determined to attack the young dinosaurs, tries to take Petrie
with him to his death.
Littlefoot and his friends mourn the loss of Petrie until Ducky finds him, soaked and
exhausted, but still very much alive.
Littlefoot, alone, follows a cloud resembling his mother to the Great Valley, there to be
joined by the others.
Upon arrival, Petrie impresses his family with his newfound flight, while Ducky introduces
Spike to her family, who adopt him.
Cera reunites with her father and Littlefoot rejoins his grandparents.
Cera then calls for Littlefoot to play.
They join their friends at the top of a hill and embrace each other in a group hug.
Cast
Gabriel Damon as Littlefoot Candace Hutson as Cera
Judith Barsi as Ducky Will Ryan as Petrie
Helen Shaver as Littlefoot's mother Burke Byrnes as Cera's father
Bill Erwin as Littlefoot's grandfather Pat Hingle as Narrator and Rooter
Production During production of An American Tail, talk
began of the next feature with Steven Spielberg.
Spielberg wanted to do a film similar to Bambi, but only with dinosaurs.
An early working title for the film was The Land Before Time Began.
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 make it appealing to children.
The film was originally planned for release in fall of 1987, but the production and the
release date were delayed by a year due to the relocation of Sullivan Bluth Studios to
Dublin, Ireland.
The production was preceded by extensive research, wherein researchers visited natural history
museums in New York and Los Angeles and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
The artists had to create a credible landscape and animals.
Animators made more than 600 background images for the film.
Littlefoot was originally going to be called "Thunderfoot", until it was found out that
a Triceratops in a children's book already had that name.
It was Lucas's idea to make Cera a female Triceratops, when she was in mid-animation
as a male named Bambo.
After voicing Digit in An American Tail, Will Ryan performed the voice of Petrie.
The idea was brought up by Spielberg's son, Max.
The character of Spike was inspired by Don Bluth's pet Chow Chow, Cubby.
Editing Throughout production, The Land Before Time
underwent a severe cutting and editing of footage.
Steven Spielberg and George 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, 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.
Some screams were revoiced using milder exclamations.
Though Don Bluth was unhappy with the cuts, and fought for all the footage, he had to
settle on a final running time of 69 minutes, one of his shortest.
The sequence of Littlefoot's mother's death was shown to psychologists who gave their
feedback to the production team, and the character of Rooter was added to the story to soften
the emotional blow.
Brief portions of the scene which showed the mother's neck and back bitten have since been
edited out of home video releases and television airings, though this footage was present both
in the theatrical cut and on earlier VHS copies of the film.
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.
Track listing "The Great Migration"
"Sharptooth and the Earthquake" "Whispering Winds"
"If We Hold on Together" "Foraging for Food"
"The Rescue/Discovery of the Great Valley" "End Credits"
Reception Box office
The Land Before Time was a box office success, grossing $48 million, as well as beating the
Disney film, Oliver & Company, which was released on the same day, for the #1 spot during its
opening weekend.
It brought in a box office total of nearly $50 million during its domestic release, slightly
more than Don Bluth's previous film, An American Tail.
The film became a hit worldwide, and while Oliver & Company had grossed over its domestic
earnings, The Land Before Time grossed nearly $84 million worldwide, which the Disney film
did not surpass.
Attached to the film, Universal and Amblin issued Brad Bird's Family Dog short from their
television anthology Amazing Stories.
Reception The film has received near-universal acclaim,
with most critics comparing the film to the classic Disney films.
The film was more critically successful than Bluth's previous film, An American Tail.
At review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 74% "fresh" rating from critics.
Critics praised the fact that it covered many adult contexts such as diversity, disaster,
death, and poverty.
Siskel & Ebert gave The Land Before Time "two thumbs up"; Ebert gave its competitor, Oliver
& Company, a "thumbs up", while Siskel gave it a "thumbs down".
For his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Ebert gave the film three stars, writing "I
guess I sort of liked the film, although I wonder why it couldn't have spent more time
on natural history and the sense of discovery, and less time on tragedy."
A review in the Motion Picture Guide 1989 Annual notes that the film "has been called
a sort of prehistoric Bambi", and considers it to be more in the style of a classic Disney
film than Oliver & Company.
Legacy
The film generated many direct-to-video sequels, which differ from the original by adding "sing-a-long"
musical numbers akin to Disney animated films.
Bluth and his animation studio have no affiliation with any of the film's sequels.
The sequels have generally been met with mixed reception with several fans of the original
disregarding the sequels, while others 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.
Home video release history
International distribution Video/DVD:
UK: CIC Video USA/international: Universal Studios Home
Entertainment Television:
UK: BBC One, Cartoon Network UK, Channel 4, Five
Ireland: RTÉ Two See also
Dink, the Little Dinosaur References
External links Official website
The Land Before Time at LucasFilm.com The Land Before Time at the Internet Movie
Database The Land Before Time at AllMovie
The Land Before Time at Box Office Mojo The Land Before Time at Rotten Tomatoes