The Land Before Time
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The Land Before Time is an animated film, produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, directed by Don Bluth, with a soundtrack composed by James Horner. It was originally released in movie theatres in 1988 by Universal Pictures.
The story involves an orphaned Apatosaurus named Littlefoot who has to flee from a drought-caused famine to search for the Great Valley, an area which has been spared devastation and where dinosaurs can survive and live in harmanoy. He became orphaned after the on-screen death of Littlefoot's mother from injuries suffered while battling an antagonistic Tyrannosaurus ("Sharptooth") and the effects of an earthquake; however, upon reaching the Great Valley, he could be reunited with his grandparents.
Along the way he makes friends with four other young prehistoric creatures: Cera, a Triceratops; Ducky, a Saurolophus; Petrie, a Pteranodon; and Spike, a Stegosaurus, in order to overcome the challenges on their way.
Sequels and spin-offs
The movie generated many direct-to-video sequels, but the reaction to these have not always been favorable, with most fans of the original expressing annoyance at the superfluous addition of musical numbers (something even Disney had abandoned as of late) and more transparent lessons of morality. One Rotten Tomatoes reviewer wrote that The Land Before Time was suffering from the "excessive sequel syndrome," with films that were "pure formula." [link]
According to the Internet Movie Database, a television series based off of the movie is set to air in 2007. Any other information on this has yet to be released. [link]
Movies
The following is a list of the films in the series:- The Land Before Time (1988)
- (1994)
- (1995)
- (1996)
- (1997)
- (1998)
- (2000)
- (2001)
- (2002)
- (2003)
- (2004)
- (2007)
Voice cast
- Gabriel Damon .... Littlefoot
- Candace Hutson .... Cera
- Judith Barsi .... Ducky
- Will Ryan .... Petrie
- Pat Hingle .... Narrator/Rooter
- Helen Shaver .... Littlefoot's Mother
- Burke Byrnes .... Daddy Topps
- Bill Erwin .... Grandfather
Crew
- Directed by Don Bluth
- Story by Judy Freudberg & Tony Geiss; screenplay by Stu Krieger
Technical data
- Title: The Land Before Time
- Directed by: Don Bluth
- Written by: Judy Freudberg (story), Tony Geiss (story), and Stu Krieger (screenplay)
- Music by: James Horner
- Released on: November 18, 1988
- American picture
- Specifications: Technicolor, 35 mm 1.85:1 (color, Dolby Digital sound)
- Genre: Animation, fantasy, comedy, drama
- Runtime: 69 minutes
- MPAA Rating: G
Trivia
- It was George Lucas's idea to make Cera a girl.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
- Steven Spielberg and George Lucas originally wanted the film to have no dialogue, like the Rite of Spring sequence in Fantasia, but to make the film appealing to children, they abandoned this idea, and got actors and actresses to do the voices.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
- In the second film, they use the word "sun" instead of "Great Circle".
- The film featured a hit song by Diana Ross: 'If We Hold On Together'.
- Because they were deemed as too intense for young children, over 10 minutes of full animation was cut or trimmed. Don Bluth was unhappy with the cuts, but had to do so, making this film one of his shortest.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
- Unusually, this film was released on the same day as another animated feature, Disney's Oliver & Company.
- Disney's computer-animated film, Dinosaur, was originally intended to have no dialogue at all, in part to differentiate the film from The Land Before Time, with which Dinosaur shares many plot similarites. #redirect
- Some scenes from were shown in Beethoven's 3rd.
- Originally, all of the characters were supposed to have died, and the valley at the end was a version of Heaven. In the preshowings, too many of the audience members found this to be extremely sad content, and so it was cut.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
- In the movie an old reptile mentions "The Great Circle of Life" to Littlefoot while he mourns over the death of his mother, and at the end of the film a ghost of Littlefoot's mother speaks to him in form of a cloud. Both of these concepts were apparently borrowed in the 1994 Disney film, The Lion King.
- Judith Barsi who did the voice for Ducky, was murdered by her father, shortly before the movie was released.
Terminology
Due to the film being set in a presumably pre-Linnaean time, the movie's characters tend to refer to various animals not by scientific terminology but rather by names noting those animals' conspicuous characteristics. A list at some of the terms used throughout the series.
- Longneck Sauropod dinosaur (sauropods included Apatosaurus, Brachiosaurus, and Diplodocus, among others)
- Threehorn Triceratops and also Chasmosaurus, Anchisaurus, and Torosaurus
- Sharptooth Theropods
- Swimming Sharptooth sharks, and pliosaurs
- Bigmouth Hadrosaur (these dinosaurs have also been dubbed as "swimmers" in later films, but paleontologist Robert T. Bakker disputed the idea of hadrosaurs as regular swimmers in his book "The Dinosaur Heresies")
- Flyers Pterosaurs
- Spiketail Stegosaurus
- Clubtail Ankylosaurus
- Thicknose Pachyrhinosaurus
- Big mouthed Belly-crawlers Crocodiles
- Egg-stealer Struthiomimus
- Rainbow Face Misidentified as a Troodon, which it obviously cannot be, since Troodons were meat-eaters a.k.a. "Sharpteeth." More likely they were supposed to be some kind of Ostrich dinosaur like Ornithomimus. Rainbow Faces only appeared in one movie, and only two of them were seen. (However, it is possible they could be Troodon since these dinosaurs ate primarily small mammals, insects, and lizards. Also, it was believed that Troodon might've also eaten some plants. Which, of course, would make it an omnivore)
- Tree-star A star-shaped leaf known for its delicious taste
- Tree-sweet A delicious pink flower that is considered a treat; it is an honor to eat the first tree sweet of the year
External links
| Don Bluth |
|---|
| Video Games |
| Dragon's Lair (1983) • Space Ace (1984) • (1991) |
| Animated films |
| The Small One (1978) • Banjo the Woodpile Cat (1982) • The Secret of NIMH (1982) • An American Tail (1986) • The Land Before Time (1988) • All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989) • Rock-A-Doodle (1991) • Thumbelina (1994) A Troll in Central Park (1994) • The Pebble and the Penguin (1995) • Anastasia (1997) • Bartok the Magnificent (1999) • Titan A.E. (2000) |
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