The Land Before Time (film)

The Land Before Time is a 1988 animated adventure drama film directed and produced by Don Bluth and executive produced by Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Kathleen Kennedy, and Frank Marshall. The film stars the voices of Gabriel Damon, Candace Hutson, Judith Barsi and Will Ryan with narration provided by Pat Hingle.

The Land Before Time
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDon Bluth
Produced by
Screenplay byStu Krieger
Story by
Starring
Narrated byPat Hingle
Music byJames Horner
Edited by
  • John K. Carr
  • Dan Molina
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal Pictures[1]
Release date
  • November 18, 1988 (1988-11-18)[2]
(US)
Running time
69 minutes
Country
Box office$84.5 million[2]

Produced by the American companies Amblin Entertainment and Lucasfilm, and the American-Irish Sullivan Bluth Ltd., it features dinosaurs living in the prehistoric times. The plot concerns a young "Longneck" (Apatosaurus) named Littlefoot, who is orphaned[3] when his mother is killed by a vicious carnivore. 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 the "Threehorn" (Triceratops), Ducky the "Bigmouth" (Saurolophus), Petrie the "Flyer" (Pteranodon), and Spike the "Spiketail" (Stegosaurus).[4]

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 forced to deal with a "Sharptooth" (Tyrannosaurus rex). This is the only Don Bluth film of the 1980s in which Dom DeLuise did not participate (instead, he starred in Disney's Oliver & Company that same year), 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 released by Universal Pictures on November 18, 1988, to generally positive reviews from critics and was a box office success, grossing $84.4 million. Its success, along with An American Tail and the 1988 live-action/animated film Who Framed Roger Rabbit led to Spielberg to found his animation studio, Amblimation. The first film spawned a franchise with thirteen direct-to-video sequels and a television series and merchandise, none of which had Bluth, Spielberg or Lucas' involvement.

Plot

During the age of the dinosaurs, a massive famine forces several herds of dinosaurs to seek an oasis known as the Great Valley. Among these, a mother in a diminished "longneck" herd gives birth to a single baby, named Littlefoot. Years later, Littlefoot plays with Cera, a "three-horn", until her father intervenes and tells her that three-horns don't play with longnecks, whereupon Littlefoot's mother describes the different kinds of dinosaurs: "three-horns", "spike-tails", "swimmers", and "flyers". That night, as Littlefoot follows a "hopper", he encounters Cera again, and they play together briefly until a large "Sharptooth" attacks them. Littlefoot's mother comes to their rescue, but receives fatal injuries in the process. An earthquake swallows up the Sharptooth and divides Littlefoot and Cera and other dinosaurs from their herds while some die in the process, including Littlefoot's mother, who gives her son some words of advice about finding the Great Valley before she dies that night. Confused and in grief, Littlefoot meets an old "clubtail" named Rooter, who consoles him. He is then guided by his mother's voice telling him to follow the sun to the Great Valley and pass several landmarks, such as a rock formation that resembles a Longneck and the "Mountains that Burn".

Later, Littlefoot meets a "bigmouth" named Ducky and a "flyer" named Petrie, who accompany him on his journey. Cera, who is attempting to find her own kind, finds the unconscious Sharptooth inside a ravine and mistakenly wakes him up. She escapes and bumps into Littlefoot, Ducky, and Petrie; she tells them that the Sharptooth is alive and pursuing them, but Littlefoot does not believe her. As Cera describes her encounter, she accidentally flings Ducky to the direction of a lone hatching "spiketail", whom she names Spike and inducts into the group. Seeking the Great Valley, they discover a cluster of trees, which is abruptly depleted by a herd of Longnecks. Searching for remaining growth, they discover a single leaf-bearing tree, and obtain food by stacking up atop each other and pulling it 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 the Sharptooth, but they manage to escape through a tunnel that is too small for him to follow. Beyond this, they discover the landmarks mentioned by Littlefoot's mother. Cera stubbornly decides to go another way, but Littlefoot, fed up with Cera's stubbornness, refuses, and their ensuing fight leads to a schism that divides him from the others. However, when Ducky and Spike become endangered by lava, Petrie gets stuck in a tar pit, and Cera gets ambushed by a pack of "domeheads" (Pachycephalosaurus) who are also living in the Mountains that Burn, Littlefoot returns to rescue them. He, along with Ducky, Petrie and Spike, pose as a tar monster, scaring Cera out of her wits. When she realizes who it really is, she storms off in a huff. It is not long, however, until she gives in to her guilt, being that her stubbornness put others in danger for her own selfish desires, and the imagined shame she would receive from her father. Later, while crossing a pond, Petrie overhears the Sharptooth nearby. The group devises a scheme to lure him to the pond and drown him in the deep side using a nearby boulder. During the ensuing struggle, a draft from the Sharptooth's nostrils enables Petrie to fly for the first time.

The plan nearly fails when the Sharptooth begins attacking the boulder while the group attempts to push it onto him. However, Cera reunites with the group, and she headbutts the boulder, causing the Sharptooth to fall into the water below with the boulder falling on him in the process. The Sharptooth momentarily takes Petrie down with him to his death, but he later emerges unharmed. Littlefoot, alone, follows a cloud resembling his mother, which guides him to the Great Valley. He is then joined by the others. Upon arrival, the five are reunited with their families: Petrie impresses his family with his newfound flight; Ducky introduces Spike to her family, who adopt him; Cera reunites with her father; and Littlefoot rejoins with his grandparents. The group then rejoins at the top of a hill and embrace each other in a hug.

Cast
Main article: List of The Land Before Time characters

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 with only dinosaurs. George Lucas was also brought in on the project. An early working title for the film was The Land Before Time Began.[5] Spielberg and 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.[6]

Editing

Throughout production, The Land Before Time underwent a severe cutting and editing of footage. Spielberg and 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 10 minutes of footage, comprising 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. Examples can be seen in the storyboards of the chase sequence in the briar patch. POV shots of Sharptooth's snapping jaws were deleted, and shots were rearranged to shorten the sequence.[7] This results in continuity errors, depicting the Tyrannosaur with his right eye still open after it had been blinded.[8][9] Some screams were re-voiced using milder exclamations.[6]

Music and soundtrack
The Land Before Time Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by
Various Artists
ReleasedNovember 21, 1988[10]
GenreSoundtrack
Length57:49
LabelMCA Records (1988)
Geffen Records (2013)
ProducerJames Horner
Don Bluth Music of Films chronology
An American Tail
(1986)		 The Land Before Time Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
(1988)		 All Dogs Go to Heaven
(1989)
Singles from The Land Before Time Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
  1. "If We Hold on Together"
    Released: January 21, 1989

The music for The Land Before Time was composed by James Horner, who had previously provided the soundtrack for An American Tail, and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and the Choir of King's College. An official soundtrack was released on audio cassette and vinyl record on November 21, 1988, and later on CD by MCA Records, and features seven tracks from the movie.[11] The film's theme song "If We Hold on Together" was sung by Diana Ross and was released as a single on January 21, 1989, peaking at number 23 on the US adult contemporary charts,[12] and was later included on her 1991 album The Force Behind the Power.[13] A digital version of the soundtrack was released on a number of services on January 22, 2013 by Geffen Records.[14]

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic
Filmtracks[15]
Track listing
  1. "The Great Migration" (7:49)
  2. "Sharptooth and the Earthquake" (10:33)
  3. "Whispering Winds" (9:00)
  4. "If We Hold On Together" – performed by Diana Ross/Music and words: James Horner and Will Jennings/Producer: Peter Asher (4:07)
  5. "Foraging for Food" (7:15)
  6. "The Rescue/Discovery of the Great Valley" (12:45)
  7. "End Credits" (6:22)

Personnel

Release

The Land Before Time opened on November 18, 1988, the same day as the Disney film, Oliver & Company.

Attached to the film, Universal and Amblin issued Brad Bird's Family Dog short from their television anthology Amazing Stories.[16]

Critical response

The Land Before Time holds a 70% "fresh" approval rating from review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes from 33 critics, with the consensus: "Beautifully animated and genuinely endearing, The Land Before Time is sure to please dino-obsessed tykes, even if it's a little too cutesy for older viewers."[17] Metacritic assigned a score of 66, based on reviews by 15 critics, signifying "Generally favorable reviews".[18]

Critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave the film "two thumbs up" on a 1988 episode of their television program At the Movies.[19] Siskel found it to be "sweet more than it was scary" and "quite beautiful", also praising its straightforward story and remarked that he would recommend it to children over Disney's Oliver and Company, released the same day.[19] In his own review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Ebert gave the film three out of four 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."[20] Peter Travers of People magazine felt the movie had an unclear audience, stating "The animation is fine. But the Stu Krieger screenplay contains violence that might be hard on the younger ones, [...] and a never-let-up cuteness that can turn minds of all ages to mush."[21] Los Angeles Times writer Sheila Benson also stated that the movie's enjoyment was limited to younger viewers, remarking "do dinosaurs really lend themselves to ootsie-cutesiness?"[22] Hal Hinson of The Washington Post wrote that "Still, though it's not a great film, it is an entertaining and, at times, emotionally rich one."[23]

Many reviewers compared The Land Before Time to films from Disney's Golden Age. Steven Rea of the Philadelphia Inquirer said that the movie "looks and sounds as if it came out of the Disney Studios of the '40s or '50s. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing," calling it "meticulously crafted" but was also "mildly disappoint[ed]" that the dialog wasn't as sophisticated.[24] In her review for the Sun-Sentinel, Candice Russel similarly remarked, "The Land Before Time works by evoking the simple virtues of this art aimed at children, as it was in the beginning when Disney animated Mickey Mouse."[25] A review from the Motion Picture Guide 1989 Annual notes that the film "has been called a sort of prehistoric Bambi".[26] David Kehr from the Chicago Tribune similarly felt that the film's title "also refers to the Disney past, but it goes for all the marbles. Its model is nothing less than the life-cycle saga of Bambi, and that Bluth gets even half the way there is proof of a major talent."[27] Kehr gave the movie three-and-a-half out of four stars, calling it "as handsome and honest an animated feature as any produced since Walt Disney's death; it may even be the best."[28]

Box office

The film opened at number 1 in the United States and Canada during its opening weekend with a gross of $7.5 million. Overall, it grossed $48.1 million at the US box office, slightly more than Don Bluth's previous film, An American Tail, but $5 million less than Oliver & Company which was released at the same time. The Land Before Time grossed $84.5 million worldwide.[2]

Accolades

The Land Before Time was nominated for "Best Family Animation or Fantasy Motion Picture" at the 10th annual Youth in Film Awards, losing out to Tim Burton's Beetlejuice.[29] It also received a nomination for "Best Fantasy Film" at the 16th Saturn Awards ceremony in 1990, beaten by Who Framed Roger Rabbit.[30]

AwardNominationNomineeResult
Saturn AwardBest Fantasy FilmThe Land Before TimeNominated
Youth in Film AwardBest Family Animation or Fantasy Motion PictureThe Land Before TimeNominated

Home media

The Land Before Time was released on VHS on September 14, 1989, November 22, 1991 as well as LaserDisc in regular pan and scan[31] and "Special Collector's Edition" CAV-play editions by Universal Studios in North America and internationally, and CIC Video in the UK.[32] According to the book The Animated Films of Don Bluth, the original release did "very successful business" on the home video market, and included a promotional tie-in with Pizza Hut in North America, which was offering rubber hand puppets based on the film at the time.[6] Pizza Hut also ran its partnership with the film's VHS release in Australia. The VHS version was made available once more on February 20, 1996, under the Universal Family Features label,[33] and was later packaged with following three films in the series as part of the Land Before Time Collection on December 4, 2001.[34]

The film was released on DVD for the first time on April 30, 1997,[35] and re-released in December 2, 2003, as the "Anniversary Edition" for the movie's 15th anniversary, which included games and sing-along songs.[36] The Anniversary Edition was later included with An American Tail and Balto as a three-movie pack in November 2007.[37] A widescreen Blu-ray version was available for the first time on October 13, 2015, which included digital HD and UltraViolet copies,[38] which was accompanied by a new widescreen DVD release on the same day.[39]

Legacy
Main articles: The Land Before Time (franchise) and The Land Before Time (TV series)

The film generated 13 direct-to-video sequels, which differ from the original by adding "sing-along" musical numbers. Bluth and his animation studio, nor Spielberg or Lucas, 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.

In 2007 a television series was released in North America. It follows the style of the sequels in terms of the morality and the musical numbers (with some of the songs being shortened, and reworked).

References
  1. "The Land Before Time". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved May 13, 2017.
  2. "The Land Before Time (1988)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  3. Lenburg, Jeff (2009). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons (Third ed.). Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8160-6599-8.
  4. "The Land Before Time". Universal Pictures Entertainment. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  5. Maltin, Leonard (1987). Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons. New American Library. p. 354. ISBN 0-452-25993-2.
  6. Cawley, Jon (October 1991). The Animated Films of Don Bluth. Image Pub of New York. ISBN 0-685-50334-8.
  7. http://markpudleiner.blogspot.ca/2015/04/don-bluth-storyboards-2-land-before.html Part 1 – Don Bluth – Storyboards – The Land Before Time – Tyrannosaurus Attack
  8. http://markpudleiner.blogspot.ca/2015/06/part-2-don-bluth-storyboards-land.html Don Bluth – Storyboards – The Land Before Time – Tyrannosaurus Attack
  9. http://markpudleiner.blogspot.ca/2015/10/part-3-don-bluth-storyboards-land.html Don Bluth – Storyboards – The Land Before Time – Tyrannosaurus Attack
  10. "James Horner, Diana Ross – The Land Before Time". Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  11. "The Land Before Time [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] – James Horner". AllMusic. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  12. "The Land Before Time [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] – James Horner / Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  13. "The Force Behind the Power – Diana Ross". AllMusic. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  14. "The Land Before Time(Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)". 7digital United States. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  15. "Filmtracks: The Land Before Time (James Horner)". Filmtracks. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  16. Thompson, Anne (November 3, 1988). "The Profits Keep Rolling In For Spielberg". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved October 30, 2015.
  17. "The Land Before Time – Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
  18. Metacritic, "The Land Before Tie (1988)". Retrieved July 19, 2017.
  19. "The Land Before Time, Oliver and Company, Child's Play (1988)". Siskel & Ebert.org. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
  20. Ebert, Roger (November 18, 1988). "The Land Before Time". Roger Ebert.com. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
  21. Travers, Peter (November 28, 1988). "Picks and Pans Review: The Land Before Time". People. 30 (22). Retrieved October 29, 2015.
  22. Benson, Sheila (November 18, 1988). "MOVIE REVIEWS : Dogs, Dinosaurs from Disney, Bluth : 'The Land Before Time'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 30, 2015.
  23. Hinson, Hal (November 18, 1988). "'The Land Before Time' : (G)". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  24. Rea, Steven (November 18, 1988). "A Prehistoric Tale Of Adventure And Survival Of The Cutest". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
  25. Russel, Candice (November 18, 1988). "Animated Dinosaur Adventure Evokes Disney's Best". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
  26. The Motion Picture Guide: 1989 Annual. Jenny Mueller (Editor), Jeffrey H. Wallenfeldt (Senior Editor), Jennifer Howe, Michaela Tuohy (Associate Editors), William Leahy (Editorial Director). Evanston, Illinois: Cinebooks, Inc. 1989. pp. 185–186. ISBN 0-933997-20-5.CS1 maint: others (link)
  27. Kehr, David (November 18, 1988). "'Land' Shows The Inspiration That 'Oliver' Lacks". Chicago Tribune. p. 1. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
  28. Kehr, David (November 18, 1988). "'Land' Shows The Inspiration That 'Oliver' Lacks". Chicago Tribune. p. 2. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
  29. "10 Annual Awards". Young Artist Awards. Archived from the original on July 11, 2016. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
  30. "Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA (1990)". IMDb. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
  31. "Land Before Time, The [40864]". LaserDisc Database. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  32. "Land Before Time, The [40924]". LaserDisc Database. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  33. The Land Before Time [VHS]. ASIN 6303939015.CS1 maint: ASIN uses ISBN (link)
  34. The Land Before Time Collector's Set (Volumes 1-4) [VHS]. ASIN 6304432550.CS1 maint: ASIN uses ISBN (link)
  35. Land Before Time. ISBN 0-7832-1979-2.
  36. "The Land Before Time (Anniversary Edition)". Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  37. "Amblin/Spielberg Animated Family Favorites 3-Movie Collection". Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  38. "The Land Before Time Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  39. Bluth, Don (October 13, 2015), The Land Before Time, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, retrieved July 26, 2016
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