The Land Before Time (1988)

The Land Before Time

Director: Don Bluth
Writer: Stu Krieger
Starring: Gabriel Damon, Candace Hutson, Judith Barsi & Will Ryan

Date Watched: August 16th 2016

Verdict: THUMBS UP! 🙂

Near the end of the Cretaceous, a series of catastrophic events are causing intense drought, and several herds of dinosaurs seek one of the last livable places, a paradise 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 animals: “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 the fight, she is fatally wounded. At that same time, an “earthshake” opens a deep ravine that swallows up the Sharptooth, and divides Littlefoot and Cera from their herds. Dinosaurs are seen dying from the earthshake. 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 the darkness after falling down a ravine.

Later, Littlefoot is accompanied by a young “Bigmouth” named Ducky, whose cheery company bears him out of his depression. Soon after, they meet a “Flyer” named Petrie, whose aerophobia and inability to fly makes him extremely insecure and nervous. Meanwhile, Cera, who is attempting to find her own kind, finds the unconscious Sharptooth inside the ravine. Thinking he is dead, she harasses him, during which she unintentionally wakes him up, and flees in terror. 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 (exaggerating her bravery), 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 the 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 aimless trip and, after they arrive to a barren valley she mistakes for the Great Valley, decides to go another way. Littlefoot tries to tell her that she is going the wrong way, and eventually he is pushed into attacking her, but the two end up hurting each other to the point where they hate each other. Not caring about Cera’s disloyalty, Littlefoot continues in the direction he was told, while the others follow Cera, who feel her route is easier. 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 after falling off Cera. Littlefoot rescues them, and they soon find Cera harassed by a small gang of large angry “Dome-Heads”. Having been coated in tar while trying to rescue Petrie, they 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 the Sharptooth nearby. Tired of being stalked and determined to avenge his mother, Littlefoot plots to lure him into the water (using Ducky as bait) beneath a nearby boulder, intending to drown him. Their luring of the Sharptooth succeeds, but Littlefoot and Spike have trouble moving the boulder, putting Ducky in serious danger. In the struggle that follows, a draft from the Sharptooth’s nostrils enables Petrie to fly, which also cures his fear of flying, and gives him the courage to stall Sharptooth. 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 apparent loss of Petrie until Ducky finds him, soaked and exhausted, but still very much alive, to her delight.

Littlefoot, alone, follows a cloud resembling his mother to the Great Valley, where he is 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, while looking up to the sky.

Thoughts:

I had not seen this film since I was a kid so had no idea whether I would still hold it in as high regard but I certainly expected a tonne of childhood memories to come flooding back.
The first thing that struck me about the film is how short the running time is, it clocks in at just under an hour and I don’t know why but I always had memories of it going on for longer than that, although perhaps I’m confusing this film for one of the other 700 sequels. The film’s short length makes it all the more confusing that at the end of the film we get a montage of all the touching moments we just saw in the movie. Judging by the amount of sentiment in this scene you’d swear this was the series finale of a long running TV show, not a 70 minute movie.

Secondly I was amazed at the attention to detail that went into the drawing style of this film, and all Don Bluth films come to think of it. Admittedly it would be hard to make dinosaurs look all that realistic using only traditional animation methods as 3D and CGI were still some years away at this point. But the detail that went into the landscapes and the wildlife is just mind-boggling, you look at some of the rock formations in this movie and there are shadows positioned appropriate to the location of the sun and it’s the same in virtually every shot, the only other animator who does this kind of intricate detail is Miyazaki.

There’s not all that much to say about the story since it is pretty straight forward, it’s just a bunch of dinosaurs walking and although it gets a little more adventurous as the film goes on it still has this layer of simplicity throughout. Although this makes it fine for children I still think they could have made the material a little more challenging in this film, they had the opportunity to do something really special about the history of the dinosaurs and the Earth as it was before we showed up and sort of ruined it. instead all we really get is a cute story about a bunch of cuddly little creatures making their way to their new home. As a matter of fact Steven Spielberg even described this film as “Bambi with Dinosaurs” which is pretty much spot on, we have the same death of a parent and the same group of cute friends. That’s not to say the film didn’t influence some later works, tell me that the writers of The Lion King didn’t see the scene at the end where Littefoot’s mother appears to him in cloud form plus the whole “Circle of Life” shtick, there was definitely some “borrowing” from this film on the part of the rival Disney corporation.

I still think that The Land Before Time holds up as a kids movie although having looked at it again I now see it as brilliantly made but short, sweet and cuddly film which I believe missed an opportunity to do something truly epic similar in vein to the dinosaur segments in Fantasia. That’s not to say it’s not a good movie, it’s just obviously not aimed at me any more, but the children it is aimed at will love it as I once did.

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