The Land Before Time
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Land Before Time | |
|---|---|
| |
| Directed by | Don Bluth |
| Produced by | Don Bluth Gary Goldman Kathleen Kennedy George Lucas Frank Marshall John Pomeroy Steven Spielberg |
| Written by | Judy Freudberg (story) Tony Geiss (story) Stu Krieger (screenplay) |
| Starring | Gabriel Damon Candace Hutson Judith Barsi Will Ryan Pat Hingle Helen Shaver Burke Byrnes Bill Erwin |
| Music by | James Horner |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | November 18, 1988 |
| Running time | 69 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | USD$12,300,000 (estimated) |
| Followed by | The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure (1994) |
| IMDb profile | |
| United States | G |
| Great Britain | U |
| Canada (British Columbia) | G |
| Canada (Alberta) | G |
| Canada (Manitoba) | G |
| Canada (Ontario) | PG |
| Canada (Maritime) | G |
| Canada (Home Video) | G |
| Quebec | G |
| Japan | U |
| Germany | o.Al. |
| Australia | G |
| New Zealand | G |
| Singapore | G |
| Brazil | Livre |
| Colombia | |
| Denmark | A |
| Finland | K-6 |
| France | U |
| Hong Kong | I |
| Ireland | G |
| Malaysia | U |
| Mexico | A |
| Holland | |
| Norway | 7 |
| Sweden | 7 |
| Taiwan | GP |
| Iceland | L |
| West Germany | 6 |
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 harmony. Littlefoot became orphaned after the on-screen death of his 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.
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[edit] 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. Don Bluth and his animation studio have attempted to explain to their fans that they have no connection with these sequels. One Rotten Tomatoes reviewer wrote that The Land Before Time was suffering from the "excessive sequel syndrome," with films that were "pure formula." [1]
According to the Internet Movie Database, a television series based off of the film is set to air in 2007. No other information on this has yet been released. [2]
[edit] Films
The following is a list of the films in the series:
- The Land Before Time (1988)
- The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure (1994)
- The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving (1995)
- The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists (1996)
- The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island (1997)
- The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock (1998)
- The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire (2001)
- The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze (2002)
- The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water (2003)
- The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration (2004)
- The Land Before Time XI: Invasion of the Tinysauruses (2005)
- The Land Before Time XII: The Great Day of the Flyers (2006)
[edit] 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
[edit] Crew
- Directed by Don Bluth
- Story by Judy Freudberg & Tony Geiss; screenplay by Stu Krieger
[edit] Release dates
- Canada: November 18, 1988
- USA: November 18, 1988
- Japan: March 18, 1989
- Australia: September 7, 1989
- Finland: December 8, 1989
- Sweden: December 15, 1989
- France: April 17, 2002 (re-release)
[edit] 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
[edit] Home video release history
- September 14, 1989 (VHS)
- July 13, 1994 (VHS)
- February 20, 1996 (VHS)
- November 18, 1997 (DVD)
- December 9, 1997 (VHS)
- December 1, 1998 (VHS)
- May 4, 1999 (DVD)
- December 3, 2003 (VHS and DVD - 15th Anniversary Edition)
[edit] The Land Before Time in popular culture
- At the beginning of Beethoven's 3rd, there are VHS covers for the first five films in The Land Before Time film series seen in the background of the video store. Later, there are shots from The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock.
- The trailer for one of the other Universal Pictures/Amblin Entertainment animated films We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story features music from The Land Before Time.
- The plot of the Disney film Dinosaur (a multi-species herd must work together to search across a barren wilderness for a verdant valley safe from carnivores) was extremely similar to the plot of The Land Before Time.
- Also similar to the original 1988 film was the 1989 cartoon Dink, the Little Dinosaur. A multi species herd of dinosaur children (which includes an Apatosaur leader, a duckbill girl, and a Pteranodon) live together and have adventures in Dinosaur Valley while looking out for Tyrannor the Tyrannosaurus. One episode also showed a ghostly Apatosaur, perhaps inspired by Littlefoot's mother. The makers of The Land Before Time film series may have been aware of Dink when they created Archie the old Archelon for The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists, a character similar to Dink's Crusty the Turtle. (Both are old cave dwelling turtles that lecture the young dinosaurs.) By coincidence, however, Nancy Cartwright has provided voices for both Dink (TV.Com credits her as "Additional Voices") and for The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock as Dana, Cera's nephew.
[edit] Trivia
- It was George Lucas's idea to make Cera a girl.[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.[citation needed]
- 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, mostly pertaining to the Tyrannosaurus rex, was cut or trimmed. Don Bluth was unhappy with the cuts, but felt like he had to do so, making this film one of his shortest.[citation needed]
- When this film was first released on VHS, the Pizza Hut commercial was shown before the film.
- In his review forThe Land Before Time, Roger Ebert states that "perhaps the kids in the audience won't find it strange to learn that dinosaurs lived for many generations in the green valley - even though Littlefoot is earlier described as the last of his species." [3] This is inaccurate. While the end narration states that Littlefoot and his friends "grew up together in the Valley," we are told that he was the last child of his herd, not the last of his species.
[edit] Slang
Due to the film being set in a presumably pre-Linnaean time, the movie's characters tend to refer to various animals not by Greek or Latin "scientific names" 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, Diplodocus, and in The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration: Supersaurus, and Ultrasaurus, among others)
- Threehorn Three-horned ceratopsian, such as Triceratops, Chasmosaurus, and Torosaurus
- Sharptooth This applies to various species of theropods, particularly those with large, sharp teeth. Originally used for Tyrannosaurus, it may also refer to Carnosaurs and dromeosaurids.
- Swimming Sharptooth early sharks, and pliosaurs
- Swimmer Plesiosaurs, Ichthyosaurs and even Hadrosaurs (see below).
- 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-draggers Crocodiles
- Egg-napper Struthiomimus ("Struthiomimus" is actually used in one of the songs of the second movie).
- Rainbow Face The rainbow faces are commonly identified as Troodons. Aside from general appearance, this is likely due to how the Rainbow Faces are apparently aliens in disguise (see The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire for details) and how paleontologist Dale Russell suggested that if Troodon hadn't gone extinct, it might have evolved sentience, turning into an alien like reptilian humanoid. While some have argued against this on grounds that Troodon were carnivores or "Sharpteeth" and thus would not be accepted by the herbivorous dinosaurs, this doesn't neccesarily mean anything. In real life Petrie, as a Pteranodon would have been a carnivore but in the film he happily eats plants.
- Tree-star A star-shaped leaf known for its delicious taste and reliance on water. Said to be "very special" it is the staple food for the plant-eating dinosaurs. Presumably a maple or oak leaf of some sort, judging by its shape.
- Tree-sweet A delicious pink flower that is considered a treat; it is an honor to eat the first tree sweet of the year
[edit] Inaccuracies
Like many dinosaur films, there are several times that The Land Before Time film series takes artistic licence with scientific fact. For example:
- The dinosaurs featured existed in different time periods. Apatosauruses and Stegosauruses existed in the late Jurassic period and the early Cretaceous period, while Triceratopses, Pteranodons, Saurolophuses and Tyrannosauruses existed in the late Cretaceous period. Therefore, the period where this film takes place is unspecified.
- As far as we know, some of the dinosaurs might not have cared for their young, particularly Apatosaurus.
- Most dinosaurs wouldn't survive the earthquake as depicted in the film.
- Pteranodons ate fish and lived near beaches and coastal areas.
- Pteranodons didn't have teeth.
However, as the film series is children's fantasy and not meant as a documentary, the film makers felt free to ignore scientific accuracy in favor of story telling. Don Bluth was not a dinosaur fanatic when he directed the film, leading to some of the inaccuracies.
[edit] External links
- The Official Land Before Time Site
- The Land Before Time at the Internet Movie Database
- The Land Before Time Trailer at Video Detective
- Detailed Info on The Land Before Time (contains spoilers)
| The Land Before Time | |
|---|---|
| Film series |
The Land Before Time (1988) • The Great Valley Adventure (1994) • The Time of the Great Giving (1995) • Journey Through the Mists (1996) • The Mysterious Island (1997) • The Secret of Saurus Rock (1998) • The Stone of Cold Fire (2000) • The Big Freeze (2001) • Journey to Big Water (2002) • The Great Longneck Migration (2003) • Invasion of the Tinysauruses (2004) • The Great Day of the Flyers (2007) |
| Characters |
Littlefoot • Cera • Ducky • Petrie • Spike • Chomper • Sharptooth • Minor Characters |
| TV series |
The Land Before Time (2007-) |
| Songs |
Peaceful Valley (1994) |
| Don Bluth |
|---|
| Video Games |
|
Dragon's Lair (1983) • Space Ace (1984) • Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp (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) |
fr:Le Petit Dinosaure et la vallée des merveilles sv:Landet för längesedan
Categories: Articles with unsourced statements | The Land Before Time | 1988 films | Films featuring anthropomorphic characters | Films directed by Don Bluth | Animated films | Universal Pictures films | Film series | Children's films | Animated comedy films | Drama films | Fantasy films | Family films | American films | Animated film series | Coming-of-age films | Films about dinosaurs
