The Land Before Time (1988) Review by TreyVore

 The Land Before Time (1988)

Distributor: Universal Pictures

Director: Don Bluth

Cast: Gabriel Damon (Littlefoot), Candace Hutson (Cera), Judith Barsi (Ducky), Will Ryan (Petrie), Helen Shaver (Littlefoot’s mother), Pat Hingle (Narrator)

Runtime: 69 min.

MPAA Rating: G (all ages admitted)

This movie, likely set in the early Cretaceous period, is about a baby “Long-Neck” (a sauropod… I am saying “sauropod” to avoid the issues that come with saying “Brontosaurus” or “Apatosaurus”) named Littlefoot who is born during a time when the Earth was changing. One night he is saved from a vicious Sharptooth (Tyrannosaurus Rex) by his mother at the cost of her own life. Now forced to go without her, he winds up befriending four other baby dinosaurs: a prejudiced “Three-Horn” (Triceratops) named Cera, a cheery “Big-Mouth” (Saurolophus) named Ducky, a timid non-flying “Flier” (Pteranodon) named Petrie and a silent “Spike-Tail” (Stegosaurus) named Spike. Together they must journey across various hazardous regions in order to find the lush “Great Valley”, a land untouched by the changing land. Can this unlikely quintet of baby dinosaurs find the Great Valley first, and if they don’t, will the land kill them first or will the Sharptooth?

This movie, the third major Don Bluth movie from the 80s, was originally pitched as “Bambi with dinosaurs” and animated over in Ireland. It had a bit of a troubled production history as the original uncut movie was extremely powerful—so powerful, it was feared by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas that children would be crying and parents would be sending them angry letters. So about 19 minutes of the movie were cut so that the MPAA would rate it G instead of PG. The final movie we got in 1988 only ran for about 1 hour and 9 minutes; to add to its runtime the first segment of Amazing Stories’ “Family Dog” was added to proceed the feature.

As a result, Don Bluth considers it to be Old Shame—according to him it may have just fallen below his standards.

You have probably heard this story before, but it’s definitely got its own voice and personality. Tonally, the movie has an odd but fitting mix of mature and immature. The featured characters are most definitely children, but end up having to deal with a mix of mature issues like death, starvation, natural erosion, and prejudice. It’s all coming at a group of childlike characters who you would think are barely preteens.

Another beautiful aspect is the animation. It’s fully cel-animated and Don Bluth’s masterful craftsmanship is fully realized here. Everything is beautifully animated and all the background sets look like they could be framed. The whole thing does an amazing job creating a world that you may have to use your imagination to have experienced. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore.

Because this is a kids’ movie, the characters are children and that helps with the identifiability. The one you probably gravitate towards the strongest might be Littlefoot being that he’s supposed to be the leading character, at least, of the leads. One night he is attacked by a vicious Sharptooth, and saved by his mother, which results in her death. Many people cite this sequence as a very tragic sequence.

However… rant mode on… there are some people that I see where they say “Oh I found this to be much more effective than The Lion King” and listing various reasons. To those people, I’m going to say this:

You are clearly missing the point.

The sequence is most definitely a tragic scene, and there is nothing comical about it; you’re dealing with it and not in any mood to make jokes, if I understand correctly. Under any circumstance the death of family member is the worst possible thing. However there is a silver lining that comes with it: his mother may have died, but now Littlefoot can start calling his own shots. If anything he probably spends too much time grieving over his mother’s death; it creates a somewhat somber tone that the movie takes a while to get over. Even if Littlefoot didn’t meet Ducky and Petrie almost immediately after his mother’s death, that Big-Lipped Alligator Moment with the baby Pterodactyls fighting over a cherry was probably what the movie needed to brighten the mood.

For the other four characters, Cera is basically the anti-Littlefoot. Whereas Littlefoot would be happy to make friends with just anyone, Cera only seems to see those of her own kind as legit. Where Littlefoot holds no grudges against anyone and keeps his pride in check, Cera is completely stubborn and needs to be shamed into admitting she needs aid at times. Ducky and Petrie are respectively the cute one and the funny one and they both add to the charm factor; Ducky’s cheery optimism brightens the mood considerably and Petrie is supposed to be a clumsy goof who needs to conquer his fear of flying. Spike is the only one who just seems to be there just as a bit of muscle power. He doesn’t speak at all which I think is fine; he most definitely will hold up as a character.

Probably the only real problems I have are that the movie has some rather obvious cuts that were made for the sake of the G rating. The Sharptooth is really nothing more than mindless killer and has no personality of his own. I don’t see that as bad if they were trying to make a beast of lethal instinct. Even without that though, the characters do seem to make choices on a dime; in one scene Littlefoot continues to carry an upbeat attitude and thinks he will find the Great Valley; the next he’s seemingly given up and thinks it’s beyond all hope. Spike, Ducky and Petrie have no bigger incentive to join Cera other than she seemingly won a fight. Littlefoot’s mother tells him that to reach the Great Valley, they need to pass the “mountains that burn”, are those volcanoes? When Littlefoot tries to stop Cera from ‘going the wrong way’ those sure seem like “mountains that burn” to me. How do we know Littlefoot’s way was 100% accurate? We’ll never know. And how else would Littlefoot have known Petrie was still alive at the end?

These are minor quibbles though—The Land Before Time is still an amazing movie that still holds up. As a child of the 1980s and dinosaur authority, this movie should be something a child should consider viewing. There are a number of sequels but they do not have the longevity of this film in that they lose any mature angles for childish tones and pointless songs. I give it a very high recommendation.

Side note is if your child has an interest in dinosaurs, it’s been proven that they are smarter than average.

The Land Before Time (1988) 

TreyVore rates it: A- - Excellent!