The Land Before Time

Following the release of An American Tail in 1986, Don Bluth’s follow-up feature film would be The Land Before Time in 1988 in a continued partnership with Stephen Spielberg. This time, however, the film was further co-produced by George Lucas, in notably his only collaboration with Spielberg outside of the Indiana Jones series. The Land Before Time has since notoriously spawned a long-running franchise of direct-to-video sequels (13 as of this writing) and a short-lived TV series, all of which are inexplicably musicals in stark contrast to the original film. While I was aware of this franchise as a kid, the only one I wanted to see above all the others was the original The Land Before Time, which I finally got the chance to see for myself after receiving a Blu-ray copy as a Christmas gift. While the film is really good on its own merits, I found it to be an improvement over An American Tail in many areas.

Millions of years in the past, the world was populated by dinosaurs. In this time, numerous herds of dinosaurs are migrating to a place known as the Great Valley in order to escape famine, during which we see the birth of a “longneck” named Littlefoot (Gabriel Damon), one of the last of his herd. Little Foot encounters a “three-horn” named Cera (Candace Hutson) and tries to play with her despite some long-standing prejudice between dinosaur species. The two are soon chased down by a “Sharptooth” and are protected by Littlefoot’s mother (Helen Shaver). Following this encounter and an earthquake that separates Littlefoot and Cera from their herds, Littlefoot’s mother passes away from her injuries, leaving Littlefoot to find the Great Valley on his own.

While the story itself doesn’t last very long, its short running time allows for a more focused, easy to follow narrative. Within that time, there are some genuine bonding moments between the main characters and some powerful emotional scenes. The motivations of the characters are clear and there is a clear antagonist in the Sharptooth, plus the story ends on a powerful and conclusive note. The story also touches on the subject of prejudice in a tasteful way, one that isn’t preachy and would not alienate its target audience of families.

The bonding between the main characters feels genuine.
Clockwise from left: Ducky (Judith Barsi) Spike,
Littlefoot (Gabriel Damon), Cera (Candace Hutson)
On top of Littlefoot: Petrie (Will Ryan)

The storytelling is aided by some very fluid and expressive animation, which match the characters’ personalities very well. When there isn’t any spoken dialogue, the visuals are given room to speak for themselves, giving more impact to some of the more emotional scenes. The backgrounds are also spectacularly drawn, selling the primordial setting in a way that also gives more focus to the characters.

The voice acting holds up nicely as well. Most of the child characters, including Littlefoot (Gabriel Damon), Cera (Candace Hutson) and Ducky (Judith Barsi), were voiced by actual children at the time, however their performances work well, helped by the natural-sounding dialogue between them. At the time, this film ended up being released shortly after Judith Barsi’s untimely and tragic passing, though she brought a lot of energy to the role of Ducky and displayed some great potential in her acting ability that we will unfortunately never get to see. Additionally, the narration by Pat Hingle, who also voices minor character Rooter, is executed in a way that gives the movie more of a documentary vibe without feeling intrusive.

The original The Land Before Time holds up as a charming movie with some great animation and character writing. Though it clocks in at little more than an hour, it is something I would wholeheartedly recommend to fans of animation. I currently have no intention of watching any of the infamous sequels any time soon, though I would tell you to only do so if you really need your The Land Before Time fix.