Land Before Time Retrospective #1
Released: 1988
The Land Before Time is an animated film about dinosaurs, directed by Don Bluth. And it’s fantastic. I can’t recommend it enough. Dark and scary and sad and heartfelt all rolled into one. It left an impact on me on a way that few pieces of fiction or media ever have.
It was a big enough hit to spawn an entire franchise, with multiple sequels and even a TV series. For a few years, I was quite involved in the Land Before Time fandom. It was my love of the first film that inspired me to check out the fandom, after finding out that there was an active fanbase and a forum for the series, as I wanted to meet other fans so I could gush about the film with them. It was from there that I gradually made my way through the rest of the movies and the TV series as well, reviewing each installment as a I went.
This is a collection of a few different forum posts I made where I shared my many thoughts about the first movie. I’m putting a spoiler warning here if you have not yet seen the film and have any interest in doing so, as I feel it’s better if you just go ahead and experience it for yourself.
Forum introduction post
Hey there. My name’s Ian. I’m a 29-year-old dude who resides in Alberta, Canada.
I can remember seeing the original film as a kid. My family used to have it on VHS. But then I didn’t see it again for such a long time. It often lingered on the back of my mind and I kept meaning to rewatch it, but I just never got around to it…
Until December of 2018, when I finally rented it from my local library and watched it for the first time as an adult, over 15 years later. It’d been long enough that I’d forgotten large chunks of the film. And… dang! I also forgot just how good it was. Immediately I fell in love with it. Such a wonderful story. I’m so happy I re-discovered it. I don’t cry often at movies, but I legitimately teared up when Littlefoot’s mother died.
And all this eventually brought me here, as I wanted to meet and socialize with other LBT fans.
My Land Before Time Story
I wasn’t old enough to have seen the original movie in theaters, but I did see some of the films back in my elementary school days in the 90s. As LeventeII said above, I too didn’t have a real “first time” with LBT. I can remember it was a popular series back then and it was just something I happened to get exposed to. In particular, I saw films #1-3 and #5 & 6, but the others I never watched until my adult years. I also remember my family used to own a VHS copy of the original film, but it wasn’t until many years after elementary when I saw the film again.
In 2009, a couple or so years after I graduated from high school, I composed a long list of “movies to watch or rewatch,” and the original film was on that list. Yet, for some reason, it still took me nearly an entire decade. The film occasionally lingered in the back of my mind, but I just kept not getting around to it. Finally, as the new year was approaching, I started seeing links on Fandom.com to this article discussing the film’s 30th anniversary. And this is what inspired me to rent it from my local library. So, come December 2018, and here I am finally watching it one evening at home. By this point, it had been at least 15 years since I last saw it. Maybe even 20 years.
While I could still remember the characters, it had been enough of a time gap that I’d forgotten large chunks of the film itself. The very opening underwater scene and our first shot of the dinosaurs on land were ever-so-vaguely familiar, but most of the rest of the beginning was gone from my memory. I didn’t even recall Littlefoot and Cera meeting for the first time, or Sharptooth’s first appearance and the subsequent chase and battle.
I did remember the massive tearjerker of Littlefoot losing his mother (which made me cry when I watched it again), and the following scene where he runs into Old Rooter. Those were probably the two scenes that had stayed the most vivid in my mind. There were several other fragmented images I could remember, even if the context around them was forgotten. I remembered the treestar floating down to Littlefoot while he was out wandering alone, him seeing his shadow and thinking it was his mother, Cera exploring underground and finding Sharptooth, the fake “Great Valley” the kids discover before the herd of dinosaurs eat up the leaves, and Littlefoot’s treestar getting crushed. But that was pretty much it. Even other iconic and emotional scenes like Littlefoot and Cera’s fight, or the journey through the volcano with the tar and the boneheads, or the climatic final battle against Sharptooth, I had no recollection of.
What I also forgot was just how good the film was! I knew I liked it as a kid, but it actually resonated with me more as an adult. Watching it again all these years later and I immediately fell in love with it. Things like Rooter’s speech are more meaningful to me in light of some of the loved ones I’ve lost over the years. It might be my favourite animated film of all time now. I enjoyed it so much, it’s the very thing that inspired me to join this forum.
About a month-and-a-half after I joined, I got around to watching the sequels as well, both the ones I had seen long ago and the ones I hadn’t. I was apprehensive about it initially. However, I loved the characters enough that I wanted to be able to spend more time with them, and I wanted to more openly discuss the rest of the series with the community (and partly just for the sake of completionism), so that eventually motivated me to give them a chance.
The original film is still my personal favourite. Sometimes lightning only strikes once. But I like most of the sequels. Some were better than others, but overall it was fun making my way through the movies and I enjoyed posting my thoughts about them on the forum. As of July 2019, it’s only the TV series that I have yet to watch, but I plan to cover that as well. (I later updated this with a bit more information after my initial post.)
Most heart-wrenching moments
I’m gonna have to echo what the previous few people said and go with Littlefoot watching his mother die. As I mentioned in my introduction post in the Welcome Center, I cried when I saw that part again for the first time in over 15 years.
Other honourable mentions:
Pretty much everything that follows the aforementioned scene. When that little pterosaur tries to cheer Littlefoot up by giving him the cherry, and keeps nudging it closer and closer. Littlefoot just stares on lifelessly and doesn’t even react, and then the pterosaur’s eager smile falls away. And then Littlefoot seeing what he thinks is his mother’s shadow on the side of the cliff. Even the scene with Rooter, even though Rooter is trying to comfort Littlefoot, is still kinda sad in its own way. “The great circle of life has begun. But see, not all of us arrive together at the end.”
Littlefoot and Cera’s fight. Quoting WeirdRaptor from page 2, who described it best: “The scene when Cera insults Littlefoot’s mother… when you saw the rage Cera’s hurtful words envoked in Littlefoot. One part of you knows that Littlefoot is better than that while the other half is egging him on to rip her head off. Very emotional.”
After the other kids rescue Cera from the predators and prank her with the tar, and then she leaves them in tears. Granted, I do feel Cera kinda got what she deserved. Still, she’s just been through a traumatizing experience, and subsequently gets laughed at and utterly humiliated by her friends, and it’s enough to make a normally tough and headstrong dinosaur like her completely break down. It’s the moment when she seems to realize how awful she’s been, and despite all her bravado, she’s forced to come to terms with the fact that Littlefoot is a far better leader than her.
On the more uplifting side of emotional moments, the scene where Littlefoot and Ducky first meet is really cute. She’s able to finally snap him out of his depression. I also love the music when she tries to pass off as a longneck (at 0:50 of “Foraging For Food” on the film’s official soundtrack).
Also the scene where they all cuddle up at night and go to sleep. It gives us our biggest glimpse so far that Cera does have a more caring side buried deep down. And the music is, again, fantastic.
More of an awesome moment than a heart-wrenching moment. But during the final battle, when all of a sudden Cera shows up and yells “I’M COMING!!”, and then rams the boulder and sends Sharptooth plunging into the drink. After spending the whole movie being a pompous braggart, she finally gets to do something genuinely heroic and saves the day.
And then at the very end when Littlefoot sees his mother in the clouds. Even though Sharptooth is gone, he still sounds so lost and defeated and broken. “Mother… I – I tried to do what you told me, but it’s just too hard. I’ll never find the Great Valley… Mother? Mother! Don’t go, Mother! Don’t go!”
Quote from ImpracticalDino: I also think it was heart-wrenching to see such negative influence being brought upon Cera by her father Topps. That clear bias in favor of his own species and not allowing Cera to play with others, including his very hard-headed personality has really influenced his daughter a lot to be racist and bigoted. As much as I hated her attitude, I couldn’t help but feel bad for her deep down. And yes, I know different species didn’t exactly mingle with each other before the Great Earthshake, but still.
Even though I really like Cera, I totally agree there. Notice that, upon meeting Littlefoot, she initially doesn’t seem to have any problem playing with him until Topps intervenes. In some ways, I actually think she’s a bigger victim than Littlefoot.
Another moment that gets to me is during the night when Littlefoot wakes up and sees the frog and chases after it, when you know what it leads to. And how he inadvertently caused his own mother’s death that way. Even the soothing yet somber music that plays right as he wakes up (4:48 on “Sharptooth and the Earthquake” on the film’s soundtrack). The movie just has such a haunting quality to it.
One other thing I noticed is that, right after Littlefoot and Cera’s fight, it plays a reprise of the theme where Littlefoot’s mother dies. As if this movie couldn’t get any more sad.
