The Land Before Time [Blu-ray]

Overview

Animation producer Don Bluth's fondness for overly cutesy characters and muddy color compositions work to the benefit of his feature-length cartoon The Land Before Time. Littlefoot, a brontosaurus child, must fend for himself when his mother is killed (shades of Bambi). With several other orphaned dinosaurs, Littlefoot seeks out the fabled Great Valley, where food and shelter is plentiful. Along the way, the kiddie dinos learn several vital (and politically correct) life lessons, all the while keeping themselves scarce whenever the fierce tyrannosauri gallumph into view. The cuteness of the characters (emphasized by the voice work) takes some of the harsh edges off the story, which makes the film eminently suitable for younger children; and the smeary color design is ideal for the time-frame of the film, which is set in the turbulent, nature-run-rampant period just before the dinosaurs died out. Apparently they didn't all die, inasmuch as a Land Before Time sequel was released on video in 1994. The earlier film inspired a 1988 Saturday morning cartoon series produced by Ruby-Spears, Dink: The Little Dinosaur.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/15/2019
UPC:	0191329089941
Original Release:	1988
Rating:	G
Source:	Universal Studios
Language:	English
Time:	1:09:00
Sales rank:	12,918

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Gabriel Damon	Littlefoot
Pat Hingle	Narrator/Rooter
Helen Shaver	Littlefoot's Mother
Candice Houston	Cera
Judith Barsi	Ducky
Fred Gwynne	Voices
Kim Hasper	Voices
Andrea Wick	Voices
Karl Schulz	Voices
Arnold Marquis	Voices
Wilhelm Borchert	Voices
Felix Avitia	Actor
Tony Amendola	Actor
Reba McEntire	Actor
Meghan Strange	Actor
George Ballot	Actor
Anndi McAfee	Actor
Rob Paulsen	Actor
Barry Bostwick	Actor
Miriam Flynn	Actor
Bill Erwin	Grandfather
Burke Byrnes	Voices
Candace Hutson	Voices,Cera
Will Ryan	Petrie
Diana Ross	Voices
Frank Welker	Voices
June Foray	Dinosaurs
Burke Barnes	Daddy Topps
James Horner	Composer

Technical Credits

Stu Krieger

S.S. Wilson

Brent Maddock

Don Bluth	Director,Producer
Stu Krieger	Screenwriter
Gary Goldman	Producer
John Pomeroy	Producer
Steven Spielberg	Executive Producer,Producer
George Lucas	Executive Producer,Producer
Kathleen Kennedy	Executive Producer
Frank Marshall	Executive Producer
D.A. Lanpher	Special Effects
Dave Bossert	Special Effects
Judith Barsi	Producer
Nancy Mayor	Casting
S.S. Wilson	Screenwriter
Roy Smith	Producer
Brent Maddock	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Don Bluth's The Land Before Time became a surprisingly marketable brand name for a film well short of classic status, inspiring over a half-dozen cut-rate sequels and spin-offs that are best suited as babysitting videos for preschoolers. In this first outing, the only one in which Bluth was involved, the creator of The Secret of N.I.M.H. and An American Tail again proves that the animation techniques he learned at Disney don't need Disney's army of screenwriters to make good entertainment. Because it was released years before Jurassic Park or Disney's CGI film Dinosaur, which borrows plot elements from Land, Bluth's film provides fresh-enough images of this dark and volcanic landscape to seem groundbreaking. By making the characters preciously cute and vocally infantile, Bluth softens this cruelly Darwinian moment in history without having to cheer up his production design, keeping an unambiguous "G" rating in the process. The teasingly short running time -- the movie struggles to crack the hour mark -- should also keep the youngest children from squirming. Although Littlefoot and his buddies aren't particularly memorable, they do register enough to keep the viewers concerned during moments of peril, which are as involving as they need to be. The sophisticated visuals and the huggable young dinos are enough to make The Land Before Time a fond favorite, even if it does scrimp a little in the wit department. No less than George Lucas and Steven Spielberg served as executive producers on the film.

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