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“The Land Before Time,” released in 1988 and directed by Don Bluth, is surprisingly a children’s movie. There isn’t any blood or gore, and there’s definitely no foul language, but it possibly could traumatize a more sensitive audience. The film’s dark personality and dramatic moments makes its often blue-hued graphics very appropriate.
With the movie being one of the first dinosaur themed films marketed to families, it follows Littlefoot (Gabriel Damon) the “long neck” and his journey to the great valley to find food. Littlefoot at first travels with his family until a large earthquake separates him and his grandparents. Afterward, Littlefoot travels in a group made up of different dinosaur species.
What really makes the film a tear-jerker is the theatrical death of Littlefoot’s mother (Helen Shaver) as she attempts to fend off a T-rex to protect him. Surprisingly, the film almost immediately attaches the watcher to each character, so when Littlefoot’s mother dies it’s hard not to feel bad for him. Thankfully “The Land Before Time” realistically doesn’t have Littlefoot get over it quickly, which is often seen in other children’s films like “How to Train Your Dragon 2,” or “The Lion King.”
Over the course of the film, the effect of his mother’s death is extremely obvious. Littlefoot would often depressingly mope around like Eeyore, or interpret her in shadows and clouds, making the depressive aspects more prominent in the film. To combat this, the film introduces a character named Ducky.
Ducky, the “big mouth” is a hyperactive, friendly dinosaur who is only trying her best. Ducky is voiced by the late Judith Barsi, who also voices Anne-Marie in “All Dogs Go to Heaven.” Ducky ends up being the comical relief for the film that brings Littlefoot out of his depressive nature, and helps the film have a more “family fun” atmosphere.
“The Land Before Time” tackled some pretty big issues, even including extreme racism. Although it can be better said that it “wrestled” with big issues, as they were never really solved in the film. Early on, Littlefoot met a Triceratops named Cera (Candace Hudson), who often would criticize him for being a “long neck,” saying things like, “Three horns never play with long necks.”
While Littlefoot spends time with the other dinosaurs in the group, they were also not inherently racist. On the other hand, Cera constantly broke up from the group over her large ego and pride. Cera’s belief that she is better than the others never gets solved, and there was genuine conflict between them until as late as 53 minutes into the 1:08 hour long film.
The T-rex that Littlefoot’s mother fights ends up being the main villain of the film, even though it only appears for six minutes in total. This was very surprising, since “The Land Before Time” introduces the T-rex as if it’s the villain, and it plays a looming role over the film much like Darth Vader’s 12 minutes of screen time in “Star Wars: A New Hope.” Instead, the movie feels like the villain is nature, even if it is only the T-rex, which contributed to its “Jurassic-wilderness” feel.
Overall, “The Land Before Time” is a wonderful film that’s surprisingly morbid for its age and age rating. It uses great storytelling to make you feel for the characters but could have emphasized a stronger theme and villain. I rate “The Land Before Time” a 3.7 📼 out of 5.0 📼 and strongly suggest it to anybody looking for a cute film with a depressing nature, that ends up creating a really fun movie.
