The Land Before Time (film)
The Land Before Time is a 1988 animated adventure film directed and co-produced by Don Bluth from a screenplay by Stu Krieger and a story by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss.The film stars the voices of Judith Barsi, Burke Byrnes, Gabriel Damon, Bill Erwin, Pat Hingle, Candace Hutson, Will Ryan and Helen Shaver.The plot features a young brown Apatosaurus named Littlefoot, who ends up alone after his mother is attacked by a villainous Tyrannosaurus rex and dies.[4] The film explores issues of prejudice between the different species and the hardships they endure in their journey as they are guided by the spirit of Littlefoot's mother and forced to deal with a "sharptooth" (Tyrannosaurus rex).The film was released by Universal on November 18, 1988 to generally positive reviews from critics and was a box office success, grossing $84.4 million.Its success, along with An American Tail and the 1988 live-action/animated film Who Framed Roger Rabbit led Spielberg to found his animation studio, Amblimation.During the struggle, an earthshake strikes and splits the land, swallowing up the sharptooth and dividing Littlefoot, Cera, and other dinosaurs from their herds; several die in the process.[11] Bluth, Spielberg and Lucas originally wanted the film to have no dialogue, like The Rite of Spring sequence in Fantasia, but the idea was abandoned in favor of using voice actors in order to make it appealing to children.[10] The production was preceded by extensive research, including visits to natural history museums in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Petrie's apparent death scene originally went longer, and was followed by a group hug where Littlefoot says "Now we'll always be together" (this line survives in the form of a Pizza Hut promotional advertisement for the film).The music for The Land Before Time was composed by James Horner, who had previously provided the soundtrack for An American Tail, and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and the Choir of King's College.It was released as the soundtrack's lead and only single on November 5 the same year, peaking at number 23 on the US adult contemporary charts;[21] the song was later included on her 1991 album The Force Behind the Power.Attached to the film, Universal and Amblin issued Brad Bird's Family Dog short from their television anthology Amazing Stories.[29] Siskel found it to be "sweet more than it was scary" and "quite beautiful", also praising its straightforward story and remarked that he would recommend it to children over Disney's Oliver and Company, released on the same day.[31] Los Angeles Times writer Sheila Benson also stated that the film's enjoyment was limited to younger viewers, remarking "do dinosaurs really lend themselves to ootsie-cutesiness?[34] In her review for the Sun-Sentinel, Candice Russel remarked, "The Land Before Time works by evoking the simple virtues of this art aimed at children, as it was in the beginning when Disney animated Mickey Mouse".[37] Kehr gave the film three-and-a-half out of four stars, calling it "as handsome and honest an animated feature as any produced since Walt Disney's death; it may even be the best".Astle concluded that "Littlefoot is both a Joseph Smith—he sees a pillar of light and receives heavenly visitors—and a Brigham Young –he leads his followers across the plains".[39] The Land Before Time was nominated for "Best Family Animation or Fantasy Motion Picture" at the 10th annual Youth in Film Awards, losing out to Tim Burton's Beetlejuice.[citation needed] The VHS version was made available once more on February 20, 1996, under the Universal Family Features label,[45] and was later packaged with following three films in the series as part of the Land Before Time Collection on December 4, 2001.