Review of The Land Before Time (1988) by Katchoo _ — 26 Feb 2011

This was one of my favorite films when I was a kid, and it still holds up. The Land Before Time is a beautifully animated, well written movie that is much more emotional than you'd think you'd get from a movie about dinosaurs.

The movie opens with a narrator explaining that the Earth is going through a massive drought and that many dinosaurs are dying because of it. The remaining are trying to find The Great Valley, a paradise full of food and water. The main protagonist is Little Foot, an Apatosauraus. After an earthquake seperates him from his herd and his mother being killed by a "sharptooth" (a tyrannosauraus rex), Little Foot must travel to the Great Valley with four other orphans: a triceratop named Cera, a pterodactyl named Peetree, a stegosauraus named Spike, and a Saurolophus named Ducky.

The first thing I noticed when rewatching The Land Before Time is how short the movie is. The movie barely reaches an hour length, yet covers so much in that time. The movie conveys a lot of emotion (especially the death of Little Foot's mother), and I'll admit it got me misty eyed. Something else I noticed (and it's a little nit picky), is that the movie shows clear signs of aging. There were some discoloration problems (and it's not from my VHS copy), and just slight errors. But other than that, I can't find anything wrong with The Land Before Time.

If you're a fan of Don Bluth or even not a fan, you should still check out The Land Before Time. It's a short film that's certainly worth your time. (Real rating: 84%).