Spotlight on The Land Before Time

In light of the fact that the last post was about Dinosaur, a movie that many have compared to The Land Before Time, and also in light of the fact that I really liked that movie as kid but could not remember anything about it since it had been so long, I decided to watch it.  And though this is a Disney blog and that's not a Disney movie, I decided to do a little post about it, since there's a connection there.

The Land Before Time (1988)

Starring: Gabriel Damon, Candy Hutson, Judith Barsi, Will Ryan, Helen Shaver, Burke Byrnes, Bill Erwin, Pat Hingle

The Land Before Time is a Don Bluth film, produced by his company in conjunction with Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment.  It tells the story of Littlefoot, an orphaned Apatosaurus dinosaur who has to go to the Great Valley where there is food and water with his four friends Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike.  The film was a huge critical and financial success and spawned over a dozen direct to video sequels.

In comparing this movie to Disney's Dinosaur, I have to admit, there are some major story similarities!  They both feature packs of dinosaurs migrating to find safety as well as food and water.  The main characters in both films are orphaned.  They even both have eggs rolling away in opening sequences, which are both more moody and realistic than the rest of the film.  Both films star talking dinosaurs though they originally did not intend to.

Overall, this movie is fun and cute, and though there are similarities between this and Dinosaur, I wouldn't call Dinosaur a rip-off.  I don't think having both films in your DVD library would be redundant, either.  Especially if you like dinosaurs.