Dino’s Big Adventure

For a while there Don Bluth was a huge name in animation. At one time an animator for Walt Disney, Bluth eventually split away from the company over “creative differences” on The Fox and the Hound. This led him to form his own company, Don Bluth Productions, along with a few other ex-Disney employees. Their first film, The Secret of NIHM, was a solid artistic success, although not the biggest hit financially, and his studio soon after went under. But that didn’t stop the artist as he continued working in animation, working on stories as an option outside the Disney machine, and soon enough found the right creative producer to back his works and give his group the chance to shine: Steven Spielburg.

The Spielberg partnership, which led to the label of Amblimation, produced three solid hits for Bluth: An American Tail, The Land Before Time, and All Dogs Go to Heaven, after those three, Bluth moved on to other projects whole various sequels to those films, not headed by Bluth, were produced. Bluth then went on to direct other films – Rock-a-Doodle, Thumbelina, A Troll in Central Park, and eventually Anastasia and Titan A.E., none of which found the kind of Box Office success from the animator’s three Spielberg backed releases.

Of the three, probably the film that had the largest impact, at least in the direct-to-video dumpster bin, was The Land Before Time. That 1988 dinosaur film about young dinos trying to get back to their families, somehow produced a whopping 13 sequels. For perspective, that’s more sequels than Friday the 13thOne of the most famous Slasher film franchises, the Friday the 13th series saw multiple twists and turn before finally settling on the formula everyone knows and loves: Jason Voorhees killing campers 'round Camp Crystal Lake., Nightmare on Elm StreetThe brain-child of director Wes Craven, A Nightmare on Elm Street was his answer to the glut of Slasher films that were populating the multiplex. His movie featured an immortal character, Freedy, with a powerset like none other, reshaping the expectations for Slasher movies to come., or HellraiserBorn from a short story by Clive Barker, this series introduced a new kind of killer to the burgeoning 1980s Slasher scene, a demon from Hell with the promise of pleasures for those who opened a puzle box. Those pleasures, specifically, were: gore, screams, gore, terror, and gore.. And while, sure, we can argue that kids are discerning and will watch anything, so too will slasher movie fans. The fact that these chunky little dinosaurs managed to have one of the longest running film franchises in history (only really getting bested by the Marvel Cinematic UniverseWhen it first began in 2008 with a little film called Iron Man no one suspected the empire that would follow. Superhero movies in the past, especially those not featuring either Batman or Superman, were usually terrible. And yet, Iron Man would lead to a long series of successful films, launching the most successful cinema brand in history: the Marvel Cinematic Universe. and James BondThe world's most famous secret agent, James Bond has starred not only in dozens of books but also one of the most famous, and certainly the longest running, film franchises of all time.) says a lot about what Bluth hit upon with his magical mix of animation and storytelling.

The film focuses on Littlefoot (voiced in this film by Gabriel Damon), a “long neck” plant eater who is born to a very tiny herd of long necks. It’s just him, his mother (Helen Shaver), and his grandmother and grandfather as the rest of their herd died off. The land they live in is going through a great upheaval, with volcanoes and earthquakes a constant threat while the plant life around them has all but died off completely. Littlefoot’s family plans to head to the “Great Valley”, a land of plentiful resources where all the plant eaters can feast and never go hungry. They just have to get there.

Unfortunately things take a turn for Littlefoot so after he’s grown into a young lad (young calf?). He meets Cera (Candace Huston), a “three horn”, and the two get into trouble chasing frog-like creatures. A nasty “sharp tooth” dinosaur spots and hunts them, and they have to flee. Littlefoot’s mother comes to his rescue, fighting off the sharp tooth, but she’s gravely injured in the process. Then a massive earthquake splits the land in two, separating Littlefoot and Cera from their herds. When his mother dies, she leaves Littlefoot with the instructions on how to get to the Great Valley on his own, but it’s a long journey and it will be hard for the tiny dinosaur. He’ll need the help of friends, a few he’ll make along the way, if he’s to have any hope of reconnecting with his family and reaching the plentiful land of giving.

Going back and watching The Land Before Time, something I haven’t done since the film was out in theaters in 1988 (which, fuck, feels like a fairly long time ago now), I was struck by a few interesting things about the film. The first of which, of course, is the fact that this is a very handsome, well made film. Say what you will about the story (and I’ll get to that in just a bit), the animation and artwork on this film is gorgeous. The characters are richly detailed, the backgrounds are beautifully painted, and everything feels lush and rich. There’s a quality to the hand-drawn 2D animation of this period from Bluth that even Disney couldn’t always match, and it certainly blows away much of the 3D animation that we get now. Something of value was lost in the years since this film was made.

The film feels far more epic in this installment then it likely ever can in later sequels, aided in no small part by a score by James Horner. The composer had a long and illustrious career, working on many massively successful films and franchises, like Star TrekOriginally conceived as "Wagon Train in Space", Star Trek was released during the height of the Hollywood Western film and TV boom. While the concept CBS originally asked for had a western vibe, it was the smart, intellectual stories set in a future utopia of science and exploration that proved vital to the series' long impact on popular culture., Willow, Sneakers, and Apollo 13. Horner is able to tap into the sweeping scope of Bluth’s film, giving the land of the dinosaurs a grandiose feel even as we’re watching what is, in essence, a little family flick. His score adds emotion to the film, bringing us along for the journey with the dinosaurs in a way that I don’t think a more traditional animation soundtrack (with sing-along songs) would have been able to do (and yes, we will discuss the music in the coming sequels because I’m sure I will have thoughts).

So the artistry on the film is great, but I have to admit the story didn’t hook me nearly as much. In fairness to the film it has a lot of themes it works in and addresses. Death, depression, and despair are experienced by Littlefoot, giving him a rather Bambi-like introductory act for the film. There’s the matter of bigotry and racism, as Cera and the three horns “do not associate with long necks” (with her saying “long neck” like it’s a slur). And there’s the worry of separation, feelings of guilt and regret, pride and anger. There’s a lot for a little kid to watch and feel and on that front I can see the film working. But as an adult, I can’t say I cared anywhere near as much.

Mostly I was just annoyed by the shallow characters. Littlefoot is fine. He’s our protagonist and naturally has the most to do and the largest role in the film. But the rest of the characters are barely-sketched simple creatures with single character traits to their name. Ducky (Judith Barsi) says “yup yup yup” a lot and is energetic. Spike is big and dumb and doesn’t speak at all. Petrie (Will Ryan) is a flier that’s afraid to fly. They’re hangers-on that are there to make the film feel more full and, maybe occasionally, add silly comic relief. But they aren’t truly essential.

Cera is the worst of the set and I absolutely hated her. Her story is about learning to get over bigotry, which is fair, but she spends more than two acts (of this relatively short, 70 minute film) being a bitchy, racist ass. After half an hour of her being mean and rude to everyone around her, I started making “tri pride” jokes about her because she seemed so racist and so awful that you expected her to go to rallies raging against “those damn long neck immigrants.” Now, sure, this is supposed to be a learned behavior she picked up from her parents, an idea that children learn by watching. That’s fair. But the film would have been better giving her more development outside of her bigoted tendencies. And it also would have been good, once the kids end up back with their families (spoiler for a 37 year old movie), if they imparted their feelings of equality to the rest of the herds. Maybe teach her parents a lesson in being openhearted and not judging people for being different. In essence it’s a lesson that doesn’t quite stick in the film.

Naturally when I was a little kid seeing this in the theater I didn’t notice or care about any of that. When I was a kid, dinosaurs were awesome and seeing them on the big screen (before Jurassic Park really showed us how to put dinos up on the Silver Screen) was amazing. And yet I will note that after that initial watching I didn’t feel the need to go back. I didn’t much care if I saw this adventure again, and I let 37 years go by before I even bothered (and only because I got a really good deal on the whole collection and figured it would make good fodder for this site). Deep down, even as a child, I must have felt like this wasn’t as solid of an adventure as it could have been. Something was clearly missing and it kept me away from The Land Before Time and all its adventures to follow.

My fear going into these films was that if this is the high point for the series, which right now I bet it will be, then this film needs to be really good or we’re going to be in for some big trouble down the road. The best I can say is that The Land Before Time is a very well made animated film with a story that doesn’t quite live up to its artistry. It wasn’t a bad film to revisit after all this time but I don’t suspect I’ll bother with this first adventure of Littlefoot and his friends again, not without little kids to show it to instead.