An Adventure That Didn’t Need to Happen

What do we know about the dinosaur kids in the Land Before Time series? They’re adventurers, ones that have survived multiple (and we do mean multiple) trips outside the safe confines of the Great Valley. They know what they’re doing, they’re solid heroes who have been celebrated, more than once, for going on and getting things done to save the rest of the valley’s inhabitants any time times have turned tough (like a famine, or a fire). It’s safe to say that the adults of the valley would be dead (several times over) if the kids hadn’t gone off to save the day.

And yet, that’s not the message delivered by this thirteenth (and, for the original run of films, final) film of the franchise. This film says, “hey kids, you better listen to the lessons from your elders and not step out of line, because if you do, you’ll get into real trouble.” And, sure, that’s a message that makes sense for little kids to learn. Mind your grown up, listen to their advice, try to play safe. I get that. But when it’s getting delivered to heroic kids that have faced danger multiple times, have always found the resourcefulness to survive, and have even thrived in the face of adversity, all while the adults sat around with their tails up their asses, well, that lesson seems pretty false and stupid.

In The Wisdom of Friends, Littlefoot is found eating with his grandmother around a fallen tree. The tree rests across a ravine, and there’s plenty of great leaves to eat at the other end of the tree, so Littlefoot, he who has walked across many fallen logs stretched across wide ravines, decides to walk across this one as well. His grandmother freaks out, Littlefoot almost falls off the log, and suddenly he has to learn that he needs to avoid danger at all costs because he’s just a little kid and he can’t handle bad situations.

After this, the grandmother reminds Littlefoot of all the “Wisdoms” that the dinosaurs pass down from generation to generation. They’re such platitudes like “also stay in a pack” and “don’t get caught out at night,” and Littlefoot takes them to heart like they’re a new religion for him. He starts preaching the power of the Wisdoms to his friends, and then, when they meet a trio of strange looking creatures – Cuba Gooding Jr. as Loofah, Sandra Oh as Doofah, Pete Sepenuk as Foobie, three yellow-bellied dinosaurs – he starts preaching at them as well. Deciding they’re too dumb to make it on their own, Littlefoot convinces his crew to come along as he leads the three yellow-bellies out into the Mists Beyond to find their pack. But along the way, Littlefoot might just learn a few more Wisdoms as well.

Let’s be clear, this thirteenth Land Before Time film is easily the worst of the set so far. It’s worse than the twelfth, The Great Day of the Flyers, which itself was worse than the, at that point, worst film of the whole run, Invasion of the Tinysauruses. There has been a steady, and marked, decline in the quality of these films, from their musical numbers to the animation quality and, especially, among the stories. They take a series that, admittedly, wasn’t that great to begin with and casts the franchise into below bargain bin fodder. This film was so bad that my wife and I couldn’t even find anything fun to say while mocking it. It was a dreadful, completely unenjoyable, bore.

One major issue with the film is that the movie doesn’t understand the character of Littlefoot. While he’s always been a good kid, one that listens to his elders and tries to do the right thing, he’s never been a preachy, goody-two shoes before. His character is completely different in this film from previous movies, acting contrary to what we know about him. He’s an obnoxious, born-again, know-it-all who has found religion and he feels the need to try and convert everyone around him to his “faith”, including some unlucky non-believers that stumbled into the Great Valley.

On that subject, the three yellow-bellies are some of the most truly dreadful characters we’ve had in the series yet. They’re just absolutely obnoxious, loud and screechy in their tone, but also subscribing to cartoon logic for all of their behaviors. Not unlike when the film series introduced aliens in The Stone of Cold Fire, here we have a set of characters that don’t follow the inherent, internal logic and reality of the series. They add nothing fun, or funny, to the proceedings at all. They are completely without value, there simply to facilitate a plotline that didn’t need to occur.

And I do mean that. This story didn’t need to happen. The three yellow-bellies come into the Great Valley on their way towards their own home, Berry Valley. They don’t seem to know where they’re going, but they have faith they’ll get there. Littlefoot and the gang decide, after the yellow-bellies leave the Valley, to help them, so they chase after the gang so the bird-creatures don’t get lost. Then they help them find a set of rocks that look like one of the yellow-bellies, which the third member of the gang, Foobie, spots. Then they help them get to Berry Valley simply by walking in a random direction and getting there. In essence, Littlefoot and his gang, on four different occasions, interrupt the bird-things as they’re already making their way where they should be going, tell them they have to follow the kids so they get where they were already going, and then lead them there anyway. They don’t help, they just slow progress down.

To be clear, the film even seems to know this. On multiple occasions it has Cera, who for some reason is the voice of reason in this film, tell Littlefoot that he’s going on a fool’s errand. The yellow-bellies are fine on their own, they know what they’re doing, and they should be left to their own devices. And then, time and again, we see Cera get proven right. The kids really don’t help at all, and the whole adventure happens simply because Littlefoot seems to think he’s smarter and wiser than everyone else.

Oh, and he also prosthelytizes at the yellow-bellies, a lot. Again, he’s found religion so he has to share the “wisdom” of his beliefs with them. They’re the heathens from outside of the Great Valley, so they have to be brought into the fold and shown the error of their ways. Honestly, if Littlefoot had turned to the screen and said, “this is all about Jesus,” I wouldn’t have been surprised. The movie gets that preachy, all up in its ideas of faith and wisdom, that it could have been a damn Veggie Tales movie and it wouldn’t have felt out of place.

Really, though, I hated that I ended up agreeing with Cera so much. She’s usually the antagonist of the group, the one that points out bad morals and tries to make the group less inclusive and less agreeable. But she’s the only one here being reasonable and actually pointing out the logic of the situation. The rest of the crew really are being dumb, Littlefoot especially, and there was absolutely no need for these kids to go on this adventure at all. I have to admit it: Cera was right all along. She did nothing wrong.

So yes, The Wisdom of Friends is a terrible, obnoxious film that teaches bad lessons while it ruins one of its lead characters. And all of this for a story that doesn’t matter at all. Nothing was learned and nothing of value was gained. The only thing I can take as a silver lining is that this film must have done really poorly on store shelves because the film series ended up taking a nine year break before the fourteenth and final film in the series came out. Considering the films had seen near yearly releases, that shows there was a massive drop in sales for the films. If they were doing well, Universal never would have let them stop.

Good. Hopefully the fourteenth is a step up from this film. I know that’s hoping for too much, and regardless I’m going to be happy that this long journey is over. But it would be nice to end on a high note, even if that’s unlikely to happen.