The Land Before Time is a 1988 American animation adventure film directed and co-produced by Don Bluth (at Sullivan Bluth Studios), and executive produced by Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Kathleen Kennedy, and Frank Marshall.
Character Debuts[]
- Recurring characters:
- One-off characters
- Cera's Mother
- Cera's Siblings
- Rooter
- The original Sharptooth
- Littlefoot's Mother (deceased; is mentioned in later films and appears in a flashback in The Great Longneck Migration
- Species' Debuts:
Production[]
During production of An American Tail, talk began of the next feature with Steven Spielberg. Spielberg wanted to do a film similar to Bambi, but only with dinosaurs. An early working title for the film was The Land Before Time Began.[1] Steven Spielberg and George 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.[2] The film was originally planned for release in fall of 1987, but the production and the release date were delayed by a year due to the relocation of Sullivan Bluth Studios to Dublin, Ireland.
The production was preceded by extensive research, wherein researchers visited natural history museums in New York and Los Angeles and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. The artists had to create a credible landscape and animals. Animators made more than 600 background images for the film. Littlefoot was originally going to be called "Thunderfoot", until it was found out that a Triceratops in a children's book already had that name. It was Lucas's idea to make Cera a female Triceratops, when she was in mid-animation as a male named Bambo. After voicing Digit in An American Tail, Will Ryan performed the voice of Petrie. The idea was brought up by Spielberg's son, Max. The character of Spike was inspired by Don Bluth's pet Chow Chow, Cubby.
Editing[]
Throughout production, The Land Before Time underwent a severe cutting and editing of footage. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas thought that some scenes in the movie would appear too dark and intense for young children. "It's too scary. We'll have kids crying in the lobby, and a lot of angry parents. You don't want that.", Steven told Bluth while looking at the scenes from the film. About 11 minutes of footage, a total of 19 fully animated scenes were cut from the final film, to attain a G rating instead of a PG rating. Much of the cut footage consisted of the Tyrannosaurus attack sequence and sequences of the five young dinosaurs in grave danger and distress. Some screams were revoiced using milder exclamations.[2] Though Don Bluth was unhappy with the cuts, and fought for all the footage, he had to settle on a final running time of 69 minutes, one of his shortest. The sequence of Littlefoot's mother's death was shown to psychologists who gave their feedback to the production team, and the character of Rooter was added to the story to soften the emotional blow. Brief portions of the scene which showed the mother's neck and back bitten have since been edited out of home video releases and television airings, though this footage was present both in the theatrical cut and on earlier VHS copies of the film.
Soundtrack[]
The theme song "If We Hold on Together" was sung by Diana Ross and released as a single in January 1989. The soundtrack was composed by James Horner and released on November 21, 1988.[3]
- Track listing
- "The Great Migration"
- "Sharptooth and the Earthquake"
- "Whispering Winds"
- "If We Hold on Together"
- "Foraging for Food"
- "The Rescue/Discovery of the Great Valley"
- "End Credits"
References[]
- ↑ Maltin, Leonard (1987). Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons. New American Library. pp. 354. ISBN 0-452-25993-2.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Animated Films of Don Bluth by Jon Cawley
- ↑ Amazon.com page for original The Land Before Time soundtrack.