It was on this day 30 years ago that the original film of the Land Before time series was released in American theaters.  Though I did not see the film on the first day of its release, I do remember seeing it in the theater within the subsequent weeks.  Though I was only five years old at the time the film made a strong impression in me that was only reinforced later when I purchased some of the sequels for my young nephew in the 90s.  The rest, as they say, is history.  While we wish our beloved series a happy 30th birthday, feel free to share your memories of the original film and the series as a whole.  How did all of you come to discover the Land Before Time?

Oh, and the obligatory: "Happy hatchday!"    

It is really an amazing fact that today’s the anniversary of the day the greatest animated film ever was released. I regret I wasn’t able to witness the film’s success back then but I’m extremely happy that I was introduced into the franchise later. Land Before Time as a series was an integral part of my childhood and I loved watching the films again and again. However, as funny as it is, I saw the original film perhaps once or twice and to my young mind, which thought the sequels were “the real LBT”, the original felt extremely weird and dark. It felt like an outlier in a series I already knew.

However, it were the vague memories I had of the original film that brought me back and especially Horner’s soundtrack which still lingered in my head years later. It was from the memory of Discovery of the Great Valley and its reprisals that reintroduced me to the film and I was immediately amazed by the first movie when I saw it again. It was a short
struggle after that to get to the sequels but, well, I got over it.

Looking back at it now, it’s fun to think that all these films and the things that have happened on GoF wouldn’t have come to pass if Spielberg hadn’t paid that one visit to Don and Gary nine years before I was even born. The original LBT has, whatever comes to pass in the future, already created a phenomenal legacy, this site being a great part of it. Congratulations to Land Before Time for these 30 years!  

Oh my gosh...
Today is the day...

Can't describe how I envy for people who managed to watch LBT on first days of its release back in 1988, wit trip to theaters. That old good times... That first experience and emotions... I believe it was something.

And well, I believe the most of people who watched it years later for the first time don't remember what exact day was there when they watched it, so this day could be considered as celebration of first watching as well, since it is when a new adventure was born. Adventure for all of us, who loves original LBT, for those, who likes franchise.

Happy anniversary, Land Before Time! No words needed to describe how much you mean for me, and for many others!

----------------

(so.. did creators or somebody else released or plans to release something to anniversary?..)

Though I was very much alive at the time LBT came out in theaters, my first recollection of the film (and just liking dinosaurs in general) was watching it on VHS (remember those?) back when they were like $40 to buy!  I watched it at home in grade school.  I'd even sit a tape recorder by the TV to record it so I could listen in bed.

Happy anniversary LBT! 

Happy starday!! 

I was actually born about a full decade after the original was released (October 1998). I first got into LBT when I was around 5. I don’t remember much besides that I really loved dinosaurs and really wanted to watch Jurassic Park, but my mother felt like that was not very age-appropriate, so she countered with LBT, and we rented it on DVD. I basically just remember that I really loved the series and I saw up to #6 as a kid. I then slowly lost my interest in LBT (but not before I turned my best friend at the time on to it). Fast forward to when I was 18. One day, I was browsing Netflix and I stumbled upon LBT 14. Seeing the synopsis for that one got me interested in revisiting LBT. A few months later, I got around to doing that as I was transitioning into college. After that, I met someone with whom I immediately bonded over LBT, and I began exploring (and joining) some LBT fan sites, including GOF.

Happy belated 30th starday to LBT! (hey, I mentioned it on time on Discord )

I don't exactly remember when I started watching it, only that when I was fairly young I remember owning the 3rd movie and I loved it. Must've watched it every day. From there I watched the first 2 and continued to watch LBT until the 8th film where I started to lose interest and started trying to be the "cool" kid. A couple years or so later a friend was over at my house and we decided on watching through the first one and I was amazed on how good it was and fell in love with the series all over again. It must have been at least a year later I started going through some fanfiction on FF.net when the GoF was mentioned and the idea of a LBT forum fascinated me though it was way harder to track down on the internet back in 2007. I think I eventually found it buried in some google search

I'm not exactly sure when I became inactive. I know I left for a bit, came back, then left again and I've found some of my posts around the 2012 mark. There were a couple reasons for my inactivity, such as no new movies coming out and with University being a big one to keep me distracted. Soon LBT slipped from memory once again. I actually saw the notification on the facebook group that the 14th movie was coming out, which certainly shocked me but not enough to come back (though I did end up watching the movie when it came out).

My actual desire to come back came from a boring closing shift at my job where the random thought to pass the time was to see if the GoF even still existed. To my surprise it was still around and the nostalgia all came back to me (and the sudden realization that it was right around exactly 10 years when I first joined). I also happened to be fooling around with drawing with a friend and drew some LBT related stuff. From there my interest was back up and felt ready to return and have been back for a year and a half.

It seems like my life has been some sort of sinusoidal LBT interest curve and while I'm certainly not as big into it back in the day or even a year ago, I'm hoping that my drawing and friends I've met on the GoF will keep it from going back into obscurity.

Happy belated anniversary, LBT!

Oh, yeah! Happy late birthday to the original film. Fantastic tale, you.

Happy birthday!    It is hard to believe that the series that we all know and love turns 32 years old today.  Though, considering the original film has now had 13 "children" maybe it is somewhat easy to believe now that I think about it. 

In any case, here's hoping that the next year brings great things for this series and the community that loves it! 

Ayyyy it's that time again! Congrats for making it 32 years, Land Before Time!