You Just Burst My (Happy) Bubble Don! :-(

Petrie. · **on:** October 13, 2006, 07:31:17 PM

Decided to visit Don Bluth.com today and there was a message on there from someone about LBT and a 20th Anniversary release.

Quote

The year 2008 will mark the 20th year anniversary of The Land Before Time, and I was curious if you know of any plans on the part of Universal to make a special edition DVD release. I know that there were some scenes which were trimmed or edited for the final film, and it would be nice, if the artwork still remains, to see what these additional sequences would have been like. Also, if it would be possible, it would be wonderful to have an audio commentary for this film at last. I know I am not alone in saying that it is one of the most heartbreaking and beautiful animated films not only of the 1980s but of all time, and I would love to see it receive a worthy treatment on DVD. Best regards and good thoughts for the future, - Nicholas R. Zabaly

Reply: Nicholas, Thank you for writing. As far as we know, there are no plans for a re-issue of The Land Before Time (1988). But then, they didn't notify us when they did the 15th anninversary DVD release of the film. The original footage that was cut from the film was not kept in the archives of editorial, therefore is lost forever. So, we are pretty sure there will be no effort to remake elements that would have been in the original release. Thank you so much for the kind words. All the best to you and your career. Regards.

So the deleted scenes are just that--gone.

Still hope for a 20th anniversary release of course, but after I saw that so-called "anniversary" release Universal put out in 2003 I really do wonder..... <_<

I guess we don't have to debate at least one thing anymore.

KingdomKey23 · **Reply #1 on:** October 13, 2006, 08:04:35 PM

Aw! That stinks! The footage is gone?

Keni · **Reply #2 on:** October 13, 2006, 09:28:59 PM

Aw dang! It's all gone, eh? That stinks

kaytea · **Reply #3 on:** October 13, 2006, 10:19:41 PM

NOOooo!! okay people time to cue in the sad emo music

Littlefoot1616 · **Reply #4 on:** October 14, 2006, 07:13:52 AM

Aww...now that is a shame. At least some of us do have some snippets of those deleted scenes. Well...never mind. I guess when Don Bluth handed over the title to Universal for them to continue minus his input, the footage was just disposed of. I mean, at that time, people weren't really thinking about "bonus features" for films. It was only with the influx of DVDs that the concept really became mainstream.

Well, as least we know they existed and there are traces of the deleted footage in old trailers of the movie. I've got some of the scenes on an American Tale video (re-release) and it's got a few of the scene on there. Oh well. At least we have more LBT to look forward to! :^.^:

NewOrder · **Reply #5 on:** October 14, 2006, 08:13:57 AM

It's weird, the Back to the Future Trilogy has some missing footage there. And it's older than lbt! It's probably because BTTF was more famous than LBT. Still, why would they keep the extra footage from some movies and get rid it from others?

Petrie. · **Reply #6 on:** October 14, 2006, 11:34:32 AM

Depends on who has the rights to the films. Universal owns both, but Back to the Future was a lot bigger, so I guess some things were archived from it. That's about the only way anything was saved in those days. Might depend on what role the director has too...apparently Bluth didn't hold onto the copyrights...maybe Zemeckis did and had the footage. :unsure:

WeirdRaptor · **Reply #7 on:** October 15, 2006, 02:21:47 AM

How disappointing. I have to say, however, that I'm not surprised by this news at all. As much as I entered thoughts of someday seeing the deleted either put back in the film, or in a "Deleted Scenes" section, I knew that given Don Bluth's complete and utter unenthusiam with anything and everything concerning LBT, it wasn't going to happen.

Malte279 · **Reply #8 on:** October 15, 2006, 03:15:13 AM

I recall that earlier questions about the cut footage were answered very differently. Regretably older messages are deleted in the question board of Don Bluth's page, but I am positive that when I asked about it I was told that the material was still kept. So either it was destroyed quite recently (unlikely in the age of DvD and with an upcoming TV series and a probable rise in interest about such materials) or else they told something wrong either back then or now.
Without the rights on LBT and with the bad experiences they connect with the movie I don't think Mr. Bluth and his team were too much into learning about what became of it. Perhaps I have just reached the psychological state of repression, but even now I am not a hundred percent certain that indeed all the material is gone for good.

f-22 "raptor" ace · **Reply #9 on:** October 16, 2006, 08:17:01 PM

I am saddened that the footage is lost.

WeirdRaptor · **Reply #10 on:** October 17, 2006, 04:39:08 PM

Perhaps they've learned to happened to footage since then Matle, but I wouldn't ever get my hopes up for ever seeing it, if it does still exist.

Ratiasu · **Reply #11 on:** October 17, 2006, 06:52:35 PM

Dangit...I was REALLY looking forward to that deleted footage...

novaflare · **Reply #12 on:** March 26, 2007, 06:09:29 PM

It is a shame but this does happen with movies of all sorts. Now there was a rumor about a alternate ending relise that it never existed. The great vally was never a dino version of heaven and non of the 5 died.

What intrest me more about this rumor than any thing else is who started it and why. I have been trying to track the source over the last 2 years or so with little luck. It was originally posted on the big lbft wiki least thats where i first seen it. Thats where i kept reachign a dead end.

Acordign to don the wiki imdb and other sources the scenes were mostly fights between little foots mother and escape sceen changes and extra scenes witht he kids. Corse some would also be simple time fillers like all movies have.

Like don said he can not be sure that there will not be a 20th aniv release as he is not kept informed on such things.

LBTFan13 · **Reply #13 on:** January 01, 2008, 08:25:09 PM

Quote from: NewOrder,Oct 14 2006 on 07:13 AM

It's weird, the Back to the Future Trilogy has some missing footage there. And it's older than lbt! It's probably because BTTF was more famous than LBT. Still, why would they keep the extra footage from some movies and get rid it from others?

It depends on what the footage is. The scenes from LBT were cut from the final release because it showed footage of the five dinosaurs in great peril, along side with more violent T-Rex encounters. Since this was supposed to be a movie for children, footage like that would leave too much of a dark impact on them.

landbeforetimelover · **Reply #14 on:** January 02, 2008, 05:53:22 AM

The cut scenes aren't gone forever if they were stored on computer. It would just be VERY difficult to recover them, especially if the HD has been through more than one format, but it is possible. The files would most likely be very large and they would most likely have to be manually recovered, taking hundreds, even thousands of hours. In short, I'm sure they could get the scenes back, but they don't want to pay some computer guy $60-$100 an hour to get the data back.

If ya think about it, if it took 500 hours for one scene (which It probably would), that would be $30,000-$50,000 for one scene! They're not going to do that....ever. :cry2

Kor · **Reply #15 on:** January 02, 2008, 08:50:27 AM

I wonder how much longer the movie would be if most of those were added in. It would likely improve the movie and fill certain holes.

Serris · **Reply #16 on:** January 12, 2008, 06:16:52 PM

Darn, those missing scenes REALLY tantalized me.

It is VERY likely the scenes are permanently lost.

As landbeforetimelover said, if they are on a computer it would take an obscene amount of money to restore them:

Calculation for cost to recover deleted scenes:

Note: numbers are from landbeforetimelover's post

19 scenes x $60-$100 per hour, wages for computer technician x 500 hours =
$570,000 - $950,000

Admittedly, this is just a guess but with costs over half a million dollars Universal will NEVER restore the deleted scenes.

But at that time (1988) it is more likely the movie was hand drawn and computers were not used or sparingly used. Unless the scenes are are found somewhere in the Universal archives it is very likely that no one will ever see the scenes again.

Kor · **Reply #17 on:** January 13, 2008, 12:37:47 AM

At least we have some ideas of what some of the scenes contained or likely may have contained and some glimpses from one or more books.

Petrie. · **Reply #18 on:** January 13, 2008, 10:08:44 AM

Very few pieces of the original LBT used computers, so I don't see why we're speaking of computer restoration when what likely is lost are animated pencil sketches and cells.

Akiko · **Reply #19 on:** March 03, 2008, 05:51:17 PM

I couldn't agree more that this is a real shame; like many others I would've loved to see some of this footage. I'm curious just what was 'too scary' for children and why (okay I admit, Sharptooth did scare me some as a young child (originally saw the movie in 1988 when I was three ;p), but it's suppose to have that effect. That's what made the movie so 'on the edge of your seat' fun. ^^ I always loved the 'darker' feel of many of Bluth's movies, it gives them more emotion and makes the characters all the more real, IMO.

I'm certain we won't get to view this footage now, and for those of us who most especially love the original classic (*raises hand*) that's truly an upset. I always find myself sneaking back to rewatch scenes from the original to catch little things (I pay too much attention to stuff^^;; ) and just...get the feeling of it again, if that makes any sense. I think most of us could agree that the first movie has a very different and unique feel; just...not like the sequels. They just can't compare (no offense to them, the original is always tops for me though). I've often found myself wondering just how the original writers would've managed a sequel. Given the creative freedom that they perhaps didn't have full access to even with the first movie, I think it would've turned out very different.

There is one thing that, if there are any animators among us, we could do. Check this out...
http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs5/f/2004/334/...Sync_Nov_24.mov
I found this very intriguing, and my applause to the artist. They truly did some amazing work here.^^ Anyways, the point? If any of us are knowledgeable
in animating, perhaps we could 'create' those scenes, given the little information and glimpses we have from various sources. Just add to it.
I know, it's a stretch; the most animation I've managed myself are simple frames (and some gif animations); example: http://fc05.deviantart.com/fs21/f/2007/270...y_akikowolf.gif

Practice, practice though! Who knows. Just a suggestion.^^ Another, and much easier, form to 'create' such 'footage' is a comic or drawing; a fan fiction even. Not the same effect, but lovely all the same.^^

We have our imaginations no matter what. :^.^: