It was an accident. I always loved dinosaurs since I was a kid, especially the herbivores. I had a soft spot for the benevolent giants, at least I pictured them that way. My first encounter with LBT was not the movie itself, but a poster from 1989, announcing the original movie. I saw it at my friend's house. He brought it from Germany (why does this country figure so much in my life?
: ), where he lived as a refugee for a couple of years during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995). After the war, instead of returning to Bosnia they settled in Croatia, since Croatia, despite all its problems, was (and is) vastly more developed than Bosnia. Anyway, I saw the (didn't know their names back then) gang on the poster and then I remembered the title: "In einem Land vor unserer Zeit". I thought it was a German movie. It wasn't until years later that I found out it was actually an American movie called The Land Before Time. Years later, one Friday when I watched Super RTL I saw the announcement for In einem Land vor unserer Zeit, saying "Heute um 20 Uhr und 15 Minuten" (Today at 20:15). So, I waited for the evening to see the movie. I was thoroughly impressed by what I saw. In the same way, the movie ruined the rest of my evening, because I was crying for hours.
I didn't cry at all when Littlefoot's mum died.
The act of death itself never left an impression on me, but the implications of that death, Littlefoot's pain and suffering, the scene where he licked his shadow thinking it's his mother, that struck me really hard. I could totally symphatise with Littlefoot. The female choir and violin gave additional weight to the situation. In fact, it is the music that made the movie especially hard for me.
In the weeks after I watched on the same channel various sequels to the original movie. I enjoyed them as well, and it is since the sequels that I really became fond of Ducky, the incorrible optimist and damsel in distress. I liked her species as well, the way they looked. I don't remember her that much from my first viewing of the original movie, save for the berrie scene, which had an erie feeling to it and stood out of the doom and gloom of the rest of the movie. Then I forgot all about LBT.
Then, somewhere in May 2010, I was really into alternate history, and I ran into an alternate history of the Kenozoic where the K/T extinction event never happened. It was a very good scenario, and I searched the Net for other such scenarios. I also started reading articles on Wikipedia on various dinosaur species, and I ran into the hadrosaurs, and I immediately remembered Ducky and LBT.
Then I read the LBT article on Wikipedia, found the LBT wiki, and finally the Gang of Five. But I didn't join the forum. Later in November 2010, I downloaded all the movies and started watching them. I've seen the first six so far. When I watched the original movie for the second time (first time in English), I cried again. But this time the saddest scene wasn't Littlefoot with his shadow, but Ducky saying , "You go... without Petrie?"I was shattered by that scene, and I felt like there was a rock in my stomach until Petrie climbed up. I couldn't eat properly for a few days.
Also, one of the reasons I saw the first movie was the notice the discrepancy between the version I saw on TV and the one I download. Since I have faith in my memory, I decided to join the GOF to inform other people of my discovery. And I'm still here.
