Cruising through my old documents, and I find this essay I wrote in god knows when. It's not my best writing, but it's interesting, so I'm uploading it for others to read. Just take my word that I'm a much better writer now than I was whenever I wrote this. I also apologize for the varying photo sizes and quality; I'm a writer, not a photographer,
The Scene Before TimeOf all the children’s movies that have been made, few can compare to the 1988 Don Bluth film The Land Before Time. It surpasses most other animated children films in aspects as diverse as morals, storyline, animation style, or success. Unlike most films designed for a young audience, this feature dealt with such controversial topics as racism, death, and revenge. It repeatedly placed its protagonists in life-threatening situations, and its animation mainly consisted of dark colors and harsh, bleak landscapes. Yet the film is one of the most successful child films ever, grossing $48 million in the theatres, and $84 million worldwide, as well as spawning 12 direct-to-video sequels and an ongoing TV series. The overall amount of Land Before Time footage equates to almost 30 hours. However, the arguably most famous shot in all of the Land Before Time franchise is the picture on the front of the original movie poster:
However, due to its popularity, this scene has been replicated numerous times on merchandise, meaning that there is actually much more to the fairly miniscule scene shown here, which can be discovered if one does a bit of research.
If one is to appreciate the scene fully, then one must first examine what he already has in front of him. The first thing most people would notice are the five main characters, which are featured prominently center stage on a mossy log over a dark crevasse. They are also grouped according to skin color: at the back of the line, there is Spike, the green Stegosaurus. He has his naturally complacent look on his face, and trails behind the others. On his back sits Ducky, the Parasaurolophus. She appears to be staring either at one of the characters in front of her, or straight ahead. In front of Spike is Littlefoot, the protagonist of the entire series. He seems happy for some unknown reason, despite the fact that he only has three legs, and is looking back at Spike or Ducky. Petrie, the Pteranodon, sits on his back, looking forward, much like Ducky. But it is Cera, the Triceratops leading the crew, whose focus raises the first question. She appears happier than Spike or Littlefoot, but the main surprise is that she is looking back at the audience. Did the producers intentionally have her break the fourth wall? This question cannot be answered. The final character on the poster is the primary antagonist of the movie, Sharptooth. He is further away from the viewer than Littlefoot and his friends, on a nearby ledge (hopefully not too near, or else he might be able to reach Littlefoot, and make short work of him). On the ledge with Sharptooth is a nest of sorts, though nothing is inside it. Over the nest is a jutting rock, and behind the jutting rock is a dead tree. The background is difficult to see due to it being drawn very lightly; clouds or fog is the only explanation, though it appears to be a bright sunny day. A small and a larger exploding volcano can be seen, with frightened pterosaurs flying dangerously close to the lava erupting from the latter, and what might be a river culminating in a waterfall trails past the volcano to a greener land even further off. This might be the Great Valley, the intended destination of our heroes. An Apatosaurus stands on a far away ledge, possibly Littlefoot’s mother, but it cannot be detirmined from here. Little else can be gleamed from just this poster.
However, after its theater release, The Land Before Time came out on VHS, and this same scene was used as the front cover, only this time it was slightly changed to adapt to its new venue:
Despite the obvious brightening-up of the picture, little else is added to this new angle, except for the presence of more mountains to the right side of the erupting volcano, and a bit more sky, which is shown to indeed be rather foggy. However, being the front cover of a VHS box, it naturally follows that there will be a back cover, which was filled with a continuation of the picture:
This new extension shows that Littlefoot and his friends are not in danger of Sharptooth; his ledge is isolated from the one where their log begins. The log is revealed to have another damaged, knobbly branch jutting off this side as well. The crevasse Littlefoot and his friends are crossing is shown to extend many miles off into the distance, and end with an impenetrable waterfall similar to the one at the other end. Littlefoot was very fortunate to find the only crossing point for the entire fault line. Off in the distance is another lush green land similar to the Great Valley on the front, and a final pterosaur is barely visible on the edge of the picture. Also barely visible is the head of another Apatosaurus, whose head pokes out from the distance, though the much-closer log covers the majority of it. In fact, there is a remarkable amount of similarities to the landscape from the front; however, once the front is reexamined, the solution becomes clear: the landscape from the front was flipped and copy-pasted onto the back, meaning the landscape Littlefoot and his friends are leaving will look like a mirror image of the landscape they are now entering. This will surely come as quite a shock to them if they find this out.
So far, the scene has been extended to the left and a bit to the right, but with just these three pictures it is not possible to see any farther below Littlefoot’s log. However, this soon becomes possible, with the release of the soundtrack from the movie, where Littlefoot’s log was bumped from the bottom of the scene to the middle:
Not only is the mountain behind the volcano also revealed to be a volcano, but, much more importantly, the bowels of the fault line underneath Littlefoot’s log is shown, appearing very dark and very deep. While this technically is not completely new-the upper bit of this drop is partially visible in the movie poster-it is obscured by the plethora of words, and the blue color scheme of the soundtrack cover makes for a much eerier and spooky underworld. Dark shadowy stalagmites rise from the depths, and if any of Littlefoot’s gang should fall off the log, it would still be impossible to tell how far they would fall. Luckily, it is now also visible that the front of tree has a myriad of branches/roots extending to safety on the other side; Littlefoot and his friends are almost past the dangerous part of their crossing.
In addition, so is the examiner! As was shown, this simple scene, when taken under scrutiny and analyzed from several different sources, can be extended and furthered to more than double what the original shot showed. Perseverance certainly paid off, and, while on the subject of the passage of time, one more interesting fact crops up. If one looks at the new, updated scene shown on the cover of the Anniversary edition:
One can see that the scene has been extensively uplifted, almost humorously so. The pterosaurs and Apatosaurus have been removed, the main characters have been clumped closer together on the log that is no longer mossy, the dead tree and empty nest have been replaced with pretty green ferns, the “fault line” now appears to be no more than a continuation of the Great Valley, Sharptooth appears much further away, and the weather has cleared up, revealing a clear, blue sky. Even the small bit that can be seen underneath the log has brightened up. All in all, a much safer and happier place for Littlefoot to be than originally; and on that cheery note, it is time for the examiner to say goodbye to this scene, and begin enjoying the hundreds more that lie hidden inside the movie itself.
Works CitedMovie info & poster: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Land_Before_TimeMovie Cover:http://www.amazon.com/Land-Before-Time-Can...n/dp/0783234066Reverse side of VHS cover self-takenSoundtrack cover: http://www.soundtrackcollector.com/catalog...hp?movieid=1954Anniversary movie cover:http://mag.awn.com/?article_no=3222<ype=acrmag