The influence of 80s fantasy on the original film

[gutza1]

Watching the Dungeons and Dragons movie (which I highly recommend) brought to mind something interesting Mark Witton said on a podcast episode about the original LBT movie.

I can't recall the time stamp, but I remember that at one point Witton speculated that The Land Before Time actually took significant inspiration from the 80s fantasy craze brought about by the mainstream interest in the Lord of the Rings as well as the popularity of Dungeons and Dragons among the movie's target audience. This inspiration would manifest in both the film's very "dark fantasy" visuals as well as its plotline being an epic quest that would bring together a diverse and quirky "party" of adventurers of different species and talents, similar to a D&D party.

It's definitely a unique way of looking at the film. Considering just how popular D&D was among children in the 80s, I could see there being a significant amount of shared appeal. What do you guys think?