The Gang of Five
The Land Before Time => 1988 Theatrical Release => Topic started by: Petrie on September 10, 2004, 08:37:58 AM
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This is all for fun mind you, but what would YOU like to see in an anniversary release? The 20th anniversary will be in 2008 so it's a long ways off, but if you could dream up the ultimate anniversary release what would you put on the special edition dvd?
After just drooling over watching the 25th anniversary release of Watership Down, I would definitely want Bluth or Goldman giving a director's commentary explaining the ups and downs of production. If that wasn't in there, I wouldn't buy it. I already have the film thank you, now I want to hear how that film was produced, directed, animated, etc.
Also some special features would be nice: in-production gallery, early sketches, early storyboards (there were some), deleted scenes (there were some of these too but they never were inked or painted), cast and crew-what are they doing now, what did they think of working on the film?
These are my ideas...what are yours?
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I'd have to say mine requests would pretty much be the same. It would be a wonder to hear from Don Bluth and Gary Goldman (it is Gary isnt it?). Deleted scenes are a MUST! For gawd sake, the movie was supposed to be at least an extra 1/2 hour longer than it currently is but major cuts were made to it coz they reckoned that the kids wouldnt sit still long enough to watch the whole thing. It only seems to be current releases who have the accessibility to input deleted scenes from the movies but Im sure Universal has an entire film reel archived somewhere...I cant believe they'd make trims to the movie and just chuck 'em out! No way! No film director is THAT dense! Annoyingly, the LBT 15th anni DVD never actually left the shores of Region 1 so nowhere else got the privilege to see it but I heard that there was nothing particularly special about it. There is so much to be shown, original sketches, photos of production etc. Hopefully, a new anni release will be planned out much better rather than just a side project slapped up together as a quick idea. I doubt we'll see a 20th anni but maybe a 25th to mark a quarter century (that's normally the first big landmark for an anni). But during that time, hopefully we've got some wicked sequels heading our way!
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As for the 15th anniversary edition of LBT on DvD, it was released in Germany yesterday. I didn't see it, and right now I can't afford to buy this or any of the other six LBT DvDs (2 to 7) which are available in Germany for the first time now. Except for the different language versions, there seems to be nothing special about those DvDs at all. Those of LBT 2 to 6 had a remark on "special features", which in all cases seem to consist of two games of the kind that entertains a three year old for five minutes. The original movie had a remark about the movie being edited digitally (whatever that means), but no reference to any special features.
I definitely agree that an anniversary edition of the movie (sorry, but I doubt that another DvD edition with this features is ever going to be released) should contain the outcut scenes. For all I know 7 minutes of the movie that were actaully produced were cut out later. Maybe more scenes were planned but not finally realized. Maybe it would be possible to find planning sketches of such scenes that give an idea of how such a scene would have looked.
An audio comment of Don Bluth and Gary Goldman would certainly be great. I would also be very interested to hear something from Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss (who created the characters) and Stu Krieger (who wrote the script). I'd be very interested to know who was actually the first one to come up with an idea for LBT, and who really thought of the story. It would also be interesting to know if there were earlier koncepts for the outward appearance of the characters (I doubt anyone just draw a dinosaur and from the first attempt it looked like it looked in the movie), and for the story plot (I read about earlier plans for the storyline that were supposed to stress the topic of racism ("threehorns never play with longnecks") much more than the movie did).
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Yep, yep the Anniversary edition had nothing to offer. :angry: No widescreen, no surroundsound, no EXTRAS. WTF?
They sure want to milk the series by leading us to believe that the anniversary edition was worth owning but it was a cheap rip-off.
Seems we all want the same things on an anniversary edition. Hope Universal's listening. ;)
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Darn right I'd like to see a 20th Anniversary version of it!
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^ Well yes I'm sure we all would, but what would YOU like on it?
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Things I'd like to see in an EE version:
Further clarification as to why the T-Rex is chasing Littlefoot and Co.
Everything Bluth wanted in there.
No offense, but this film is not an example of what Bluth can when he's just 'let go'. "The Secret of NIMH" is the best example of that, "Land Before Time" could have been, if it weren't for Spielberg and Lucas toally misunderstanding the strength of animated films all together.
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That is true... SON was much darker than LBT ever was, and that's mostly because of the cut rex scenes. ;)
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Agreed.
Don't get me wrong, I like LBT, I just wish that Spielberg and Lucas had realized the potential for dramatic storytelling that animated features have to offer. "Cartoon's only for kids". I wish I could say what I feel about remarks such as that while here, but I will reframe. :angry:
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I have to admit I never watched the secret of Nimh which most people consider Bluth's greatest masterpiece. I hope that I find the time to borrow it at a video store to watch it.
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It's really nice...and a nice effort for an independent studio with limited funding. :) And yes, Justin does say "damn". :P
And WR, you have a point there about Speilberg mentioning it as a kid flick, and that's why Bluth really doesn't like this film much as others because Speilberg/Lucas restricted them to what they could produce. <_<
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You really should watch it Malte, it is his greatest film.
I feel for Bluth in the matter. I wish I could have seen all that stuff that Mr. "Jaws" and Mr. "Star Wars" made him cut.
You know, after filming a film like "Jaws", it makes Spielberg kind of a hypocrit to make Bluth make his film child friendly.
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Yeah but Jaws was made for an adult audience. :) LBT really wasn't shooting for an older child audience.
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Yeah, but I think that Spielberg very much underestimates what kids can handle.
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Well, what you have to understand is though kids today, 2004 can dish out a lot more...those weren't the views of parents and the way kids acted/behaved in 1988. It is very much different now.
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True. So, Bluth was a bit ahead of his time. If he had released NIMH, American Tail, Land Before Time in 1992, 1996, 1998, instead of when they did come out, and as HE intended for them to be: They would have made SO MUCH money....it would not have been countable.
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They would have made SO MUCH money....it would not have been countable.
Much as I'd like to see the scenes that were cut from LBT, I seriously doubt that they would have made the movie sell THAT much better. In fact they might have scared the kids in the cinemas. Even Bluth writes in his Toon Talk magazine: On that day, nineteen fully colored Rex scenes were cut from the movie. I mourned for a week. Were Steven and George right to do it? In hindsight, I think, yes.
I'm actually even more interested in scenes that contain more story rather than more running away from the sharptooth. For example a scene was cut after Spike's hatching in which Ducky manages to get him up. I would have loved to see the others first reaction upon seeing Spike. One LBT book I have suggests that Cera doesn't want to take Spike along but is overruled.
Another scene (which I'm afraid was never produced but may have been planed) is that "Oasis" chapter from one of my land before time books, which I quoted repeatedly in the forums.
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Weren't you reading? I said that it would have done IF it was released in 1998, INSTEAD of 1988. Its impossible to scare kids these days.
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Still I don't really think that some more scary scenes would have made land before time so much more of a success than it is already.
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I couldn't tell if it would sell better with those scenes but it sure would give the movie more action to it when it really deserved to have it. :) I don't think it would scare kids these days either.
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I wonder if it means a dangerous case of desensitazion if kids grow too accustomed to violence through television (and I'm NOT talking of the deleted land before time scenes here, which I'd love to see myself, but of the really nasty stuff) or play console games. Do you think that generations to come will be more ready to turn violent because of that?
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Yes, kids are desensitized these days, unfortunetally.
Non the less, I'd still like to see all those scenes that Bluth fought for.
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So do I.
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Cool. Part of the reason I want to see them is on principle. Bluth felt strongly enough for them that he fought long and tirelessly for them.
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I'm positive that's part of the reason, but where the kids pick up most of their violent behaviors is from those around them....parents, peers, community....these are more likely to produce violent actions than a tv show or video game because it's real--a video game is not. ;)
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Exactly. Its people like Judith Barsi's father who cause violence. (Judith Barsi was the orginal voiceof Ducky who was murdered by her father.) If only he hadn't shot himself after that, then he would have gone ot jail and we would have the satisfaction of knowing that he would have been someone's plaything.
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Violence is all in the mind of the viewer! I dunno if anyone heard the news of a 17 year-old kid murdering a 14 year-old because his mind was "warped" but drugs and the video game "Manhunt". The summer just gone this happened and the VG was blamed for the murder. I reckon its all head of the individual. They have to be mentally disturbed or have some serious problems if they're gonna start acting out what they see/play. I've played and seen some of the goriest and most violent games and movies and it's never given me the incentive to pick up a blade and go on a rampage! Young Barsi's father obviously had some issue that drove him into doing the dispicable thing he did...something bugged his brain.
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Exactly. Saying that violent movies and VGs is a way of avoiding responisibility. If you kill someone AFTER watching a violent movie, those thoughts were already there.
Like someone IN a horror movie once said: "Don't you blame the movies, Sid. Movies don't creat psychos! Movies make psychos more creative!"
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Barsi's father was an alcoholic. That's what did him in and why the whole tragedy occured. I wrote a story based on it a while back.
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Was it the one where Ducky's father steals her voice? And in process of trying to keep her and her friends from retrieving it, he plummets to his death.
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Nope, Arvens wrote a story directly about Judith Barsi.
Once I found a really sad webpage about Judith Barsi and her tragic dead. Unfortunately several redesigns were made at the page which I find took some of the original touch of the page away. The original url (there is a link to the new url) was www.angelfire.com/tx4/judithbarsi/
The original page made me cry a bit though I hardly ever cry (in fact I sometimes think that I do not cry enough). The page had the popular melody "Twinkle, twinkle little star" as a background melody, but they had written a very sad new text for it:
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
My name's Judith,
What was yours?
I don't know what I did wrong,
Now I've nothing but this song.
Never grew up, 'cause, you see,
Years back, Daddy murdered me.
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^ Not exactly about Judith Barsi but I based my story on her tragedy. ;) Did I actually show you that story because you sure seemed to know about it.... :unsure:
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Yes, you sent it to me and I read it quite a while ago already.
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Cool. Can you, perhaps, post the story on the fanfiction section, Arvens, I'd like to read it. :cry
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Sure I will. :)
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Thanks.
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what would this fanfic be about?? I wouldn't mind giving it a read.
-Threehorn
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It's posted in the fanart/fanfiction section. There's a link to it. ;)
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Its the one about Ducky's voice.
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Oh that one.
-Threehorn
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The one of a few.
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How many stories do you have???
-Threehorn
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I think (I may be mistaken) WeirdRaptor is refering to stories written as a tribut to poor Judith Barsi. There are a few more at fanfiction.net.
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To Threehorn: Well, I have to finish a "Legend of Zelda" fanfic that I've been working on. Plus, I have my own wannabe novel to finish.
To Malte: Yep, that's the one.
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Legend of Zelda isn't one of the best stories that I like...
-Threehorn
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Well, I like it enough to think that it merits a story by me. :D
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I bet it good but I never played the game of it or read stories on it.
-Threehorn
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It'd be better to just read the back stories provided on a New Game file on the games, than read a story about it.
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Sounds cool Raptor! I LOVE the Legend of Zelda! Wouldnt mind taking a gander at ur fanfic if you dont mind to much!
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Be warned, it really doesn' have much to do with any particular 'Zelda' game, other than following the basic stoyline of "A Link to the Past", while including elements from other Zelda games like "Ocarina of Time" and "The Wind Waker", with some of my own orignal ideas mixed in.
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Sounds good but still not my taste. sorry
-Threehorn
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I kinda figured that.
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I didnt really leap at Zelda until the N64 version "Ocarina of Time" came out. Ever since then, I adored the series and from there I back tracked and looked at the previous games. I'm pretty cool with accepting personal adaptions of classics such as Zelda.
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Good, because there will a lot of deviations. It will be a while before I feel I have enough written down to justify putting it anywhere on the internet.
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My brother is a Zedla person, he like playing those games. specially on my N64.
-Threehorn
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Ever play of them, yourself?
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I've played and completed Ocarina of Time, the Gameboy Zeldas and The Wind Waker. I've also played and clocked the Gamecube's special edition of OOT "Master's Quest". It's exactly the same story as OOT but the dungeons are completely re-arranged and much harder! You really have to know the mechanics of the game inside out to beat those puzzles!
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Don't remind me about OOT Master Quest. I barely beat that one!
Well, I have 17 pages so far, but its all prologue. Which tells you how long the actual strory will be.
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I haven't played zedla. only watched.
-Threehorn
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Alright alright back on topic please. :p
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Oops! Sorry about that! :D
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I would like on the next one on the 20th. a dirctor talk about lbt. there must be one somewhere. all movies have director talks how they made the film and such.
-Threehorn
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My only grievance on that notion is...who would it be?! I seriously doubt that Don Bluth or Spielburg would have anything to say... I would like to hear from them too but Bluth is getting on in age...he hasnt really been in anything since Titan AE. Roy Allen Smith and Charles Grosvenor could be interview on why they decided to take up the LBT flicks after the 1st one but it wouldn't be the same as Bluth talking about it himself... :(
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You've got a good point there, Don may not be getting any younger, but if your mind is as sharp as a tack, age shouldn't matter. ;)
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Which is why I have no more hopes for LBT 20th Anniversary Edition.
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You mean that Don's mind isn't sharp anymore? :(
Well, I can't take any stand on that as I don't know much about him or his current situation. But I'm quite sure that this 15th aniversary edition (which was not different from the original except by name) lessened any chances for a 20th anniversary edition that deserved the name.
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Oh no Malte! I didnt mean that! If Don Bluth was to make another movie, I'd be the first one in the cinema to see it (or first to the shelves of the nearest video store to buy it). He is hitting he's 80s I think and, as prejudice as it sounds, I dont believe he is will be making anymore movies because of his age. Dont get me wrong though! This doesnt mean I dont think Bluth has the capability to make them coz I reckon the imagination will still be there but......I dunno. I just cant see it for some reason... :(
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Actually, he's only 67.
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OK so I cant count! Nyah to you! PMSL! :p
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Nah back at ye! :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p
:D
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My turn! ;) :lol: :D :p B) :rolleyes: <_< :( :angry: :) :blink: :lol :cry :wow :o :huh:
Now that a group emtions! :lol
-Threehorn
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this looks fun
:angry: :D :rolleyes: <_< :lol: :DD :p :lol :DD :p :DD :lol :wow :cry :unsure: :angry: <_< :lol:
moosess!!
yess i know! too far :rolleyes:
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OK! Knock it off people! Think the gag of all the random emoticons blinking all over the shop has been put into overkill! Back to topic please! LOL! :^.^:
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Okay. Well, I think that Bluth has enough time and brains left inh im to make one more movie. Heck, Ridlet Scott is a year younger than him and is still making movies.
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Oh don't get me wrong! I'd love to see a new Don Bluth movie and I reckon he's still got it in him. Bet he'll never lose his touch but I just can't see Bluth making another one. I love for him to prove me wrong! :)
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I don't think it's age against Don; if it's anything it's getting a studio to fund him after a flop like that last film, Dragon...something. :p I don't even know its name. :lol:
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Dragon's Lair?
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When did Bluth make a "Dragon's Lair" movie? His last movie was "Titan A.E.". A film that was a classic that got screwed at the box office, as far as I'm concerned.
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To tell you the truth I don't know if he made a Dragon's lair movie all I know is that this is a story made by him, and when Arvens mentioned that the last movie was "Dragon...something", I thought it might be a lucky guess.
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Dragon's Lair is the film, and I think that was Don's last attempt at any animated film of sorts. ;)
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I thought it was also a game. I know for sure that there has been a Dragon Lair game released this year back in the summer. It's for Nintendo Gamecube but it's not exactly a chart topper. I think he also made another game called "Space Ace". As far as my memory serves me... basically, a futuresque version of Dragon Lair
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I saw Titan AE. Classic Bluth, just didn't get the plot. Most critics didn't get the plot either.
Nick
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I kinda understood it but I've never actually watched it from start to finish. Always caught it about 1/2 way through. I like the way he names the new Earth "Bob". OMG! What a name for a planet! :lol:
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????
Not understand it? I understand it just fine. Its about the humans trying to find a new life after earth is destroyed. No offense, but its not that hard to get.