The Land Before Time > 1988 Theatrical Release

So what attracted you to this movie originally?

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WeirdRaptor:
Yeah, I know this has been discussed before, but hey, why not re-discuss why we love this movie?

Well, for me, I've always been a dinosaur fanatic. Have been since day one, still am, and always will be. If there's a cool dinosaur movie in theaters, you can bet I'll be in line to see it.

There were innumerable things that struck a chord in me when I first watched it and still do. It may have been a long time ago, but I still remember it well. It was a unique film in many ways (at the time it was made, anyway). The central characters all live in a dying environment, which was something you didn't see in animation every. It gave the film a real edge, and if I dare say, a bleakness that was almost oddly quaint.
Also, despite the bulk of the movie being set in a desolate wasteland, every background is intricate and breath-taking to behold.
The characters animations are good, but not the best I've ever seen. Still, overall, the artwork is beautiful.

The death of Littlefoot's mother is a wonderfully low-key scene. Neither of the two characters move much in the scene and most of it is told with a completely still dark image of the forms of Littlefoot and his mother in a dark night rain with only the rain providing any movement. Oh, and the end of the scene: "Mother? Mother?!"  :cry

The "racial" plot device is well-handled, too. These kids haven't had much time to get too set in the old ways as of yet (excepting only Cera, who took to her father's "threehorns don't associate with anyone else" mentality to heart as The Bible). And when Littlefoot initially rebukes Ducky, it's more out of general bad disposition towards the whole world after the death of his mother.
But stilll, these are all very different individuals who have to learn about each other, their strengths, and make their strange herd work in ordere to survive.

And the characters are great! For a film that only clocks in at just over an hour, the writers managed to create five very well-rounded and lovable baby dinosaurs. Bluth and company made you fall in love with these five enough that at the climax when you think Petrie is dead, the scene will still haunt you long after you know he's a-okay. Then of course there's Littlefoot's interactions with his mother from beyond the grave. Those were gold. And then there's the reveal of The Great Valley being unveiled as the clouds move away at the very end. That was pure cinematic genius, as was everything that came with it. The closing reunions with the families, the ending narration, and finally: "If We Hold On Together", by Diana Ross.

In all, the film just mixed together near perfectly (that is, until you start to notice where a deleted obviously went, but I digress). Just the same, it's a film that has withstood the test of time going on 25 years this year, and it would have held up, with or without the sequels.

Lastly, I suppose any discussion of enjoying The Land Before Time would be remiss without some mention of what came after. There's no doubt that the sequels helped keep the property in the public eye by making it more noticeable, but that's come with mixed results and reception. Some of them were really good (but nothing compared to the original), and others...the less said, the better.

And all that's why I keep coming back to this film.

StrutEggStealer:
I was only a little child when I first saw this, and the reason being is that my older sisters were dinosaurs fans themselves - and plus, we had a movie mausoleum of the best cartoons of the 20th-21st Century :)
So I really had no choice in the matter of what we were watching and when. But I am sosososo glad I got introduced to LBT at that age^^

DarkHououmon:
I honestly don't know. I saw the movie when I was young and I don't remember my first time watching it. It might have been the dinosaurs.

landbeforetimelover:
Nothing.  I didn't actually buy the first movie myself.  My mother bought it for me when I was like 5 years old.  She picked it out because it was one of the only boyish movies available in the store she was shopping at.  Lucky for me though.  I really liked the movie and we soon purchased all the movies up to the 6th one (the latest one that was out at the time before I got out of LBT).

Kor:
Not sure which movie I first saw.  I'd guess it was 2 or 4.  Those along with 5 were shown the most often of the ones I saw on cable tv.  Cartoon network I think it was.  I liked the characters and when the first movie up on the animated theater thing they use to have, I think, on Sunday nights I was interested in how the original movie would be.  I liked the writing and characters and found it more mature of a story telling then the sequels were, though I like those also, some more then others.

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