Well, I was born in '88 so obviously I didn't see it then XD I don't exactly recall WHEN I saw the first movie, but I definitely saw it before the sequels. I had the VHS and I remember always liking it. Like many of you, I was big into dinosaurs when I was little (loved Jurassic Park and We're Back: A Dinosaur Story) so that was a major factor in my enjoyment. The death of Littlefoot's mother always made me cry. Nowadays, though, I usually only cry at the part where he thinks his shadow is his mom =( I can't stand people in mourning/denial. It breaks my heart.
I believe I only kept renting/buying the sequels up until 4. The only VHS I still own is tLBT III. I don't think we ever owned II, which is odd because I always adored Chomper.
Anyway, I kind of lost interest after that. Not in animation, but in the sequels. Although I went through a phase where I hated kid's movies, then a phase where I hated movies where they sing. Now...I love both of them XD I also like a lot of musicals so there you go. I wish more animated films would have character songs, I'm tired of the pop music injected into movies these days =\
In anycase, I thought it was ridiculous that there was so many sequels but..now I'm not so sure XD I think the first four are cute, but I've yet to really see any ones after that (yeah, yeah, I know, I'm working on it XD). I love getting obsessed with things, though, so I plan to start collecting the DVDs when I get some money.
I got back into the series through the TV show. I like to keep tabs on animation things so when I heard they were making the series I was a little outraged XD I decided to check it out though and it really quelled my fears. It's so cute and harmless, I just can't help but watch it! XD I assume I'll like it better than the sequels, because the short time frame really works for it. It'd be nice if all the songs didn't use the same tune, but I understand why they do that. I rather like the "I Feel So Happy" song, it's really cute =D Sometimes I sing the songs I can remember to my baby sister.
Incidentally, I think it's really sad that some of you are made to feel you're odd, childish, or "too old" to watch this series. I've always felt one of the problems with this world is that everyone is too afraid to 'play' anymore =\ Sure, not everyone likes the series, or other cartoon shows, but I think a lot of people would watch and enjoy them if they weren't so afraid of being seen as immature. It doesn't make you immature to watch cartoons. What DOES make you immature is thinking less of someone simply because they like cartoons! It's not a barometer of intelligence or maturity, it's just something you enjoy. I thank my lucky stars my mother never made me feel immature for liking kid's movies and I'm sorry you folks don't have the same freedom =\