The Gang of Five

The Land Before Time => 1988 Theatrical Release => Topic started by: Mumbling on August 13, 2024, 08:49:39 PM

Title: SCRIPT Land Before Time Began April 1987
Post by: Mumbling on August 13, 2024, 08:49:39 PM
Hi all!

A while back we bought scripts for the first and third movie. Here is a topic to discuss the script of the first movie.

I've uploaded it to Archive.org here:
https://archive.org/details/script-land-before-time-april-1987

I've also attached the PDF here for reference.

Perhaps one of these days we can extract the text from this script like we did with the other one (https://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=15912.0), and compare the differences.

The one thing I can say, is that this script precedes the other one in the previously linked topic. I'm pretty sure the one in the linked topic immediately follows this one.
Title: Re: SCRIPT Land Before Time Began April 1987
Post by: ImpracticalDino on August 13, 2024, 09:22:55 PM
Mo-o-o was wondering about the scripts that were found months ago. Really happy to see them archived forever now! Great job! :D

Perhaps one of these days we can extract the text from this script like we did with the other one (http://"https://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=15912.0"), and compare the differences.

Just like the other topic thread you made for the scanned LBT III script, you need to remove the quotation marks around the Gang of Five forum topic URL, and also remove the extra "http://" at the beginning of the URL here as well. The hyperlink is not working because of that.
Title: Re: SCRIPT Land Before Time Began April 1987
Post by: Mumbling on August 13, 2024, 11:27:42 PM
Fixed here as well :)
Title: Re: SCRIPT Land Before Time Began April 1987
Post by: Little Anonymous Hacker on August 15, 2024, 01:42:36 AM
Thank you for preserving this!

The Adobe Acrobat crack I have installed has a text scanning feature that recognizes the text and lets me copy and paste it, so extracting it and pasting it into an editable document should be pretty easy.
Title: Re: SCRIPT Land Before Time Began April 1987
Post by: Mumbling on August 15, 2024, 11:47:22 PM
Seems like archive.org also grabbed the text from the pdf:

https://archive.org/stream/script-land-before-time-april-1987/Script%20Land%20Before%20Time%20April%201987_djvu.txt
Title: Re: SCRIPT Land Before Time Began April 1987
Post by: Hypno on March 31, 2025, 10:09:26 AM
I haven’t had a chance to check out this slightly older script until now, but through comparing it to the May/June 1987 revisions, here are some quick observations I’ve made while looking at the April 23, 1987 draft:

1. The film’s title was still known as strictly “The Land Before Time Began” in the April draft, but by the May revision, it was shortened to just “The Land Before Time” with the original title being placed below it to keep consistency with the previous draft.

2. Sequence 005A (the Rooter scene) did not exist at this point. It was added to the screenplay in a June 5, 1987 revision.

3. Sequence 011AA (The Oasis Scene) did not exist yet either. It was also added on June 5, 1987, in the same revision as the Rooter scene. This is significant to note, as we now know the Oasis scene wasn’t even added until later into the overall writing process! What we STILL do not know, is how far along the Oasis scene survived before being cut. That part remains a mystery. Though, in my opinion, at this point in time I do not believe it got past the pencil test stage.

If there are any other differences, I will make note of those observations when I have more time :yes
Title: Re: SCRIPT Land Before Time Began April 1987
Post by: Mumbling on March 31, 2025, 02:26:09 PM
Thanks Hypno!
Title: Re: SCRIPT Land Before Time Began April 1987
Post by: Hypno on March 31, 2025, 04:25:46 PM
Thanks Hypno!

No worries, it's always exciting to find more pieces of the puzzle for the production of this film :yes