Hi folks,

Thanks again for all your great questions! This was a lot of fun, and I couldn't be more moved to see your continued love for this very special story.

I'm sorry I couldn't get to everyone, but you can always find me at @StuKrieger on Instagram where I share stories from Land Before Time, and try to answer fan questions whenever I can. If your question didn't get answered, feel free to leave a comment there.

May all your journeys be filled with friendship and tree stars,
Stu

Wow! What an honour to speak to an official member of the production crew. A true pleasure Mr Krieger!

1. What was it like working with such big names in the industry at the time? I.e. Don Bluth, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas

2. What were some of the highlights of making the original Land Before Time movie? Any interesting stories/ancedotes?

3. Were there any shortcomings or production issues whilst making the original movie?

4. Any thoughts on how LBT has progressed since the 1988 original movie?

5. Did you actually enjoy working on the original LBT movie?

Greatly appreciate Mr Krieger taking the time to chat to this old fan forum. Can't wait to hear what he has to say.

Thank you and kind regards,

Littlefoot-1616 

1. It was my version of grad school, getting to learn from the masters. I'd already worked with Steven on Amazing Stories, so I was thrilled to continue learning from the very best.
2. Don is such a fundamentally kind and decent person, that he made the environment an absolute joy to come to work in every single day.
3. Like any production with big personalities, there were some creative disagreements along the way. But we were always able to put aside our differences to find the best version of the movie together.
4. I'm amazed by its longevity and how many sequels and spinoffs it has spawned. But I have to say, I'll always be biased towards the original
5. Yep yep yep!

Mo-o-o-o is super duper excited! Wow! Certainly did not expect this, but it's a very welcome surprise.

Nice to meet you, Stu Krieger.
I'm happy to know that you found our little niche community and that you are touched by our continued love for the movie. Thank you as well for your contributions to create the movie that have made the childhoods of mine and other people here.

Anyway, since this is an AMA, it is only appropriate that I ask you some questions that I am curious about. May add some more later on.

1. Not exactly related to the original movie itself, but are you still in touch with other writers or anyone else who had contributed to the first Land Before Time movie?

2. Based on the deleted scenes, the movie was supposed to have more gruesome/frightening scenes, especially ones related to Sharptooth and his attack. My question is, was the pressure to keep adherence to a "G" rated movie standard the main reason why the scenes had to be dialed down a bit? Were you guys considering at one point to make the movie "PG" in favor of keeping the movie's integrity intact? Correct me if I'm wrong, but Universal was the main culprit behind the decisions that the team had to make regarding the scenes that were deleted? (Hopefully this isn't too much for your NDA)

3...

1. Yes! Although I never even met the previous credited writers on LBT, I had a long working relationship across multiple projects with both Steven Spielberg and Don Bluth, who I still speak to today. I also recently reconnected with John Pomeroy, a lead animator and producer on the film. We're all pretty proud of how the movie has lived on.

2. Here's the truth: After years of being asked about the fabled "more violent" cut of the movie, I recently went back into my archives and uncovered what is perhaps the earliest cut of the movie in existence. It's so early, in fact, that some scenes aren't fully animated yet. I can now reveal....

Though there are a few extra moments the Sharptooth fight (some shots are held for slightly longer, there's a brief scream from Littlefoot's Mom that's slightly different to the theatrical release, etc), there are no violent deleted scenes! In fact, the early cut of the movie was shorter than the theatrical release.

I might as well kick this off!

We've uncovered several scripts from 1987 for the movie where Littlefoot is called Thunderfoot. There is some information about this on the Land Before Time fandom page, but perhaps you as a writer can shed light on the name change and how this was received by the team?

Hi Mumbling, thank you for the great question! We often used placeholder names when working out the characters, and Thunderfoot happened to already be the name of a character in an English children's book. When we realized we would need to change it, we thought about how the character has important scenes where he encounters his mother's large footprint, hence the name "Littlefoot" was born.