Was it true about Original Ending?

[Ducky123]

I personally don't believe in this rumor... It sound too unrealistic to me and I doubt I would've liked the Land Before Time anyway.

[Blais_13]

To me it sounds quiet possible to be something behind this.The movie was dark,and there are the things alredy mentioned in this topic,so this is at least an interesting interpretation of the ending if nothing is behind the rumor at all.I think the ending is happy anyway,becose they were in a better place,dead or alive.Of course we have the very solid proofs in the forms of sequels that the gang survived it.

too unrealistic

More unrealistic than talking dinosaurs,and straight standing t-rexes?

[Littlefoot3897]

To me it sounds quiet possible to be something behind this.The movie was dark,and there are the things alredy mentioned in this topic,so this is at least an interesting interpretation of the ending if nothing is behind the rumor at all.I think the ending is happy anyway,becose they were in a better place,dead or alive.Of course we have the very solid proofs in the forms of sequels that the gang survived it.

too unrealistic

More unrealistic than talking dinosaurs,and straight standing t-rexes?

you sir dont know about the deleted scenes do you?

originally lbt was suppose to be like this

-finds rock that looks like long neck
-cera little foot
-gang split
-littlefoot cries and sees his mother
-mother shows him the great valley
-littlefoot decides to go back to look for his friends
-littlefoot saves friends
-sharptooth killed
-shows his friends the great valley


if this rumor was true, littlefoot died then and came back to get his friends?

Don Bluth also thought this rumor was nuts and was never intending that

[Blais_13]

Aren't they first actually decline other endings before making those scenes?

Anyway,it doesn't matters,becose if what you say is true about Bluth,then it's false.So what?The movie ended with them alive?We alredy knew that in the first place.Somebody just came up with this idea then,but I still find it interesting.

[Malte279]

Don Bluth also thought this rumor was nuts and was never intending that

Did he? When and where did he write so?

[Petrie85]

Yeah I'd like to know this information as well.

[Almaron]

Don Bluth also thought this rumor was nuts and was never intending that

I was sure I'd read that somewhere too, but I wasn't able to confirm this when I tried to search for it online.

However, I do remember reading a bunch of threads on the IMDB message boards for the LBT movies, and one user was (or claimed to have been) a former animator at Sullivan Bluth Studios, and talked a fair deal about events during the production of one or two of their movies (in one thread he talked about the discovery of Judith Barsi's murder). He said in one thread that the "original ending" rumor wasn't true, and noted if it had ever existed, he'd never heard Don Bluth mention it (or something like that).

Could be worth looking for again...although this was a LONG time ago that I read this; around the time I joined the GOF? Prob >2006?

...Methinks I might have posted this before?

[Littlefoot3897]

Don Bluth also thought this rumor was nuts and was never intending that

I was sure I'd read that somewhere too, but I wasn't able to confirm this when I tried to search for it online.

However, I do remember reading a bunch of threads on the IMDB message boards for the LBT movies, and one user was (or claimed to have been) a former animator at Sullivan Bluth Studios, and talked a fair deal about events during the production of one or two of their movies (in one thread he talked about the discovery of Judith Barsi's murder). He said in one thread that the "original ending" rumor wasn't true, and noted if it had ever existed, he'd never heard Don Bluth mention it (or something like that).

Could be worth looking for again...although this was a LONG time ago that I read this; around the time I joined the GOF? Prob >2006?

...Methinks I might have posted this before?

dont remember where it was either I read it

maybe someone asked Don Bluth on his forums or something

its funny because its hard to get any info about land before time from him since it looks like he feels the movie wasnt his best because of all those edits and squeals later

[Phantom]

I, for one, would have preferred the death ending. It's just more poetic and junk.

[jansenov]

^You mean junk as in overused? Poetic and junk. Now that's a combination I haven't heard before.

[Phantom]

^You mean junk as in overused? Poetic and junk. Now that's a combination I haven't heard before.

Junk as a replacement for stuff.

[Almaron]

I, for one, would have preferred the death ending. It's just more poetic and junk.

Well, there was a Wild Mass Guessing - essentially a strange theory - on TvTropes a while back which suggested that even if not identified as such, it was still happening in the film; all the characters were dead, and the Great Valley was their afterlife. The page is down at the moment, but I think I saved the article to use with a story I never wrote. Let me check...

Yup, I did;

The earthquake near the beginning was a result of the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event, AKA the extinction of the dinosaurs. Meaning everyone was Dead All Along. The film is their journey through purgatory towards heaven, represented by the Great Valley. The dinosaur that comforts Littlefoot directly after his mother's death is an angel trying to get him to overcome his anger over his mother's death, for which he blames both her and (secretly) himself. The lava field is where Cera overcomes her sin of excessive pride, and where the rest of the group learns that there are no "shortcuts" to heaven, and that they must go on the path set for them, and have faith in it, or they'll never get there. The sharptooth is representative of the kids' fear of their own mortality, and by killing him, they have finally let go of all of their earthly attachments, aside from Littlefoot, who still has guilt for the death of his mother. When he finally accepts her death, he finds the Great Valley, along with everyone else, where the rest of their families are waiting for them in the afterlife.

Of course, people pointed out the major flaw with this theory...

*So his mother went to hell?
**And she still came back to lead Little Foot to Heaven!
***No, she's in heaven. The rest of the dinosaurs are in hell, aka the sequels.

Another person suggested you could view the film as an analogy for religion:

Littlefoot represents Christian faith. He believes that if you follow the path, no matter how difficult it may be, you will find heaven. Cera represents temptation. She too wants to get into heaven but doesn't want to have to work at it, and so is always looking for an "easy" way. These two spend much of the movie trying to convince Petrie, Duckie, and Spike to follow them. Cera's Heel Face Turn at the end represents the heroes overcoming temptation.
Petrie, Duckie, and Spike each represent a different type of follower. Petrie follows out of fear. Duckie follows out of innocence. Spike follows out of stupidity. All three are easily swayed and have to constantly be kept in line.
The Sharptooth, a mindless force of destruction, represents the sin that threatens to consume our heroes' souls should they ever stray from the path. Notice how when Sharptooth is presumed dead at the beginning of the movie, it is Cera (temptation) who finds and revives him. Notice also that Sharptooth normally only shows up if the heroes stray from the path. Symbolically, just before entering heaven they kill Sharptoothókilling Sin (in a pool of water, similar to a baptism ceremony, as it happens).
The tree-star represents a material possession, which keeps Littlefoot and his followers bound to their mortal coil. They are incapable of transcending the earthly realm while they are dependent on material possessions for comfort. Symbolically, it is destroyed at the halfway point of their journey.
Littlefoot's mother tells him that he can reach the Great Valley by following the sun. In many ancient religions, the Sun = God, so she's essentially saying to follow God. Littlefoot's mother herself could represent the Holy Mother (though combined with the fact that Littlefoot has no father, this interpretation turns Littlefoot into Jesus).

Certainly interesting, both of them - although I don't seriously think either of these would have been intended by the film-makers. As mentioned elsewhere, I wanted to use both of these concepts to make a LBT fic that would take place thousands of years after the events of the films, showing what happened to the last dinosaurs during the K-T event. Think LBT I, but with characters seemingly dying every few chapters (only to realise they were already dead to begin with at the end), and a spectral member of the GOF taking Rooter's place in the story. However, the fic became a jumbled mess of concepts, so I abandoned it.

[Ducky123]

Those are some interesting yet controversial ideas. The first one seems to fit at first but, as you pointed out, some facts show this theory can't be right. At least not completely. The Littlefoot as a Christian theory is pure nonsence in my view though.

Sadly you abandomed it Sounds like a good idea at least though

[jansenov]

And don't forget the similarities between Jesus' and Littlefoot's birth.

But seriously, there are two other possibilities as well:
a) the movie-makers touched upon Christian concepts while being unaware of touching upon them, or
b) merely used tropes that were introduced into animation by Walt Disney, who himself might have touched upon Christian themes knowingly or unknowingly (by some things I read before, it was very much knowingly, but I can't remember the source so this might be speculation)

Our culture shapes the way in which we think, even if we are unaware of it or openly deny it. For example, when Auguste Comte, the founder of positivism, wanted to replace Christianity with the "religion of humanity", he went so far as to introduce three pillars of religion (Altruism, Order, Progress), seven sacraments, hymns, prayers, and even a calendar. It was essentially Christianity without God or Christ. Or take Friedrich Engels and communism, with its "fall of humanity" (the end of primitive communism of first human societies), its martyrs (fallen revolutionaries), its saints (personality cults of various communist leaders), and the achievement of true communism (the Thousand Year Kingdom after the second coming of Christ). Even some contemporary atheists, like Ray Kurzweil, can be included in this category, with their view of history as unstoppable nad unconditional technological progress that will end in the Technological Singularity, where AI moves so beyond human intelligence that the world becomes unrecognizable to human beings. Yet any of these people would be deeply offended if you called them Christian copycats, but that's what they essentially were.

So, I wouldn't completely exclude any Christian influence on Bluth and co.