Yeah, this whole topic is going to sound a little silly.

But I love going back in time and watching certain movies/games/tv shows I loved as a kid. I love going retro.

Today, for some reason, I had a need to watch this movie. So what I did was bust out an old VCR, find some way to hook it up, clean it so it played decent, find the actual VHS tape (it no longer had it's protective slipcase), and then finally sit down and watch it.



For those of you who have never seen the movie (shame on you!), here's a recap. In olden times, the dinosaurs lived in a constantly changing landscape, and they always had to fight just to find any green leaves to eat. They travel westward to find a promised land called the Great Valley, with enough food and water to last a lifetime. So begins the journey of our main character, a young dinosaur named Littlefoot and his mother and grandparents.

What strikes me as different in this movie are the surprisingly darker themes. The world is set in an apocalyptic setting that's harsh and uninviting, and our main character goes through a lot of stress, as well as the loss of his mother. This is what seperates this movie from other kiddie fare: it's not always nice and friendly out there. Littlefoot (and his friends, whom he meets along the way) are thrown into a position that seems almost impossible. The dangers feel real.

Which is a big reason I enjoyed this re-viewing. Sure, there's some down time and much needed comic relief, but Littlefoot and gang are on a very dangerous adventure, and one that holds big rewards and big uncertainties.

The soundtrack was exceptional. By far one of my favorite soundtracks ever. I'll never forget some of these songs. The audio perfectly matched what was going on with the picture.

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Overall, The Land Before Time is a movie I'm extremely glad I watched over again. I found myself so easily getting into the setting and storytelling. It has darker themes, something that can't be said for it's home movie sequels.

Would I recommend you watch this? Oh yeah. Without a doubt.

Yup. Watched this one many times. Diana Ross has a good ending song on there, too.

I know the sequels don't measure up to this, but I do recommend you see number 5, the Mysterious Island. It's one of my faves.

Oh, I've watched it alright. Many times, but none of them recently. How many sequels does it have? 8? 20?

I think it had 13 or 14? But I havn't seen them all... Ive seen quite a few though ^__^
Land Before Time was indeed really great. You've made me want to watch it again now 1ce!
i havn't done any retro re-viewing for ages ... i think the last ones i saw that i loved as a kid were like.. fern gully and never ending story... about 2 or 3 years ago >_<

On the one hand, I feel the sequels spit in the face of the artistic quality of the original, (much as the new Sesame Street format does to the old), but, they did kind of make it to the great valley (or something equivalent, the movie never really specifies.) So I feel that they no longer have to face hardships, and hence, the darker themes can evaporate.

I hate the sequels with a burning rage.

*remembers getting a Little Foot toy from Pizza Hut when the movie first came out*

I watched the movie sometime last year. Can't believe I actually felt fear when the T-Rex woke up. And leading up to it. I was like "I know it's gonna wake up, when is it going to wake up? Come on, hurry up and wake up, don't leave me with so much suspense!"

I cried when he ran up to his shadow against the wall.