The Land Before Time (film)
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The Land Before Time is a 1988 American animated adventure film produced by Sullivan Bluth Studios and released by Universal Studios and Amblin Entertainment. It features anthropomorphic dinosaurs living in a fantasy version of prehistoric Earth, who team up to survive and find the Great Valley.
- Directed by Don Bluth. Written by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss.
It is the dawn of time. The time of the dinosaur. Lost and alone, Littlefoot and his friends are about to embark on the journey of a lifetime.
Dialogue[edit]
- Narrator: Once, upon this same Earth, beneath this same sun, long before you, before the ape and the elephant, as well, before the wolf, the bison, the whale, before the mammoth and the mastodon...was the time of the dinosaurs.
- Triceratops: Come on!
- Narrator: Now, the dinosaurs were of 2 kinds: some had flat teeth and ate the leaves of trees, and some had sharp teeth for eating meat, and they preyed upon the leaf-eaters. Then, it happened that the leaves began to die. The mighty beasts who appeared to rule earth were ruled, in truth, by the leaf. Desperate for food, some dinosaur herds stuck out toward the west, searching for their Great Valley, a land still lush and green. It was a journey toward life. It was a march of many dangers. Sharpteeth stalked the herds, waiting to seize any who strayed. The leaf-eaters stopped only to hatch their young.
- Littlefoot: When will we get there?
- Littlefoot's Mother: The bright circle will pass over us many times, and we must follow it each day until it touches the ground.
- Littlefoot: Have you ever seen the Great Valley?
- Littlefoot's Mother: No.
- Littlefoot: Well then, how do you know it's really there?
- Littlefoot's Mother: Some things you see with your eyes, others you see with your heart.
- Littlefoot: I don't understand, Mother.
- Littlefoot's Mother: You will, my son. You will.
- Topps: Come, Cera. Three-horns never play with longnecks.
- [Cera blows raspberries at Littlefoot. Then, her father scowls and growls at Littlefoot]
- Littlefoot's Mother: Littlefoot!
- Cera: [parrots her father's words] Three-horns never play with longnecks!
- [Littlefoot trips, slides down, and accidentally bumps into Rooter]
- Rooter: Hey! What's going on here? [sees Littlefoot crying] What's your problem? You're not hurt.
- Littlefoot: [tearfully; in serious anger] It's not fair! She should have knew better. That was Sharptooth. It is all her fault.
- Rooter: All her fault? All whose fault?
- Littlefoot: Mother's!
- Rooter: [soon understands why Littlefoot is crying] Oh. I see. I see.
- Littlefoot: Why did I wander so far from home?
- Rooter: Oh, it's not your fault. It's not your mother's fault, either. Now, you pay attention to ol' Rooter. It is nobody's fault. The Great Circle of Life has begun. But you see, not all of us arrive together at the end.
- Littlefoot: What'll I do? I am going to miss her so much.
- Rooter: And you might always miss her. But she'll always be with you, as long as you remember the things she taught you. In a way, you'll never be apart, for you are still part of each other.
- Littlefoot: My tummy hurts.
- Rooter: Well, that, too, should go in time, little fella. Only in time. [departs]
- Petrie: [to Littlefoot] You've got a nice flat head, Flathead.
- Littlefoot: [exasperated] My name is not Flathead. My name is [enunciating] LIT-TLE-FOOT!
- Petrie: [gasps] Littlefoot?
- Littlefoot: Are you just gonna stay up there?
- Petrie: I am.
- Littlefoot: Well, you can't! You're tearing my treestar!
- Ducky: It's special, his mother gave it to him. She did.
- Petrie: [amazed at the treestar Littlefoot received from his mother] Ooh. Mother present. Very important. [rolling up the treestar and holding it like a rifle] I stay here, keep safe. No let nobodies touch! [begins marching back and forth on Littlefoot's head]
- Ducky: Yeah, Petrie! You keep it safe! Yep, yep, yep!
- Littlefoot: Nope, nope, nope. I'm not your carrier. Get off! [Petrie clings on] You're a flyer! Now start flying!
- Littlefoot: Come on, Cera, Sharptooth is dead. He fell down into the big underground.
- Cera: And that's where he met me.
- Ducky: Oh. Dear brave, Cera.
- Petrie: Dear brave, Cera.
- Cera: Yes, I am brave.
- Littlefoot: Sharptooth is dead!
- Cera: My father told me that flatheads had very small brains.
- Littlefoot: Come on, Cera! We got green food.
- Cera: I can get my OWN green food! [attempts to hit a tree, but no treestars come down, so Littlefoot helpfully drops some for her, and then, thinking that her own idea works, Cera eats the treestars] You see, I can take care of myself; all by myself. I'm not afraid to be alone, I know my way to go, AND...I'm not afraid of the Sharptooth...I hope that he doesn't eat any of you!
- Littlefoot: Oh, you can't quit now. What if the Great Valley's just over the top of these rocks?
- Narrator: Though they were sore-stumped and tired, Littlefoot urged them on. He'd never seen the Great Valley, but his heart told him they were close. Surely, at the top, they'd behold it finally...
- [They reached the top of the cliff to find the Great Valley, but they find just rocks]
- Cera: [shouting at Littlefoot] THIS IS YOUR GREAT VALLEY?! You're crazy! I'm leaving.
- Littlefoot: Cera, we have to keep following the bright circle!
- Cera: I'm taking the easy way for once!
- Littlefoot: But it's the WRONG WAY!
- Cera: Who says?!
- Littlefoot: My mother!
- Cera: Then, she was just a stupid longneck, too!
- Littlefoot: [gasped and enraged] TAKE THAT BACK!
- Cera: NEVER!
- Littlefoot: TAKE IT BACK!
- Cera: NO!
- [Enraged by Cera's insult, Littlefoot tackles Cera while sliding down, as the brawl begins]
- Littlefoot: [about the Sharptooth; as he and his friends are in the lake] Let's get rid of him once and for all.
- Ducky: What will we do?
- Littlefoot: Look, we'll coax him to the deep end of the pond. He can't swim with those scrawny arms. Me and Spike will go up and push that big rock on top of his head, and then he'll fall off into the water.
- Littlefoot's Mother: [to Littlefoot, in cloud form and ghost appearance] Littlefoot...
- Littlefoot: Mother!
- Littlefoot's Mother: Littlefoot...?
- Littlefoot: I have tried to do what you told me. But it is just too heard. Great. Now, I am never going to find the Great Valley. [the cloud which has been his mother's ghost appearance begins to fall apart] Mother...? Mother...? [tries to run after the cloud as it's falling apart] DON'T GO, MOTHER! DON'T GO!
- Cera: Littlefoot! Come on, I'll race ya!
- Narrator: And they all grew up together in the valley. [the children Littlefoot, Cera, Petrie, Ducky, and Spike arrive to the top of a hill, then come together in a big group hug] Generation upon generation, each passing on to the next, the tale of their ancestors' journey to the Valley, long ago.
Cast[edit]
- Gabriel Damon as Littlefoot
- Candy Hutson as Cera
- Judith Barsi as Ducky
- Will Ryan as Petrie
- Helen Shaver as Littlefoot's mother
- Burke Byrnes as Cera's father
- Bill Erwin as Littlefoot's grandfather
- Pat Hingle as Rooter and the narrator
About The Land Before Time (film)[edit]
- On the Land Before Time, George (Lucas) and Steven (Spielberg) were more concerned about causing nightmares for children than getting a G rating.
- Don Bluth [1]
