Film #8: The Land Before Time
reviewed on Nov 15, 2011
The Land Before Time; a Touching Animated Film with a Tragic Bookend (read on to read about the sad death of Judith Barsi)
Today we take our journey back to the prehistoric world of The Land Before Time. The film was created by the ever masterful Don Bluth. Attached to this project are the golden names of producers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, who also spent 1988 speaking to Congress about protecting artistic visions in film. It is voiced by Gabriel Damon(Little Nemo, Newsies); Candace Hutson(Evening Shade); the late Judith Barsi(All Dogs Go to Heaven);Will Ryan (hundreds of memorable voice roles including Digit from An American Tail); the late Bill Erwin, one of my favorite television "go to old guy" on shows like Growing Pains, Seinfeld, and Full House; Frank Welker, the Zeus of the voice-over world who ruled our 1980's cartoon universe (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0919798/); and the late great Pat Hingle (Batman, Brewster's Millions, infinite TV roles)
The Plot:
Young herbivore dinosaurs struggle to survive a global upheaval, in order to find the Great Valley to be reunited with remaining family members. Through their journey they learn to depend on each other and to dispose of the stereotypes that kept them apart in the first place. They learn to face the terrors of their world by banding together. One of the constant villains of that world that they have to learn to face, is Sharptooth, a T-Rex.(Welker).
Mental note, I just had a flash connection between Three Amigos and The Land Before Time. "Every one of has our own Sharptooth"
Along the journey, the friends learn that each of them adds something special to the group, and that the group is stronger through diversity, rather than the divisions their families instituted in their old life. Littlefoot(Damon) is the driven leader, Cera (Hutson) is the fearless strength, Duckie(Barsi) is the heart and emotion (yep, yep, yep), Petrie(Ryan) is the ever loyal friend, and Spike is the constant star that guides them forward when they don't feel like they can go on.
The Review, but first some Bluth backstory:
Bluth is a personal favorite here at the 1988 project. One cannot go wrong with the Bluth film library. His tales are so beautifully drawn and painted and they contain both a humor and an adult edginess. Here is where I mention that I once wrote him a fan letter, and he autographed everything I sent, plus he sent me signed copies of his animation magazine. He is a prince among animators. I cannot think of an animator who has contributed more to the films I would classify in my top lists, other than John Lasseter, but that is like comparing apples and oranges of animation method. However, Lasseter and Bluth have enchanted audiences because their films speak to all age levels of the audience. It would appear that in their world, story comes first, box office receipts comes second. I feel like the fact that Bluth had nothing to do with the endless sequels to this film,clearly designed for profit making, supports my thesis. The same can be said of Lasseter. How many other animation studios beyond Pixar have had such a constant run of success? Game, set,match "straight to video" animators.
Interestingly enough, both Lasseter and Bluth worked for Disney. In fact, Lasseter's career at the studio began as a CalArts graduate recruit, hired to stem the chaos created by an animator walk-out led by Bluth. Bluth had worked at Disney for decades and had a hand in some of my all time favorite Disney movies, The Rescuers, Robin Hood, The Sword in the Stone, among others. He became increasingly frustrated by the lack of vision and funding for animation at the studio, and left while making another favorite film, The Fox and the Hound. His exit would allow the recruitment of a young Tim Burton and a young John Lasseter. Bluth left Disney,during Disney's...lets just call out malaise period, the time between the 70's and the Disney Renaissance that began in 1988 and 1989 after Who Framed Roger Rabbit and The Little Mermaid.
Bluth would go out in the world and create The Secret of Nimh, An American Tail, and so many other films, that I would argue pushed Disney to compete with better fare, leading to their renaissance, and the eventual Pixar business model. The Land Before Time is a testament to Bluth's passion for art and story. I think we can thank Bluth for saving animated films. I defy anyone to find a moment in this film where you find yourself not engaged.
That being said, I was afraid when I sat down to watch it with my boys that it might not hold up, that my love of Bluth and the nostalgia of the film kept me as a supporter. I still remember the night I saw it in 1988. My parents took my brother and I to see it at the Frontier Mall in Cheyenne, WY the night of a terrible storm. It was a Sunday, the day we would usually go to movies, after church. I was drawn to Petrie's story for some reason or other, maybe my own insecurities of being somewhat small and scared, in a world of friends who were outgoing and larger than life. We waited in JC Penny's after the movie for dad to bring the van around. While we watched the storm come down outside, my mom noticed that Penny's was selling film merchandise and bought me a Petrie stuffed animal. That was a happy 1988 moment that sticks with me. I loved sharing movies with my parents, it bonded us as a family. In light of this memory, I feared that my hopes of The Land Before Time were not going to translate to my kids.
The good news is, the story is timeless; friends overcoming the odds and their divisions to find the goodness inside of all of us. The imagery of the little dinosaurs clinging to each other in the midst of chaos is well designed and each character has their own voice and their own quirks to fall in love with. So many familiar Bluth-Speilberg-Lucas themes cross through the film; love, loyalty, heroism, family, adversity, adventure, scary caves, fear and acceptance of the unknown, loss and discovery. My kids loved it and wanted to watch more Bluth films, By the way, some critics back in 1988 called this movie dark. Rightly so I suppose, as its animations take the viewer through an apocalyptic world of death and destruction, feeling very much hopeless like the Nothing in The Never Ending Story. The scariest images are done in shadow if you worry about the intensity. If you have not checked out this film in a while, what are you waiting for.
Rated G
10 out of 10 stars
Here is what Roger Ebert had to say about The Land Before Time in 1988.
The Tragic 1988 backstory of this film:
While I was researching the movie, I have found yet another reason that 1988 was a marker year in film. Sadly the young lady who voiced Duckie in this film, Judith Barsi, would never get to see this film on the screen. Nor we she be able to see her final work as Anna Marie in Bluth's All Dog's Go to Heaven the following year. The summer of 1988 saw the snuffing out of this young light (she was only one year younger than me). She, along with her mother, was murdered by her abusive father while she was resting in their home. Her father then lit their bodies on fire and shot himself in the garage. Her resume shows a young lady who was on the rise. Sadly, CPS had been involved but ended the investigation on the insistence of her mother that they were leaving her husband. She had been in TV shows like Growing Pains, Punky Brewster, and St Elsewhere. This film is forever immortalized on her grave (found on findagrave.com) 1988 was the breakout year for this young star to be that would never be. RIP Ms Barsi. I have attached the news story if you want to learn more about this horrible event. LA Times article on the tragic death
Here is a wonderful tribute site to Judith
Today we take our journey back to the prehistoric world of The Land Before Time. The film was created by the ever masterful Don Bluth. Attached to this project are the golden names of producers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, who also spent 1988 speaking to Congress about protecting artistic visions in film. It is voiced by Gabriel Damon(Little Nemo, Newsies); Candace Hutson(Evening Shade); the late Judith Barsi(All Dogs Go to Heaven);Will Ryan (hundreds of memorable voice roles including Digit from An American Tail); the late Bill Erwin, one of my favorite television "go to old guy" on shows like Growing Pains, Seinfeld, and Full House; Frank Welker, the Zeus of the voice-over world who ruled our 1980's cartoon universe (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0919798/); and the late great Pat Hingle (Batman, Brewster's Millions, infinite TV roles)
The Plot:
Young herbivore dinosaurs struggle to survive a global upheaval, in order to find the Great Valley to be reunited with remaining family members. Through their journey they learn to depend on each other and to dispose of the stereotypes that kept them apart in the first place. They learn to face the terrors of their world by banding together. One of the constant villains of that world that they have to learn to face, is Sharptooth, a T-Rex.(Welker).
Mental note, I just had a flash connection between Three Amigos and The Land Before Time. "Every one of has our own Sharptooth"
Along the journey, the friends learn that each of them adds something special to the group, and that the group is stronger through diversity, rather than the divisions their families instituted in their old life. Littlefoot(Damon) is the driven leader, Cera (Hutson) is the fearless strength, Duckie(Barsi) is the heart and emotion (yep, yep, yep), Petrie(Ryan) is the ever loyal friend, and Spike is the constant star that guides them forward when they don't feel like they can go on.
The Review, but first some Bluth backstory:
Bluth is a personal favorite here at the 1988 project. One cannot go wrong with the Bluth film library. His tales are so beautifully drawn and painted and they contain both a humor and an adult edginess. Here is where I mention that I once wrote him a fan letter, and he autographed everything I sent, plus he sent me signed copies of his animation magazine. He is a prince among animators. I cannot think of an animator who has contributed more to the films I would classify in my top lists, other than John Lasseter, but that is like comparing apples and oranges of animation method. However, Lasseter and Bluth have enchanted audiences because their films speak to all age levels of the audience. It would appear that in their world, story comes first, box office receipts comes second. I feel like the fact that Bluth had nothing to do with the endless sequels to this film,clearly designed for profit making, supports my thesis. The same can be said of Lasseter. How many other animation studios beyond Pixar have had such a constant run of success? Game, set,match "straight to video" animators.
Interestingly enough, both Lasseter and Bluth worked for Disney. In fact, Lasseter's career at the studio began as a CalArts graduate recruit, hired to stem the chaos created by an animator walk-out led by Bluth. Bluth had worked at Disney for decades and had a hand in some of my all time favorite Disney movies, The Rescuers, Robin Hood, The Sword in the Stone, among others. He became increasingly frustrated by the lack of vision and funding for animation at the studio, and left while making another favorite film, The Fox and the Hound. His exit would allow the recruitment of a young Tim Burton and a young John Lasseter. Bluth left Disney,during Disney's...lets just call out malaise period, the time between the 70's and the Disney Renaissance that began in 1988 and 1989 after Who Framed Roger Rabbit and The Little Mermaid.
Bluth would go out in the world and create The Secret of Nimh, An American Tail, and so many other films, that I would argue pushed Disney to compete with better fare, leading to their renaissance, and the eventual Pixar business model. The Land Before Time is a testament to Bluth's passion for art and story. I think we can thank Bluth for saving animated films. I defy anyone to find a moment in this film where you find yourself not engaged.
That being said, I was afraid when I sat down to watch it with my boys that it might not hold up, that my love of Bluth and the nostalgia of the film kept me as a supporter. I still remember the night I saw it in 1988. My parents took my brother and I to see it at the Frontier Mall in Cheyenne, WY the night of a terrible storm. It was a Sunday, the day we would usually go to movies, after church. I was drawn to Petrie's story for some reason or other, maybe my own insecurities of being somewhat small and scared, in a world of friends who were outgoing and larger than life. We waited in JC Penny's after the movie for dad to bring the van around. While we watched the storm come down outside, my mom noticed that Penny's was selling film merchandise and bought me a Petrie stuffed animal. That was a happy 1988 moment that sticks with me. I loved sharing movies with my parents, it bonded us as a family. In light of this memory, I feared that my hopes of The Land Before Time were not going to translate to my kids.
The good news is, the story is timeless; friends overcoming the odds and their divisions to find the goodness inside of all of us. The imagery of the little dinosaurs clinging to each other in the midst of chaos is well designed and each character has their own voice and their own quirks to fall in love with. So many familiar Bluth-Speilberg-Lucas themes cross through the film; love, loyalty, heroism, family, adversity, adventure, scary caves, fear and acceptance of the unknown, loss and discovery. My kids loved it and wanted to watch more Bluth films, By the way, some critics back in 1988 called this movie dark. Rightly so I suppose, as its animations take the viewer through an apocalyptic world of death and destruction, feeling very much hopeless like the Nothing in The Never Ending Story. The scariest images are done in shadow if you worry about the intensity. If you have not checked out this film in a while, what are you waiting for.
Rated G
10 out of 10 stars
Here is what Roger Ebert had to say about The Land Before Time in 1988.
The Tragic 1988 backstory of this film:
While I was researching the movie, I have found yet another reason that 1988 was a marker year in film. Sadly the young lady who voiced Duckie in this film, Judith Barsi, would never get to see this film on the screen. Nor we she be able to see her final work as Anna Marie in Bluth's All Dog's Go to Heaven the following year. The summer of 1988 saw the snuffing out of this young light (she was only one year younger than me). She, along with her mother, was murdered by her abusive father while she was resting in their home. Her father then lit their bodies on fire and shot himself in the garage. Her resume shows a young lady who was on the rise. Sadly, CPS had been involved but ended the investigation on the insistence of her mother that they were leaving her husband. She had been in TV shows like Growing Pains, Punky Brewster, and St Elsewhere. This film is forever immortalized on her grave (found on findagrave.com) 1988 was the breakout year for this young star to be that would never be. RIP Ms Barsi. I have attached the news story if you want to learn more about this horrible event. LA Times article on the tragic death
Here is a wonderful tribute site to Judith