The land before time It may not be the best known or most successful animated film, but it is still fondly remembered and had a dedicated fanbase ready to prove its worth at any moment. With its emotionally charged story, beautiful animation, and engaging leads, it’s the kind of movie that can melt almost any viewer’s heart.
And yet even now it remains largely unknown to mass audiences. Of course, it has some dark moments that may not appeal to everyone. To better understand what The land before time it’s really like, it’s worth looking behind the scenes of this animated masterpiece.
10 It was executive produced by Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy
Some enthusiasts may know that The land before time was directed by Don Bluth, who has directed animated films such as The secret of NIMH, An american tail, All dogs Go to Heaven Y Anastasia, among others.
But not everyone knows that the executive producers on the team were such big names as Steven Spielberg (who would later direct the dinosaur-centric film). Jurassic Park), George Lucas (who had directed the original Star Wars trilogy at the time), and Kathleen Kennedy (who is currently the president of Lucasfilm). This also meant that the film was a co-production between the United States and Ireland under Amblin Entertainment, Lucasfilm and Sullivan Bluth Ltd.
9 There are thirteen direct-to-video sequels and a television series
Like many successful functions, The land before time spawned a host of sequels and even a short-lived animated television series. Unlike the original, these had a much lighter tone to appeal to the younger generation.
Unfortunately, the sequels and the TV series didn’t involve Bluth, Spielberg, or Lucas, but they were still decent with some of the sequels even winning awards and receiving critical acclaim, particularly for their songs.
8 The film led Spielberg to found his animation studio Amblimation.
Apparently the success of The land before time, An american tail, Y Who Killed Roger Rabbit (in all of which Spielberg served as executive producer) led to the founding of his own animation studio, Amblimation.
Unfortunately, the studio only worked three roles and closed after eight years of operation with the 250 members of the studio team joining DreamWorks Animation.
7 The movie was meant to be even darker
The land before time it’s a notoriously dark movie with some pretty scary sequences. And yet it was supposed to be even darker, but editing and cutting kept the movie from being too dark for younger viewers.
Spielberg and Lucas reportedly felt that some scenes were too dark and intense for the children to stand up. This resulted in the cutoff of 10 minutes of footage (a total of 19 fully animated scenes).
6 It was meant to be Bambi … but with dinosaurs
At some point during the production of An american tail, Spielberg and Bluth began to think about their next project. They wanted to do something like Bambi Instead, he uses dinosaurs for the characters.
In fact, there is a clear parallel between the two films. Bambi’s mother dies early in the film and Littlefoot’s mother also passes away before he embarks on his journey to find a new place to live.
5 There is a tragedy behind the movie
Unfortunately, there is a tragedy behind the movie that not many people know about. Ten-year-old Judith Barsi, the actress who voices one of the main characters named Ducky, was murdered by her own father in a murder-suicide in July 1988, four months before the film’s release.
Barsi had appeared in numerous commercials and television series, as well as starring in Shark: Revenge. He also voiced a character on Bluth’s. All dogs Go to Heaven which was also released posthumously. For years, Barsi and her mother had been abused by her father, whose aggression grew as Barsi career became more successful.
4 The soundtrack has some great names attached
The beautiful music for The land before time was composed by James Horner, who would continue to work on James Cameron Titanic Y Avatar (also previously composed for Cameron Aliens), Mel Gibson Brave Heartand Marc Webb The amazing Spider Man among others. Horner was chosen for his work on An american tail.
The title track “If We Hold on Together” was performed by award-winning actress and singer Diana Ross and peaked at # 23 on the contemporary US adult charts.
3 It could have been a silent movie with no dialogue
At one point, Spielberg and Lucas were considering making the movie completely free of any dialogue. They were supposedly inspired by the Rite of Spring sequence in Fantasy.
However, they eventually dropped the idea because they believed the movie wouldn’t appeal to kids if it didn’t have any dialogue.
two It is not entirely clear which species the main characters belong to.
Of course the movie description says they are an Apatosaurus (Little Foot), a Triceratops (Wax), a Parasaurolophus (Ducky), a Pteranodon (Petrie), and a Stegosaurus (Spike), but there has actually been some speculation about if this is accurate.
No problem with Littlefoot, but Cera could be a Monoclonius that also belongs to the Triceratops species. In the official materials, Ducky is called Parasaurolophus, although some fans consider that she looks like a Saurolophus, while critics call her Anatosaurus.
1 He was nominated for two awards
The land before time was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film and a Youth in Film Award for Best Family Animation or Fantasy Film.
Lost the first to Robert Zemeckis Who Killed Roger Rabbit and the second to Tim Burton Beetle juice.
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Reference-www.cbr.com
