Things Only Adults Notice In The Land Before Time

Most children don't pay much attention to who's creating the films they love. But for decades, Don Bluth had a hand in a great deal of the most beloved animated movies, from his work with Disney starting in 1959 right up through to today — he's currently working on Dragon's Lair: The Movie, despite the fact that he's in his 80s. Today's adults can look back fondly on films like The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, and All Dogs Go To Heaven, but modern kids are unlikely to recognize these titles as readily, and probably wouldn't necessarily recognize that they were all directed by the same person. The Land Before Time is another on this list of animated classics, and Bluth isn't the only impressive name on its pedigree. The film's executive producers were George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, Hollywood elites who had already collaborated on fan-favorite franchises like Star Wars and Indiana Jones. All three of these men are meaningful figures to anyone over a certain age, but the juice box crowd just cares about how Littlefoot and his friends are going to make it to the Great Valley.

One of the aspects that sets the original film apart from its sequels is the way it deals with balancing heavy matters like loss, tragedy, and imminent danger with the sense of lighthearted fun that comes part and parcel with childhood. At the outset of the film, protagonist Littlefoot must contend with his mother's violent onscreen death. She gives him the gift of a "tree star," a star-shaped leaf, and tells him that he must find his grandparents in the Great Valley, where he can live freely without worrying about the blight sweeping the land. An elderly dinosaur named Rooter reassures Littlefoot, telling him that this is part of the great circle of life — a sentiment that would be echoed a few years later in Disney's The Lion King. 

On Littlefoot's journey, he meets with other young dinosaurs without their parents, having been either orphaned or otherwise separated. These children must brave their way through a harsh, dying landscape to a promised land that may not even exist. Though a lot of this seems really heavy, the intended audience is learning important lessons about grappling with life's tragedies, in between enjoying a gripping adventure story starring children their own age. Adults can more readily recognize the benefit of this lesson, made easier for the children in their lives by being administered gently with consideration for emotional growth.

Everyone knows that one kid who can rattle off all the polysyllabic names of various dinosaurs without even taking a breath. But children don't necessarily have a grasp of timing when it comes to which dinosaurs lived when, and though The Land Before Time does a great job of fueling their curiosity, it isn't terribly scientifically accurate. Ignoring the fact that modern research indicates that most dinosaurs were probably feathered (something which wasn't commonly accepted at the time the film came out), the dinosaur characters themselves were not likely to have all coexisted at the same point in time. 

Like a lot of ancient and prehistoric history, getting a grip on how vast the timeline is can be complicated for adults as much as kids, but adults are more likely to have a better sense of scale than their younger counterparts. Littlefoot, an apatosaurus, and Spike, a stegosaurus, would have lived during the Late Jurassic period, while their friends Ducky (saurolophus), Petrie (pteranodon — and not technically a dinosaur!), and Cera (triceratops) lived during the Late Cretaceous period — along with the dreaded "Sharptooth" T. Rex.

Everyone knows the dinosaurs went extinct. Indeed, to children they may as well be mythological beasts like dragons, so far are they from our current reality. But the threat of extinction is not something most children get too hung up on, with their lives so new and full and exciting. Adults, however, will likely be far more aware of our world's current climate concerns, knowing that the Earth goes through cycles of death and renewal — that circle of life Rooter tells Littlefoot about when he tries to console him over his mother's death. 

So even though the children fear Sharptooth and his very real, physical threat to their wellbeing, it's nature running its course that is the real "villain" of the film. Even Sharptooth needs to eat — and what meager meals the children make, as they can barely feed themselves throughout the course of the film. Today's children are more eco-conscious than their parents might have been, but even if they know to recycle and reduce their waste, they are likely to lack the fear that comes with knowing that this planet is changing in often frightening ways.

Although The Land Before Time deals well with the subject of death and loss, many parents still try to shield their children from the very worst of the tragedies plaguing our world. Unfortunately, such tragedy actually touched the cast of The Land Before Time with the horrific murder of Judith Barsi, the ten-year-old voice actress behind Ducky. Barsi and her mother were killed by her father, who then shot himself as well, only a few months before The Land Before Time's theatrical premiere. This piece of sad news is not likely to affect a modern childhood audience, for whom 1988 exists as merely a distant time and place. But anyone alive at the time of the film's release, regardless of age, is better equipped to remember the news coverage and general mood surrounding this tale of a young talent whose voice was taken too soon.