Cast _* Interesting Facts

Directed by: Don Bluth
Written by: Judy Freudberg & Stu Krieger
Music by: James Horner

Released on: November 18, 1988
Running Time: 70 minutes

Budget: $
Box-Office: $48 million in the U.S., $ million worldwide
 
 

CAST

Littlefoot... Gabriel Damon
Cera... Candace Hutson
Ducky... Judith Barsi
Petrie... Will Ryan
 
 

INTERESTING FACTS

  Judy Freudberg wrote the story of both The Land Before Time and An American Tail.

  Will Ryan (Petrie) is also the voice and soul behind Digit in An American Tail, the seahorse in The Little Mermaid, Stuey in Rock-A-Doodle, the hero in Thumbelina, Gnorm in A Gnome Named Gnorm (1994) and Tika in The Pebble and the Penguin (1995).
 

Gabriel Damon (born in 1976).  Scott McAfee supplied the voice of Little Foot for the first 2 sequels, while his sister Anndi Lynn McAfee voiced Cera in the 4th and 5th sequel -Candace Hutson had kept on voicing Cera until then.  Thomas Dekker was Little Foot from 1997 on -Thomas is also the official voice of Fieveld in An American Tail sequels since 1999.

  The Land Before Time was the second production supported by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, and this time included production support from George Lucas.   The film was released against Disney's Oliver and Company.

  The film wasn't greeted with the same critical enthusiasm as An American Tail.   Although the general artistry of the film was not in doubt, the film's story, and especially its theme of the child character getting lost, and then being found at the end from An American Tail (and for that matter Banjo the Woodpile Cat) being repeated in this film were the parts reviewers had problems with.   There was some disappointment at the production being 'the best Bluth & co, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas could come up with'.   The film was not a favourite with the Bluth group either.  Gary Goldman remarked on the fact that the film had alterations made to it (10 minutes were cut) to direct it to a four to six year old audience which took away some of the exciting elements of the film.

  The Land Before Time was the last made through Amblin.   A third film to be backed by Amblin was never made, but Don Bluth productions continued through a new backer, Goldcrest International, through which Bluth's next film, All Dogs Go To Heaven would be released.

  Diana Ross performed the title song for the movie: "If We Hold On Together", composed by James Horner (Titanic).

  "On Land, Spielberg himself removed 19 scenes from the Sharp Tooth attack, during a review session in London, as it was very scary for the wee ones," explained Don Bluth in November 2002. "Both Spielberg and George Lucas suggested the edit. (It was SCARY.) They felt that there would be sceaming children in the lobby too afraid to go back into the theater."

  During a 1990 interview to promote The Tiny Toons:, Steven Spielberg admitted: "Animation is the most fun I have right now. I'm involved with other projects, but the last couple of years, I've had more fun overseeing the animation from The Land Before Time, An American Tail, and the sequel to An American Tail, which is before the cameras in London right now. As the dollar shrinks and movies cost more, my imagination is becoming less and less affordable. So, I've turned to Animation as a way to free it up. In Animation, anything can happen."

  In September 2001, Don Bluth commented on the movie's production: "The Land Before Time was [originally] longer. It was originally designed for about 76 minutes (not an epic length, but certainly longer than the 69 minutes that reached the audience). Many scenes were cut because they were thought too scarey or too dark and too violent. 19 scenes were cut from the sequence where the Tyrannosaurus Rex chases the chilren into the briars and from the fight with the mother Brontosaurus. There were other deletions of original material and the narrator was added near the end of production during the final dubbing in London."

  Discussing Steven Spielberg's involvement in the movie, Don Bluth recalled that "there were difficulties on Land Before Time. Mainly because Steven wasn't always easily available to approve storyboards. He was often on location shooting Empire of the Sun. We would sometimes receive his comments two or three weeks late and we would have had to proceed with animation to stay on schedule. But then have to make changes after the animation was done. This would cause issues for the animators because they had thought through their scenes and worked hard to achieve the desired result, only to have to reanimate the scenes. We would, in-turn, have to submit estimates to Universal for the cost of the changes in order to now be in an over-budget situation. It was cumbersome but pretty standard when working with studio financing and a well-known executive producer. Our biggest surprise was when he (and George Lucas) reviewed Land Before Time and became alarmed at the content of the Rex Attacking the Children sequence. This sequence had been approved in storyboard with exactly the same staging and timing. However, once animated it became very intense and both filmmakers were very concern about the 'fright level'. They said that it scared the s*#@ out of them. Could we imagine what it would do to the younger audience members? 'Why they'd run to the lobby and be afraid to come back into the theater. They would have nightmares for weeks.' Steven met with us and his editor the next day and cut 19 scenes from the sequence. Mostly closeups of the Rex, chomping at the kids or, at the camera. They were right, it would have scared the heck out of the 4 to 8 year-olds. But for us, at the time, it was a terrific blow to our egos. As for the animators, they were very upset, as that sequence really sold the viciousness of the Rex and the 'flow' of the continuity was almost musical. After the cuts, the sequence felt 'choppy.' It still worked. All in all the experience was a good one. Both films did well in the theatrical and video markets and received good marks from the critics. However, compared to NIMH, the critics felt that the films were more for children than for a broader audience. On continuing our relationship with Amblin' and Universal, a) it WAS another mouse picture and b) they wanted the third picture for the same budget as the first. We couldn't meet that requirement. The original Tail movie cost $9.6 million. Land had cost $14 million, plus undisclosed fees for Steven and George. We went on to produce All Dogs Go To Heaven for $13.8 million.  They produced An American Tail II: Fievel Goes West for $25 million in England. We probably could have done Tail II for between $13 and $14 million. Oh well. We are not really into sequels anyway. Onward and upward."

  This might be Don Bluth's most marketed movie ever, with several sing-along tapes, games, a "Math Adventure" CD-Rom, books, and 5 direct-to-video sequels in only 10 years!