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The Land Before Time (1988)

7.1
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Ratings: 7.1/10 from 39,530 users  
Reviews: 119 user | 17 critic

Five orphan dinosaurs travel the ruins of their world, while grieving the loss of their families and banding together to face the odds of survival.

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(screenplay), (story), 1 more credit »
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Title: The Land Before Time (1988)

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Cast

Complete credited cast:
...
Ducky (voice)
...
Narrator / Rooter (voice)
...
Littlefoot (voice)
...
...
Grandfather (voice)
...
Daddy Topps (voice)
Candace Hutson ...
Cera (voice)
...
Petrie (voice)
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Storyline

An orphaned brontosaurus named Littlefoot sets off in search of the legendary Great Valley. A land of lush vegetation where the dinosaurs can thrive and live in peace. Along the way he meets four other young dinosaurs, each one a different species, and they encounter several obstacles as they learn to work together in order to survive. Written by Scott Lane <rslane@ix.netcom.com>

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Taglines:

A new adventure is born. See more »


Certificate:

G | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
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Details

Official Sites:

Country:

|

Language:

Release Date:

18 November 1988 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Em Busca do Vale Encantado  »

Box Office

Budget:

$12,300,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$48,092,846 (USA)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

Color:

(Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1
See  »
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Did You Know?

Trivia

Steven Spielberg and George Lucas originally wanted the film to have no dialog, like the Rite of Spring sequence in Fantasia. But, to make the film appealing to children, they abandoned this idea, and got actors and actresses to do the voices. See more »

Goofs

The scene in which the baby pterodactyls fight over the cherry uses two backgrounds, one for the vertical pan, another for the horizontal. The two backgrounds do not match exactly; particularly, the sky changes color, and a knothole in the bottom of the screen disappears and then reappears. See more »

Quotes

[first lines]
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, in the time of the dinosaurs. Now the dinosaurs were of two 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 trees began to die. The mighty beasts who appeared to rule the earth, were, in...
See more »

Connections

Referenced in The Nostalgia Critic: We're Back! A Dinosaur Story (2009) See more »

Soundtracks

If We Hold On Together
Music and Words by James Horner and Will Jennings
Produced by Peter Asher
Performed by Diana Ross
See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

See more (Spoiler Alert!) »

User Reviews

I don't care if they made eight sequels, this is still the best of all
17 February 2003 | by (Southern U.S.) – See all my reviews

You heard me! Not even through the eight sequels, could they surpass the enjoyment of this one! The story is just classic. It's Don Bluth's finest work, I must say. It's ironically the only movie in the LBT series that was made for theaters! Pretty cool, huh?

I couldn't believe when I read how this movie was only like 70 minutes long. It seems like a long time, since it's so good. You've got cool dinosaur characters, going alone on a journey to the Great Valley. I think it's entertaining the way they have different names for the dinosaur species. Like "Sharp-tooth" for a T. Rex, or "Three-Horns" for a Stegosauraus or "Long-Neck" for Brontosauraus. My favorite character is Peetree, who is pretty cute. Too bad about Judith Barsi dying. That actually makes it interesting because now I know all the times in the sequels she was voiced by a different person than this time. I hope I'll see this movie more often. It seems like forever since I've seen it.

But then came the sequels. Part 4 was very nice(the best sequel yet), and Parts 2 and 3 were good, but after 4, let's face it. The movies are repetive and dull, just doing the same things its proceeders did. Why haven't they just made a TV show instead of all these sequels? Now, THAT would be something I'd like to see. This classic gets a 9/10


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'Ducky' (Judith Barsi) murdered at age 10 by her father? Gem7
6.9? TheLittleSongbird
Does anyone else actually hate this movie? AndromedaDelacroix
Things we learned from Land before time nestordonkey
They don't make em like this anymore Trikeboy2
favorite dinosaur? ColossOkami91
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